New car won't reverse up slight incline - Bizarre Response?

[d215yq]

Hi all,

My dad rcently bought a top of the range mazda 2 manual as his "see you out" car. He paid something like 18k new but with 3500 off for scrapping a beautiful condition, perfectly working 22yr old Yaris.

My dad loves the car but only when reversing up the drive it judders and smells of burning. It's an incline that I would describe as slight and has not fazed any other car he or any of us have owned while living there 20 years, including my 33yr old merc with 250k mile clutch when I come to visit. So it went back to Mazda who just called:

"We've taken apart everything and checked clutch mounts, etc and all is good". We've then parallel tested it with a new MaAzda 2 and found they both judder in reverse up certain inclines and we can't really fix the problem on either. As such we believe that a Mazda 2 may not be the car for you so the salesman will call tomorrow and discuss your potential solutions. My dad currently has a loan car mazda 2 which judders reversing up the drive but much less and without the burning, something my dad would probably not be too bothered about.

Anyhow, this is causing him a lot of stress and I really can't believe what Mazda are saying effectively they are not suitable for what might be a reasonably common application which cars have been able to do for 50 or 60 years. My advice is to get it in writing it's not fit for purpose and ask for all the money back off the retail price ignoring the scrappage discount. As they've scrapped the Yaris already then they should pay the full price of the car (in effect giving 3500 scrappage csheme money for teh Yaris as he only parted with a good working car because he believed he was being sold a new one). That might be unreasonable but seems a good starting point if they effectively are sayign they can't provide him with a reasonable car.

What are people's thoughts on this? As the dealer is part Mazda part Kia he's also tempted to buy a 3 year old top of the range Ceed from them and the cash, maybe that way they can accept the deal more and he needs a car anyway. At the end of the day Kia's may not be flash but are incredibly reliable, have a great warranty and can reverse up drives...(he knows because they kept the 8yr old Ceed as the second car and that's been a properly great ownership experience with none of this type of thing). How does it work when a 300 car is scrapped for 3500 scrappage scheme and the new car is not fit for purpose? Do they just give you the 3500 back, the 300 back, or something in the middle? 3500 is a bit extreme but the car was worth way more than 300 to the family and as a useful tool...

Thanks in advance, I appreciate the replies...

 

[ajlsl600]

If it cant back up a slope its not fit for purpose. Unless they can demo it going up the slope ok.yr due yr money back...

 

[Frontstep]

They are accepting a problem so you have a good start, not all garages are run by scallywags.

So find what they have that will work for him and negotiate a new deal with a full refund of the total price paid including trade in.

Shake hands and go home .

 

[d215yq]

If it cant back up a slope its not fit for purpose. Unless they can demo it going up the slope ok.yr due yr money back...

Yeah they're just stating that they all do that so this (or any other mazda2) is not suitable for someone who has a drive with a moderate incline. Isn't that quite a strange admission (and why would it pass sign off etc)?

 

[d215yq]

They are accepting a problem so you have a good start, not all garages are run by scallywags.

So find what they have that will work for him and negotiate a new deal with a full refund of the total price paid including trade in.

Shake hands and go home .

Absolutely... Were not compensation people or anything but not sure what the offer will be and I'm guessing the "options" won't include giving back full list price. The 3500 trade in is clearly the scrappage scheme grant so I don't know if it's his right to get that back as the trade in market value was a tenth of that so if they give back the full rrp my dad will be in a better position than before. But if they give market value of the yaris he'll be worse off as it was worth more to us and we reluctantly scrapped it only because it saved 3500 off the new one! Also not sure where he is with depreciation on this brand new car he's done 700 miles in with the fault and if they can charge that and take it off the price refunded?

 

[mioba]

Well firstly great news that they acknowledge the fault and that the car/deal was not right.

Get your pops in the right car and make him happy.

