The weather stripping around the rear diver side door has come loose on my 2016 Mazda3. The dealer has offered to fix it for free, even though the car has gone out of warranty (45k miles in about 15 months).
The same thing happened before, except on the passenger side, and it was fixed under warranty. Discussing it at the time with the service manager, I asked about cost (as an Uber driver I was concerned that maybe the cause was some misbehavior by a passenger). He told me then that the warranty would cover it, and they’d replace the stripping, and also mentioned that if I was paying out of pocket for a repair, he would probably advise that they just use some kind of adhesive to fix the original stripping back into place and save me the cost pf new stripping. This time he said since he knew me as a good customer (3 cars from them in about 15 years), he would cover the whole cost.
So, props to Don Miller Mazda for doing this, but I’m curious as to how much THEY are going out of pocket to keep me smiling. I really have to imagine this is about the cheapest conceivable repair to make on a car, which is maybe why he was able to make the offer. So., about what would the stripping and the labor for this be?
My first father-in-law was the parts/service/body shop manager for several car dealerships. I was surprised to learn that way in the back they kept actual rolls of stuff like trim molding and pinstriping.
So let’s assume your dealer had a roll of weather stripping and some adhesive goop in the back room. At that point, the only cost is for labor, and it’s probably a .1 or .2 hour job. If they charge $100/hr. for a tech, that’s $20 and the cost of the “consumables.”
But the fact that the dealer said “the warranty would cover it” (and fixed it the first time even though it was already out of warranty) makes me think perhaps Mazda had a problem with weatherstripping and is reimbursing the dealer under a “hidden warranty” when customers complain.
I had a Volvo service writer who would nudge and wink me to these hidden services when we came in for regular maintenance. “You said your headlights were cloudy, did you?” and “So the rear tailgate is a little heavy to lift, you say?” etc.
The first fix was under warranty, at least as far as being under 3 years and 36k miles. But I was concerned the dealer might claim that some kind of misuse caused the damage, because I have such a high volume of traffic through the two back doors. But they never suggested that claim – it was only my suspicious mind that conhured it up.
Also, they have to order the strippimg from somewhere, so there probably is some cost involved, unless they’re fetching it from their own storage location. I won’t be able to get the fix done until next Wednesday when it arrives.
The stripes, well he might have new stuff off a new car that needed it reglued.
So he got replacement strip on warranty, but its new so the dealer isn’t accused of putting any damage onto your strips by removing them …
Anyway, its too small a cost, it takes five minutes.
The dealer who was saying “headlights were cloudy” etc knew that they were all problematic and wanted to get repaired before the end of warranty,so as to be seen to do the right thing for you.
Very little cost to the company. As mentioned they’ll buy that stripping in bulk so based on what they charge other customers or get reimbursed for it’s virtually nothing. He likely paid no more to his employees on that day so there’s no actual increase in costs for him, and it’s a smart move to take care of a good customer. I recently had a radiator service done and afterwards the coolant level dropped, I took it back in and they found a hose leaking at the connector. They replaced that hose for me for free. They shouldn’t have charged me labor for something they should have found when they did the original work but they went out of pocket for the new hose. It was smart because I’d only been there once before, they’re new and I tried them because they were close to my house but I’m now inclined to continue going there. Missing a hose problem isn’t great, but charging me the labor to fix something that should have been included in the original service cost would be much worse.
All of the door weatherstrips I’ve seen on modern-era cars are “full-circle” pieces specifically shaped to each particular door, such as shown in Fubaya’s link, and not made on-site from bulk. They also are held by plastic clips every few inches (#9 in that diagram, only one shown). Typically the holes for the clips tear to where the clips won’t hold, and every attempt I’ve seen to glue them into place has failed. It wouldn’t surprise me if the retail cost to replace one was 100 or more.
I’m sure you’re right. As soon as I saw your post I recalled seeing the shaped pieces online and that’s the way they make everything now. I won’t accuse that service manager of anything but he probably could have been reimbursed for the part claiming it was used under warranty if he wanted to.