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Good luck with it though. Definitely take it to court, tell them you were rushing home because your wife called and said the baby was sick or something, and you will more than likely get off with only a fine.
True Cost to Own (TCO): Revealing the Hidden Costs of Car Ownership
http://www.edmunds.com/advice/specialreports/articles/59897/article.html
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The Lx came with some of the Es equipment except for the fog lights! It has a moonroof, deflector, alloys, and I'm getting the spoiler put on this morning! I felt more comfortable driving the Lx than Es also. Am very happy! Paid $1450 under invoice too. FYI: no alarm either, I will have it tinted and a alarm put in this weekend by an outside source.......Talk to ya'll later!
Meade
The only issue I have is whether the system should respond to inputs of "resume" and/or "set" if the car is in NEUTRAL. By mistake I hit the "resume" button in neutral and the rpms shot up and did not start until I hit the brake and clutch. Since then, I tried doing the following: drive to say 55, shift to neutral, THEN turn the system on and hit "set". My result is the engine rpms fly up as the car tries to maintain speed in neutral, which of course it cannot. I have also done the same thing but had the system on before I shifted to neutral. Same result, the car tries to sustain speed in neutral which it cannot do.
Mazda NA Cust. Serv. said AFTER speaking to the engnineering department that this is not normal. They said the "failsafe" should not respond to any input to increase rpms while the car is in neutral.
NOW THE UPDATE:
The dealer called me last night and said he drove another '02 ES and the car did the same thing as mine did. He said he called Mazda tech and yelled at them for telling me there was a problem when this is normal.
SO, I called Mazda NA myself again to get the final word on who was correct. They said they were specifically told by engineering that what my car does is not correct. BUT they also said nowhere in their question to engineering or in the response from engineering did anyone specifically state whether this was for a 5 speed or automatic car. So, now they are making a very specific question to engineering about whether it is normal for a car with a 5 speed (like mine) to do what my car does. They said they'd have an answer for me today.
I'm sorry if all this is boring for you guys. I'll post the final answer when they call me back. Certainly no one should intentionally try to set cruise control in neutral, it's just plain stupid. I did it first by mistake and it was stupid on my part.
My only concern is this: on the '02 model the "on/off" switch or "main" as it's labeled is on the steering column. You can't see it while driving and there is no way to tell if it's on or not. The control buttons for "set", "resume" and "cancel" are like many Fords (sorry), right on the wheel. If I use the system but don't turn the power off and I accidentally hit the "set" or "resume" button, the car would redline itself or worse. Hitting the buttons accidentally would not be that hard since they are right there. I would think that this would be a problem Mazda would forsee and avoid. My friend tried this with his 5 speed Hyundai in neutral and the system refused to do anything.
However, it doesn't make sense that the cruise would try to set itself while the car's in neutral. I bet the automatic would do the same thing. It makes no sense though, it's just poor engineering if that's true. And also, as you found out, it's not safe either.
Ron, your problem sound very strange, and its not boring me at all. I'm interested to find out the final verdict. I've pressed the clutch to see if would disengage the CC on my car, and it did. But I never put in neutral and set it. Granted, its not something you would really do, but I would think that the car could sense what gear its in. Maybe not, I guess.
Also, Chikoo has been asking, and it sort of puzzles me, oftentimes an Auto with cruise will downshift on a hill. Obviously in a 5spd it cant' control the gears, so if you came to a steep hill, you might have a problem?
So angry!!!!!!!
Sigh...my question now is should I go to the dealer to get it looked at or is a place like Midas ok?
I assume there's no way they're doing it under warranty
Thanks.
Edmunds's TCO is flawed for me. I pay no financing charges as I'm sure there are other people here who don't either. So compared with me, your Jetta will cost A LOT more than $3830 to own than my Protege. What was your Jetta financed at?
You should not be driving the car and distance at all. Take it to a repair center immediately.
Meade,
Are you here? I have a question for you.
