Today I had to take my car, 2012 Mazda 3, in for an oil change. It is the first oil change I have had to do since we bought the car last summer. We got the car with 5,000 miles on it. It was the dealer's demo car. We now passed 10,000 miles so it was time to get the oil changed. I had an 11:00 appointment and had never been there so I showed up a little early and went into the Mazda building on the Berglund lot in Salem, VA. They very kindly redirected me to the Ford building next door as all service is done at the Ford building. I could put a Ford joke in here but I won't.
When I got to the service department, a very nice gentleman, Johnny Mercer, took all my information and went outside to get the information he needed from the car. *Note: We did not buy our Mazda at this dealership but rather at another Mazda dealership in Northern Virginia.* He put all the information in his computer and let me know that there was a recall on the car and that the recall repair would, of course, not cost me anything. He asked for permission to fix the recall while they had the car. [The recall was a reprogramming that needed to be done to keep the car from possibly stalling if it sat idling for a long time period.] I told him to go ahead and fix it. I also wanted to have the tires rotated as the manual and tire warranty both suggest doing so at 10,000 miles. Mr. Mercer asked me if I was going to come back to pick it up or would be waiting. I told him I would be waiting and asked how long it would take. He said that with the recall, tires, and oil change, it would probably be about an hour and 20 or 30 minutes. He then showed me where the coffee, rest rooms, and waiting area were.
I passed on the coffee, took a mental note of where the rest rooms were and headed to the waiting area. I am no stranger to garage waiting areas. Until we got this car all of our vehicles were older vehicles that require a lot of mechanic attention. This waiting room was in a separate little building connected to the main building with a carport cover between them. This waiting room wasn't anything fancy. There's weren't the leather sofas you see in the high end vehicle waiting areas. There was a desk and chair to work at if you so desired. There was a row of chairs with a coffee table in front of them facing a television. The coffee table had 2 current newspapers on it and several magazines laid out very neatly so that all titles could be seen. I looked through the newspaper sale ads but didn't bother with any magazines as none of them was anything I would be interested in. They were primarily car magazines with a few hunting/sports magazines in there. The television was on and the remote to the television was on the coffee table. It was nice to be able to choose what channel I wished to watch instead of being stuck on one channel as is often the case in waiting areas. In garages, the television is often on a car maintenance channel being piped in or they have it set on the Weather Channel, CNN, or something like that. Those channels are fine if you are there for 10 minutes but can be too much, in my opinion, for an hour and a half. I put on a show I enjoyed (The View) and was quite content watching it but my husband called and invited me out to lunch so he picked me up and out we went.
While having lunch, I got a call that my car was ready. It was only 12:00 so it was ready ahead of time. When I went back to pick up my car, Mr. Mercer was at lunch so another gentleman helped me. This gentleman was quite flirty but otherwise very nice. The only issue I had was that I had left the maintenance logs on my front passenger seat so they would be filled in but when I got back in my car they had not been filled in. I was not really upset since I had not specifically asked anyone to do so and just assumed they would see them and fill them in. I gathered the booklets and took them inside where the gentlemen there were more than happy to fill them in for me and sign them. Overall, I had great service today.
What was the cost:
Oil Change (full synthetic), and tire rotation: $72.51
Recall: no charge
I left there a satisfied customer and will return.
*I received nothing in compensation for this review and all opinions are 100% my own.
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