How reliable has your CX-9 been?

[jabba]

We've had ours since 02/2008, about 43k miles on the odo. It hasn't been too bad, just a few things:
1. Bluetooth did not work correctly. Fixed under warranty.
2. Small amount of rust on the tailgate near the edge of the decorative plastic handle thingy: We were just past warranty, but only paid $100 to get it replaced and repainted (Mazda covered the rest)
3. A/C fan coming on after turning off the car: replaced these relays myself for $30, since I was out of warranty.

I think there were a couple of things under TSBs very early on, maybe the alignment issue and the brake issue if I recall. There is some suspension squeak from time to time, but it has never been as bad as some have reported, might have to lubricate some stuff down there eventually.

So not too bad so far. I haven't had to worry about it too much, and it still drives really, really nice, so still very happy with it.

 

[nj_jamaican]

Hi Guys,
I have owned mine since July 2007. I now have 78K on it.
so far, so good. I have had the usual a/c fan repair, alignment issue, and a few other TSB's. most recent issue has been shot struts. I have an extended warranty so got it repaired last week, all costs paid. Otherwise, it has been very good to us. My boys love it and I still get asked numerous questions.

 

[table5511]

I can completely see our front struts and/or strut mounts failing prematurely because the CX-9 has no upper control arm. Just a lower control arm, a knuckle and the strut...pretty bare considering the weight of the vehicle. This puts a large amount of pressure on the strut during bumps/turns/etc. There are a couple other vehicles that have the same design, such as certain Honda Accords, but its not seen much.

 

[T.Narley]

2008 Cx-9. Just turned 28,000 miles on it. 4,500 of those are highway miles from our annual vacation trips to FLA.

1, bad throttle body @ 6,000 miles. Almost caused 2 accidents until dealer finally agreed to replace it. Warranty.
2, rust on tailgate fixed under warranty
3, bubbling paint on 20" wheels, replaced under warranty (doing it again one year later but not under warranty now WTF)
4, fan relays
5, failed front rotors @ 22,000 miles. Rusted to pieces. $150 to repair myself.
6, climate control went crazy during last year's trip. Sensor fixed under warranty
7, failed keyless entry card. Out of warranty. $100 on eBay.
8, huge heat shield under the car broke away from it's mounts on vacation. $80 emergency trip to the dealer (see my thread in the lounge)
9, wife wont drive it any time it snows because of the awful factory tires. Will cost me somewhere around $1,000 to correct that problem.
10, Way too much rust underneath for a car that sits in a heated garage and doesn't even have 30k on it.

Don't get me wrong. I love the car, it's superior to anything else in it's class. But we traded in a 2004 Honda CR-V to get the CX-9. We drove that Honda for 37,000 miles, never did anything but oil changes, there wasn't a spec of rust on it and the only time the dealer saw it in 4 years was to fix a worn button on the radio.

 

[table5511]

1. I now have 43k on my 08' and have never had a throttle body issue (knock on wood)
2. Rust on tailgate under finisher is caused by slamming the gate closed (per tsb). The finisher was manufactured with plastic too tightly pressed against the gate, which they have a fix which gives greater separation. Again, I have 43k miles, zero rust or even rubbing into the clearcoat anywhere around the finisher. (I don't slam my gate. I gently let it close and let the electric latch latch it closed)
Also, the CX-9 owners manual TELLS YOU not to slam your gate closed, so how can you blame them if those instructions are not followed?
3. Again, 43k miles, have never had any bubbling on my wheels. Only a tiny tiny chip in the paint near a center cap (our 20" wheels are painted, not machined)
4. Fan relays were taken care of by my dealer for free. For those not under warranty, they are 13.00 parts and everyone knows about it, a very easy fix.
5. CX-9's have crappy factory brakes. It's pretty easy to find this out before you buy one. Easy fix to get aftermarket brakes that are superior to the oem.
6. Never have had a climate control problem with mine, and have only ever seen the sensor issue once or twice on this forum.
7. Failed keyless cards are mainly due to abuse (dropping, etc). The last person on here with intermittent issues realized he had a battery contact issue. I have not had any problems with my existing cards, ever.
8. Heat shield is a bummer, but I have only seen about one other heat shield problem on this forum before.
9. 99% of cars manufactured come with crappy tires that are completely useless, and cost like 250 bucks each. A sad fact of life. Buy better ones. This is not a CX-9 problem.
10. See my response to your rust pictures, with pictures of my undercarriage which shows what a well maintained undercarriage can look like.

http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/show...ip-to-the-dealer-(pics)&p=5879527#post5879527

 

[ceric]

On #9, the tires, OE tires are expensive and lousy because most car owners are not tire-savvy.
They tend to replace tires with the same brand and model from factory. Therefore, these tire makers
sell to automakers at a loss, hoping to recover they loss from aftermarket sales.
The Dueler H/L 400 for $240 is a joke if you ask me. Think the printer-ink business model.

