Complaint Review: Walker's Renton Mazda - Renton WA

Summary: Walker’s Renton Mazda (part of The Seven Motor Corporation) sold a new car to me, handed me the keys, and had me drive off with an unsafe and problematic car. They sold me a new car that they told me was ready to go, with no problems, and no worries. What they didn’t tell me is that the car had serious problems that could have resulted in bodily injury or death. They knew this new car had issues, but hid the problem by clearing the malfunction codes, shutting off the warning lights, without fixing the problem. This is fraud. This is misrepresentation. This is corporate malfeasance. This is despicable behavior that could have resulted in injuries or fatalities.  The public should know!

I purchased a brand new 2018 Mazda3 Touring 2.5L from Walkers Renton Mazda (located at 720 Rainier Ave S, Renton, WA 98057) on November 16, 2018. It took an unusually long time (note: more about this later) for Walker’s Renton Mazda to complete the sales transaction while I waited, but after about 2 hours, the car deal was complete.

I drove the car from the dealer’s lot to my home (about 17 miles, with the odometer now at 27). It remained in my attached garage without further use until November 18, 2018. On that day I was set to go on a short trip, 7 miles away. To my surprise, I noticed a check engine light on (engine system malfunction) and stayed on. I checked the gas cap, made sure it was tightened, looked under the hood, but did not see anything amiss.

I drove off carefully, not noting any driving or handling issues despite this check engine light that remained illuminated. I arrived at my destination, with the car having 34 miles on the odometer. After about 1 hour, I was ready to go back to my home and started the car for my journey back, but now 4 lights were constantly illuminated with the engine running.

Looking up the symbols, there were actually a total of 5 warning guidance’s: the engine system malfunction, DSC malfunction, TPMS system malfunction, and 2 SCBS malfunction warnings. I turned the engine off and on, but all these lights just stayed on. I tried to see how the car would run and realized the engine was clearly not running properly, as it jerked violently, surged, hesitated and at times seemed poised to stall.

This brand new car was unsafe for me to proceed on the road and I am just thankful I was able to quickly determine this and not have this occur on the highway whereby something truly catastrophic may have resulted.

The car was towed to the nearest dealership, University Mazda (4522 Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105) which is not the same dealership where I purchased the car (Walker’s Renton Mazda). University Mazda’s master technician had at first thought there was a problem with the PCM control unit but ultimately figured out that it was a faulty throttle body that was causing the problems.

University Mazda finally completed the replacement of the throttle body on November 29th, so I had to suffer the inconvenience of having my brand new car in the repair shop for 10 days. But to make matters much much worse, to my utter shock and dismay, the University Mazda service consultant and master technician indicated that the issues affecting this new car had been known previously by Walker’s Renton Mazda and that the error codes were previously cleared by the dealer and the car was not fixed.

So prior to them completing the sale of this car to me (and most likely after my test drive while I was supposedly waiting for the paperwork to be completed) the check engine light(s) illuminated and stayed illuminated, and the decision by the sales people of Walker’s Renton Mazda was to have their mechanic merely clear the error code without fixing the underlying problem, to make their sale.

My attempts to reach a settlement directly with Walker’s Renton Mazda have not been successful. They have flat out denied culpability despite University Mazda’s adamant assertion to me that Walker’s Renton cleared the error codes without fixing the problem with this new car, and handed me the keys and wished me ‘good luck’.

This is sleazy, disgusting, downright dirty behavior.  We all need to stand up to this bad behavior by Walker's Renton.  They need to be held accountable for these actions that reflect their callous disregard for the safety of their customers.