Perhaps you remember this little problem with our 6's navigation screen? Or, maybe, you remember the missing underbody cladding courtesy Boss Man Oldham? Certainly you remember that way back in early April we took the 6 to the dealer to have these issues addressed and get the oil changed? Naturally, the parts had to be ordered.
Service writer Mary Kant at Ford of Orange in Orange, California (that would be the OC) told us we'd get a call when the parts arrived. That was in April. It's June. Still no call. We rang Mary this morning and were told the underbody cladding is in but the nav screen has been on backorder. It's supposed to ship on June 9. We don't know from where.
Mary said she'd call when it arrives. We aren't holding our breath.
Josh Jacquot, Senior road test editor
bkochuk says:
07:06 PM, 06/ 4/09
slack.
redliner says:
07:08 PM, 06/ 4/09
Wow. I think I would be a little ticked off if this was my car, and i had just orderd he fancy nav system, which then failed. Two months!! Ridiculous!
Monocrom says:
01:07 AM, 06/ 5/09
I'm glad I got the sSport trim... No Nav. system.
dougtheeng says:
06:13 AM, 06/ 5/09
brutal.
actualsize says:
07:17 AM, 06/ 5/09
If it's taking this long I can only assume a lot more of these are failing than anyone anticipated.
jaeger1 says:
07:21 AM, 06/ 5/09
Couple months to replace a nav screen? That's lame. The nav unit in my Altima went sour and had to be replaced. They had to order the part. It came in the next morning and was installed later that afternoon. They were real aplogetic about the part not being in stock and my having to make a return trip. A couple months??!!??
roadburner says:
08:34 AM, 06/ 5/09
When my Mazdaspeed blew a front strut the part arrived in one day. The replacement turbo took two days to arrive. I can usually get most any part for my '75 2002 within seven days. It must be a bad batch of screens that caught the supplier off-guard. Still, two months is inexcusable...
altimadude00 says:
08:56 AM, 06/ 5/09
Rip one out from a car on the lot. They're not going anywhere fast anyway.
penboy says:
09:03 AM, 06/ 5/09
Since no one else has mentioned it yet, (I figured Suby would have by now, he normally seems to be quite on top of these things) don't forget to use Edmund's Dealer Ratings and Reviews site!
http://www.edmunds.com/dealerships/drr/jump.html
I had a similar experience trying to order parts from Ford and Mazda of Orange, never getting a call back and that sort of thing.
It also seemed like the parts/service department didn't really care once I told them I had a Mazda and not a Ford; this particular dealership was Ford-only for years, and only became a Mazda dealership after Anaheim Mazda moved in with them a couple years back. I could very well be imagining that, though.
Monocrom says:
12:04 AM, 06/ 7/09
@ altimadude00 ~
You're right! ... But mainly due to Mazda doing a piss poor job of getting the word out. I've only seen a handful of 6s in NYC. And all of them, except mine, were 4-cylinder versions. (I finally saw another V6 Mazda 6 out on Long Island).
This car (at least with the V6 engine) is freaking terrific! But hardly anyone knows it!
ryster says:
05:33 AM, 06/ 7/09
This dealer isn't even making an effort. They should be able to easily locate the nav screen and get it overnighted. To ask a customer to wait 2 months for parts is unacceptable.
This makes for an interesting experiment...call Mazda (like many owners would) and see what kind of treatment you get.
moparfool says:
04:57 PM, 06/22/09
It's lame that the nav screen failed so soon. The supplier has reliability issues and probably doesn't do burn in testing to catch infant mortality failures. And to save a few cents Mazda probably doesn't require this testing from the low bidder supplier.
This is another good reason not to buy overpriced and failure prone optional electronics for your new car. What would this failure cost to fix if the car was out of warranty? Buy a $200 GPS and save both money and some potential grief.