NHTSA Complaint #11587982 — 2014 MAZDA MAZDA3

I thought I smelled gasoline when sitting in my car. I got out and inspected all around the vehicle, discovering that gasoline was leaking underneath. Both the hazardous fumes and the potential for a fire in the vehicle put me at risk. The loss of fuel on public roads could have resulted in danger to anyone behind me on the road due to the fire hazard and potential loss of traction before I noticed the problem. I immediately brought the car to my mechanic's personal shop (he is also a master mechanic at a local automotive dealership). He confirmed that the leak was gasoline and diagnosed the problem as a rusted seam near the top of the fuel tank having ruptured, allowing the leak and filling the cabin of the vehicle with fumes. I knew that the local Mazda dealership would be unable to repair this promptly, if at all, since they had just fixed the exact same problem in my mother in law's vehicle of the same make, model, and year, and had struggled to get the replacement tank for weeks due to the supply chain problems experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, I paid my own mechanic to source and install a tank, and coat it with anti-corrosion treatment. I contacted Mazda, explained the problem, and demanded they reimburse me, as the car was only 8 years old at the time. The Mazda representative refused to do anything to help me and did not answer my subsequent emails, so I posted about this problem on the [XXX] forum, and discovered others have had the same problem as my mother in law and I. There were no warning signs of the problem other than the smell of gasoline. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)