Rust

So to continue my story. Arriving home I inspected the roof and guys, I cannot beleive it. THE ROOF IS DENTED IN DIFFERENT AREAS. I called the dealer to return the car but they are refusing so right now I meeting my lawyer. Im so frustrated, beyond words.
 
No rust for now but it was dented by the body shop or the dealer.
IMG_1491.jpg
 
I also have a 2017 CX-9. If I were you I would have demand that its a lemon and have them replaced with another brand new CX-9. I got mine for almost a year and its showing signs of either tree sap or rust showing up on multiple spots. Probably because mine is a frosted white but it don't look good when I want it to be shiny white.

Sadly there is no lemon law in Puerto Rico. The consumer affairs department can help but is very slow, so your only alternative is to get a lawyer. Talked to my lawyer today and as a first step, I documented everything, including pictures, service invoices, etc. The second step is going to the dealer and personally ask them to replace the unit with another new CX-9, but if this action fails then I have to submit an official complaint in the consumer affairs department for the damages and sue the dealer and associated companies directly for all the losses. Right now I'm working on a letter to the bank since it is a leasing.
 
Yesterday I officially requested the unit to be replaced with a new one after hearing the dealer's position regarding a second repair of the rooftop. I wasn't satisfied with the body shop's response to fix the dents caused by them and demanded a new unit. They are resisting to replace the unit since according to them, the unit can be repaired, again, but I told them that I don't trust their ability to do so since the car was delivered with dents and scratches caused by them and I won't pay for a car that in the first two months of use had to be repainted twice. It is absurd and not acceptable. So right now we (me and my lawyer) are waiting for the dealer's decision to replace the unit.
 
Good news, finally the dealer’s head company decided to replace my car for a new one. Hopefully this time I get what I paid for.
 
That is great news! And you deserve a replacement unit because rust on a brand new car is pretty unacceptable.
 
Finally! Since all 2017 units presented different problems the dealer's manager decided to give a new 2018 GT at the same price of 2017. The only alternative was white or red so I took the white like my previous Mazda 6 2014. So far so good. Happy again! Proud owner of a Cx-9 18 Snowflake White Pearl Mica with Black interiors.
 
Last edited:
I'm glad they took care of you. I'm sorry you had to go through all the bull, but at least they did the right thing.

Yeah, the process was kind of hard, and at first, I felt powerless because I know how hard is to get your car replaced since Puerto Rico's laws don't offer good protection to car buyers. Here is no Lemon Law like in the States. Fighting them via the legal route was going to be tedious, expensive and a long process, even knowing that something like this will be solved to my favor but they accepted to replace the unit without more delays.

Well, I think that talking to the head's company CEO helped a lot, and since it was the dealer's fault to deliver a unit in that condition, it was a no-brainer.

I learned, the hard way, all those new cars that were left outdoors when the hurricane Maria hit us were affected in different ways. They cannot store those cars indoors when a hurricane hits and that is why all the models 2017 the showed to me were having problems or showing a lot of cosmetic issues. They had no alternative but to replace it with a 2018 model.
 
2016 cx9 rust on roof
Currently trying to deal with a dealer mazda to repair over 70 rusty spots on the roof
The rust appears only on the roof and lift gate
 

Attachments

  • 53D93568-ACE1-451C-9069-44690D34FDEB.jpeg
    53D93568-ACE1-451C-9069-44690D34FDEB.jpeg
    185.7 KB · Views: 178
  • 48BA3CCC-3BCE-4D88-830F-83674DABCFEC.jpeg
    48BA3CCC-3BCE-4D88-830F-83674DABCFEC.jpeg
    141.8 KB · Views: 178
  • 50B8C1CD-A3A5-49DC-9C53-5D5ACE19E809.jpeg
    50B8C1CD-A3A5-49DC-9C53-5D5ACE19E809.jpeg
    115.9 KB · Views: 181
2016 cx9 rust on roof
Currently trying to deal with a dealer mazda to repair over 70 rusty spots on the roof
The rust appears only on the roof and lift gate
Keep at it with the dealer and don't let them say no, ever. Also, get documents every time you go in so you can have a paper trail of them either looking at or documenting the rust you show them. Good luck!
 
