Coscienzios

Model years to avoid

Mazda CX-5

What it says about you

Opinion

You wanted the crossover that does not feel like a crossover and correctly identified the only one. Everyone who has driven yours has said 'oh, this is nice' with genuine surprise.

Not measured, not from the data, and offered in fun. Everything below this is not.

15 model years on record, 2,192 complaints filed.

The years to look at closely: 2016 (daytime running), 2014 (turn off). Everything else drew a normal number of complaints for this model.

What owners report, and when

Faults that dominated the complaints of more than one model year. Not the same question as which year to avoid — a car can have an ordinary number of complaints every year and have most of them be about the same thing.

  • oil 2018, 2021 peak 75% of that year's complaints
  • cylinder head 2018, 2019 peak 69.8% of that year's complaints
  • cracked 2018, 2019 peak 56.9% of that year's complaints
  • turn off 2013, 2014 peak 33.4% of that year's complaints
  • shifter 2013, 2014, 2020 peak 21% of that year's complaints

Every year

  1. 2026 0 recalls 12 complaints
  2. 2025 0 recalls 25 complaints
  3. 2024 0 recalls 41 complaints
  4. 2023 0 recalls 59 complaints
  5. 2022 0 recalls 62 complaints
  6. 2021 0 recalls 143 complaints
  7. 2020 0 recalls 106 complaints
  8. 2019 2 recalls 265 complaints
  9. 2018 3 recalls 116 complaints
  10. 2017 1 recall 148 complaints
  11. 2016 daytime running 510 complaints
  12. 2015 4 recalls 133 complaints
  13. 2014 turn off 377 complaints
  14. 2013 1 recall 194 complaints
  15. 2012 0 recalls 1 complaints

What does a Mazda CX-5 say about you?

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Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints — compared against itself rather than against other cars, so popularity and age do not decide the answer.