 

[Frontstep]

Absolutely... Were not compensation people or anything but not sure what the offer will be and I'm guessing the "options" won't include giving back full list price. The 3500 trade in is clearly the scrappage scheme grant so I don't know if it's his right to get that back as the trade in market value was a tenth of that so if they give back the full rrp my dad will be in a better position than before. But if they give market value of the yaris he'll be worse off as it was worth more to us and we reluctantly scrapped it only because it saved 3500 off the new one! Also not sure where he is with depreciation on this brand new car he's done 700 miles in with the fault and if they can charge that and take it off the price refunded?

Everyone is a compensation person, depending on the circumstances.

As it is you have to get their take on it, their number and then make your decision as to whether its acceptable.

 

[Naraic]

Yeah they're just stating that they all do that so this (or any other mazda2) is not suitable for someone who has a drive with a moderate incline. Isn't that quite a strange admission (and why would it pass sign off etc)?

It isn't even about the slope of his driveway...this will affect anyone who parks on a hill facing down and has to reverse to get out of the space.

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

Sorry to hear this!

My inclination in such a situation is to be proactive and come up with a reasonable deal (to both parties) I’d be happy with and put this forward to start negotiations which I find saves a lot of time, as you say they have options on offering another brand so there are viable alternatives.

Good luck with it they do sound like a reasonable company which helps a lot

 

[M80]

Car not fit for purpose, surprising really.
They should return dad to the position he was in, but of course the Yaris has gone so complicated.

How about taking a better model if that can do the job w/o juddering. Mazda still have the sale and the Yaris is a non issue.

 

[sonic]

Have you looked on a Mazda owners site, or Googled the issue? I can’t believe all Mazda 2’s in the world have this fault.

 

[d215yq]

Hmm there's a few posts online such as this which seems to have been met with the same response from Mazda. My dad has a year old Mazda 2 as the courtesy car and it does judder up it too though less than the new one and doesn't smell of burning like his new one does...

https://www.thecarexpert.co.uk/forums/topic/characteristic-fault-with-clutch-on-brand-new-mazda-2/

To put it into perspective, this is the drive, not steep at all, in fact when I visit my W124 reverses straight up it idling at 600rpm without any problems nor even needing to press the accelerator.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.701...4!1sm-XDtZgb7F1l9I3CoRzA7g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Is there a new technology (his is mild-hybrid) that means that there is some new type of clutch and a design fault or something - I can't imagine them gettign a simple clutch wrong after 60 years of car design where this has not being an issue on anything?

ETA no problem at all with the garage (so far), more Mazda for selling a car to the public not fit for purpose and them not asking every customer if they need a car to reverse up inclines.

Will see what the numbers are but it's all stressful for my dad. He's not like me and bought a new car thinking it would be problem free and won't know what to do if any complicated new deals are suggested. I did try to warn him the first 6 months of car ownership are statistically the least reliable as any production faults are found. That said he was prepared for being unlucky with a problem car and hpoping they'd fix it. If he'd known it wasn't just a problem car but was actually a poorly designed model he would have just kept the old car which worked fine and been done with it.

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

One of the ironies of life unfortunately we all get bored and want something new and the fact that stuff just gets old. I thought I’d keep the S212 but the S213 is so much better and so I’ll change at some point.
I still miss my S210 and would have bought another (new) if I could it was such a good car despite the fact that cost cutting and the Chrysler partnership almost ruined MBs reputation at the time.

 

[ajlsl600]

I sruggle to believe this is any kind or normal situation. Or that mazda would ,dealer anyway consider it such.
Being civil with dealer may help as I sure you are being .but after paying along for a while ,one needs to get firm point out that ultimately you will get legal advise and a recognized engineers report .at their expense. See what happens then.

 

[malcolm E53 AMG]

The mechanical problem can only be either the clutch plates or gearbox mountings anything else would show up in normal driving on a conventional car, obviously a design problem that needs ironing out, including a hybrid drive motor may be part of the problem we are all being treated as guinea pigs by manufacturers nowadays. If you want EV or Hybrid buy a Toyota every other manufacturer has a lot of catching up to do