Recommendation for choosing used CX-5 year and model

[samham30]

Hi there I'm looking to get a used AWD SUV and a CX-5 seems like a great option. I have narrowed the choices down to a few options and was hoping to get some advice from you guys.

For 18-20k it seems I can get a CPO around 15k miles of the following:

2017: Touring
2018: Sport
2019: Sport

Or for around 22k a 2018 Touring.

From what I was reading a lot of people prefer the 2017 touring instead of the 2018 Sport and I saw cars.usnews called the 2019 model way more unreliable than the others. Appreciate the help.

 

[ezchen25]

So no-no for the 2.5L NA w/ CD? Too bad I'd have no other good option, as unfortunately, it's the only one available from where I am (aside from the 2.0L lowest/base variant and 2.2L Diesel). Was almost decided on this, as all stock of 2.0L Sport Variant was wiped out so fast, which has all features as the 2.5L NA here except for the 19" rims and Sunroof and engine obviously.

@ezchen25, your 2021 Touring is the 2.5 NA w/ CD, right?

Yeah mine has CD

 

[wlong01]

When Mazda first introduced CD there were many reports of rocker arms coming loose and causing power loss in the vehicle. Some users reported dangerous problems, like trying to pass and losing power. Apparently Mazda remedied the problem with a software fix.
Seems the fix fixed the problem. Only time will tell.

Would be interesting to hear from drivers who've had the fix and have high mileage on their CX-5.

 

[Jnclem]

When Mazda first introduced CD there were many reports of rocker arms coming loose and causing power loss in the vehicle. Some users reported dangerous problems, like trying to pass and losing power. Apparently Mazda remedied the problem with a software fix.
Seems the fix fixed the problem. Only time will tell.

Would be interesting to hear from drivers who've had the fix and have high mileage on their CX-5.

There probably wouldn't be many high mileage vehicles that are 2018 and newer. Take a while to put on 100 or 150 thousand miles. I’ll be really interested to see how all the new tech holds up in the long run.

 

[yrwei52]

Do not listen to those who tell you to avoid the 2018 and newer Cx5’s.
They are giving you POOR AND MISLEADING ADVICE. Period.
In fact the CX5 reliability has been outstanding through all the Gen2 model years.

OP asked for the opinions on his potential candidates and people are giving their honest opinions. I for one am against getting a cylinder-deactivation equipped vehicle especially on a 4-cylinder where CD is giving only 0 ~ 1 mpg gain but it’s added many complicated components. IMO If you keep a car only for 5 years and less than 80K miles, you may consider a CD equipped vehicle if there’re many other nicer features to overcome this. Is avoiding CD really a poor and misleading advice? Firstly, since GM started to offer CD in 1980’s, the feature had been given nothing but problems which forced GM dropped CD in 1990’s. Honda put VCM which is the CD on its V6 in 2000’s again the result is many class-action lawsuit because of engine problems. Other than Honda there’re few car manufactures now are implementing CD such as GM in their V8 and V6 with new technology for better control on CD, but the complaints are still plenty. Since Mazda introduced CD on its naturally aspirated 2.5L for 2018 MY, service alerts、TSBs、and even a recall keep coming. If we want to give responsible opinions, do we really want to recommend a vehicle with these many issues on a system which has been out for only 3 years?

Service Alert No.: SA-041/18 ENGINE RUNS ROUGH AND/OR LACK OF POWER WITH DTCs P0340:00, P0304:00, P3400:00, P349B:00, P3498:00

Service Alert No.: SA-015/19 CHECK ENGINE LIGHT COMES ON WHEN DRIVING WITH P3400 STORED IN PCM

STATEMENT ON RECALL OF CERTAIN 2018 AND 2019 MY MAZDA CX-5, MAZDA6 AND 2019 MAZDA3 VEHICLES

Service Alert No.: SA-012/19 VALVE TAPPING OR KNOCKING NOISE HEARD FROM CYLINDER HEAD

TSB No.: 01-006/20 TAPPING NOISE FROM ENGINE

TSB No.: 05-002/20 SURGING AT LOW SPEEDS AND DURING ACCELERATION

Just look around......do you see thread after thread about blown engines? Nope.

