2025 MAZDA CX-5 Complaints

Emergency brake came on as I was backing out of parking space, pausing to double check for traffic not seen on camera. The emergency brake froze on "on" and car was stuck, unmovable, in traffic lane. The emergency brake would not release when put in reverse or drive. The same problem happened again the next day in forward. Two different dealers were not able to duplicate the problem. No warning lights came on.

The contact owns a 2025 . The contact was in a parking lot of a shopping center, put the car in gear and the steering wheel became inoperable , vehicle would not stop while depressing the brakes. Four additional vehicles were damaged from the impact with one vehicle deemed a total loss. The right front end was impacted including the hood and the right wheel. No additional property damage. The vehicle came to a stop in the parking lot from impacting the vehicles. Both front driver and passenger side air bags deployed. The vehicle was towed to a tow yard. The vehicle was deemed as a total loss by the insurance company. The contact sustained injuries left broken clavicle, left arm, left and right knees received lacerations and lacerations and 3 broken ribs on the left side and hematoma and received medical treatment at the emergency room intensive care. A woman in the back seat of one of the parked vehicles sustained minor injuries and received medical treatment. The dealer nor manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 2,837

Description of Safety Defect: The driver-side exterior rearview mirror vibrates excessively, escalating into a violent shake depending on vehicle speed, crosswinds, and road surfaces. The issue is highly pronounced at highway speeds (65+ mph) and deteriorates aggressively as speed increases, particularly on open, wind-swept highways with like MA-3. ?The resulting violent vibration causes severe visual distortion, creating a blurred, "low-resolution" image that makes it incredibly difficult to accurately judge the distance, speed, and presence of overtaking vehicles. When checking the driver-side blind spot, this rapid blurring induces sudden, brief physical dizziness and vertigo, posing an immediate safety hazard during high-speed lane changes. The passenger-side mirror remains perfectly stable and clear under identical driving and road conditions. ?Attempts to Correct / Dealer History: The vehicle has been taken to an authorized dealership (Tulley Mazda, Nashua, NH) twice for this specific issue: ?On 03/18/2026 (Mileage: 5,862), Repair Order #XXX/1 noted the complaint. The technician verified the vibration on a road test but dismissed it as a "normal characteristic of the vehicle". ?On 04/21/2026 (Mileage: 6,846), Repair Order #XXX was opened because the condition worsened and began occurring at lower speeds. A ride-along was conducted, and the Shop Foreman confirmed the defect. Upon mirror disassembly, the technician found "loose internal components causing the issue". ?Current Status: Under warranty, the dealership replaced the body door mirror assembly (Part KJL1-69-181C) and the mirror glass/holder (Part TK71-69-1G7). However, the violent shaking remains completely unresolved and continues to worsen at high speeds. The dealership is now refusing further diagnostic or repair work, claiming the vehicle is "within spec," despite the persistent visual distortion and subsequent driver vertigo. No crash yet, but the defect is serious safety concern.

Stopped at a convenience store in [XXX] . Upon return to vehicle, it would not start. A check engine light and steering alert came on. According to ChatGPT it appeared to be an electrical problem. AI recommended that the vehicle be "rebooted". That entailed putting the car in Park, turning the ignition off, turning off all accessories, getting out of the car, locking it with the FOB, and walking away from the car with the FOB. Don't return until after 5 minutes or more. The second incident occurred on the out skirts of [XXX] . The instrument panel went dark for a half a second or so. Once it became illuminated, another warning alert appeared: Telematics Communication Unit Malfunctioned. AI suggest not turning ignition off until we reached our final distination. Have a dealer run a diagnostic scan on the voltage system. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

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 Corolla, which traveled the same route every day and did not receive any significant windshield chips over a period of years. It seems that the windshield of the Mazda is particularly fragile and/or brittle compared to other windshields and suffers chips and cracks too easily.

