Owners have filed 2,052 complaints on the Mazda CX-5, covering 2013–2026. The system named most often is Electrical System (368 reports). Worst years by volume: 2016, 2014, 2019; cleanest: 2026, 2025, 2024. 102 reports describe a crash, 15 a fire. On average the car was 3.7 years old when the problem happened.
What breaks on Mazda CX-5
Grouped by the system owners named — percentages are shares of all 2,052 CX-5 complaints. Open any row for the full reports in owners' own words.
Electrical System 368 Read
What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request? - Smart Brake Support (SBS) & Forward Obstruction Warning system malfunctioned. Front radar sensor malfunctioned. Parking brake malfunctioned. I-activesense system malfunctioned. Emergency lane keep disabled. Dynamic…
On July 22, my sister and I were traveling on I-95 going south. We stopped at the Maryland House near Aberdeen, MD. I was looking for a parking place and was driving very slowly. I slowed further to turn into a place on the right, near the south end of the parking lot and was attempting to put the car in park when the…
Heating element on front windscreen burning and smoking causing windscreen to crack and is very obviously defective
Engine 318 Read
My car caught on fire on [CCC] and it's completely burned down, a total loss. Following is information about my car and some summary of what happened. Car information: - Mazda CX5 2024 - Bought in June or July 2024(car payment only made 22 times so far) - Odometer 24,445mi(as of 05/15/2026) What happened: - In [XXX]…
The contact owns a 2019 mazda cx5. The contact stated that the engine failed. The driver noticed that engine oil was leaking on the ground. The vehicle was towed to an unknown dealer whom advised that the engine needed to be replaced. The engine was replaced. However, the repair did not correct the failure. The…
In a parking space, foot on brake, moving gearshift to park, engine revved and car lunged forward with car in park and my foot on the brake. It jumped the concrete bumper, ran over handicap parking sign and hit car in adjacent parking space hard enough to move it back into the driving lane of parking lot. At that…
Power Train 233 Read
Life-threatening, unoccupied rollaway vehicle with personal injury. Possible and/or suspected issues: "Not-P" switch circuit malfunction; "false park"; lack of cross-module redundancy; lack of BCM and PCM redundancy; Diagnostic Blind Spot; lack of Occupancy-Brake interlock; systematic safety failure culminating in…
I pulled the car into garage, and realized it's not inside enough. So I moved the car forward, but forgot to place the shift to P position. With the shift in D position, I shut off the engine, opened the door, ready to get out. I did not notice the car was moving backward, until the open door hit the garage frame. I…
This vehicle belongs to my friend, but I was the injured party. She was visiting me and realized she forgot her phone,.the vehicle wias at the top of my driveway and in park. She wanted to go back in the house to look and got out of the car & left the door open., I leaned into the car to press stop engine and…
Exterior Lighting 197 Read
Headlight fan motor went out in both lights in under 3 years
Premature failure of headlight assembly unit, (buzzing sound, known issue) completely unacceptable for this to happen right out of warranty. I don't think I will touch another Mazda in the future
My headlights have a motor (or motors) in them. This feature is to adjust headlights in accordance with the steering wheel. I think it's referred to as AFS (Adaptive Front-lighting System). The left headlight's motor makes a noise. I do not always hear it when driving but when stopped or parking and exiting the…
Service Brakes 131 Read
Something malfunctioned with the brake system of the car. The car was in park and off. I exited the car, reached back into the car for an item, and shut the door. I then walked up the driveway and to the front door. At that point, the car began to roll down the driveway. Someone coming down the road in front of the…
The contact owns a 2022 Mazda CX-5. The contact stated that while driving approximately 25 mph when another vehicle abruptly stopped causing the contact to need to suddenly stop however, the brake pedal failed. The contact stated that the brake pedal traveled to the floorboard then the emergency braking system began…
Bought a mazda cx5 june 2020 and it was involve in a accident sept 17th 2020 do to brake failure. My mother was driving the vehicle and attempted parking in a apartment complex when the vehicle failed to stop and collided with the facility 20ft in front of the parking space. At the incident, I the owner, found 3…
Structure 100 Read
The rear camera and warning system has failed numerous times. On one occasion I hit a vehicle because of the failure. Also, the windshield has a leak that sometimes is like a waterfall causing serious visibility problems
Was turning right onto side city street to park, was going maybe 2 miles an hour because I was going to park. The car engine self accelerated and I could not control it, hit a chain link fence and sheared off a natural gas meter to a home. The break pedal did not stop the car, I was in drive put into park and shut the…
The driver side mirror vibrates at speeds above 65 miles per hour especially with windy conditions. Went to the dealer they replaced the mirror assembly with the issue still remaining. Mazda answer is that is common in CX 5 models. It is a safety issue as it really limits visibility for vehicles behind
