I will have to sell the CX-9...

[cusco72]

I'm with sranger

I finally managed to squeeze in a test drive of the cx-9 this weekend, I went in with very high hopes and with much anticipation. The result was complete and utter disappointment with both the vehicle and the sales guy. I'm 6'3" and 255 lbs and have to say the drivers seat felt very tight and small the console intrudes on legroom and the seats were quite uncomfortable, I have to say after all the hype I was actually shocked at how much I disliked sitting in the cx-9. Even with the seat all the way to the bottom (not the best for hips) I was still looking out through the window tint instead of the meat of the windshield, mid row seating was ok and back row was brutal, my head hit the roof about a foot from being all the way back in the seat. All of this could be tolerated if the driver zone was comfortable (I don't plan to be a passenger!) which it definately wasn't. I didn't find the interior to be as well done as so many of the reviews have, the exterior color selection is the shining star of our mazda experience but we can't shell out 50,000 plus for a mediocre vehicle with a nice looking exterior!
Sales guy: terrible. (notcool) Kept saying "nice ride" over and over while we drove around but was clueless about anything else. To be honest I didn't feel any zoom zoom in the ride/handling/power either but to each their own. Tried a mazda5 as well (which seemed alot more value per dollar) and the sales guy actually kept laughing and saying how ridiculous I looked in the car(drive) also he kept going on and on about how only a "family guy" could ever own a car like this. The fact that I went to the dealership with my 3 kids should have tipped him off that I was in fact somewhat of a "family guy". MORON(flame) I think this is the end of the line for mazda and I...

 

[Mazda3]

Fortunately for Mazda its target audience would disagree with pretty much everything in your post. Other than the Acura MDX there is nothing in this type of vehicle that handles anywhere close to the CX-9. It is unfortunate you had a crappy salesman, but it doesn't sound like a good salesman would have mattered anyway.

 

[sranger]

Well,

Here is what they found wrong.

1st, there was not enough padding in the rear portion of the drivers seat. It was about 3/4 thinner than the passenger's seat bottom? They added about 1" of foam under the rear section of the seat bottom.

2nd, the seat cover was not centered in the seat. It bunched up on the side tword the console. To be honest, I never really notice this. The guy managed to get it more or less centered when they put it back together. Again the passenger's seat did not have this problem. It looked like it was shifted about 1/2" off center when compared to the passenger's seat.

3rd, there was a little too much leather left on both seams where the two different color peices were sewen together. This was bunching up and was probably causing most of my discomfort. You could see the indention of this wad of leather in the foam pad. I am fairly sure that this is what was actually poking into my hip.

As near as I can tell, I can tolerate the seat now. It was more or less comfortable on the 1.5hr drive home. The seat bottom is a little harder where the padding was added. The upolstry guy said the leather would streatch a little and should soften up over time. He did say to keep the leather well conditioned for a few weeks.

It is my opinion that most of the discomfort I felt was due to poor workmanship on the seat bottom and the fact that the foam was too thin. I am not sure why the foam on the drivers side seat was so much thinner than the foam on the passenger's. I think it cause me to sink deeper into the seat than I should have. This cause the sides to fold in more and put more pressure on my hips.

For the heck of it, I sat in the Passengers seat for a little over an hour listening to the stereo system ( one of the reasons why I bought the car to start with ) It did not seem to bother me like the drivers seat did.

I hope this solves the issue and thought you guys might want to hear what I found...

 

[Mazda3]

It really pisses me off that your dealer didn't resolve this problem for you. A lazy dealer giving Mazda a bad name. (pissed)

I hope the new set-up works for you.

 

[l-miwa]

You would think by now that dealers would realize that just because you've already spent the money, they can't just ignore you. The #1 way dealers get business is by word of mouth. If you tell everyone you know that there was a manufacturer's defect that the dealer refused to acknowledge or repair, then ultimately that will cost him a LOT of business.

Manufacturer's defects are a fact of life. No one is perfect. The question is how they deal with it. All he had to do was loan you another CX-9 for a day. If you drove it and found the seat to be just fine, then there was clearly a problem with your specific seat. If you found it equally uncomfortable, then the basic design just didn't agree with you. In either case, you would undoubtedly have felt that the dealer had done the reasonable thing to try to help. As it is, you and everyone you tell will think "I'm certainly never buying a car from that dealer."