NEVER replace your OE tires with the same ones.

 

[T.Narley]

1. I now have 43k on my 08' and have never had a throttle body issue (knock on wood)
2. Rust on tailgate under finisher is caused by slamming the gate closed (per tsb). The finisher was manufactured with plastic too tightly pressed against the gate, which they have a fix which gives greater separation. Again, I have 43k miles, zero rust or even rubbing into the clearcoat anywhere around the finisher. (I don't slam my gate. I gently let it close and let the electric latch latch it closed)
Also, the CX-9 owners manual TELLS YOU not to slam your gate closed, so how can you blame them if those instructions are not followed?

We don't have an electric latch. Like a door, you have to close it with some pressure to get it to latch. If the car can't stand up to a 120lb female closing the gate than there is something wrong with it, which is why they fixed it under warranty.

3. Again, 43k miles, have never had any bubbling on my wheels. Only a tiny tiny chip in the paint near a center cap (our 20" wheels are painted, not machined)

Like I said, this is the second set that has done it. I suspect it's the salt/moisture getting under the paint.

4. Fan relays were taken care of by my dealer for free. For those not under warranty, they are 13.00 parts and everyone knows about it, a very easy fix.

This thread wasn't about "easy fixes", it was about reliablity. Our CX-9 has spent over 2 weeks (combined) at the dealer having warranty issues fixed.

5. CX-9's have crappy factory brakes. It's pretty easy to find this out before you buy one. Easy fix to get aftermarket brakes that are superior to the oem.

Again, showing a reliabillity problem. (and no such issues were known when I purchased ours in 2008). Factory rotors shouldn't suffer catastrophic failure at 25,000 miles. Ours did.

6. Never have had a climate control problem with mine, and have only ever seen the sensor issue once or twice on this forum.

Yea, it doesn't appear to be a widespread problem, but ours caused us to freeze half to death driving to florida last year. (-8 when we left)

7. Failed keyless cards are mainly due to abuse (dropping, etc). The last person on here with intermittent issues realized he had a battery contact issue. I have not had any problems with my existing cards, ever.

It happened to our spare key, which has spent most of it's life sitting in a safe. The other key lives in the wife's purse, and other than annual battery replacement has been fine.

8. Heat shield is a bummer, but I have only seen about one other heat shield problem on this forum before.

It's a bit more than a bummer to have a car with 28,000 miles on it being held together by zip ties.

9. 99% of cars manufactured come with crappy tires that are completely useless, and cost like 250 bucks each. A sad fact of life. Buy better ones. This is not a CX-9 problem.

I agree to an extent. My complaint is partially based on personal experience. The 9 is probably the most capable and advanced bad-weather vehicle we've ever owned. To be afraid to drive it when it snows (which it does a lot) sucks.

10. See my response to your rust pictures, with pictures of my undercarriage which shows what a well maintained undercarriage can look like.

I saw your undercarriage pictures. That is much like what our CR-V looked like when we traded it it. Difference is, we didn't have a heated garage when we owned that car. We didn't even have a garage. Our CX-9 has spent it's entire life garaged, and for the last 2 years has been living it a brand new climate controlled garage. It is only being driven about 6,000 miles a year. My work vehicle is a 2007 Crown Vic with 110,000 miles on it. It's been driven daily through the harshest of our lake-effect winters, is kept outside and is never hand washed. It's just now starting to show some signs of rust underneath, but nothing as advanced as seen on my CX-9.

How do you explain that? It's simple, Mazda's corrosion resistance program needs some work.

 

[table5511]

I will admit, you have had some bad luck with your particular CX-9, sorry to hear about it.

