Well, that leather issue is certainly something to consider further. We plan to keep the car 15 yr or more. It is replacing a 2000 Camry we bought new. Has lighter color leather that still looks pretty good. I religiously maintain the leather so cracking is minimal. My 04 911 has gray leather that still looks good, even though perforated. So I'm expecting the same results with Parchment, but maybe that is wishful thinking.

 

Leather quality is everything and it varies tremendously among manufacturers. I had a 2001 Outback VDC and the leather looked almost new on it when the rear frame rusted through in 2016. My old 2004 Tahoe which my daughter now uses for towing her horse trailer still looks good. On the other hand, my 1983 Honda Accord Special Edition lasted for 20 years with over 200,000 miles, but the leather started cracking, then ripping after about five years.

Mazda is not known for its leather seats, though my 2014 still looks good, but it only has 45,000 miles on it and my wife primarily drives it and she only weighs 110. I, at 230 pounds, am a lot rougher on the seats, but I don't drive it that often.

 

The salesman for our local dealer is my next door neighbor so I'm sure he's giving me the straight scoop on what they can do for us on our order. They are escalating to Mazda to see about an answer on availability.

I spoke with the other dealer about getting a car without all the dealer adds. She wasn't sure they could sell me a "naked" car but will check. Nice to know options are mandatory.

 

All the AZ Mazda dealers I checked equipped their vehicles with a “desert package” consisting of tinted windows, clear door edge protectors, “special” paint protection, nitrogen in the tires, etc. The price for the package varied by dealer, from $700 to $1995! I didn’t want the package but it was already on the vehicle. The dealer let me have it for their cost, which was about $300.



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That is most certainly a dealer to dealer thing as I bought my '19 without any dealer add ons. Just the items on the sticker. They had some cars with tint and other items but mine had nothing.

BTW- my local dealer has your car in stock: https://portal.mazdausa.com/m176/Mus...KFBAY6M0376044

They were amazing to deal with if you are interested. Mall of Georgia Mazda in Buford, GA

 

Mine came without any of the dealer oversells, but the back office guy certainly tried hard to sell me all that crap before we closed the deal.

 

Thanks, I just found one on line in the Phoenix area that looks like the package she wants. About 2,000 miles closer to go look at it

I've asked the sales rep there if there are dealer adds that I don't want like the other dealer had. I just hate paying $2k for the "desert package stuff" when I don't live in the desert. And have a friend in the business that can do similar for a lot less. Hopefully my local dealer can get me one also, although waiting for a 2022 is ok, esp if they fix the high fan on start-up and a few other ****les. Which I suspect they won't in the last year of this generation.

 

From your signature it appears your family has grown in number

Yeah, the dreaded back office closer... Do you want an extended warranty with that? No, how about some nice mud flaps?

 

For me it was a paint/wheel protection policy. The guy was nice, when I challenged him he said “I’m just trying to save you some money”. Fair enough, but just no.