To improve after-sales service

We offer unique service items, starting with high-quality maintenance and a legally mandated package of periodic tune-ups at affordable prices. We also offer information to our customers on our after-sales service information website.

Mazda is also promoting various initiatives to improve its after-sales service provision to customers.

New model development aiming to bolster maintenance and repair service quality

Mazda aims to reduce maintenance and repair costs by improving the serviceability of parts that require regular maintenance or frequent replacement at the vehicle development stage.

This strategy bore fruit in the new Mazda6, launched in January 2008, by realizing a structure that facilitates replacement of the cooling fan and radiator without recourse to dismantling of the vehicle's bonnet and front end. This effectively halved the repair time.

Technical Training for Service Staff

Mazda holds training seminars for the service staff at its dealerships whenever a new model goes on sale in order to handle new features and technologies.

In fiscal year 2005, we commenced safety training to enhance understanding of the functions, operation and maintenance of safety devices. Mazda revised its standard training curriculum in FY2006 to embrace advances in maintenance techniques that accompany the increasingly sophisticated functions and features of its products.

During fiscal 2007, in view of the volume and importance of new technologies employed in new models we radically increased the frequency of new model training seminars from six to twenty. We also held three safety training seminars.

Mazda Training Centers

Mazda has built training centers for service personnel in Taibi, Hiroshima Prefecture, and in the city of Yokohama.

Programs run by the centers primarily take the form of blending training, with participants prepped by e-learning prior to attending onsite courses. This enables the curriculum to optimize practical training time at a center, using real cars and machinery.

The Mazda Training Center Taibi conducts new technology training for mechanics attached to public service organizations, standing as an example of Mazda's contributions to promoting automobile maintenance beyond the limits of the Group.

Hosting Service Skills Competitions

Since 1963, Mazda has hosted an annual All-Japan Service Skills Competition for the sales staff of domestic dealerships, aimed at improving customer service skills and cultivating a sense of professionalism. The competition now extends beyond Japan, with similar regional events held around the world.

In November 2007, we held the 44th Mazda All-Japan Service Skills Competition. Overseas, regional equivalent events took place for Central and South America in June 2007, the Middle East in January 2008 and Asia and Oceania in March 2008.

On July 30, 2008, Mazda hosted its third Global Service Skills Competition.

Raising the level of after-sales service at overseas dealerships

Mazda hosts overseas service skills competitions and conducts new model training as measures to improve after-sales service at overseas dealerships.

Furthermore, we carry out training and qualification programs called "Mazda Masters" for service technicians with the objective of improving customer service skills and maintenance technology expertise. These programs are aimed at service trainers at overseas dealerships, providing opportunities to acquire know-how and skills to educate and cultivate sales staff. In a drive to improve motivation, trainers recognized as having gained the requisite proficiency are accredited with a "Master" status.

Offering Service Manuals for Tune-Ups and Maintenance

Since April 2005, Mazda has been distributing its service manuals to Mazda dealerships in digital form: "Mazda Electronic Service Information (MESI)." The information is provided online to dealers in Japan and Europe and on CD-ROM elsewhere.

As the equipment installed in any given Mazda model can differ depending on the year and grade, a vast amount of information is required to carry out maintenance work. In fiscal 2007, after gathering and analyzing requests from dealerships, we upgraded MESI functions by reinforcing its search capabilities. Accordingly, the information needed by a maintenance mechanic working on a customer's car at a dealership can be accessed with unprecedented speed, simplicity and accuracy. In the future, we will continue to gather feedback from dealerships to bolster after-sales service provision to customers by expanding MESI functions.

Developing Service Diagnostic Devices for Mazda Automobiles

Mazda developed the Mazda Modular Diagnostic System (M-MDS), a proprietary service diagnostic device for dealerships to enable their maintenance mechanics to provide proper maintenance of the complex, sophisticated electronic control systems used throughout the Company's automobiles. This follows numerous calls from dealerships in Japan and overseas for a system with features that allow efficient diagnoses of the overall primary electronic control systems. We have already supplied M-MDS to almost all Mazda dealerships and dealers in Japan and overseas.

We will continue extending the M-MDS feature in response to dealer feedback to enable our customers to receive better service.

Specialized tools aimed at ensuring quality of service

In order to carry out reliable and swift improvements at service centers around the globe, Mazda is supplying specialized tools, developed for specific applications, to dealerships worldwide.

During fiscal 2007, we promoted the integration of specialist tools to provide an improved, easier to use system for dealerships. One such example was the consolidated the previously disparate range of fuel gauge configurations.

In the future, we will continue to develop specialist tools that offer simple operation in response to requests from dealerships.