[mastertbo]

Just bought a mazda 3 and picked it up and drove it off the lot on friday. When I checked out the vehicle it was fine, checked the battery no issues that would give me red flags, nor did the sales person mention any electrical issues when asked.

They gave me the safety certificate it (in Ontario, Canada btw) in order to get the licence transferred and ownership.
All was well. Come Monday, try and start the car and it was dead, boosting it didn't help, locks didn't work. Threw it on a trickle charger and managed to get it back up, but its running at 12.4 volts while the car is running. Seeing that I needed a second opinion drove it to my old mechanic whose worked on my cars for ten years, and they said there is battery, alternator undercharging and security door locking issues.

When I bought the car they gave me a check list of things to past the safety certificate and these are all on paper said was fine. I don't think there is a lemon law in Canada but I feel like after only 4 days and I come to realize i might have a lemon, I want an exchange or some kind of trade in for another vehicle.
Checked warranty and its the power train warranty so I'm not sure if electrical is covered. Maybe I chose bad and this is my fault but still four days after driving off the lot and theres nothing the dealership can do seems crazy. Do I have any recourse on this? Do i have a case against the Mazda Dealership that sold me this? Any advice or i guess legal advise would be great thanks.

 

[edmaz]

Is the battery charging warning light on and/or any OBD codes set?

 

[MeteorGray]

Any dealer worth the name would address the problem after only FOUR DAYS of ownership.

 

[zero_gravity]

If I'm remembering right, I don't think the battery is checked for the safety certificate. Basically the safety doesn't care if your car will move, only if it can steer, stop and take a crash as it was designed to. Many things are not checked under the safety. For example, you could have a completely blown engine and still get the safety in Ontario.

 

[zero_gravity]

So I got curious and looked it up. None of the issues you have are considered on the safety checks.

There's no specific Lemon law for us in Canada unfortunately. A battery is rarely covered under warranty except from the battery manufacturer - and that's probably long gone.

However, did you buy this from a Mazda dealer as a certified used? there's a short warranty for that which may be helpful.