Wanted: Partner For Mazda

Always liked those old Dodges...I learned to drive in the mid 80s in a '79 Dodge Power Wagon 4x4 short wide box pickup my Dad had.  Very numb steering--no on center feel at all, bouncy suspension, would stall on left turns.  Was very clean w/ like 25k miles..silver green inside and out. 

I'm not sure what you're asking. The private equity firm owns both PepBoys and one of those other two.  PepBoys does service, but they ALSO had basically an entire AutoZone and more inside. They had a much bigger and (IMHO) better selection than the other two.  The private equity firm closed out the retail parts & accessories side of PepBoys and made them all service only.  There were some PepBoys that were already like that, but most had a retail parts counter also. 

When it was first announced and everything, I thought VW was going to service them and I had no issue with that. There's a VW dealership about 30 minutes away. That would have been just fine with me. Theeeeeen I read they will have their own service centers and for people outside of X miles, they'd have the service come to you. That sounds good and all but I know that isn't for the life of the vehicle and when something isn't covered I'm sure there will be a distance-like service fee attached.  Advance and AutoZone are stores though. Maybe there's another service center you're thinking of? Meineke?   Yes. Agreed.

Once the VW dealers stop suing over Scout, I wonder if they'll get the maintenance contract.    Private Equity.  They got bought up by an equity firm that also owns either Advance or AutoZone (can't remember which, if you care enough you can google lol).   The equity firm decided that there was no point having two brands competing on auto parts sales, so they closed down the PepBoys parts (which sucks because they typically had the best prices of the walk-in parts stores) and made PepBoys service only.   In the process, a lot of PepBoys became unsustainable in their current locations because their building footprint was too large for the dollar volume coming through, so many of them closed.  This was mid-late Covid era, so a lot of the service departments simply never got rebuilt.  Sing it with me now... Private Equity Ruins America. They've been doing that sort of thing for years and maybe the Tesla/Rivian thing will be the one that finally saves them.  They were suppose to take over Saturn and Saab service too.  I think they had Suzuki for a bit. They were the official service center for Daewoo for like 5 minutes. 

Always liked the 00s Impalas..had many as rentals when I lived in Colorado then Arizona and would travel back to Ohio and elsewhere in the Midwest and East...along w/ Intrepids and 300Ms,  Grand Marquis, Town Cars and the occasional DeVille/DTS (and drove my sister's 00 DTS a lot).   Don't recall having had a Buick as a rental, but always liked the looks of the 90s-00s Park Avenues..