Why don't they ever learn?

 

[Antonio DiMarco]

I totally agree.

It really pisses me off that your dealer didn't resolve this problem for you. A lazy dealer giving Mazda a bad name. (pissed)

I hope the new set-up works for you.

Workmanship issues happen. The primary reason for dealers is to handle customer satisfaction issues. If they don't they're worthless.

I would lodge a formal complaint against the dealer with Mazda USA and recoup what it cost you to fix the issue. The dealer has no excuse for ignoring your issue. It's a shame becasue as you can see one bad experience can sour someone to a brand.

I'm one of the lucky ones. My dealer has always been A+

 

[Infymus]

I just drove my CX-9 1147 miles from Salt Lake to the Southern Oregon Coast. I loved every minute of it. The NAV was fantastic in showing us rest stops, gas and food. The seats were perfect, the lumbar awesome. Once in a while I'd hit the seat heaters and put some heat on my back.

Not a single pain. My knees didn't hurt like they did in my 2005 Subaru Legacy GT. It was very comfortable, handled like a dream.

Only complaint? I wish the automatic controls for manual shifting were on the steering wheel, so I could have both hands on the wheel while doing tight canyon turns.

I love this car.

 

[Whitesnake]

If I am correct in this statement...

Why they heck do they have on the manual shift hitting up is downshifting and down being up shifting??

I had an AcuraTL and up was shifting up, and down, shifting down...

I just drove my CX-9 1147 miles from Salt Lake to the Southern Oregon Coast. I loved every minute of it. The NAV was fantastic in showing us rest stops, gas and food. The seats were perfect, the lumbar awesome. Once in a while I'd hit the seat heaters and put some heat on my back.

Not a single pain. My knees didn't hurt like they did in my 2005 Subaru Legacy GT. It was very comfortable, handled like a dream.

Only complaint? I wish the automatic controls for manual shifting were on the steering wheel, so I could have both hands on the wheel while doing tight canyon turns.

I love this car.

 

[Antonio DiMarco]

That is a very good point

If I am correct in this statement...

Why they heck do they have on the manual shift hitting up is downshifting and down being up shifting??

I had an AcuraTL and up was shifting up, and down, shifting down...

That's a great point, that also seems counterintuitive to me. Upshift should be "up" and down shift should be "down."

I also don't like that it's very easy to shift the tranny into manual mode when you grab the stick. Often I will steady myself with the stick as I'm turning which casues the tranny to switch to manual mode.

 

[Whitesnake]

As far as the stick easy to change.. well I had a AcuraTL.. it had the same configuration, so that's not really going to change.

That's a great point, that also seems counterintuitive to me. Upshift should be "up" and down shift should be "down."

I also don't like that it's very easy to shift the tranny into manual mode when you grab the stick. Often I will steady myself with the stick as I'm turning which casues the tranny to switch to manual mode.

 

[sbmrinaldi]

I had an Audi with tiptronic and it shifted up for up and down for down, but personally I feel that is backwards. In a manual up is usually for 1st, 3rd and 5th when down is 2nd, 4th and 6th. It just feels natural to me to pull down to up shift.

 

[Antonio DiMarco]

That's what's great about ergonomics and UI design

I had an Audi with tiptronic and it shifted up for up and down for down, but personally I feel that is backwards. In a manual up is usually for 1st, 3rd and 5th when down is 2nd, 4th and 6th. It just feels natural to me to pull down to up shift.

No matter which choice the designer makes it'll be the wrong one for half the population

 

[P5w3kids]

If I am correct in this statement...

Why they heck do they have on the manual shift hitting up is downshifting and down being up shifting??

I had an AcuraTL and up was shifting up, and down, shifting down...

There is no industry standard. Some cars go one way, some the other.

I read on some forum where someone had reversed the shift pattern by switching a couple of wires. This might be possible with the CX-9 as well.

On the OP, hope you sorted the seat out. It sounds like you found a very good upholstery guy. Dealers don't have any expertise in upholstery, I think they all subcontract it out.

People are shaped very differently, and different people will find different seats very uncomfortable. People send me emails to complain about the seat comfort in their car all the time, especially Hondas for some reason.

Some of the people here are way too defensive about the CX-9. Just because someone finds the seat very uncomfortable doesn't mean you have a bad car. The guy came here for help, and some people kicked him for doing so. Not cool.

