2008 Mazda CX-7
This year drew an ordinary 191 complaints for a Mazda CX-7 — the model's median is 153. What they were about is the unusual part: 17.3% of them mention engine light, against 6% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 191 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 153 |
| Involving a crash | 3 |
| Involving a fire | 9 |
| Recalls | 5 |
| EPA combined | 18.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- engine light — 17.3% of this year's complaints, against 6% across the model's other years (2.9×). Owners wrote it as: engine light, egr, egr valve, morning.
- valve — 11% of this year's complaints, against 3% across the model's other years (3.7×). Owners wrote it as: valve, emissions, class, 40k.
- old — 7.9% of this year's complaints, against 1.4% across the model's other years (5.5×). Owners wrote it as: old, customers, out way.
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
THE CHECK ENGINE WARNING LIGHT ILLUMINATED. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO THE DEALER AND A DIAGNOSTIC WAS PERFORMED. THE FAILURE WAS LOCATED AS THE EMISSIONS GAS RECIRCULATION VALVE. THE DEALER REPLACED THE EGR VALVE AND THE FAILURE WAS REPAIRED. THE FAILURE AND CU…
MY MAZDA CX7 - 2008 HAS ONLY 70,000 MILES AND THE ENGINE LIGHT WENT ON AND AFTER BRINGING IT TO A MECHANIC AND CHECKING THE CODES WITH A COMPUTER, IT CAME UP THAT THE EGR VALVE NEEDS TO BE REPLACED. ALL THE MECHANICS THAT I TALKED WITH WERE REALLY SURPRISE AND…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V782000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 17V429000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 17V457000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V593000 SUSPENSION Fixed free of charge.
- 09E011000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Mazda CX-7 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 2008 Mazda CX-7? What happened to yours?
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