Looking to buy my first Mazda

My wife and I are currently in the market for a new SUV and a 2008 CX-9 Grand Touring AWD has come across our path and we are interested. I have always owned Honda, Toyota, and Lexus. However, this vehicle has me intrigued. It currently has 132k miles. I was wondering if anyone out there has the same vehicle (or close to it) and can tell me a bit about the reliability, maintenance, issues, likes/dislikes, and whether or not they would recommend this vehicle as apposed to the Hondas/Toyotas/Lexuses (Lexi?).

Lots of info on this forum about the various issues you may or may not face. I suggest you skim the forum topics.

With any vehicle with that many miles you need to investigate the maintenance records as thoroughly as possible since any car that well used is likely to present issues sooner than later.

Ideally by now it's had a new passenger airbag actuator(recall), transfer case (problems in some years), new water pump (failure will trash engine), new suspension parts like tie rod ends, wheel bearings, ball joints, shocks, new plugs, and lots of oil changes and at least one or two transmission fluid exchanges. The transfer case and water pump issues are potentially expensive. You can monitor for the water pump failure or change it proactively. The transfer case is more of a wildcard.

I have owned several Toyotas, Lexus, Honda, Acura, BMW, Ford and consider my CX-9 to be second only to the Lexus in terms of reliability among them all. Since I bought another Mazda (CX-5), my faith in the brand has been reinforced. FWIW both my Mazdas have between 75-80k miles, so I have yet to get one past 100k. There are others here who've got way more miles on theirs.

herkeye said:

My wife and I are currently in the market for a new SUV and a 2008 CX-9 Grand Touring AWD has come across our path and we are interested. I have always owned Honda, Toyota, and Lexus. However, this vehicle has me intrigued. It currently has 132k miles. I was wondering if anyone out there has the same vehicle (or close to it) and can tell me a bit about the reliability, maintenance, issues, likes/dislikes, and whether or not they would recommend this vehicle as apposed to the Hondas/Toyotas/Lexuses (Lexi?).

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I have a 2010 GT FWD with 85k. I've been mostly happy with it, no major repairs thus far. The only downsides really are the poor gas mileage, and that there just aren't that many of them out there so finding a mechanic familiar with them can be a challenge. The drivetrain is basically the same as a Ford Edge/Flex, but the rest is uniquely Mazda.

I'd say the biggest issues with these cars are the transfer case/transmission on AWD cars, and the potential water pump time bomb on all of them.

I'll echo the previous post - if I were buying a used one, maintenance records would be key. Make sure the transmission fluid has been flushed a couple times and that the transfer case oil has been changed regularly.