Lets talk AWD...
My 2017 CX-9 AWD Signature has been in a few situations where the road has been slippery and i am not sure if it behaved like AWD car.
First one was in March when i took it to the mountains and on a semi-steep driveway covered with snow/slush/ice.... on stock Falken A/S tires, the CX-9 did very very poorly. I could not go more than 5 ft up the hill. It felt like only the front wheels were spinning with no traction and i was getting no help from the rear wheels at all. I blamed it on the poor A/S Falken tires. Btw... my old Lexus GX470 4WD, on the same exact spot had zero issues with traction.
2 weeks ago.... i took my family camping. The camp site had a loading zone that was basically a steeper dirt road driveway. It was covered in dry gravel and dirt. Nothing too crazy. I unloaded the CX-9 and when i tried to drive up the steep dirt road driveway, i noticed that i was easily spinning the front tires again if i gave it any decent push. It regained traction and i got out of the steep section fine.... but it was clear that the car was acting like a FWD car for the first 1-2+ seconds. I am suspecting that the Rear wheels were engaged at some point but why the delay?? Why not instant? Isn't the Mazda AWD system super smart, with multiple sensors' inputs being collected every second, etc, etc? Mazda claims instant responsiveness and safety in slippery situations. Really?? It felt to me like it takes seconds before the rear tires engage... if they even do it.
Also, on a couple of occasions... coming out of a gas station or sharp right turn... if i floor the car hard, i can easily chirp the front tires... just like i can do on any front wheel drive car.
The FWD Mazda CX-5 i was given as a loaner... had similar tire chirping/spinning when i floored it - but i was FWD, not AWD.
Is this normal behavior for the CX-9 AWD system? Should i go get it checked? Btw... i have no warning lights or any other weird behavior. Car has only 15k miles.
It is a bit disappointing that such a "Smart awd system" can allow for so much wheel spin on snow, dirt and even on dry pavement under full power.
I have had a good number of AWD cars in my life... mostly Audis, Lexus and a Subaru... and wheel spin was not so easily achievable with any of them. The only time i could spin ALL four tires was in my Audi S4 AWD, but it was pushing close to 450hp on the wheels, which is a good problem to have.
Ideas? Other observations?
My 2017 CX-9 AWD Signature has been in a few situations where the road has been slippery and i am not sure if it behaved like AWD car.
First one was in March when i took it to the mountains and on a semi-steep driveway covered with snow/slush/ice.... on stock Falken A/S tires, the CX-9 did very very poorly. I could not go more than 5 ft up the hill. It felt like only the front wheels were spinning with no traction and i was getting no help from the rear wheels at all. I blamed it on the poor A/S Falken tires. Btw... my old Lexus GX470 4WD, on the same exact spot had zero issues with traction.
2 weeks ago.... i took my family camping. The camp site had a loading zone that was basically a steeper dirt road driveway. It was covered in dry gravel and dirt. Nothing too crazy. I unloaded the CX-9 and when i tried to drive up the steep dirt road driveway, i noticed that i was easily spinning the front tires again if i gave it any decent push. It regained traction and i got out of the steep section fine.... but it was clear that the car was acting like a FWD car for the first 1-2+ seconds. I am suspecting that the Rear wheels were engaged at some point but why the delay?? Why not instant? Isn't the Mazda AWD system super smart, with multiple sensors' inputs being collected every second, etc, etc? Mazda claims instant responsiveness and safety in slippery situations. Really?? It felt to me like it takes seconds before the rear tires engage... if they even do it.
Also, on a couple of occasions... coming out of a gas station or sharp right turn... if i floor the car hard, i can easily chirp the front tires... just like i can do on any front wheel drive car.
The FWD Mazda CX-5 i was given as a loaner... had similar tire chirping/spinning when i floored it - but i was FWD, not AWD.
Is this normal behavior for the CX-9 AWD system? Should i go get it checked? Btw... i have no warning lights or any other weird behavior. Car has only 15k miles.
It is a bit disappointing that such a "Smart awd system" can allow for so much wheel spin on snow, dirt and even on dry pavement under full power.
I have had a good number of AWD cars in my life... mostly Audis, Lexus and a Subaru... and wheel spin was not so easily achievable with any of them. The only time i could spin ALL four tires was in my Audi S4 AWD, but it was pushing close to 450hp on the wheels, which is a good problem to have.
Ideas? Other observations?
Last edited: