It’s Spa Day for the CX-5 at the local boutique, which means I am ensconced in the upscale embrace of the recently remodeled showroom at the neighborhood Mazda emporium with comfy chairs, free drinks, WiFi, TV, and a scattering of literature on the coffee table to peruse. Within the hour I will receive a text with attached video of the dealer tech performing a survey of my car’s systems, complete with commentary. Its vital fluids will be changed and/or topped up, the brakes and tires checked, all done with a smile and cordiality with an eye to the inevitable customer survey that will soon follow asking me the rate the dealer interaction on a scale of one to ten.
Better than Red’s soda machine…
This affable experience stands in stark contrast to the way things used to be, when the typical dealer or local garage regarded its customers with either ambivalent toleration or barely concealed contempt . . . or was that impression simply a reflection of childhood experience? When I was a kid the only garage in town was Red’s, and it was pretty much what you would imagine should you conjure up the archetypal ’50’s/’60’s service station, only more remote and a few degrees more shabby. Those were the days when you judged the quality of an auto mechanic by the amount of grease under his fingernails and on his overalls, with extra points for one of those billed caps with a gasoline brand logo on it.
This is the new Red’s Garage, built circa 1970. Missing the old guy bench.
The proprietor in question easily met those standards, and I never had any particular issue with Red, a WWII vet, who, as I found later, most likely suffered from PTSD. He had a black mustache and dark-framed glasses and was only mildly cranky if you happened to catch him on a day when he’d broken a Snap-On while trying to remove the heads of a ’48 Ford. Otherwise, we were warned as kids not to bother him, that advice usually coming at the same time we were sent with a five gallon can to get a little gas to tide the tractor over until the tanker truck came to replenish the tank in the barn. Imagine having to fill up a gas can for a ten year old when you are up to your elbows in the sump of a flathead Ford. (All this occurred well before the advent of self-service at the gas pump . . . in those days you would never think to touch the nozzle on your own).
At that time Red didn’t have any official help, but there was always a crew of old guys sitting either in the garage office or out on a bench by the gas pumps, shooting the breeze, and therein lay the problem. No one wanted to run the geezer gauntlet, as they always had something amusing (as they deemed it) to say about your person. If you were lucky you might get a soda out of the cooler without attracting their gaze, but who wanted to run the risk? And if Red was busy in the back with some pre-war DeSoto and he’d deputized one of the hangers-on to take care of the paperwork, then you knew you were in for a hazing. Instant trauma. Then down the road a few years later, when I was actually old enough to drive, I fell under the baleful eye of many a mechanic who would look me up and down to determine whether I was personally responsible for the dire state of the vehicle he was forced to nurse back from near-death.
And so I may have a complex when it comes to garages and proving my worthiness–or at least some acquaintance with common mechanical vocabulary. In my mind I’m still having to face down the gang at Red’s. Today, of course, the game has changed entirely. Everyone calls me, ‘sir,’ and treats me with deference formerly reserved for heads of state, MD’s, and judges, which only makes me wonder what their game is . . .
Back to the present day: the CX5 in question is actually a few miles premature for its service as a planned snowshoeing trip to Mt. Rainier was abandoned due to unforeseen circumstances, namely a parasite picked up in Hawaii that performed wholesale modifications to my gastrointestinal tract, about which the less said, the better. Suffice to say the disease and cure ran neck and neck so far as corporal consequences go. I will say that Giardia, as Samuel Johnson said of the gallows, does concentrate the mind wonderfully.
Laboring under the delusion that waterborne beasties were a freshwater-only feature, I snorkeled with some abandon only to find myself carrying home a little friend(s) that only chose to manifest itself on Christmas Day, a phenomenon which is no doubt some little known and referenced corollary of Murphy’s Law. I find myself on the mend, thankfully, grateful that the amoeba indicated was not of the flesh-eating variety. Also, while on the subject, the following week a shark attack occurred only scant yards away from our preferred snorkeling site, resulting in, I’m very sad to say, a fatality. The same week we were in Maui, over on the Big Island, Kīlauea erupted, so following these events one can only presume that the gods–in this case, Pele, are angry. Note is taken, and I vow not to to disturb the Isles for some time to come.
For one reason or another we had managed to find ourselves in said Islands for five consecutive years, chiefly as a means to escape the gloom of a Pacific Northwest winter. Given the distance from airport to condo, not to mention the desire to explore, a rental car on the Islands is deemed a necessity. Given some of our likely itineraries, an SUV generally seems in order, even though the temptation for a convertible always looms large, and before Covid they were dirt cheap. Alas, practicality (and an imminent trip to the Kahului Costco for porters and supplies) has always prevented us from taking such a leap. And so, in chronological order, we ended up with, (1). a vast Ford Explorer, seating eight; (2). a Hyundai Santa Fe Sport that looked like it had been washed in gasoline; (3). a Jeep Cherokee (FWD only, I regret to note); (4). a Mazda CX-30 (zoom-zoom, etc.); and (5). defying SUV tradition, a Nissan Altima four door sedan complete with CVT boat anchor.
Thar she blows!
Renting a car in the islands has become somewhat easier over the years, at least on Maui, as they opened a dedicated rental car complex adjacent to the airport in 2020. This streamlines the process of both picking up and dropping off a car; on our recent trip it took all of ten minutes after exiting the airport to select a car, load the luggage, and be on our way. Usually, we are allowed some choice in vehicles: this trip we had around twenty sedans to choose from (a fraught few days of changes and economic considerations had limited us to actual sedans). Unfortunately, ninety-five percent of them were the aforementioned Nissans, the sole exception being and a rather tired and battered Dodge Charger. We lingered for a few minutes before the Dodge until I realized that it would take several minutes to document all its dings and scratches so we moved on to a relatively unscathed late-model Altima, which I observed came with such features as heated seats and steering wheel (given the 90 degree temps, I am unable to report on their effectiveness). Interestingly enough, our son was dealt a Maxima, but neither of us noticed the difference until some days later when its V-6 grunt became apparent and we put two and two together.
