Left side mirror, with plastic piece missing

Right side mirror, with plastic piece intact
I was driving down Highway 1 and a plastic piece of the left side mirror flew off my car. Apparently, because I did not stop in the middle of the highway to pick up the missing piece, the warranty will not cover the $2 plastic part that fell off my $44,000 vehicle. I am never buying a Mazda again.

 

Hit up Mazda head office.

 

I did. I sent letters with the pics to the President & CEO, the VP of Parts Operations, the VP of R&D and Design, and the Director of Design. I got a return call from Suzy Sunshine who gave me the standard company line that, because I didn't have the piece of plastic to submit for scrutinizing by the warranty department, Mazda has determined that there were "outside forces" that caused this issue and therefore they will not cover it. Um, if you look at the rest of the vehicle, it's pristine, except for the missing plastic piece. It makes me sick to think that they'd rather lose a customer who purchased such an expensive vehicle for a $2 plastic piece.

 

Is the car out of warranty? I had a piece of roof trim fall off my CX-5 once and they replaced no charge and didn't need to see the part. The car was under warranty at the time. Any idea how it came lose?

 

The vehicle is still under warranty. When I showed the parts department at my local Mazda dealer, everyone said it would be covered by the warranty; however, the mirror is one big piece (they do not show the plastic piece as a separate item), so it would require the replacement of the entire mirror (lame). Since I don't have that plastic piece for them to "scrutinize", I've been told it's not their problem. I have no idea how the piece came loose. At this point, I'm thinking of buying a salvaged mirror and using the plastic piece from it. From what I can see, the plastic piece should click into place. Of course, I'll have to take it to Mazda to have them install it; otherwise, I can just hear them telling me that I voided the warranty on the rest of the vehicle because I installed it myself.

I just think it's really poor customer service (and an obvious design flaw) for a piece to fly off a vehicle at 60 mph and for the manufacturer to dismiss it, saying "outside forces" caused the issue.

 

Honestly, this sounds like BS on Mazda's part. Honestly, just crapy.

Looking at the picture, I don't know how that piece is even attached.