 

[T.Narley]

On #9, the tires, OE tires are expensive and lousy because most car owners are not tire-savvy.
They tend to replace tires with the same brand and model from factory. Therefore, these tire makers
sell to automakers at a loss, hoping to recover they loss from aftermarket sales.
The Dueler H/L 400 for $240 is a joke if you ask me. Think the printer-ink business model.

NEVER replace your OE tires with the same ones.

I agree. From all the cars at work to the ones I've owned that's almost always true. I have the Parada Spec-X's on my list for the 9. I did break your rule a few years ago on my F-150 though. At 75,000 miles it needed new tires. There was still tread left, but after 8 years the OEMs were starting to show dry rot and one had a bulge in the sidewall. I never had a compaint about them, the shop had a set in stock for a good price and I figured if the originals lasted that long one more set would easily be the last I'd ever need for the truck before replacing it.

I put those on in '08, still have the truck, and I'm happy with them.

 

[T.Narley]

I will admit, you have had some bad luck with your particular CX-9, sorry to hear about it.

We bought it as a new car with 5k on it. It was supposedly used by the owner and his family for a few months. It looked like new inside and out, but I'll never do that again. Just like anything else, you live and learn. Experience has taught me to never buy a new car again, and to never again buy a used car from a northern state. A clean low-mileage used model from a dry southern state will be the plan from now on.

I'll do a little work under the 9 clean it and fend off future rust. I don't foresee any other major issues as all the known ones have been dealt with. It will be paid off soon, only has 28k on it, so I plan to keep it around for many more years and enjoy the savings.

 

[kornholio]

I have around 41.5k on it. The only things to go wrong were the stress crack in the drivers side mirror which was reluctantly replaced under warranty, The a/c relays which i replaced myself because the car was out of the new car warranty and the ignition coil which the extended warranty covered minus the deductible.

 

[table5511]

How are these dealers denying ignition coils under factory emissions warranty?? The ignition coil TSB clearly states that it is covered by the emissions warranty!

 

[kornholio]

Helbigtw

I would like to have a copy of that tsb. My email is kmhlbeavis@yahoo.com . That way i can see if i can get my deductible back. I had this done in september. My CX-9 is a 2007 touring model awd. Thanks in advance for any help that you can give me.

 

[semrz1]

Hello Everyone,
I owned CX-9 since December 2008, & since then, I've enjoyed driving the car. The family like the CX-9 a lot compared to my previous SUV. Reliability wise up to now (70,000 Miles), I've considered very good even though the disc rotor had been replaced 3 times over the years. The disc rotor "warping" is small issue in my opinion....Definitely consider reliability 5 out of 5....thumbs up....

 

[KRT-1]

We just turned 90K on our 2007 GT AWD. We purchased it new in May 2007. Other than replacing the A/C relays, and doing regular maintenance, it has been worry free. We are extremely happy with our purchase.

 

[Caustic]

I'm totally freaked about all the early 2007 AWD transfer case issues I've been hearing about. The CX9 I bought last week could have come with an aftermarket warranty which maybe might have been a good idea for $1300.00....

 

[table5511]

caustic, if worse comes to worse, a new xfer case won't run you much more than that anyhow. If I were you, I'd put that 1300 in a high yield certificate of deposit or similar rather than a warranty. Don't forget that sucker is under warranty for 6 years / 60k miles, so the first hint of any issue and get that taken care of by Mazda under factory warranty, unless you are over 60k

 

[Caustic]

Unfortunately, it is just out of warranty. I'm in Canada, and I think our warranty up here is 5 years, 100 kilometers. (60,000 miles).

I think I will bring it to mazda to get the case fluid checked. If there is no metal shavings I might be ok. It is also possible that it might have been replaced already at one point, and perhaps Mazda can tell me if that is the case....

 

[T.Narley]

Our 2008 just turned 30,000 miles last night. I'm now noticing a growling from the right front wheel. Stock tires are pretty worn out, so I'm going to replace them first, but I'm pretty sure it's a wheel bearing.

 

[T.Narley]

caustic, if worse comes to worse, a new xfer case won't run you much more than that anyhow. If I were you, I'd put that 1300 in a high yield certificate of deposit or similar rather than a warranty. Don't forget that sucker is under warranty for 6 years / 60k miles, so the first hint of any issue and get that taken care of by Mazda under factory warranty, unless you are over 60k

Just to clarify, the warranty is 5 years / 60k miles, not 6 years.