Mazda 3 - Good experiences with Mazda Dealerships in London?

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Sun 28 Feb 2021 13:04
Mazda 3 - Good experiences with Mazda Dealerships in London? - Will097

Hi all

Looking at buying a used post 2015 mazda 3 saloon soon. Cargiant and the likes is one option, Mazda approved from dealerships is the other (I try to avoid private sellers as I'm not really car savvy and don't know how to go about that). Looking at the various google reviews from the Mazda dealers, most of the reviews seem kind of sketchy. It's only the 3/2/1 star reviews that seem to be written in a more real writing style. So, I don't know what to believe anymore, kinda lost.

Has anyone had any good experiences with Mazda dealerships in London that can recommend? Thank you in advance!

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Sun 28 Feb 2021 14:43
Mazda 3 - Good experiences with Mazda Dealerships in London? - mcb100
Regardless of brand, I always prefer going to family owned dealerships, or dealer groups that have dealerships that you can count in single figures.
Unless it’s a manufacturer owned dealer group, in which case they tend to observe higher standards of customer care.
It’s getting more difficult to differentiate the large from the small as, increasingly, dealer standard from the manufacturer are stating that the name over the door is ‘Mazda ‘name of town’’, rather than the dealer or dealer group name.
Do a bit of research as to who the dealer actually is, use the dealer’s website to locate a car, or Mazda UK’s website’s used car locator so you’re getting information on specific car or cars, and remember that you won’t be able to view cars physically until April 12th at the earliest.
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Sun 28 Feb 2021 17:28
Mazda 3 - Good experiences with Mazda Dealerships in London? - chris87
Other than not trying to sell me a car after making my intentions clear, MKG3000 in Twickenham is probably the best dealer you can go to. If you’re looking for an extreme discount, I can suggest a more appropiate one, the smaller dealers can’t even come close to the discounts offered by the larger groups.
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Sun 28 Feb 2021 20:24
Mazda 3 - Good experiences with Mazda Dealerships in London? - Will097

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts and providing suggestions.

From a little research, a small list of Mazda dealerships in London

  • Masters Mazda
  • Croydon Mazda
  • Essex Mazda
  • TW White and sons Mazda Weybridge
  • MKG3000 (thanks!)

All share the same website format. I will try to contact some of them this week in order to see if the 12th of April applies. I note the bit about researching more on who's the owner etc; yet, these days you only get a few chances for the car you'd want to buy. Maybe it will get better in a couple of months when market reopens.

Cargiant is always an option yes - if test drive was an option I would have already bought one as I'm not far away from them at the moment. I don't understand how people buy with delivery at home - it's a car, not a takeaway!.. yet, I had my eyes on a couple of them 3s, all gone now!

Edited by Will097 on 28/02/2021 at 20:27

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Sun 28 Feb 2021 21:54
Mazda 3 - Good experiences with Mazda Dealerships in London? - Engineer Andy

I'd strongly suggest that you check the dealership reviews on Mazda owners forums. I'm a member of the Mazda3 owners forum - not so well used of late due to the pandemic, but you may find some reviews of said dealerships.

My experience on that forum says that Mazda dealers - post sales, tend to be rather hit and miss. Online reviews from well-known review sites need to be taken with a pinch of salt, as some can be ones from rivals that falsely give a bad review, plus overly praise-worthy ones from staff at the dealer in question.

I find that the best reviews are those that include a decent amount of detail - good or bad. Admitedly when people post genuine positive reviews it is more difficult to find a decent amount to say if everything goes well.

Unfortunately my experience of dealerships is limited to my local one in North Herts, quite some way from where you're looking.

Just be careful if you intend to buy a diesel, given the problems with them. Petrol cars should be fine if looked after properly. You will find that sourcing a saloon/fastback is going to be a LOT more difficult than the hatch as there's far less of them around (ratio of between 10:1 and 20:1 hatches to saloons/fastbacks).

Make also sure that you are ok about the boot aperture - it is small, and thus large 'cube-shaped' items such as large boxes won't fit through it (or via the back doors), even though the boot itself is big enough (~50L more than the hatch) to accommodate them.

I found this out the hard was with my gen-1 saloon as I couldn't fit my new PC in my car, so my parents had to deliver it in their much smaller Fiesta, as it's got a hatchback boot opening. It's fine for suitcases, golf bags, etc etc, so is only a problem for me once in a blue moon.

Best of luck.