Santa Fe Sport not washed separately; one size smaller than the rest of the line.
Choosing the best of the lot for exploration of a tropical paradise would most likely result in a battle between the Jeep and the Mazda, but the actual vehicle the lottery dealt us for the Road to Hana was the Hyundai, which did the job with little drama, although something more wieldy would have been appreciated. The Ford, the Hyundai and the Jeep all ended up at the summit of Haleakala, a drive less challenging than the infamous Road to Hana, but still demanding enough due to the ten thousand feet of elevation gain. Of these, the Jeep was most suited, and on that occasion we actually had two Cherokees and were able to leave one down the road and use the other to reach the summit. Four of us then hiked rim to rim through Haleakala’s crater, a process that took the better part of a twelve hour day and was one of the epic treks of my lifetime.
Jeep by way of Torino.
The Ford mentioned above was simply too large and aside from the novelty of the power folding rear seat and extended seating capacity had little to recommend it, even though it was a serviceable vehicle that likely suits the needs and tastes of someone. On narrow tropical roads, the Ford seemed like a cat in a shoe box. The Hyundai, an earlier iteration Santa Fe, seemed very used up for its indicated mileage, and although mechanically it appeared sound and never presented us with the least bit of trouble, it did give me pause.
The looker of the bunch.
The Jeep was right-sized for the task of exploration: we drove it all around the West Maui peninsula, which rivaled the Road to Hana for twistiness and narrowness, although it seemed much less traveled, and thus a little less anxiety inducing, but connecting to Apple Car Play proved to be more opaque than with any of the other vehicles. The Mazda, of course, was in its own class, as per custom, but I found it not up to the standard of our CX-5 as far as qualities of interior materials as it apparently was a base model with few amenities and sparse furnishings. Given the price similarities and same basic powertrain, I didn’t find enough singular virtues to recommend it over it’s larger stablemate unless reduced size and parking handiness are primary considerations. As for the Nissan, it seemed several steps up from those I have tried in the recent past, and although it wasn’t my cup of tea I can understand its appeal. Unfortunately, the installed CVT does its job in familiar droning fashion, and sucks the joy right out of the car.
Not a bad car…too bad about the CVT.
The whole topic of rental cars in Hawaii is fraught with difficult questions, one of which is, on paper, the doubling of prices over the last two years. It would seem that when the pandemic hit and tourism in the Islands was laid to waste, the rental car companies responded by selling off their fleets. This presented a problem once the tourists, as if on cue, re-appeared; at one point savvy visitors were reduced to renting U-Haul vans and trucks in order to have a serviceable vehicle. The predictable response on the part of the rental car establishments was to jack the prices into the stratosphere. When I first checked rates last winter, they had doubled from a few months previous. Patiently, I bided my time, waiting for prices to drop, which eventually they did. Things seemed to have stabilized in the meantime, as well as fleet numbers as I could detect little sign of car shortages in December.
The larger issues remain ecological: the weeks we’ve spent in the Islands have shifted my view dramatically, especially after conversations with Native Hawaiians. Long story short, the influx of tourists has resulted in widespread trouble, environmentally speaking, and of course the rental car fleets lead the charge. The wider issue of land expropriation aside, the fragile tropical biosystem cannot long support the intrusion of such a mass audience. Restricting those numbers, however, is a double-edged sword, as the Island economy has come to be based on tourism, which became readily apparent during the Covid high water mark. We were some of the few who were brave and/or foolish enough to negotiate the red tape in 2020. Deserted beaches and extremely light traffic were a revelation, but so were the closed restaurants and deserted shops. The locals were clearly hurting.
Looking down at the clouds from Haleakala.
If there is a solution to this conundrum, it isn’t apparent to me, or likely even to those better-versed and more responsible for the actual affairs of state. I do know that we will give the Islands a wide berth for a time, as difficult as that decision might be when we are faced with the bleak midwinter of Dismal Niche, Warshington (sic).
Which brings us back full circle to our comfortable Mazda showroom. Looking about me, I find cars on display include the predicted CX-5 and CX-50, as well as two 3 sedans and a Soul Red MX-5 Miata, with a prominent ‘sold’ sign in the window. In the background is the simmering expectation of an onslaught of new models in the coming months. A CX-60 PHEV is already on sale in Europe and other locales, but apparently it isn’t intended for the USA. Instead, we get the CX-70 and the next level up CX-90, replacing the CX-9, which are based on the same new north-south architecture as the CX-60. Yes, Mazda is going to a rear wheel drive platform. Coinciding with the introduction of the new chassis is a totally new I-6, so it seems the Hiroshima crew has been drinking from the BMW trough.
Oh, my Soul (Red)!
I have mixed feelings about the new direction, mostly because I worry about being priced out of the market, but also because BMW has lost the plot and I fear that Mazda could ultimately do the same. I’ve been taking a closer look at the CX-50, which is essentially in the same class as the CX-5, but butched-up to appear more off-roadish. Adjustments have been made to the drivetrain, ostensibly to enhance capabilities when something other than a mall parking lot appears on the horizon. This is all well and good and I might even be attracted to the result as off-road capability is on my list of essentials, but there is a fly in the ointment. The latest models, the new 3, CX-30, and CX-50 have adopted a solid rear beam axle in lieu of the previous multi-link independent set-up. This seems to work well enough on paved roads, at least, but it tastes like a cost-cutting measure rather having been chosen for its functional benefits. This seems like a regressive move when Mazda is making a push up-market into BMW territory.
Double decker Mazda history primer.
Also, the CX-50, while obviously of the same styling school as the CX-5, has resorted to current fashion trends to some degree by adding faux scoops on front and rear as well as matte black inserts on the hood on at least one model. Mazda has in the past decade distinguished itself by the purity of its design aesthetic, separating itself from the baroque excesses of its Japanese and (sometimes) European brethren. Now is not the time to dilute that excellence by hewing to standard styling cliches. And, on that note, neither is it a good plan to cheap out on the engineering by bolting on a less sophisticated suspension system.
