My experience seems pretty similar to others who've already posted, but I wanted to add another review in the hopes North Shore Mazda takes the hint. The tl;dr-- the salesmen at this establishment absolutely don't know how to listen. They seem to be having a real issue adjusting to the age of the internet, where many, if not most, car buyers will know most of the details of what they're looking for before even stepping foot in the door. This absolutely isn't the place to go if you don't have 1-2 hours free and/or don't want to spend that time being talked at by a salesman basically reading from a script.
While looking for a new SUV, the CX-5 made my short list. The base model was very underpowered, so I knew I was only interested in the 184HP version. I obviously said as much as soon as I walked in--that I was only interested in one car, a CPO CX-5 with 184HP. I also stated I didn't want to pay more than $25k, and that I'd be looking to finance about half of that amount. Despite this, I was subjected to a good 15 minutes of answering questions about how much I wanted to pay, and what cars I was interested in. 20 minutes into this interview I was finally told they actually had the exact car I was looking for. I patiently waited for the salesman to pull the car up. When it got there, as he was describing it to me, he mentioned it had 155HP. Trying to be polite, I mentioned I wasn't interested in this car, but I wouldn't mind test driving it to at least get a feel for visibility and other non-engine related features, assuming it was the only one they had in stock. To which he replied "we actually have the 184hp version, they're just still cleaning the interior. Maybe we should test drive that one?" Ya think???
So about 45 min since arrival, I finally get into the car I had come to test drive, and before I'm allowed to get the keys and pull out the salesman asks me if I'd like to see how the radio works. At this point I've told him about 14 times I only care about three things: reliability, safety, and driving enjoyment. No, I don't give a flying f about the radio.
After the test drive we went back inside and I was subjected to 20 more minutes of talking, mostly involving reading from a binder of PowerPoint slide printouts about the benefits of Mazdas and Northshore Mazda in general.
Frankly, it's a pity, because I mostly liked the car. It was a little underpowered, but it went up well against the Rav4 and CR-V. And the price was definitely right. But ultimately the fact that I went in there knowing exactly what I wanted and it still took well over an hour to get out of there left me with the feeling that I definitely didn't want to do business with this dealership. read more