Miata Mailing List: May 1996, Message #20
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   From: "Bill Kim" 
Subject: Scum dealer and alignment
   Date: Wed, 1 May 1996 16:06:10 -0400

Today was a really bad day for my Miata.  

I had an aligment done yesterday and found out that the right front would
max out at -0.7 degree of camber where the left front would goto -1.5+
degrees.  It sounds like the problem with a short lower arm.  So, I took
the car to the dealer and tried to get them to atleast measure it and
hopefully replace it, but to make a long story short, they would not even
measure it saying that they could not find the specs for the control arm. 
Also, they said that since I still can get camber within specs, it is not
a problem.  I tried to argue that I know of atleast a dozen miatas that
have gotten more than -0.7 degrees of camber in the front and that if the
control arm is short, then the part is defective and it should be replaced
regardless of the factory alignment specs.  Well, Chaplin's Mazda here in
Bellevue, WA called the regional rep and he still said no way.  The dealer
did offer to sell me a new lower control arm at their cost, but my problem
is that I don't know for sure if it is a lower control arm since they
could/would not provide me with the measurements for the control arm.   

I read either here on on the Auto-X list about someone in CA having the
same problem and the solution was a new lower control arm.  Does anyone
know if that person was able to have Mazda pick up the tab for the
replacement? 

The second problem I found is a little worse.  I bought my 95R about a
month ago from Huling brother's Mazda in Seattle and it was a new car that
they had left over.  It did have about 400 miles on it, but I figured that
that was not unreasonable considering that it was on the lot for a year
and a price of $16000.  Well, when Chaplin's looked up my car in the mazda
computer, the car was listed as sold on >>6/30/95<< .  That is almost a
year ago!  That means I lost about a year on my warantee(sp?)  The service
adviser ad Chaplins also told me that once a car is entered as sold, it is
very difficult to change it.  So I called the salesman at the original
dealer and he swore up and down that the car was never sold to anyone else
and tried to get rid of me saying that the manager won't be in for a
couple of days and he is leaving town for two weeks, but I could come back
then to straighten things out.  I called back and the manager was there,
but he was not helpful either.  He acted angry and said he would take care
of it.  I called back a couple of hours later and he said he was busy and
he would get to it when he gets to it.   So, it doesn't appear that the
original dealer is going to do anything about it.  I did talk to the
finance person there and she stated that the sales guys will sometimes
enter a car as sold to win contests or to meet incentive quotas.  I am
also planning to check with the DMV tomorrow to see if the car was
previously registered.  

Is there anything I can do if the scumbags at Huling brother's
don't/aren't able to change the sold date?  Am I going to lose 1 yeare of
my warrentee?  The service adviser at Chaplin's said that he talked to the
regional rep about it, but Mazda would not get involved, stating that it
is an issure between me and the dealer. Is there anything I can do
legally?  

I would like to say Chaplin's Mazda worked with me and they are a great
dealer.  Bruce, the service adviser was especially helpful.  However,
Huling Brother's mazda lied to me about everything and doesn't care about
anything after the sale.  They also delivered the car in poor shape and
that is the main reason why I went to Chaplin's for warentee work today.

Thanks for letting me vent and I hope someone out there can help me.

Bill Kim