2024 Mazda CX-5: What to check before buying

Door check detents fail, and the door swings shut fast and hits whoever is getting in or out. One CX-50 report lists 2 injuries, bruised legs and a head contusion, and says the dealer found nothing wrong. Water leaking after rain is another theme. It soaks the right rear cargo area and floods the spare tire well. Owners also describe a windshield that clicks and rattles at speed until pressed from inside, a driver's door that is hard to close, glare off the hood, and a window that shattered while parked.

Parked cars roll away while in Park with the engine off. One such rollaway hit another vehicle. Some owners describe a long, soft pedal, and one says it went to the floor in an emergency stop after the dealer could not reproduce the problem. Unwanted hard automatic braking at city speeds also appears here. Smaller complaints include a click when starting off or braking gently, with one owner citing a Mazda service bulletin, and uneven inner pad wear at about 2,500 miles on a CX-50. One report found cracked rear rotors.

Batteries fail early, and a weak one triggers frightening side effects. In one report the original battery died at 15 months. After a jump start, the power steering cut in and out and the dashboard flashed unrelated errors. Other complaints cover a noise from the headlight leveling motor when the lights are on, and a sensitive key fob that opens the hatch by accident and damaged it in a garage. Intermittent parking-sensor and rear-braking warnings come up too, along with one report of a transmission stuck in low gears.

Vehicles roll downhill while still in Park. In one crash the car dragged a person and hit a garage wall, and that report includes 1 injury with a fractured nose and a torn meniscus. Owners also describe drivetrain rumble at idle and in stop-and-go traffic, jerking at low speed, idle that rises and falls on its own, and hard acceleration when adaptive cruise resumes speed. A clicking rear seatback appears as well, and one owner found the same noise on several new cars on a dealer lot.

Windshields crack from small pebble strikes or without any new impact. The cracks usually spread from the driver's side A-pillar, and in one case a dealer denied warranty coverage based only on photos. These reports describe CX-50 models. Other owners say the side mirror heaters do not work, so ice builds up and blocks the blind-spot alert. Front windows and mirrors also fog up in highway rain, and the defroster does not clear them.

New cars pull to the right or hold the wheel off center within the first five hundred miles, and the problem returns after repeated dealer alignments. More serious reports describe sudden steering failure. One CX-50 owner says the steering wheel came off the column because of a stripped bolt, and it failed again after a dealer fix that took seven visits. Another driver says the car turned the wrong way and nearly hit a streetlamp, and the dealer could not reproduce it. Both reports point to a risk of losing control.

Unintended acceleration is the main concern. In one crash the car surged while entering a garage, did not respond to the brake, and hit a refrigerator. No warning lights came on. Another owner describes the engine revving well above idle in Park with no pedal input until the car was shifted to Drive. Adaptive cruise also draws complaints because it can slow the car sharply without turning on the brake lights, which leaves following drivers at risk of a rear-end collision.

Automatic emergency braking engages hard with nothing in the way. One owner reports tire-squealing braking at 75 mph while passing a truck, which nearly caused a rear-end crash. Dealers said they knew of no problems and suggested a software update without checking whether one exists. Turning the system off takes several menu layers, and the setting does not stay off after a restart, so drivers end up working through menus at highway speed.