2021 Mazda CX-5
This year drew an ordinary 143 complaints for a Mazda CX-5 — the model's median is 116. What they were about is the unusual part: 51.7% of them mention oil, against 8.1% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 2 of the Mazda CX-5, which began in 2017. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 143 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 116 |
| Involving a crash | 9 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 5/5 |
| EPA combined | 25.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- oil — 51.7% of this year's complaints, against 8.1% across the other years of this generation (6.4×).
- quart — 18.9% of this year's complaints, against 2.6% across the other years of this generation (7.3×). Owners wrote it as: quart, quart oil, added, amount oil.
- level — 25.9% of this year's complaints, against 7.9% across the other years of this generation (3.3×). Owners wrote it as: level, oil level, dipstick, combustion.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
It appears that my car has the check oil level light coming on at approximately 3000 to 4000 miles after an oil change. This seems like a safety issue to me because a brand new car should not be burning a quart of oil at this interval.
New vehicle at approximately 5,500 miles turned on low oil light dashboard. Added one quart oil each time to restore oil level. Vehicle currently has approximately 7,000 miles. McDonald Mazda West slow to respond to performing warranty service related to TSB 0…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Mazda CX-5 was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2021 Mazda CX-5? What happened to yours?
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