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Mon 1 Mar 2021 19:58
Mazda 3 - Good experiences with Mazda Dealerships in London? - Will097

Thank you very much for all the advice!

Wouldn't have thought of the boot opening size issue - still, with a baby on the way, better than the hatchback! I will keep that in mind though. I've noticed the ratio...it's a pain really, since you don't come across lots of them. I was blaming the pandemic though and hoped that it's not as bad. I will then have to be fast when the time comes, hopefully very soon.

About the dealers, the fake reviews and rivalry reviews are common tactics which I expect to see, and you're right, a happy customer won't leave a review usually. Unfortunately I've even seen reviews with the same text by "different" people. It doesn't give you confidence, especially when buying used.

I will have a look again at the mazda3 forums, I've seen one or two threads (I think best/worst experiences with dealers) but they hadn't been updated for 2-3 years. I will have another look.
Again, thank you for your time and valuable advice.

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Mon 1 Mar 2021 20:48
Mazda 3 - Good experiences with Mazda Dealerships in London? - Engineer Andy

Thank you very much for all the advice!

Wouldn't have thought of the boot opening size issue - still, with a baby on the way, better than the hatchback! I will keep that in mind though. I've noticed the ratio...it's a pain really, since you don't come across lots of them. I was blaming the pandemic though and hoped that it's not as bad. I will then have to be fast when the time comes, hopefully very soon.

About the dealers, the fake reviews and rivalry reviews are common tactics which I expect to see, and you're right, a happy customer won't leave a review usually. Unfortunately I've even seen reviews with the same text by "different" people. It doesn't give you confidence, especially when buying used.

I will have a look again at the mazda3 forums, I've seen one or two threads (I think best/worst experiences with dealers) but they hadn't been updated for 2-3 years. I will have another look.
Again, thank you for your time and valuable advice.

If you've got your heart set on a Mazda and value boot size, I'd suggest you look at the petrol Mazda 6s estate and CX-5s, both which have much larger boots and those boots are far more accessible. The difference in price for older ones aren' that much (or you just go another year older for the same price).

I can't comment on the kiddie seats (having none myself and thuse have no idea about them) - I'm sure others can if need be.

PS. Make sure you can at least get a car with a space-saver spare fitted under the main part of the boot, as Mazda3s from the gen-3 car don't come with them as standard, and when they do, they raise the boot floor up a bit, reducing usable boot space. They are difficult to indpendently source (odd shape special cutout used) and cost £395 from Mazda dealers.

The top spec Sport versions often have the ICE where the spare wheel goes and thus can't take one, so I'd go for the SE-L (Nav) models, which are the best value for money and also come shod on 16in rims and 60 profile tyres that are more comfortable to drive on, last longer/less susceptible to damage and far cheaper to replace than the 18in tyres.

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Tue 30 Mar 2021 06:52
Mazda 3 - Good experiences with Mazda Dealerships in London? - MTD
I didn’t buy as our circumstances changed and car buying went on hold, but Croydon Mazda (where I tested a 6) and TW white in leatherhead (cx5) were extremely nice to deal with, nice long pre covid test drive , patient with the questions and friendly no pressure follow ups afterwards. I only wanted to look at petrols and preferably manuals, hence going to different dealers. This was a couple of years ago. On balance we slightly preferred the cx5 to drive, the 6 is lovely but is a long car that suits our parking options less , and my wife didn’t find the visability as good.


The Croydon one I think is part of drift bridge , whose vw / Audi outfit in Epsom was not to my liking and had pretty much every negative stereotype about car dealers.
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Sun 28 Feb 2021 19:57
Mazda 3 - Good experiences with Mazda Dealerships in London? - S40 Man

I bought my old Mondeo from Car Giant in 2012. You can't negotiate and they give crap trade in, but the car was well priced and a decent old barge. Nought much wentv wrong with it so all good. I initially got a stability control error light and the as and says two keys supplied but one was metal key only, no electronics. They were quite amenable about hearing complaints. If it's a decent price and cheaper than Mazda direct I wouldn't be afraid to been use by them.

Assuming nothing has changed. They seem to have a predominance of Audi BMW and Mercedes when I looked recently. Maybe that's all they can get on the used market?

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Sun 28 Feb 2021 20:26
Mazda 3 - Good experiences with Mazda Dealerships in London? - Will097

Seems like a messed up the order of the posts hehe! Thanks for sharing your experience, very helpful and much appreciated.

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