If you are going up a hill too steep for the current gear to keep the speed constant with the cruise set in a manual, you will loose speed until you intervene. I have found that, in general, unless you are in the wrong gear to begin with, my Pro has enough power to keep its speed up hill without downshifting. YMMV
$76/hour labour
$80 alignment
$??? = unknown
For quality of work and parts, definately the dealer.
I'll keep you all updated.
And if I were you, I would take the car to the dealer just to be safe.
I finally had to pass on the GTP to the wife and buy the Pro in order to save my license. That car had a way of dampening the sensation of speed while making speed quickly (as long as you were going in a straight line). My license is still not safe, especially on twisty roads. ;-)
And usually if you get pulled over and they pull your record and see it's clean, they will just give you a warning. I have had that once, but that was a long time ago.
I can't remember what tires you placed on your Protege that you are so in love with. I remember that they are Dunlops though.
Questions are:
1) Are they Dunlop SP Sport A2 tires? If not, what types are they?
2) what tire size do you have on currently and are you aware of what the maximum sizing would be for the 2000 ES Protege?
I have an opportunity to purchase 4 Dunlop SP Sport A2's 205/55R16 for $503.96 or 4 Dunlop SP Sport A2's 225/50R16 for $559.46.
Anyone care to comment or add feedback, please do so.
He "plus zero" sized, and I think they are 205/50/15s, but not totally sure.
At least they gave me another Pro for a loaner! Some gold colour. I think it's an SE...the badges are covered with snow and I can't tell otherwise...no power locks or power anything though, so I'm guessing SE.
They were going to charge me for a new wheel cover, but I said I had some extras...Thanks Tim!!
Hope that it's only the alignment...not bearings and axle...they are pretty tough...
New rim = $187.08
Alignment = 85.55
Estimation time = 82.65
Total incl tax = $380.15
Does anybody else think that price of the rim is out of line, or is it just me?
Zing went the (strings of my heart) tachometer. Guess I'll get out of the habit of always leaving the cruise power on, cause those buttons are a bit too easy to accidentally hit.
d.
ps. I live in Ontario so things should be that much different.
And if you claim it on the insurance, it would be comprehensive. So you would have to pay the deductible anyway. And in the US, they can't raise your premium for that. Don't know about Canada though.
Also, alignment might be cheaper at a Midas or something like that. Check into it.
I've explained over and over how I think it's unacceptable for a steel rim to cost that much, but he says that he's not surprised because it's OEM. He says that they're stuck b/c that's what Mazda charges.
Anger rising....
No way they should be able to force the part on you if you don't want it.
Wheel alignment is NOT affected by any wheel (given they're all in good condition). You don't get wheel alignment done with every tire rotation, right (even though the shop may try to push one on you)?
So long as the replacement wheel has the same offset, width and diameter (and not a lot of difference in mass), it shouldn't matter if they differ slightly from the OEM wheel.
In US$, 14in steel wheels cost about $40-$50.
I'd be complaining to the manager, then up the chain to Mazda NA. Wouldn't hurt to get the local BBB (or equivalent) involved either. Of course, bad press might influence them as well, if your local news stations have a "consumer advocate" segment on their news crew. Amazing how the potential of getting bad coverage on broadcast news can get unscrupulous operators to change their tune.
Not expensive either. Got the 185/65R14s on my Pro for $55US each.
I called another dealership to see how much they would charge and the rim costs the same...must be Mazda Canada's price.
So I guess it's just one of those lessons in life
The only factor left is green....or purple, red, blue, and maroon if you're from Canada.
I can conceive of the auto and the manual functioning differently. This is all conjecture, but - with an electronically controlled auto, I'd imagine the PCM is aware of the position of the gear selector, thus it will know when it is in neutral and can defeat the cruise control. I'm not sure whether or not the PCM knows the position of the shifter for the manual, but I'm guessing it doesn't (why bother?), and perhaps it isn't worth it to put in a sensor to detect when its in neutral just for this one issue. So making a short story long, I suppose the Mazda techs could have been thinking auto when they said that the Pro shouldn't respond to cruise input while in neutral. Just a guess.