I too find it odd, I suspect it's a stalling tactic or they're trying to put me off getting the work donw with them due to the distances involved. I now however have discovered a further problem, the driver’s window controls have stopped working, I’m hoping it’s just related to the battery problem and changing it will rectify it, it's going into my local dealer tomorrow so fingers crossed they can get it sorted out!

Thanks for the heads-up on the faulty batch of shock absorbers, I will certainly mention it to my local dealer when they take a look again Monday. On another consumer forum it mentions that with a used car that develops a fault 'The law requires you to act reasonably too, so if the problem is minor and can be repaired easily, within reasonable time, at no additional cost to you and without causing any significant inconvenience, then the dealer can insist on a repair as a first option.' I think returning a car to a garage 80 miles away, leaving it with them and having to pick it up another day is a significant inconvenience and a considerable cost, especially as another dealer is only 5 miles away and we were told that we can use them if we had any problems.

Yes we had, the knocking problem has been there pretty much from the beginning and we had already taken it to our local dealer to get them to have a look, this was probably about 6 weeks after we first got it. They were the ones who diagnosed the rear shocks, they failed to diagnose another problem reported which is a tendency to stall and lose power when pulling away which now appears could be caused by the battery fault.

I traded in my car for a Mazda 5 from a dealer which was only 3 years old, it is supposed to come with a 12 month ZZ+ Mazda warranty but it now turns out this doesn’t cover most faults! We have a knocking noise from the rear which is supposed to be the rear shocks and they need replacing, also now the battery has just failed and this too needs replacing. Apparently neither of these items is covered by the Mazda Warranty. I complained to the garage who sold it to me and they said they will look at it and replace them if necessary but I must return the car to them and not my local Mazda dealer. I was told I had two options, to either do this or they won’t repair it! I was concerned when we bought the car about what to do if there are any problems as we live about 100 miles from this dealer, we were told that I can take it to any Mazda dealer to get it repaired. Now they’re saying we have to return the car and leave it with them to inspect and carry out the work which I feel us very unreasonable considering the distance. My question is as they’re refusing to do anything unless I take it to them (At my expense) can I get the work done at my local dealer and then claim the money back from the garage, through the small claims court if necessary, or can I even reject the car under the SOGA as it was miss-sold on the pretence that all work can be done at my local dealer as well as it having two faults when sold to me? Thanks for any help