Why is the car industry so emphatically, notoriously crap at customer care? These things are expensive. In a sane universe, you’d expect this industry to be better at looking after you.   

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Only the car industry could retrofit the term ‘care’ to mean, in practice: ‘Not only not to give a shit about someone who spent a lot of money here, but also to take every opportunity to violate that person financially.’  I got an e-mail from a dude named Jay Merola. Mr Merola owns a 2012 Mazda CX-9 with 109,000km on the clock. So - slightly below average kays. It developed what he calls a (quote) “small transmission kickdown issue from 5th to 4th”.  So he drops it off at the dealership - it’s due for a service anyway - and he picks it up at 5pm, whence he was:  “...told by the service staff that the transmission was completely shot and the car needed a new one at a cost of $18k. They recommended not to drive it but if I chose to I would have to sign a waiver. I left it there.”  Ouch: Standard service and transmission tweak: That’ll be $18k. And if you want the car back, you must sign this document.  Pro tip: It’s your car. You can take it any time. Never be coerced into signing any document in order to collect your own property. If they try that on: Sex and travel, if you know what I mean.   "They referred the matter to their locked down Melbourne Death Star leaders [Mazda head office] who basically told them and me that there was no evidence of mechanical failure. So I had the dealer technician expert telling me the transmission was dead vs a keyboard warrior telling me there was no issue. What the???"  Nothing like getting your stories straight. Nothing like it. So, just before the Bat Pumpy came out...  "After some slightly heated discussions they took the car to an independent local transmission guy who changed the oil, reconfigured the TCU and said she was good to go."  What if he had reluctantly just said ‘OK’ and copped the $18k on the chin? Mr Merola says   "Dealers are only interested customers as cash cows. Their business model appears to be that a slight mechanical problem needs to be ripped out and completely replaced rather than repaired/serviced. Mazda does not service auto transmissions as part of routine servicing because it adds costs that consumers whinge about and they deem transmission oils as lifetime items - but a lifetime to a dealer is the warranty period. I will never buy another Mazda because the after sales service is rubbish."  In a parallel universe, there’s a parallel Jay Merola in a parallel CX-9, and the parallel dealer says: “Look - we need to investigate what’s wrong with you transmission. There’s a safety dimension to this, so here’s a demonstrator CX-9 - take that home for a few days. I’d be interested to see what you think of it, because there’s been a number of enhancements over the past few years. We’ll give you a call when it’s sorted.”  In the parallel universe, of course, parallel Mr Merola buys another CX-9, later that week. He tells everyone he knows how awesome Mazda’s aftersales support was, and how amazing his new CX-9 is.   He doesn’t get up at 6.30 on a Saturday to vent to Darth Varder’s automotive understudy about how poorly Mazda has treated him. (I get that dealerships are independent businesses, but they fly the flag, and so, to consumers, that distinction is moot, and it’s disingenuous for carmakers to claim this as evidence in mitigation.)