Why do I want this?
In other, more encouraging Mazda news is the notice that the MX-30 R-EV will debut in Brussels this week. This is a new iteration of the much maligned MX-30 with its extremely limited 100 mile range that has sold in minuscule numbers in California for the past year or so. This new version has a rotary range extender, a small Wankel engine that isn’t attached to the drive wheels but whose sole purpose is to top up the batteries. This is good news for two reason, first, because it would indicate that the rotary isn’t as dead as prophesied, and second, because it addresses the inherent Achilles heel of the wee MX-30, it’s abbreviated range. Details are scarce at the moment, but range is said to double. Unfortunately, 200 miles is still very much the short end of the stick in the mileage sweepstakes. We will wait for further details, but can come away with good cheer knowing that the Mazda has not kicked the rotary to the side of the road.
MX-30 EV–suicide doors!
And so, that’s all the news from Hiroshima by way of Tapioca Beach. Fortunately, the CX-5 returned from the spotless service center with a clean bill of health: no leaks, no overly worn items, tires and brakes are still in the green, and the battery as well. Stock Yokohamas are holding up like champs, although they may be eventually replaced with something that has a more aggressive tread design. The interior still looks new, and ditto the exterior. No competitor released in the interim has proved to be overly tempting. Only the new VW’s and Hyundai/Kia roommates have resulted in a backward glance.
Life sized Mazda prototype poster…impressive.
Attending todays’s service at la Chapelle aux Mazda has been an agreeable task, and I take heart from photo displays of the most recent Mazda racing prototype, together with an actual second generation RX-7 and an original Rotary Pickup (!). Apparently, the automaker isn’t neglecting its roots even in its elegant new upmarket showrooms, which seems encouraging. It strikes me that this year may be crucial for Mazda as it introduces that first PHEV in the U.S., together with the new RWD platform, inline six, and, possibly, the rotary/electric MX-30 (rotary) spin of the roulette wheel. By this time next year we may have a better sense whether or not the push into BMW territory is tenable, or only a fool’s errand.
My local Mazda dealer recently added a similar display, but they hadn’t yet put a car on top, making me wonder what all those geared columns were there for.
I was thinking about service stations lately; in one of those changes that occurs so slowly that I don’t notice it, service stations around here (and probably everywhere else) are disappearing. The Shell station near where I used to live, and where I took my car in for routine maintenance and repairs, was torn down. A few months later I drive by and it’s been rebuilt, but the pump lanes were rotated 90 degrees for some reason, and the service bays were replaced by a convenience store. Apparently it’s not profitable to service cars anymore at least in a small shop, or maybe it’s just too difficult if you don’t have specialized tools and knowledge for each brand. One by one, the garages are being converted. But what I want to know is, who’s buying so many bags of cheese curls and bottles of Pepsi that all these gas-station convenience stores can stay afloat?
Who’s buying so many bags of cheese curls and Pepsi? Look at how fat Americans are getting. When I was in school the fat kid was an outcast. Now he fits in with all the other fat kids. The markup on convenience store merchandise is huge and it’s much easier than twisting wrenches.
When I last looked into gas station economics, I recall reading that about half of all gas customers go inside the building. A pretty high proportion of those customers buy something.
For typical gas stations (i.e., not huge ones like Sheetz, or truck stops), about 30% of revenue is derived from convenience-store sales, but unlike low-margin gas sales, convenience store items are high profit sales for the retailer – so more than half of a gas station’s actual profit is often due to things like cheese curls and Pepsi.
It’s even more skewed with the larger retailers (around here that would be Wawa and Sheetz), which essentially use gas sales as a magnet to get customers to come in and buy stuff that’s actually profitable.
I’m surprised to hear that half of all gas customers go inside the convenience store. I do make an entrance sometimes when we’re traveling to pick up a drink, but otherwise there’s not much in those places that I’m interested in buying. I do recall a place off the freeway in the wilds of Utah that had a pen full of rattlesnakes as you entered the store . . . at least that was educational and it may have been a better deterrent than a guard dog!
For what it’s worth, I live three blocks from a high school, and between our house and the school are two small gas stations with convenience stores. Every day at lunchtime, there are huge crowds of kids there, many of whom walk another block to our quiet side street, plop down on the sidewalk and consume chips and soda. Most of them even pick up their trash when the leave. But none of them look fat … they probably burn off those calories surfing and mountain biking. Ironically we live in a town full of farm-to-table restaurants and surrounded by fruit, berry and vegetable farms.
You could be describing our area. Most of the kids I see stay pretty active and many seem pretty conscious of what isn’t the best thing to eat, although that doesn’t mean they won’t eat whatever happens to be available at any given moment. I was certainly that way when I was a teen.
And the fast food places next to the high schools do seem to prosper.
Seems like twisting wrenches would be more satisfying than selling cheese curls, but I could be mistaken . . .
No skinned knuckles selling cheese curls. It’s warm in winter. Cool in summer. You don’t get dirty. Selling cheese curls wins.
I concede to your better judgement…
Disappearing service stations are certainly on the endangered list. I can think of only a couple within a ten mile radius and if I were to go and check, they might be gone, too.
Aside from the national chains, only a few service centers remain, and they usual are dedicated to a single maker (like Saab) or a few, including one that I’ve used for twenty years) are only for Japanese cars (so, no Koreans?).
The only time I’ve gone into the convenience store attached to my local gas station in past five years was to fill up a propane tank, a service advertised by a big sign out in front. I was basically told to get lost. The clerk was by himself and he didn’t want to leave the store for five minutes, even though I was the only other person on the premises. Ah well. We’e gone from full service including checking your oil, tires, and washing your windshield to no service for something advertised on the store front. This despite the fact that I’ve spent thousands of dollars for gas there in just the last few years. Of course the clerk has no way of knowing that because I pay at the pump and never buy cheese curls.
