never had an issue w/ my 06. Like you said it gets bone chilling in a few minutes, after the car cools down (5 min probably) I usually turn the degree knob up quite a bit, not quite 12 o'clock, but maybe 9/10 o'clock on the dial, and it stays nice the whole time.
i bought my car from ricart only for the good deal, but I've never had it serviced there. Its actually only been in once in 2 years/30k miles, and that was for a new radio/clock because the clock was "losing" time, like it ran too slow, which was a recall/tsb, but the unit worked fine just didn't keep time right. I've been very impressed with my car and still love driving it, I'll definitely keep it a few more years, at least until 50k when the warranty is up.
good luck man, try byers mazda subaru on sawmill, i live around the corner and they've always been nice.