Long-term: Mazda3 Sport 2.2 diesel

The AM team will soon bid farewell to the mighty Mazda3 we’ve been driving and reviewing for the past year.

But before we do, we’re making sure it will have its first full service.

The car was delivered to us at the end of April 2010 with just 630 miles on the clock, but it’s now nearing its 12,500-mile service interval.

Handily, the multi-function display is now showing a service indicator every time the car is started.

A phone call to our local Mazda dealer, Donalds, has secured a service booking. If the booking phone call is anything to go by we can expect a high quality and professional experience.

An excellent service receptionist called Claire took down our details, confirmed the car from its registration plate and verified that it was the 12,500 mile service we required.

She then asked if we had a date in mind for the booking, what time we would like to bring the car in and when we would need to collect it.

It was a refreshing approach compared to previous experiences with other franchised and independent workshops who tell us what dates they might fit us in.

Claire then asked whether we had onward mobility. After we enquired about courtesy car availability and were told it would put back the booking by a week, we volunteered to keep the original booking and arrange our own pick-up.

Finally, before ending the call, Claire checked whether there were any issues with the car we wanted looked into during its booking.

The call to Donalds’ service reception left us with the feeling that we have chosen a dealership which cares about the customer’s needs and will strive to fulfil them. Let’s hope it lives up to expectations.