Mazda. Between us, my wife and I have had four – two sedans, two roadsters. It has been many years though and there is no longer a dealership in our town. I’ve always liked or admired them and, with the right car on offer, I’d try another.
You cued me to be alert for what might be coming. The phrases “rear wheel drive” and “totally new I-6” do pique my interest. And solid beam live rear axle would be fine with me if only Mazda could see fit to do something else different – send a real station wagon here.
We have five Mazda dealers within a twenty-five mile radius, but then we live in a large metropolitan area. I have first hand experience with two and have a friend who frequents a third. Four of the five have recently been remodeled and look pretty upscale. Three of the five have a pretty good reputation, although I don’t know enough about the other two to say anything definitive. Things always change.
I do wish that the rear wheel drive platform and the new I-6 came in a new Mazda 6–I imagine it might in other markets, but sedans just don’t seem to sell in the U.S. As for a RWD Mazda 6 wagon . . . we can dream, I guess.
Last week I greased 28 zerks on my 1937 Buick Special. (Yes, I missed the four on the upper rear spring hangers, but I’ll get them this week, after I rebuild the right rear wheel brake cylinder). The service schedule calls for greasing them every 1,000 miles, which explains why two-bay service stations used to dot towns the way Starbucks do now.
I’d almost forgotten what a ‘zerk’ was. I did use a grease gun when I was a kid, but I can’t recall the last time I saw one. 28 grease fittings! Imagine what the labor bill would be today. And thousand mile service intervals . . . so much for the good old days!
I have several vintage cars, all with their original front suspension components as they were all serviced properly. Contrast that to my 2001 Ram 2500 pickup, All 4 ball joints and the steering ends needed replacing at around 65,000 miles, and of course they were sealed units. While it is a big truck, it’s always been in private use and never driven off-road.
Just this past week I tried to order new front brake parts again, it’s the second brake overhaul this truck needed, with only 87,000 miles. This time I had a difficult time finding front rotors and calipers, ended up ordering them from Canada, not one local parts house had the parts. It’s the 4 wheel disc brake setup, only used for 2 years, and now getting difficult to find. Contrast that with buying brake shoes, wheel cylinders, and bearing/seal sets for my 1937 Packard 120 sedan, I can get all those parts with a single 800 number phone call.
The dealership looks fantastic. Which of course raises the snarker in me to ask who exactly pays for that…At a brand that is not generally considered to be doing all that well in our market.
It has long been interesting to me that for years (decades?) it was often remarked that the average new car dealer made almost nothing or nothing or perhaps less than nothing on the sale of new cars. Which of course raised the question of what exactly was all of their hue and cry about when they were unable to actually get any new cars to sell starting about two years ago. Not having any new cars to sell should then result in the same result as previously, i.e. maintaining the status quo. Presumably their service center which was touted as the moneymaker all along that kept the whole thing afloat would still be in operation as there were plenty of cars (nay, now MORE cars) needing service as it was difficult to replace those cars and older cars were suddenly worth repairing, I’m guessing the average age of the national fleet increased significantly more than in the years prior. Of course then a trickle of new cars started coming in, dealers realized the sky was the limit (or maybe not actually the limit), were able to reduce much of their sales and ancillary new car staff, sell far fewer cars at profits significantly higher than ever and have been making money hand over fist selling cars at or well above MSRP, leading to perhaps wholesale changes in how new cars are ordered, produced, marketed, and sold in this country. Until of course someone decides to make things more difficult for everyone else and maybe starts producing as many as possible and slashing prices, which only works if there is a lot of profit to be able to slash while still making money off the new volume. Which then will either produce a cascading effect and truly perhaps weed some more marginal players or substandard vehicles out or just level things off to where they were previously.
I don’t begrudge dealers their profits, there is nothing forcing anyone to actually purchase a new car from a dealer, and I nor anyone else certainly didn’t mind taking rebates that were on the hoods just a few years ago, but it IS interesting to compare some of the dealerships around town to each other and how in more than a few cases the facilities of a let’s say middling brand are FAR superior in terms of style, finish, and amenities to those of some luxury car makers. It’s obviously far preferable to wait in an area that is nicer than most people’s homes rather than an area that looks worse than many people’s shed, especially with interesting eye candy arranged for perusal even if not for sale. (or maybe it is, i.e. everything is for sale at some as-yet-undetermined price.) In our town the Honda dealer is far more attractive a dealership inside than the Cadillac dealer, the Jeep dealer looks like your Mazda dealer while the very large and successful Toyota dealer has a waiting area that is literally in a corner of the parts department with used tires stacked in the corner and grime everywhere. And our Mazda dealer has a larger lot, better location, larger building, and generally nicer amenities than the Porsche/Audi/VW guy down the street. And of course the Subaru dealer that is owned by the Chevrolet dealer and occupies a small corner of that lot just got a major revamp that saw the Subaru building almost double in size and become far “classier” inside than the Chevy mothership building behind it, never mind that the Chevy dealer’s bread and butter around here is $60k+ trucks and SUVs while the Subaru place just sells cars off the delivery trucks at MSRP if you’re willing to wait.
And I’m drooling all over that dark green Mazda REPU in your picture, btw.
The dealership looks fantastic. Which of course raises the snarker in me to ask who exactly pays for that…
The dealer! 🙂 Well, sometimes brands do offer incentives, primarily if they want to see a new dealer in a certain area or such.
During the very low interest rate environment we were in for quite a while, it was pretty easy to recoup investments like this, over the life of a loan. Or at least that was the working assumption. Not much different than fixing up a house to either flip or raise the rent on.
Yes, the majority of dealers did not make much of a profit on new car sales pre-pandemic. But that’s net taxable profit; there was still income of course, enough to cover all the costs including improvements.
And yes, the pandemic was a huge boon for dealers (and manufacturers), as they became order takers for cars with vastly higher transaction costs. Profits on new car sales exploded, for both dealers and manufacturers.