Keep at it with the dealer and don't let them say no, ever. Also, get documents every time you go in so you can have a paper trail of them either looking at or documenting the rust you show them. Good luck!
They told me they will not even open a claim because it is older then 3 years and warranty will not cover it
 
Yeah, unfortunately, Mazdas seem to have rust issues. My old MSP and Protege5 both had it, and I live no where near the snow.

There's two grades of Japanese steel... Ancient samurai sword and '81 Mazda GLC. :ROFLMAO:
 
They told me they will not even open a claim because it is older then 3 years and warranty will not cover it

You're in Canada right? All new Mazdas have a 7-year perforation warranty. Some salespeople mistakenly say that it covers rust, but it really just covers structural rust damage, not surface rust.

That said, since the dealer hasn't been helpful, I would contact Mazda Corporate directly. Make sure you send them photos and copies of your previous conversations with the Mazda dealership you were speaking with. Include the names and positions of everyone you dealt with. If you aren't satisfied with the answer you get from the Mazda Corporate Customer Service rep, you can request an escalation to that person's manager. After that, you might be out of luck, but you can file a claim with the BBB explaining your issues with Mazda.
 
You're in Canada right? All new Mazdas have a 7-year perforation warranty. Some salespeople mistakenly say that it covers rust, but it really just covers structural rust damage, not surface rust.
In the US the corrosion warranty for a 2020 CX-5 is for 5 years. My US 2016 Sienna is warratied for 5 years for "corrosion perforation of sheet metal only" which is typical in my experience across various makes and models. I don't recall ever having a US rust-through warranty that covered "structural", such as the chassis. I'm not sure my 2020 US CX-5 covers anything other than body panel rust-through. I'd be surprised if it did.

With all this recent (and not so recent) discussion of Mazda rust problems I was wondering what I might have missed in researching my recent 2020 CX-5 puchase.

Consumer Reports' reliability ratings from this past April for CX-5s dating back to 2013 show a record that is about as good as it gets across makes and models, especially in this price range. Some Lexus models fare better, others worse. From 2017 on, the only CX-5 ratings that are not above average is an average rating for in-car electronics in 2017. The only below average ratings in prior years are for brakes in the 2013s, in-car electronics in the 2014s and 2016s , and power equipment in the 2016s. Other Mazda models have not fared as well.

Are these CX-5 owners missing the boat, not reporting their problems, rust or otherwise? As a spot check, there is this Mazda recall for rusty brakes in a couple of other Mazda models and years:

.

The Mazda3s in that recall scored below average per Consumer Reports for brakes in 2014 and 2015, average for 2016. The Mazda 6s for their recall years scored the worst ratings for brake reliability. Even if an owner incurs no cost or performance issue, Consumer Reports advises them to downgrade ratings for time sucks at the dealer. These ratings are in keeping with the extent of the recalls.

This leads me to a couple of observations:

1) A problem wth one model year may not apply to another model or year from the same maker. That's pretty obvious. You cannot project problems from one of a maker's models to another in the same year. That's pretty obvious as well.

2) I may have been premature in blanket advice against any aftermarket rustproofing. Under the most extreme conditions, say 7 months of Canadian salty commutes with a car parked outdoors that is not fastidiously sent through regular undercarriage washes, it may not be a bad idea to have it subjected to an aftermaket rust proofing treatment. Conversely, I've subjected several Toyotas, a Honda and even a Chrysler to long slushy commutes in the Chicago region over many miles and years without any such issues. However, those vehicles were garage kept and frequently run through a car wash with an underbody spray. At the very least, the value of these rustproofing treatments should be regarded as situational with the devil in the details.

