Three of a kind

I READ Meret Wrigley's letter (Carsguide, Sep 26) with interest. A few weeks ago our 2005 Mazda3, which we have owned from new, was at the dealer for 40,000km service. We had observed it was very rough at idle and was making a squeak when travelling over speed humps. The problem was diagnosed by the dealer as a broken engine mount and worn out lower control arms. After much discussion, Mazda agreed to pay for the replacement of the lower control arms, but no help was offered on the engine mount. I have asked the dealer and Mazda why they believed the mount had failed so early and was told excessive driving in vibrative conditions. I told them this was not the cause because we live 5km from the city and the vehicle has only done 40,000km, to which they responded that the fault could also be caused by frequent stop-start driving. It seemed they were grasping at straws.