As to why some dealers are nice and new and others not, I guess that’s a reflection of the priorities of their owners as well as just the natural depreciation cycle. What looked good in 1990 after a renovation now looks old and dowdy. Maybe they’ll be next in line for a facelift?
The trend of a few large public companies gobbling up dealers (Lithia, Penske, Auto Nation, etc.) continues at a very brisk clip. These outfits will invariably dress up a dowdy dealership after they buy it. If current trends continue, there may come a time when the great majority of dealerships are owned by the big guys and they all look increasingly the same, or more so.
No, it’s actually the costumer paying for the car and the service that’s paying for it in the end…enjoy the coffee, you paid for it… 😀
I’m used to overpriced coffee–there are Starbucks on ever block where we live!
It seems like the push for new or drastically remodeled car dealerships began before Covid, but it certainly continues, fueled, I imagine, by the record car sales profits. Ultimately, as others have suggested, the customer is paying for it all, and given the sales figures I assume the competition among dealers in our area to upgrade their facilities will continue apace.
I fear the homogenization of dealership facilities is inevitable. I don’t know if they’ll match the new Mazda building, which is a shockingly attractive building. I thought the new Mazda dealer downtown was quite nice, but this one has it beat, especially the service department. They pushed the waiting area into the sales floor area, which seems prescient. If you’re waiting on the sales floor you’re going to be looking at the new product, right?
The dealer where I got my Mazda in 2018 was simply some pre-existing building which was probably not a dealership to begin with since the service portion was elsewhere. Now they have moved their showroom elsewhere again. I haven’t seen it nor their service shop since I have never taken in my wife’s Mazda doing all service myself. There was nothing special about the showroom. It was an open space with some desks scattered around for sales persons to sit around a few cars while others scattered in the back. Pretty bare bones.
It would be interesting to know what kind of pressure Mazda is applying to their dealer franchisees. Certainly, if the push is to go upmarket they can’t be having places like the one you mention if they’re going to compete with the big boys like BMW, et. al. On the other hand, as a relatively small maker they must have limited resources and aside from promising great new product, what other screws can they apply? Would be revealing to know what goes on behind the scenes.
The Mazda dealership near me is currently being rebuilt. The previous building had been constructed in the 1960s (as a Ford dealer), and though it had been renovated several times since then, it wasn’t luxurious or modern in the least.
I had heard (from someone who’s working on that project) that Mazda itself required the dealership to upgrade its facilities in order to retain the Mazda franchise. I assume manufacturers will work with dealerships to a big extent on that kind of stuff, but at the same time I’m not surprised to hear they flex their muscle occasionally to upgrade what they consider to be subpar properties.
The Mazda dealer in the photos is adjacent to a new Hyundai dealership built at the same time, and both are quite nice, the Mazda facility maybe a little more deluxe. How they handle the Genesis customers, I have no idea. They are owned, as you might guess, by the same group.
Your questions do seem pertinent–the economics of dealerships would make for an interesting dissertation, so long as you had police protection!
I have noticed that there seems to be a competition among local dealerships to upgrade their facilities in the past five years. Seems like one or another is always being renovated. The neighborhood Cadillac dealer has recently been redone and looks far more upscale than before. Even the Chevy dealer looks pretty good. Haven’t checked out what the Ford competition looks like as it’s tucked away off the main road.
But the Mazda dealer in the photos is very, very well done, and very upscale. Wouldn’t be a stretch to see luxury brands there, including the targeted BMW and Mercedes. Which again, may indicated either a push to move up market or maybe just a few very good years for the owner.
Picking right up where Jim left off, the first thing I was going to say was “Was that green pickup for sale?”; and then to note that if I were going to be spending money on old vehicles, that would pretty much instantly be at the top of my list. I guess I should head down to my local Mazda dealer and see whether they’ve installed such a display.
I’ve thankfully been able to avoid dealer service departments for about a half-dozen years…since the extended warranty on my BMW expired, but even BMW hadn’t at that time figured out a procedure such as texting me a video of the tech performing his/her task. I had to be content with just the unlimited drinks, bagels, and assorted snacks.
What will they think of next?
“Was that green pickup for sale?
My guess is no. That dealership is in my neighborhood. That same truck is displayed at the local Edmonds classic car show in September by the dealership (I think they are one of the sponsors).
It’s interesting to think that some dealership owners may actually be closet enthusiasts, although it would make a certain kind of sense. On the other hand, a little rotary pickup isn’t the first thing that would come to mind if you were choosing vintage Mazdas. You’d think a couple more RX-7’s or older Miatas would be on display. It runs in my mind that the Lynwood dealer had a 787 prototype on display when they opened the new facility. I was out of town at the time or I would have been first in line to see it.
On the topic of car dealers with an interest in brand history, there’s a Subaru dealer in CT that maintains a museum in the showroom.
There’s a 360, a Sambar, an old Brat, and a Subaru firetruck from Japan that I remember from my last visit.
I buy parts from them occasionally. It’s the only car showroom that inspires me to break out my camera.
Well, there wasn’t a sign saying the pickup wasn’t for sale . . . It’s interesting to note that it may be another new custom in our area to display vintage vehicles. The local VW dealer has and old Beetle and Vanagon in their showroom, and the last time I visited the Honda dealer they had a first generation Civic parked in with their latest and greatest offerings. I suppose I should do a survey to find out if there are others.
“…the extended warranty on my BMW expired,” R’uh R’oh!
Love the Rotary truck! I saw maybe one of those back in the day around Baltimore. Rare!
🙂 That’s actually a whole other story, but one that involves paying BMW I think about $1000 and ultimately getting a whole new cylinder head and a pile of other things that would have added up to much more than what I paid (assuming one wanted to pay dealer labor and parts prices to address).
Since then, I’ve become much braver and knowledgeable in simply addressing stuff myself. And in finding assistance when there’s stuff that needs to be done that’s beyond my ability. Still, I would say that at the time I was dealing with extended warranties, spending $1000 on the dealer was a better proposition vis a vis my duties a parent and married person than noodling around diy. It’s different now that vehicle ownership has returned to its pre-kid position of “hobby” versus immediate necessity.