Visibility/wiper 97 Read
The windshield of my 2026 Mazda CX-5 suddenly fractured and developed a severe crack without any external road hazard or heavy stone impact. Under micro-photography, the root of the crack presents as a smooth, continuous stress fracture ("white line") with no physical crater or concentric shattering pattern. The…
This vehicle was purchased two months ago. In that time the windshield has sustained multiple significant chips on multiple occasions during routine highway commuting. Some of these are in the line of sight of the driver, causing distractions or visibility issues. Prior to purchasing this vehicle I owned a 2012 Toyota…
When you are driving in rainy weather on a highway the side view mirrors and windows fog up and you can't see. Putting on the defroster doesn't help. You have to drive with the windows open. On most cars if you open the windows the water would be evaporated from the rubber on the windows. The rubber is not thick…
Vehicle Speed Control 66 Read
The contact owns a 2024 Mazda CX-5. The contact stated that while his wife was entering the garage, at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle suddenly accelerated; the brake pedal was applied but failed to respond, and it crashed into the refrigerator. The contact was concerned that the failure could have occurred while…
At 2:00 on a clear afternoon I was slowly coasting into a right hand turn into a parking space, and lightly tapping the brake to finalize the stop, when the car accelerated HARD forward over a curb and a sidewalk into the brick wall of a building. Airbag was deployed. My injuries were a nasty wrist contusion and…
Sudden acceleration even. Date April 10, 2026, at around 2:30 PM on a clear sunny day. Car make and model Mazda CX5 bought on 7/4/2023 VIN [XXX] , mileage around 10,000, only one owner. While attempting to park at BJ’s Wholesale Club ,when driver started to make a turn to a parking space, vehicle suddenly accelerated,…
CX-5 years to avoid — and the clean ones
Complaints per model year. More reports usually means more cars on the road as well as more trouble, so read the crash and fire columns alongside the count.
| Model year | Complaints | Top system | Crashes | Fires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Electrical System | — | — | |
| 2025 | Electrical System | 4 | — | |
| 2024 | Air Bags,seat Belts,seats | 4 | 1 | |
| 2023 | Air Bags | 7 | — | |
| 2022 | Air Bags | 5 | 2 | |
| 2021 | Air Bags | 8 | — | |
| 2020 | Air Bags | 9 | — | |
| 2019 | Air Bags | 7 | 2 | |
| 2018 | Electrical System,unknown Or Other | 1 | — | |
| 2017 | Air Bags | 5 | — | |
| 2016 | Air Bags | 29 | 9 | |
| 2015 | Air Bags | 11 | — | |
| 2014 | Air Bags | 6 | — | |
| 2013 | Air Bags,seats | 6 | 1 |
The same model year, different builds
Every complaint carries the first 11 characters of the VIN — plant, year, body and engine. That is a production series, and complaints are spread across them very unevenly.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Distinct production series | 756 |
| Average complaints per series | 2.7 |
| Worst single series | 35 complaints |
| Average age at failure | 3.7 years |
A model average of 2.7 hides a worst series at 35. Enter a VIN above to see the numbers for that exact build instead of the model as a whole.
Owners reported these. Find out if yours is one of them.
- Complaints matched to the exact production run, not just the model
- What the car is worth given what tends to fail on it
- The original window sticker and factory options
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How we count
Every figure here comes from complaints owners filed with NHTSA — 1,100,006 of them, covering 1,982 models built between 1981 and 2026.
A complaint is an unverified report: someone wrote down what happened to their car. It is not a confirmed defect and not a recall. What makes the volume useful is the pattern — when thousands of owners of the same build describe the same failure, that is a signal no marketing brochure will give you.
Two things we do that the source does not. First, we compute the age of the car at the moment of failure from the incident date and the model year. Second, we group complaints by the first 11 characters of the VIN — the production series — so a bad plant run does not disappear into a model-wide average.
Frequently asked questions
What are the worst years for the CX-5?
By complaint volume, 2016, 2014, 2019 drew the most owner reports. Bear in mind that popular years put more cars on the road, so check the crash and fire columns too.
Which CX-5 years are the cleanest?
2026, 2025, 2024 have the fewest complaints on file. For recent years that can simply mean the cars are young.
How many complaints does the Mazda CX-5 have?
2,052 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, covering 2013–2026. Of those, 102 describe a crash and 15 a fire.
Are these complaints verified?
No. They are unverified reports from owners. NHTSA publishes them as filed and investigates only a fraction. The value is in the pattern, not in any single report.
Can I check complaints for one specific car?
Yes — enter its VIN above. We match the first 11 characters, which identify the plant, year, body and engine, so you get complaints on that exact production series rather than the whole model.