A car model doesn’t have to have many blown engines to be a bad car (Mazda 2.2L diesel?). But the potential problems from CD are there based on the history of CD system and a series of service alerts、TSBs、and a recall.

This anti CD discrimination needs to end once and for all. All this small vocal minority is doing is trashing on the best selling model Mazda makes and continues to produce with the 2.5L.

Once again, my family has 2 of these a 2018 and 2019, 70k combined mileage and 0 issues.

Since the 2.5L NA on Mazda CX-5 from 2018 MY is the only 4-cylinder engine in US market with the CD, most car buyers are not aware of it until they bought the car. Mazda salesmen will never mention CD as a nice feature to have. If people ask, we’re obligated to give honest opinions. You you feel otherwise, you can give yours. But honestly 70K combined mileage from 2 CD equipped Mazda vehicles can’t tell too much about long-term reliability. And 0 issues? You haven’t got the CD recall done yet? Not to mention those possible problems listed on those CD related service alerts and TSBs?

 

[velocityc6]

Yup, had both our cars flashed. No issues before and no issues after.
Have the 2017’s ever had a TSB? Sure they have. Does that make them a model year to avoid? Absolutely not.

 

[HardRightEdg]

Do not listen to those who tell you to avoid the 2018 and newer Cx5’s.
They are giving you POOR AND MISLEADING ADVICE. Period.
In fact the CX5 reliability has been outstanding through all the Gen2 model years.

Just look around......do you see thread after thread about blown engines? Nope.

This anti CD discrimination needs to end once and for all. All this small vocal minority is doing is trashing on the best selling model Mazda makes and continues to produce with the 2.5L.

Once again, my family has 2 of these a 2018 and 2019, 70k combined mileage and 0 issues.

Yeah, I think it's a panic reaction to the 2018-2019 CD engine control module recall for a rocker arm falling off. Unless you happen to be one of the small handful of folks who unfortunately experienced the problem, or if one just failed to go in to have the recall update applied, I wouldn't worry about it.

Rather than listening to a handful of voices on an enthusiast web site looking for the negatives, consider instead that Consumer Reports gives the CX-5 it's highest reliability rating for each year 2017-2020. And the negatives reported by thousands of actual owners are concentrated in the electronics (4 out of 5 for reliability)--power rear hatches and sunroofs are specifically noted examples, maybe power exterior mirrors too which I could see given descriptions here of plastic gears breaking. I neither want nor need those options and frankly wouldn't take them for free on any vehicle.

While there is never a guarantee you won't get a vehicle produced on a bad day on the line, a robot going out of calibration, a bad batch of a particular part, even a manufacturing flaw in one particular part, etc,, the best one has to go on is that the vehicle is industry-leading for reliability in this class, including 5 out of 5 for the engines in the aggregate, based on a large number of driver experiences. Since the preponderance of sales are for the 2.5L, 5 out of 5 tilts toward those motors.

And it surely gets better at the lower trim levels--less stuff that can go bad.

 

[HardRightEdg]

When Mazda first introduced CD there were many reports of rocker arms coming loose and causing power loss in the vehicle.

A quick check at the NHTSA web site shows that the 2018 Mazda CX-5 had 2 recalls with a total of 64 complaints. For 2019, it was 23 complaints, all of which must have been for the CD rocker arm issue.

It does not take many complaints to generate a recall if the safety issue is serious enough and a thrown rocker arm in heavy traffic with the engine stopping dead in it's tracks would be a serious risk.

Consider Takata airbags with a recall of 100 million vehicles worldwide and counting. Front end collisions with the airbags deploying must count in the 100,000's, and only a small number of folks have been pelted with shrapnel.

Severity does not equal frequency.

 

[MartyH]

2017 Touring all the way! 32k on mine without a bit of trouble. I'm getting ready to install a heated steering wheel, paddle shifters on it in the Spring... Oh an Android play upgrade to the Infotainment system.