Like I said, a whole other story/post.
I’ll share this with my BMW-owning family members!
I read the sign at the rotary pickup display–seems like the numbers were around 4000 for that year . . .
As of my time in a specific Chevy dealership in ’84:
We were told that a healthy dealership made 50% of it’s overall profit from sale of new cars, 50% of it’s profit from combined Service/Parts sales.
It was a mystery to me why the sales staff was treated like royalty, while Service and Parts was dingy, and treated like a necessary evil that overall they’d prefer to do without.
The sales staff was thrilled to sell “Aftermarket Warranties” sometimes also called “Service Contracts”. They sold the policy with a car, got their commission, and washed their hands. We in the Service Department got NOTHING from the sale of the warranty/contract; and would typically spend 20+ minutes on “hold” trying to get authorization to fix the broken vehicle that their policy clearly covered. During those 20+ minutes, I would not be able to help other customers; and therefore could not get any other commission income.
Those “Aftermarket Warranties” had wonderful little disclaimers that the Sales people somehow forgot to warn the potential buyer about. You buy a car that develops a misfire due to a burned valve in Cylinder #7. Your warranty covers valve jobs…for cylinder #7. Pulling the other cylinder head is not covered. Buying a new exhaust valve for #7 may be covered, but no valve work on the other three cylinders on that head is authorized. The warranty might pay for a quart of antifreeze due to inevitable spillage…but not oil or oil filter despite it being impossible to pop a cylinder head off of an engine without spilling some amount of coolant into the oil system. Of course, it’s insane to valve-job one cylinder out of eight, so the customer would have to authorize lifting the other head, paying for the additional gaskets and labor, and paying the machining cost for the seven additional cylinders. In short…the warranty was essentially useless, and we took all the blame for it because Sales wore suits and we wore coveralls. Therefore, we were the criminals. Auto mechanics are crooks and thieves, just above Pond Scum and politicians on the ethics ladder.
Sears, Spiffy Lube, and similar had taken over the “gravy” jobs; all the low-skill, low-risk, no-diagnosis-needed profitable stuff that a monkey could do–oil changes, transmission fluid changes, wheel bearing packing, coolant drain-and-refill, most brake and exhaust work. This left little for the “Service Station” to do, it hurt the Stealerships who had to learn to live on new-car warranty work* and REALLY hurt independent “real” repair shops. A 20 bottle of soda is now well-over $2; you can buy a (warm) 2-liter of the same fluid for less. “Convenience” stores are where it’s at, and the cashier doesn’t need $40,000 worth of tools and a two-year degree to run the register.
*Dealerships do warranty work with GM (or, I suppose, any other manufacturer they’re associated with) as a “preferred customer” getting a huge price break. “Customer-paid” work was more profitable than “warranty work” even if the actual repair was the same. Therefore, the actual guy doing the work gets less pay for warranty work than for “customer-paid” work. I used to resent having to subsidize the dealership and the car owner when I did “warranty work” which is one of several reasons I got the hell out of the auto repair industry. I’ve kept-up my ASE “certifications”, though. Just re-certified last week.
The owner of the independent repair shop I spent time at, used to claim that “he sold auto repair, and gave away free coffee to customers. I should have done it the other way around–sold the coffee like Starbucks, and give away the repairs.”
I alway thought those aftermarket warranties were sketchy – there was so much legaleze about “damage to a covered part by an uncovered part is out of scope of this warranty” or the reverse, and I figured many situations would fall under those categorizations. I can see my suspicions were spot on. Even the extended warranties the automakers sold (like Ford’s ESP that I paid for in 1989) had lots of exclusions like that.
It does seem that the column for covered items is much shorter than the excluded items column in any extended warranty literature I’ve ever seen . . .
Good information to know–I hadn’t considered the toll that warranty work exacts on dealer mechanics. Certainly understand why you would leave the profession. With all the red tape and fine print frustration involved it’s a wonder anyone stays.
The single time I used an extended warranty was when I needed a couple of engine mounts replaced at around the 100.000 mile mark. The service manger was on the phone with he insurance/warranty company for awhile but ultimately they did pay for the service. I dodged a bullet there, I guess.
When we bought the Kia Sedona in late 2011, the dealer was offering a “200,000 mile warranty” on top of Kia’s 10 yr/100k. I looked at some of the fine print and considered the “free” warranty on the cars 2nd 100k to be essentially worthless. If a part fails, they pay for the part, but not the labor to replace it (which is often most of the job). I had forgotten about that extra warranty until just now.
About a dozen years ago I would have my cars serviced as a gas station near my work. The guy who did their inspections was a throwback to earlier times – he was in his 80s, very opinionated, and had an incredible memory. I always enjoyed getting my car inspected there just to chat with him for a few minutes. Eventually, the station was sold, and I found a different place for service – but that place was very much an outlier.
Building on JPC’s Kia article from today, one thing that’s disappointed me about Kia has been their dealerships. The dealer I bought my car from was highly professional, and a pleasure to deal with, but it’s about 100 mi. from home, so I’m unable to use them for service. On the rare occasion I’ve taken my car for service at dealers closer to home, I’ve been pretty disappointed – the kind of poor customer service that could easily drive customers away. I hope Kia learns some lessons from other carmakers in that regard.
I am a huge Mazda fan, but more recently have gone the Honda route instead. The specific reason being that the Honda dealer right up the street is everything one would want as far as the customer experience goes. There is no Mazda dealer nearby, and the ones out there way far up the road appear a bit inconsistent to indifferent as far as the customer experience goes. I depend on the dealer for any warranty work or unexpected weird repairs that might be extremely make/model specific. I expect the local Honda dealer to take care of me very well on any of that, and I have no real assurances that the distant Mazda dealers would treat me as well.