 

[Antonio DiMarco]

I don't hink it was because he asked for help

There is no industry standard. Some cars go one way, some the other.

I read on some forum where someone had reversed the shift pattern by switching a couple of wires. This might be possible with the CX-9 as well.

On the OP, hope you sorted the seat out. It sounds like you found a very good upholstery guy. Dealers don't have any expertise in upholstery, I think they all subcontract it out.

People are shaped very differently, and different people will find different seats very uncomfortable. People send me emails to complain about the seat comfort in their car all the time, especially Hondas for some reason.

Some of the people here are way too defensive about the CX-9. Just because someone finds the seat very uncomfortable doesn't mean you have a bad car. The guy came here for help, and some people kicked him for doing so. Not cool.

It was becasue he made a blanket statement and told people NOT to buy the CX-9. He can feel free to voice his opinion but to categorically say that every person with his physical frame would find the seats uncomfortable is unfair and close-minded.

That's another thing that people tend to do on this forum- lash out without having any perspective. I understand people get angry, but we're all adults. Try to keep it together. Contrary to what you may think Mazda is not out to screw the consumer. Like other companies they are trying to strike a balance between pleasing customers and making a profit.

Oh and then there's the Monday morning engineers who think they could have built a better car- don't even get me started.

 

[P5w3kids]

He did qualify his recommendation, saying it applied to large people, and made his reasons clear. The way I take it is that people considering the CX-9 will now pay extra attention to how the seats feel, which isn't a bad thing.

Seat comfort is a very touchy issue. A couple members of my panel--that I know of--have traded in nearly new cars because they were very uncomfortable in the seat. One was a Lexus, the other a Honda. It's one of the few things that can be hard to notice during a test drive, yet can make a car undriveable for someone, and that the manufacturer cannot be obligated to fix.

 

[sranger]

Well,

After driving the car for a few days, I determined that the upolstery guy put in a little too much foam. ( really batting material ) This made the seat a little too hard. It had four layers uder the stock foam. I removed two of them myself. ( It was not that hard and I have done this type of thing on come cars I rebuilt.. )

As a result, the seat is tolerable. I drov the car for about four hours today. My tail end was still a little sore, but it has not really had a break from driving in a while so my comfort level is likely to improve once I have a day or two rest from driving it.

I seriously doubt I will ever find the seat to truly be comfortable, but I think I can get it to tolerable. The only way to make it comfortable would be to completely rebuild the seat bottom. To make the seats match, this would require replacing all of the seat covers. Since this would cost about as much as I would lose on a trade, I will either live with the seats or sell the CX-9.

As for the negative comments, all I can say is that this is the way I feel. I will never buy a Mazda again. I strongly stand by my warning that anyone one larger than average is highly likely to find these seats uncomfortable. Furthermore, I think the main problem lies with the two tone color leather seats. The seams in the side bolsters is the main issue. It was not a good idea to make the rolled edge seam on the side bolsters. It looks good, but maked the seam very hard. A blind seam or french seam would certianly be more comfortable. I also think that the cloth or even the leather seats without the color insert would be much more comfortable.

The whole thing kind of makes me sick, but I really have few options that make sense. I do not want to put any more money into the vehicle so replacing the upostery is not really an option. I will probable just traid it and chalk the horrable experiance up to a tough learing experiance and simply move on...

Any one what to buy a slightly used CX-9???

 

[gsrtype1]

the cx-9 won a comparison test with the acura, chevrolet and i think a couple others in motortred magazine.....maybe your ass is to big!

 

[Mazda3]

the cx-9 won a comparison test with the acura, chevrolet and i think a couple others in motortred magazine.....maybe your ass is to big!

Please don't comment unless you have something intelligent to say.

 

[evilmonkeyMSP]

sadly, i have yet to see anything intelligent come from this member...

Please don't comment unless you have something intelligent to say.

 

[mountjonas]

If I am correct in this statement...

Why they heck do they have on the manual shift hitting up is downshifting and down being up shifting??

I had an AcuraTL and up was shifting up, and down, shifting down...

I've seen rally sequential gearboxes where it's up to downshift and vice versa. To me it's intuitive to push down to upshift. Kinda like inverted controls on first person shooters/flight sims.