Pre-purchase inspection...Would you chance this 2021 CX-5?

[hoopics]

I've identified a 2021 CX-5 Signature at Carmax that I'm strongly considering. Under 30k miles, single owner, accident free, still has a few months left on bumper-to-bumper warranty. Got the Carfax on the car, and called dealer that did all the service work on it. Car had every oil change and factory scheduled maintenance visit like clock work -- six oil changes in just under 30k miles. It had zero repairs, and only one reported issue:

At 4500 miles in early 2022 the low oil light came on, and the dealer wrote it up as TSB 01-012. They changed the oil, reset the indicator, but didn't do the valve seal replacement, indicating to the owner to bring it back if the light came on again. The car was back at the dealer four times in the next two years for scheduled maintenance visits, and there were no more reports of the problem.

So, with that service history:
1. Should the potential TSB issue scare me off from the car, or does the lack of recurrence suggest it doesn't have the valve seal issue?
2. Should I get a pre-purchase inspection, or given the otherwise comprehensive service history save my money?
3. If I do get the inspection, is there a way to visibly inspect for the TSB issue short of taking off the cylinder head? I'd think not.
4. Other thoughts?

 

[yrwei52]

You definitely want to get the defective exhaust valve seals replaced. The TSB stated a batch of these seals were defective, and they had updated them since 2021 MY. The seals will fail and be consuming more oil. The good news is you have 60-month / 60,000-mile powertrain warranty to cover it for a couple of more years.

 

[marley]

4. Other thoughts?

Pardon for being a devils advocate, but...

- Sometimes there can be concern with a car with below average miles as well as one with above average miles. However, the dealer's maintenance seems to resolve this issue.

- I assume the previous owner sold it to Carmax ? Could be for many reasons, but many prefer to buy a preowned vehicle from a dealer. With such low miles, the dealer may have offered a comparable price to Carmax and the car could have been sold as Certified Pre Owned (CPO), or not for some reason.

- Go to CarComplaints.com (Link below) and you will see the '21 has more reported issues than other CX-5's since 2020.

tl;dr: Recommend buying a later model, Certified Pre Owned from a dealer if your budget permits.

Mazda CX-5 Problems

Compare Mazda CX-5 complaints, problems, & worst model years. There are 547 complaints on file for the Mazda CX-5.

www.carcomplaints.com

 

[hoopics]

Pardon for being a devils advocate, but...

- Sometimes there can be concern with a car with below average miles as well as one with above average miles. However, the dealer's maintenance seems to resolve this issue.

- I assume the previous owner sold it to Carmax ? Could be for many reasons, but many prefer to buy a preowned vehicle from a dealer. With such low miles, the dealer may have offered a comparable price to Carmax and the car could have been sold as Certified Pre Owned (CPO), or not for some reason.

- Go to CarComplaints.com (Link below) and you will see the '21 has more reported issues than other CX-5's since 2020.

tl;dr: Recommend buying a later model, Certified Pre Owned from a dealer if your budget permits.

Mazda CX-5 Problems

Compare Mazda CX-5 complaints, problems, & worst model years. There are 547 complaints on file for the Mazda CX-5.

www.carcomplaints.com

Thanks. I ended up buying a 2022 with even lower miles that was bought, serviced, and traded in at the same dealer. They even let me review the service records. Car seems to be a gem.