The Mazda is no more. I can’t say that I had a very good time with the car, I had a good deal of problems with it, and the end of the relationship was no different. To explain the ending I need to give a little history.
Leasing It
When I leased the car there was a deal where you could reduce the interest you paid on the lease by putting down multiple damage deposits. What happened was for every damage deposit you put down they would reduce the interest by 0.15%. Doesn’t sound like much, but for putting down $3500 in damage deposit, I lowered the interest on the car by 1.5%, which saved me $38/month. If you do the calculation on that amount, that means that I was getting about 13% interest on my $3500.
Anyway, since I actually wanted the damage deposit back, I negotiated something called the Mazda WearCare which allows you to return the car with up to $3500 of damage without being charged for it.
Returning The Car
I was worried that even with the WearCare that I was going to run into issues with some dents to the car. I spoke with a neighbour who happens to work for Mazda, and he had a quick look and concluded that I would have no problems. I got the damage report from the lease inspection and it concluded that there was $1496 of damage to the car. Sounded like I was in good shape. A few days later I get a check from Mazda for $2,859.15 some $640.15 less than I expected. I quickly phoned Mazda and was told that it was due to an improper repair. So what was the repair… well remember this: INCIDENT!? After a few calls to Mazda and having them say that if I had just not had it repaired by the towing company IT WOULD BE COVERED, I finally got them to make some kind of concession.
While they wouldn’t refund the entire $640, they were willing to put in half. For a difference of $320, I am more than happy to avoid having to go to small claims court. I will on the other hand be phoning the towing company to attempt to get some more cash out of them. If I can find some time and energy, and actually feel like thinking about this again, I will post to let everyone know how this ends.