Pacific Mazda

I've used the service department for the past 4 years to take care of my Protege 5 and my Miata along with a friend's 3 and have always received reliable and friendly service from their staff. I've never had them push additional service onto me and they've always delivered on time.

On top of that, their pricing is as good as 3rd party mechanics.

Such a disappointment. Where do I start? My partner and I bought a new 2019 Mazda CX3 GT (their showroom vehicle) with all the accessories and an additional price. Fine.

2 days after owning the vehicle we noticed the black plastic trim turned white.. and was not easily coming off from elbow grease and Armorall. We brought it back and showed several people. At first they tried to blame ya for washing the car (2 days after owing it) furious even at that, I pointed out several other cars for sale on their lot right there and then, that also had white residue on the black plastic trim. They went from pointing fingers to offering to fix it.. but with the same stuff I tried. "That won't work" - so I spoke with the owner/manager who said he would contact us to have the trim repainted. Fine.. except 2 months have passed and no word.

We brought the car back in to get the AppleCar play installed at a cost of $250. Our appointment was for 10AM and was to take 2 hours to install. We went back at 4PM to pick up our car as we needed to be up island for a dinner.. to our shock, they told us our car hadn't even gone in yet. Furious I left a google review.. 10 mins later we got a call saying they got our car confused and that it was already being worked on and would be about another hour. That's beside the point. 2 hours has led to 6 hours.

Now the new issue. We were driving from Vancouver to Fernie for Christmas and cruising down highway 3 - the car handles amazing in snow.. until BOOM. The sunroof explodes. No cars, in front - behind or anything above us. It was 9PM and no soul in sight.. pretty upset that in the 2.5 months of owning the vehicle we've had so many issues. With zero help from this dealership..

So upsetting that we have been left to fend for ourselves on a $33K vehicle. Avoid their service at all cost.. evidently!!

"Questionable Ethics of Sales Manager"

We had a very negative experience at the Pacific Mazda dealership in Victoria on July 30, 2020. It started out great, we had finally found the car of our dreams, a 2016 CX5. We were thrilled. Then things went horribly wrong.

We spent 1.5 hrs examining and test driving the car and told Rain, the salesman, we loved the car and wanted to buy it. We offered to put down a deposit on the car to hold it, and he said no need. We proceeded to his office to work out the deal. We were invited to test drive a new 2020 model while Rain worked out the deal. When we returned from the test drive, the 2016 CX5 was out on another test drive. We told Rain we weren't interested in the new car and wanted to buy the 2016. We were excited.

We went to Rain's office to conclude the deal. The asking price was okay but didn't understand why the monthly payments would total to $9000 more than the purchase price. We asked for details and Ben Sanders, the sales manager told these were other fees (including a mysterious fee to cover theft). He offered to write out all the fees and come back to explain them. We were happy with this offer and thought we would get a good understanding of what we were agreeing to.

While waiting for Ben and the written figures, Rain left and when he returned stunned us with the news that another salesman has people in his office and was negotiating the sale of the car we were doing the deal for. He said now we had to wait to see if they wanted the car or not before we could conclude our deal. We didn't understand.

We pointed out we test drove it first, had shown clear intent to buy the car, talked payment amounts, offered to put a deposit down and and were sitting with him negotiating the final deal! What was happening here? Had we done something wrong? We were incredulous.

Rain had to go to talk to Ben. Ben appeared and told us we did not put down a deposit so it was all okay for another salesman to proceed with another party.

We said this was not really fair and explained we had offered to put down a deposit but Rain told us this was not necessary. We told Ben we made it clear we were interested in the car, had spent the day test driving the car, examining it, discussing the inspection report and negotiating with Rain. We thought we had a verbal deal we just had to work out the details. We had figures in front of us and were in negotiation. He was part of the process!

Ben said that was unfortunate but that his hands were tied and there was nothing he could do, this was the law according to the Vehicle Sales Authority. He could not take a deposit without a written signed sales agreement . We disagree with Ben about this. Either he was misinformed or was being purposely misleading as there is no such provision in the VSA regulations.

At any time we could have signed a deposit agreement that would have secured the car for us until negotiations were complete. As Sales Manager he was part of both salesmen's negotiation. At any point he could have done the ethical thing and put the 2nd party negotiations on hold and done us the courtesy to conclude discussions with us. Its not like this went on for hours, this all transpired in less than half an hour.

Ben Sanders should have been ethical, corrected the situation and told the other people to wait as Rain was in the middle of negotiating a deal with people who had come first.

Because he neglected to tell us we couldn't do the deal until I asked about the fees, I can't help but think he encouraged the other deal because they did not ask questions. We were unaware of them but they surely knew about us. Did he use pressure tactics on the other party? Very gamey!

We had to wait until the other people decided if they wanted the car or not and if they didn't want it we could then proceed with our negotiations. There was nothing we could do about this situation but wait to see the outcome. We were heartbroken when the other salesman told us had sold the car.

Just finishing purchasing a 2015 Mazda CX-5 GT with my daughter. The vehicle was immaculate and had a perfect 3rd party inspection.
Al Hache did an amazing job! He was professional, personable and truly knew the product. When my daughter took possession of the car, Al went over the whole vehicle and showed her all the features. He paired her mobile as well. Everyone that we encountered at the dealership were very friendly and professional. I highly recommend Al and the dealership.
Job well done!!

They charge a lot for their service and do a crappy job.
I got the worst service experience this year and realized that i paid more than $400 extra for a service and parts work.
I was informed by the service manager that i got a good deal only for me to realized that i was cheated and i over paid.
I learnt my lesson and i am never taking my Mazda to this dealership for service any more.

Called in the morning to arrange a test drive, go out there in the afternoon, we thought that would give the saleswoman Plenty of time to research the facts about the suv we were interested in. She told us three times the car was a one owner vehicle, we read the Carfax only to see there were three owners??? There were numerous other questions we had that were just sloughed off as if to say I know what I'm talking about you don't. By far the least knowledgable sales person we have ever dealt with. Thankful we left without dealing anymore

Meh. Was over on the island last week and found a decent deal on a 2007 Mazda CX9. I was quoted nominally 14-15k on my trade in- with full disclosure on mileage, wear/tear. When I came back over they offered me 10k on the trade and only moved 1k off the $30k sticker price of the purchase vehicle. Our salesman Scott was friendly but Don the sales manager didn't shake my wife's hand or even look her in the eye; despite the purchase being in her name and for her to drive.

If only dealerships could get over the bs soap opera of "checking with management" and have more transparency on prices many would be happier with their car purchase. As for the BS add-ons, Pacific gets one extra star for originality. Their money grabber add on to the invoice was a "theft protection fee" of $299. Craigslist and USA here I come.

Awful.
LOVE my car but what a headache to go thru w the airhead in finance. Phoney and a sneak.
Be careful

best salesperson EVER, Todd Lindsay. He looked after me SO well, a retired, elderly lady, although I don't feel it!! He was caring, encouraging, snd complimentary. Everyone was great, all in all a very happy and successful experience. Would def. recommend Todd.

I called (on hold for over 20 minutes) Pacific Mazda on the 16th of January for a regular service appointment and was told, somewhat flippantly, that they were "only taking appointments into February". I don't expect next day service, but I also don't expect 2.5 week waits for service. Is Pacific Mazda understaffed or have they had an unexpected surge in service work? I don't know the answer, but the service department employee could have shown a little customer retention interest by explaining the long wait for appointments. Even though I bought the car from Pacific Mazda, I will have it serviced elsewhere in the future.