Hello everyone

I've just joined the Forum and have spent quite a while reading through it.
Of some concern to me are the items relating to tyre wear, the perceived poor paint and
steering problems. So let me tell you a bit about my experience.

Bought a new Furano 2L in February 2007. Generally speaking I am very pleased with the
Car's performance in general except for the fact that lately when I have to do sudden braking
the front wheels seem to have a life of their own; likewise sometimes when travelling over
a damaged road surface (due to tarmac erosion). A week or so ago while under heavy rain
I had to brake suddenly and almost lost control of the car because the steering was all over the
place. My wife and kids were in the car and missed hitting a car adjacent to ours by just a few
inches.

Poor paint quality is another issue, for example: at the rear where the bumper meets the boot door
the paint is heavily damaged with a couple of chips measuring up to 3mm and on the sides
misterious long but very thin scratches have appeared.

So far I've done just over 8500 miles and tyres at front and rear appear OK, they are Dunlops on
17" alum alloys, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Since paint chipping is not covered by the Warranty, has anyone managed to get the paint damage
repaired FOC from any dealer?

Am I correct in assuming that the steering problem I've been having will be covered by the Warranty?
I believe it is but would be nice to have it confirmed or denied by other owners who may have
experienced same problem.

I was disheartened to read the stories from Mazda 5 owners having problems with the geometry,
alignment, etc. What surprised me was the fact that in this day of easy access to specialist litigators,
they didn't get organised and take Mazda to court as a group. Based on what I've read, Mazda would
find it extremely difficult to defend their case in court; some of the problems reported are serious safety
issues (in addition to consumer issues) and fall within existing UK car manufacturing and safety legislation.
There are also specialist legal firms dealing with such matters affecting cars bought and sold in the UK
and which operate on a "No win no fee" basis. Although I can guarantee the case would never reach an
open court.

Finally we will be driving to the Continent next month for our hols and will have to use a conversion kit
for the headlights. When I bought my previous car (VW) my dealer showed me how and where to apply the
stickers, however nobody at the Mazda dealer knew how to do it. So if a kind sould here could point me to
a link or diagram on the web explaining how to do it, I would be extremely grateful.

Best wishes to all and thanks for reading this long and boring post.

 

I was pointed towards:

http://www.travel-spot.co.uk/products/eurolites.htm

They are available from a number of sources and I have confirmed that their "comprehensive make and model fitting information" does include the Mazda 5

Although we don't travel to France until next month either (we'll look out for you and wave ) these are what I intend to try. To be honest, in the past few years we have been "black insulating tape merchants" (as specifically recomended against in the link above). It never harmed our Berlingo but it took a while to get the correct pattern infomation from Citroen.

 

Thanks for your reply Terry, will check it out. I hope you have a great holiday.

 

As a new member myself & owning a 5 furano (Aqua fresh Green....sorry stellar silver), not had it long enough for the kids,
bikes & dog to do much damage to the paintwork. Only thing we do to try and protect that delicate area is to pull the boot liner & rubber mat thingy out as far as possible, i.e. so it dangles almost to the ground!

Good luck with the euro trip......did you get the Mazda Euro assistance as part of the warranty??

 

Yes I did get the Euro Assistance as part of the warranty, although I'd rather not have to use it!!!
Thanks for the good wishes.

 

ROFL

Our old Berlingo was "Sahara Gold" which was translated by the Berlingo Forum to "Hearing Aid Beige"

Sorry to hi-jack the thread.