3) Regardless, I would strongly advise against any aftermarket rust prevention treatment that involves drilling into the vehicle. Further, Ziebart talks about their oily treatment as being superior to tarry treatments that can actually trap moisture and cause corrosion. They don't seem to be averse to drilling into vehicles, however. Whatever methodology one is considering, I'd get a copy of the manufacturer rust-through warranty to see if such treatments would void it. Since I don't intend to do this I'll leave that to others to investigate.

4) Surface rust may or not be a sign of worse problems to come. Buildings and bridges have been built with skins designed to accumulate surface oxidation as a protectorant, the USX headquarters in Pittsburgh an early demonstration project. Whether surface rust on a particular Mazda part is expected, that would be a question for a Mazda engineer. My 2006 Accord's brake calipers left rusty drips on a spanking new garage floor 7 years ago without any problem since. I think it is fair to say Honda engineers expected that.

5) The shortcoming of a Consumer Reports reliability rating is it lumps all vehicles and all trim lines from a model year into one bucket. There are several problems with this, but in general it is worth considering that each vehicle is unique. With some 30,000 - 40,000 discrete parts, a person or robot can reach into bin and grab a perfectly fine part on one vehicle and then a defective part from a different production run on the next vehicle. A production machine or robot or person could be miscalibrated at one moment, the problem discovered and fixed the next, with the first one sent through as "within tolerance". Or it could be weeks or months with the problem going undiscovered and if there isn't a safety problem requiring a recall it gets a service bulletin...or not. A problem could be a one-off. I recently had a set of new Toyota OEM brake pads start squeeking right of of the dealer shop. After two trips back to the dealer they couldn't identify the problem other than possibly impurities in the pads. They replaced them under their own service warranty with no problem since, the same part off the same shelf two weeks later.

6) In the end, with perhaps 100,000s, if not millions, of a particular make and model sold worldwide out of mutiple factories with parts from mutilple suppliers, there really isn't a "model year" or half model year--there's only you, your car and your situation. So you have to guard against too much anecdotal complaints from others with their cars and their situations. If you see 4 complaints about a particular thing in these pages you have to ask about all the thousands or hundreds of thousands of folks not complaining.

7) For that reason, no matter what the reliability ratings say from whatever souce you choose, you're playing the odds with those ratings and that is the best you're going to do. I'm liking my odds with the Consumer Reports' ratings and will not be buying any extended warranties or rust proofing or any paint treatments for this Soul Red, despite reports of issues with that color because it looked just fine at the 4,000+ miles it had already. So, make your bets and take your chances.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
In the US the corrosion warranty for a 2020 CX-5 is for 5 years. My US 2016 Sienna is warratied for 5 years for "corrosion perforation of sheet metal only" which is typical in my experience across various makes and models. I don't recall ever having a US rust-through warranty that covered "structural", such as the chassis. I'm not sure my 2020 US CX-5 covers anything other than body panel rust-through. I'd be surprised if it did.

Sorry you're right, "structural" was the wrong term. Perforation warranty covers sheet metal that has rusted through, but doesn't cover surface rust that might develop from rock chips in the paint.


2) I may have been premature in blanket advice against any aftermarket rustproofing. Under the most extreme conditions, say 7 months of Canadian salty commutes with a car parked outdoors that is not fastidiously sent through regular undercarriage washes, it may not be a bad idea to have it subjected to an aftermaket rust proofing treatment. Conversely, I've subjected several Toyotas, a Honda and even a Chrysler to long slushy commutes in the Chicago region over many miles and years without any such issues. However, those vehicles were garage kept and frequently run through a car wash with an underbody spray. At the very least, the value of these rustproofing treatments should be regarded as situational with the devil in the details.

That's basically what I said in the other thread. A can of Fluid Film costs maybe $10 and is likely enough for one treatment. Cost to apply will vary depending on who you pay to apply it. Personally I have not done a Fluid Film treatment on my 2018 CX-9 yet. It has been through a few Canadian winters, but I have been pretty diligent about keeping the undercarriage clean. I've still got some surface rust developing (mostly on or around welds), nothing alarming though.
 
Back