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 unintended, driverless, runaway Zombie vehicle with personal injury. Background Info: * Low mileage, mainly in-town errands driving. * Not previously reported quirks, possible latent defects: liftgate opening that was hit-or-miss requiring multiple unlock trunk-unlock doors + get out of the car manual attempts; intermittent off-shutdown double-tap issue to power off car; ill-timed "rear seat alert". * Reported "engine won't start" resulting in three key FOB battery replacements and a locked key FOB. Day of Incident: * Auto-lock and the EBS were not used. * Driver intent was to park and unload, then permanently park. Car was in-park twice before ultimately placed in reverse and backed into position, facing downhill on a slight slope and along a left-side stone retaining wall. * Driver thought vehicle was fully in Park. * Attempted open liftgate via "open trunk, open door" routine, which did not work, so I exited the vehicle to try the manual liftgate button, which also did not work. * Three back-and-forth "unlock trunk/doors + manually press liftgate button" did not work. * Note: Upon opening the door or anytime after, I did NOT hear an audible warning that the car was not fully in Park. Nor did the car move/creep in any direction. * Deducing I must need to shut off the car to open the liftgate -- I leaned in and depressed the on/off button. * This caused the car to move forward, driverless, door open and scraping the stone wall, across a secondary road, over an 11" curb, and down a hill before stopping due to a tree. * I was injured. Pinned between a narrowing door and the car, I tried to turn the wheel right before being knocked down/falling

Door handle cables detach easily which prevents the door from being opened from the inside. It has happened to me twice on my driver side door the last 5 months. Research online shows this is a very common problem with newer Mazdas and it is a major safety hazard as it prevents easy exit from the vehicle in the event of an emergency, especially if there is power loss so the windows cannot be opened.

The infotainment/CMU system in my 2025 Mazda CX-5 Carbon Edition has repeated failures that affect safe driving. Wireless Apple CarPlay frequently disconnects, freezes, or causes the screen and controls to stop responding. Navigation and audio alerts lag or fail, and the entire system has gone black once, requiring a hard reset. After one incident where all audio stopped working, I returned immediately to the dealership, and a Mazda service advisor personally witnessed the failure and confirmed no audio output. These unpredictable failures create distraction and uncertainty. As senior drivers, my wife and I rely heavily on stable navigation, audio cues, and hands-free communication for safe operation. Mazda and Panasonic reviewed the issue but denied CMU replacement, leaving the wireless system unreliable.

The vehicle exhibits unintended acceleration behavior when the brake pedal is applied. Instead of slowing down, the engine revs and the vehicle does not decelerate as expected. On March 16, 2026, while merging onto a highway and applying the brakes, the engine suddenly revved to approximately 3,500 RPMs while the vehicle failed to slow down. There have been previous issues with the vehicle not slowing when breaks are being applied, nut this is the first instance when it was noticed that the RPMs increased while breaking. This issue has also been reported to the dealership, with service documentation noting that when applying the brakes, the engine revs and the vehicle does not slow or accelerate properly. This creates a dangerous condition where braking input does not result in expected deceleration and may instead cause acceleration-related behavior. The issue has not been resolved. This issue significantly increases the risk of collision and loss of vehicle control.

While driving at various speeds, including highway speeds, the vehicle intermittently fails to slow down when the brake pedal is applied. On multiple occasions, the brake pedal was pressed but the vehicle did not respond appropriately and continued moving forward. On December 1, 2025, while traveling at approximately 65 mph on the interstate in rainy conditions, the vehicle began making a grinding sound and started sliding instead of slowing down. The vehicle briefly lost the ability to decelerate, creating a near-collision with a semi-truck. On December 22, 2025, the issue occurred twice in one day. While attempting to brake at a stop sign and in traffic, the vehicle did not slow down, nearly causing collisions with vehicles in front and adjacent lanes. In the instance where approaching the stop sign where a vehicle was stopped, the dashboard flashed “break” while I was breaking as hard as I could. Warning lights and sensor-related alerts have appeared intermittently prior to and during some incidents. The issue has continued intermittently, including additional incidents where the brakes were either unresponsive or overly sensitive. They do not respond in a consistent or predictable manner, making safe driving nearly impossible. This problem places myself and others at significant risk of collision due to loss of braking control. The vehicle has been taken to multiple dealerships for inspection. The problem has not been successfully replicated, and no repairs have been performed to resolve the issue. Dealership documentation includes customer reports of “NOT BRAKING” and brake malfunction concerns.