The Mazda is likely a better car in some ways, but both are definitely well above “good enough” for my daily drivers. Honda has the consistent sales advantage to support such a comprehensive dealer network and to demand very high standards. I’m not sure I can fault Mazda for not being able to quite match it. And if Mazda did have a well-established, fully stocked dealership and parts department just up the road, I would move them to the #1 position on my car shopping list. But they don’t, so it is not.
The Honda choice seems like a no brainer if there’s no Mazda dealer nearby, especially if your Honda dealer is one of the good ones.
I’ve stated my Mazda preference after some Honda experience, but my Civic seems to have been an outlier. People I know that own Hondas seem largely satisfied.
Here’s hoping that I top-notch Mazda dealers soon moves to your area…
Upon reflection, I think the last time I had any service done at a gas station would have been around 1979-1980. So, more than forty years ago. Everything has changed during that time, some for better, some for worse. I shudder to think about ‘our’ mechanic retiring, but I’m surprised he’s lasted this long.
My only experience with a Kia dealership was when my daughter’s car had a manual transmission fail at around 95,000 miles. We had it towed to the dealer given that the car’s 10 year/100,000 mile drivetrain warranty was still in effect. There was some pushback, but they did cover a replacement with no expense for my daughter. I haven’t been back since, but as per custom here in the Puget Sound area, the Kia dealerships is all new in the last three or four years, so much nicer than previously.
I’m happy to say I have not set foot in any dealership in a number of years. I hope to keep that going as long as possible. Given the age of the current fleet, that’ll be indefinite unless I need to buy a new car at some point. I’m hoping to avoid that.
Yeah, I have an outstanding recall on my seven year old Tacoma to replace the third brake light gasket with an improved gasket, to prevent leakage which could cause the brake light to fail and result in injury or death. Even though it’s free and I’d only have to leave the truck for “a few hours” I’ve been avoiding it for a year. And my experience on “free” oil changes and other warranty/recall work at this dealership has been OK, but it’s still never a positive experience. I like my dentist much better. And he doesn’t even have free coffee.
All of our vehicles are still under emissions warranty and as a 2020, the Ford is under powertrain and bumper-to-bumper as well, but fingers crossed that I won’t need to exercise those.
Nothing like a niggling recall for such a minor piece of your Toyota . . . on the other hand, best to have it done if you ever sell your Tacoma. My service experience with Mazda for the last 23 years (!) has been completely positive, but then nothing much has gone wrong, so that’s certainly part of it. Car service and dentist are neck and neck for me, but both have areas seem to have improved greatly in the last few decades.
Good luck with both Toyota and Ford . . .
Not even a new electric miracle car?
No need to, in the case of Tesla, Rivian and Lucid. 🙂
It’s not like that sad short-range Mazda MX-30 would be on my list, if I were thinking of getting one. I guess Mazda is putting their development dollars into inline sixes and RWD platforms instead of EVs. It’ll be interesting to see how that pans out long term.
Word from Brussels is that the new MX-30 with the single rotor generator has 400 mile range rather than the 200 that was rumored earlier. It’s a tentative step into electric vehicles along with the PHEV CX-60 and the subsequent CX-70 and CX-90 ranges that should include PHEV’s alongside the inline six versions. With their Toyota partnership they should have some access to full electric technology, but they definitely seem to be hedging their bets, waiting to see which direction the market takes.
So many things…
I like your point on the Altima/Maxima comparison, being, Maxima – what’s the point? Yeah, you get extra stuff, but the Maxima isn’t really distinctive enough.
I drove auto parts to all the local independent mechanics and garages while in high school. My world’s “Red” was named Gene. He was the most angry, foul-mouthed person I’d ever met, or since. He was a former cop, relatively young, so he must have washed out on conduct unbecoming or worse.
His Standard Station was a popular hangout for the local PD, who sat around on their breaks (all day?) making wise cracks and laughing at Gene screaming and swearing at employees and customers.
One afternoon, I was having a bad day, too. When he started in on a tirade about it being the wrong part, I showed him the order sheet he wrote for it. In front of everybody, I told him F-you, and that you’re a real A-hole, and left to the guffaws of his buddies.
After that, he was “pleasant”.
Honestly, the Altima and Maxima were parked next to each other for a week before we realized one was a Maxima. I’d puzzled over the interior differences during that time, but I just assumed they’d made design changes on the Altima. So far as actual upscale differences? I didn’t notice any. Nor did I notice the Maxima badge on the trunk.
I’ve known guys like Gene, for sure. The only way to gain respect is to stand up to them, so good on ya.
Interesting how some of the Mazda dealerships are going with retro cars for showroom displays. I think it is a good move, as the visual qualities of the old cars still make the new ones look good, and Mazda is a company that has always been wrapped up in its heritage in recent decades.
The green pickup is quite the find. Not too many of them were produced. That tailgate is not the right piece, but it’s not like one can go to Autozone or the junkyard to find the right one.
The “proper” tailgate had no embossed lettering, but instead appliqués for a “Mazda” insignia that resembled a physical emblem, and then the block “Rotary Engine” lettering as also seen on the green truck (see the real deal below).
The tailgate actually on the truck was for the early ‘70s piston engine version, with the embossed “M A Z D A” lettering along the top panel. That style of lettering was already archaic for the Mazda line in the early ‘70s, but was retained for some reason on the very prosaic piston engined trucks. The style of lettering actually goes back to the old three-wheeled Mazda trucklets of the fifties and sixties, which makes it interesting in its own way (at least to me, anyway).
Great info! I imagine finding a replacement for a battered original tailgate must have been a chore–no wonder they settled for the piston engine version. The green truck did look great, all the down to its spray-on bed liner.
I believe the sign by the green rotary pickup said the round taillights were exclusive to the Wankel engined version. Give’s it a kind of Corvette panache!
So you were in Hawaii and I was in the Philippines in December. Have some Curbside Classics from there that I need to write up along with other tidbits. I sympathize with you over Montezuma’s Revenge which hit me at a port in the Philippines only it is way harder dealing with that where I was. Take my word for it.
