Bright Bay Mazda — Local services in Town of Islip

I recently purchased a used Honda from this dealership. I know, a bit unorthodox, but I want to talk about my experience.

I found this place as I was passing through a slew of dealerships that day, so I popped on their website and found a 50k mile car in my budget. Stopped in, but I test drove the car late in the workday, so it was already dark. Being that I didn’t own the car yet, I kept to the back roads and didn’t have any issues at around 30 mph and under. Loved the experience talking to Richard and James and the other employees as they closed out their night, and put down a deposit on the car. They had just gotten the car, so their mechanic hadn’t finished doing the work on it, but it was listed on their website. Looking back, it was listed a bit high for the value, but fair enough that I agreed as it was late and they said they’d be able to keep under my budget.

When I went to pick up the car the next day, signed the papers, and started to drive off… as soon as I hit the highway (50mph) the car started making an insanely loud rattling noise. I immediately turned around and drove it back to the dealership in a panic. I just financed my first car, and there was (not just a soft, but a very prominent) noise like two pieces of metal smacking against each other. I took it in, and James was very understanding about having the mechanic look at it right away. I’ll be honest, I almost wanted to get mad and fight to cancel the contract right then and there. But after about an hour, mechanic comes back, said there was a gasket loose and it should be fixed now. So I start to drive off, and as soon as I hit highway speeds it starts rattling just as loud as before! I felt lied to, like my fears about salespeople were being brought to the surface, and again stressed that I was stuck with a car I’d grow to resent. But when I brought it back, James brought the manager Christian over, and he was immediately incredibly apologetic. He said to leave the car for a day, he’d have someone look at it first thing the next morning, and call me with the details. I pressed him that if I was unhappy, I wanted some confirmation I wasn’t going to be locked into the car bc I had no idea it was going to have this issue when I signed those papers. He was incredibly respectful and responsive, and even though he was reassuring what got me through it was that he and the other employees genuinely seemed surprised, saddened, stressed and/or worried by the entire situation. I wasn’t a Karen, but I was willing to fight and cancel the entire thing if I wasn’t happy at the end.

Luckily, the problem was with the exterior of the car, and the clips that held a piece of the body in place had snapped and broken. I drove away at the end of the next day happy. I’m going to take the car to a mechanic this weekend to verify that nothing else was amiss in the quick turnaround of the car, but the customer service was helpful and timely in all the places I would want it to be.

I’m writing this review because I think it’s important for the consumer. They’re not perfect - they definitely cut a few corners along the way and I paid for that. I received no compensation for the delay in delivery of the car, or the anxiety and stress it brought on. But the people I interacted with were kind, thoughtful, and willing to work with me without me needing to escalate to a displeasurable place. I’d come back. But I’d get a new car lol

Update: The car has more rattling. Similar sound on the other side. They said I’d need to take it back on Monday. I both appreciate the time they’re willing to put, and am upset I’m not offered compensation for the hours now I’ve wasted sitting here in a dealership. They may not even have a loaner for me, which is just more money out of my pocket. Is it the reality of purchasing a new car to take it in repeatedly within the first week? 3 times being told it should be smooth sailing and finding new things pop up? Who knows. No...

I was in the market for a new car as the lease on my Rogue was coming due in March. (I would never deal with Nissan again, a whole other story.)

I was performing my due diligence and checking out each and every car in the category. I am a little insane and had a huge grid with all amenities, features, and longevity to cost ratio. The grid knocked off a few cars right away. What I was not expecting is how Mazda rose to among the top 3 in no particular order: Subaru, Toyota, Mazda.

As a past Subaru driver I was really expecting to buy a Subaru and was holding off going to Subaru until last.

I walked into Bright Bay Mazda, explained to the salesman what I was doing, just my due diligence and he let me be. No pressure, no hovering, just stood back. I checked out the CX-5, and CX-50. His demeanor and atmosphere of the dealership had me intrigued, this was not a normal car buying experience! I had some questions, Tom had the answers. I set up a test drive for the next day of the CX-5.

This was my experience for test drive: I walk in Tom greets me I hand him license - he hands it RIGHT back, no games holding on to it! I get in car with my daughter, he lets us go without him! No annoying salesman to take my attention away from the drive itself (I suppose he would have come if I asked) I drive, the way I want and to where I want. Got to test the handling in and out of traffic, the steering radius, the vroom-vroom aspect, all of it! Arrived back to dealership, got out and said I'll take it!

No haggling over price, no back and forth game with him as "my advocate", no wasted time. He gave me the financing up front, a price upfront (less than I was expecting), and a car in the color I wanted.

They did all the background paperwork without my presence, so I only had to tell Tom when I wanted to pick up the car.

I arrived a little early to pick up my car, he and Manny the finance rep were ready for me.

Manny explained each and every piece of paper I signed. The documents were displayed on a huge interactive desktop making reading and signing a breeze. And there were no typos as I have seen at other dealerships - Nissan I'm pointing at you!

So overall: OMG! I was sold at first "vroom"! The dealership is clean, comfortable, and laid out nicely. Salesmen are well-kempt and I noticed many are bilingual.

Tom Banville made my experience an absolute pleasure and I'm just sorry I am not buying more cars. The dealership's method of searching and buying a car should be an example for all!!

I'd be happy to shout my experience from the rooftops! Yes, it was that good!! From Tom to Manny! The whole thing was wonderful and totally...

As you can see from the other comments, the service department here is a scam. If you hear the name Glenn or manager Ken you might as well sell your car. I brought in my 2017 Mazda3 that I purchased and serviced at Bright Bay, due to an unexpected noise coming from the engine. The service advisor Glenn quickly called me and told me the engine had no oil in it. I know this is false because it just had an oil change and was full. The Mazda technicians then ripped apart my engine to diagnose the real issue only to find “scored bearings” and that the engine was unusable with the only option being a 10k engine swap but the engines were back ordered. They then called a Mazda engineer to come down due to my persistence that this should be covered under my certified preowned warranty as it was clearly an issue with the oil pump as was diagnosed by their mechanic. They told me that the engine warranty was voided because the original service advisor Glenn, had reported that there was no oil in the engine and therefore the warranty was void due to owner error, which again wasn’t true. Ken the service manager did nothing to help or support the issue, he admitted that Glenn was wrong and committed some kind of wrongdoing on my part but never tried to help or reconcile the issue. The enegine was taken apart and destroyed to the point that it couldn’t be put back together or fixed properly by the mechanics who tried to “find the issue”. I had to tow the car to an outside mechanic who on looking at the engine stated that the engine was clean, and fixable and for no reason needed to be changed or swapped except for the areas that were destroyed by the Mazda mechanics unnecessarily. Mazda essentially voided my warranty for no reason, except that they didn’t want to pay for the engine repair. If you look at the service forum for 2017 mazda3 you can see that there is a known issue with the oil pump failing. Did Mazda ever acknowledge this? No. Did they ever give me a real solution? No. Was I ever satisfied? No. When I tried to call to tow my car, Glenn was at lunch and so they couldn’t tow the car. It was 1:30, who goes to lunch at 1:30 and leaves their job unattended. Needless to say they’re a bunch of scammers. Couldn’t warn enough people to stay away. See below the pictures of the old engine that was scrapped and wasted...