As to the cars I want that pickup badly and as for faux black scoops… get them outta here!
Condolences for your Philippines trial. My symptoms didn’t show up until we were back home on the mainland, but getting an appointment at home on short notice was not pleasant, either. And the Giardia had to be reported to the state health department. I actually did have to take a family member to the emergency room in Kahului, though. The Hawaiian medical system is overtaxed like many others and we spent a long early morning sitting outside under a shelter in rain. We weren’t allowed inside the hospital. Fortunately, it was 75 degrees outside and we could watch a World Cup soccer match broadcast on a screen inside that pretty visible from where we were. Things turned out okay, fortunately.
Amazing the attention the little green rotary pickup has gathered. I thought I was the only one who would be excited about it! And, yeah–I hate those fake scoops on everything these days.
The opening premise got me curious and I checked Google StreetView for the gas station I used as a teen. The sole employee was a cranky guy with a monosyllabic name which I can’t recall, I’ll call him Ed, who wore greasy coveralls. There was a Coke machine that dispensed bottles with an opener on the side. A year or two after I got my license, it converted to self-serve and Ed’s main job was to grumble at us when we bought two gallons of gas and had to scrounge nickels and pennies to pay the 70 cent bill. He also converted the one bay garage to a self-serve service area, with a hydraulic lift, oil drain and pneumatic grease gun. I guess insurance allowed that, or maybe he didn’t have any; I never thought about it till much later. I think it was $5 per hour to rent the bay, and yeah, he didn’t like counting our loose change for that either. I am glad to see that it’s mostly retained the old architecture, though back in the seventies there was no convenience store except maybe for cans of oil and fan belts.
Neat! Grumpy or not, that’s some great gas-station architecture.
Thumbs up!
That is a great looking old service station–definitely in a different league from Red’s original place…and its replacement, as well. And that’s a great story about Ed and your trials at the self-serve. Brought back unfond memories of digging up spare change. And also memories of $.24.9 a gallon gas I bought before moving to Europe in the early ’70’s. When I got back a few years later it was a buck and a half a gallon. It must have been nice to have a place with a lift to use, though, especially when I think of all the hours I spent under jacked up cars on creeper.
Just took the Transit Connect from work in for servicing. We’ve had a variety of vans in the (jeez over ten years) I’ve worked there and they’ve all been serviced at the same independant shop a block from our warehouse. Classic (used to be common) place, named for the owner/mechanic, his wife does the books, tiny little office corner stacked with parts boxes and reference manuals etc. The place is always packed with vehicles and when I went in yesterday (Saturday) to pick up the Transit there were four other mechanics (employees I assume) working on vehicles in the three bays and in the lot in front. We of course need our vans and when things have gone south unexpectedly he always gets us in quick and fixed up. Figured it was probably expensive but not my dime so never worried about it. The recent cold had killed the battery which had been slowly draining if it remained parked for any time, sometimes needing a jump after being idle for a long weekend. During one such jump the hood release had snapped so I brought my charger from home and plugged it into the lighter socket and charged it at 2A for six or seven hours to get it going. Anyway, the latch got fixed, electrical drain was dealt with and it got a new battery, a headlight and a tailight were replaced, and it got and oil and filter change along with whatever other servicing it was due for (I assume scan for codes, inspect brakes and fluid etc). Bill was $800 dollars. I haven’t had to take any of my vehicles to a shop for many years but wow. Asked if I wanted a calendar, I said sure. Offered me a choice of mountains or birds or something and I remembered the calendar a male co-worker had gotten one time. “Don’t you have the racy ones anymore?” I asked. “She wants the naked ladies!” he yelled across the shop to his wife. She brought the calendar over and I said thanks. Had to laugh after I left and the calendar is on the fridge now. Seems appropriate somehow.
$800 dollars would have been shocking even a few years ago, but I’ve entered the dimension of $100 oil changes, so now it doesn’t seem too outrageous. I suppose if the service place has a good reputation and has been trustworthy I would just grin and bear it.
I had no idea racy calendars were still a thing. Does Pirelli still do theirs? (Okay, I just checked it out–there is a 2023 calendar, but it’s pretty staid compared to the old ones, and includes celebrities).
At least some traditions haven’t died!
I am trying to remember the last time I took a car to a dealer for something other than a recall. And it would sure be convenient, because a brand new Kia dealer just got built a five minute stroll from my office.
The dealership upgrades is interesting, but in my area the entire car dealer row has picked up and moved. From the early 60s into the early 00s it was all along a three mile stretch of road in the old suburban areas. Then the dealer with the sketchiest location built a new place miles north, in probably the early 1990s. Since that time almost the entire automotive industry has built a brand new, bright, huge place, and I drive past most of them almost daily. But I never go into any of them. And sadly, the one that interests me the most these days (Mazda) is not represented in that stretch of new metal.
Our auto row actually stretches into two counties. Most of the dealerships are in the same place they’ve always been, but all have been completely remodeled in the past decade. They bear no resemblance to the old places. There definitely has been a push to upgrade, even for the lower priced segments. A lot of peer pressure, it seems. But the Puget Sound area is a fairly prosperous place. The Mazda dealerships, fortunately, have kept pace.
I haven’t visited the local Mazda store since it’s parent Ford dealer was bough by the Toyota dealer. Since it was a small 3 car size place next to the Blue Oval palace I doubt they have remodeled. I also don’t expect the last Mazda dealer I visited to do much since it was a dinky little place with no cars in the showroom in the teeming metropolis of Brookings Oregon (pop 6700) that seemed to do more used than new.
I’m glad Mazda is keeping the flame alive with Vroom Vroom since BMW appears to prefer “The Ultimate Status Symbol” on increasingly ugly vehicles. Fortunately the motorcycles are mostly OK apart from the corpulent and overwrought R18.
These days even Jiffy lube has an espresso machine and a video record as i found when taking the lazy option with my truck