lol. Now I see it. Thanks !
I am glad you enjoyed your first “long haul”, we’re doing that at the end of August and I can’t wait.
Is the CX-90 Really that Bad? Owner Feedback?
- Thread starter 2005mazda
- Start date
I am glad you enjoyed your first “long haul”, we’re doing that at the end of August and I can’t wait.
We have had a CX-90 TPP (280 hp) for eight months. I was initially pleased with the vehicle, but I soon had concerns that it was not ready for release even after waiting 6 months from its introduction.
I do not find that it feels cheap or shudders or that the NVH is unpleasant. The ride is firm and it isn't silent or ultra quiet, but I am satisfied with it. One area I would like to see improved is the lower door cladding. The driver & passenger side door does slap/flop when closed. One doesn't hear it from inside, but it is noticeable from the outside.
I agree with many of the comments about its laggy/jerky step-off. I do not use iStop. Still, the low-speed behavior is rough and doesn't seem fixable with software tuning. The imbedded iStop/hybrid function seems to be at fault. Mazda seems enamored with similar systems used on BMW & Merc I6s but haven't tuned theirs nearly as well.
If you have in mind doing pink slip runs DON'T. Honda Odesseys will smoke you. The CX90 has a leisurely getaway but picks up speed quickly. I do not have any issues with its highway performance - it glides at internet speeds.
The Mazda i-Active sense is a nuisance, but aren't they all? One can tune the sensitivity on some features, reduce the volume of the alarms or, selectively, turn them off.
The Radar Cruise Control is a mess. I do not mind the Distance Pacing or Auto Braking features, but the RCC loses 3 - 6 mph in any but the gentlest curves. It is embarrassing and dangerous. I've had service check it three times and they claim it is "performing as designed". My `16 VW Golf performs flawlessly. Doesn't Mazda know how to benchmark?
I still think when the upper trim CX-90s are compared to its primary competition (Honda Pilot, Kia Telluride, Nissan Pathfinder & Toyota Highlander) and aspirational competition (Acura MDX, Infiniti QX60 & Volvo XC-90) it is still a smart buy. I don't think it is a value priced BMW 5/7 or Mercedes GL 350/450.
Knowing what I know now, and with Acura's 2025 upgrades, I would likely buy the MDX Technology. It would cost ~ $10K more than we spent. The Advanced is a better comparison to our TPP but the price for it hasn't been posted - I'm thinking it's another $3 - 5K.
I am eagerly waiting to hear if Mazda has addressed some of the issues that have been noted with the 2025s.
I can drop in my perspective after owning the CX-90 for a week. I have covered just under 400 miles so far, including a relatively long highway trip, but most of my driving has been in and around Charlotte, NC in the city.
Quick background, my wife and I had a 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland that we adored. Bought it in 2014 as it was coming off a lease with about 35k miles on it. Traded it last week as part of this deal with 151k on it. It was time. As part of the deal for the CX-90 I also traded my 2022 Land Rover Defender 90. I also adored that truck, but we moved to a new house to down size, hopefully retire one day, etc. It made no sense to keep two cars of our own in addition to my wife's work car. Also, the Defender wouldn't fit in the garage at the new place as it is too tall for the really short garage doors built in 1965.
I did a ton of research on different cars. We wanted something that could be a "jack of all trades" and do a lot of different things well. We didn't need a third row, per se, but we wanted it as a nice to have just because of the few times it would be very nice to easily haul two extra people to the restaurant/bar/etc.
I won't bore you with all my research, and my spreadsheet, etc. but after a lot of that, we boiled it down to really looking at the Jaguar F-Pace (I love that car, even with no third row), the Kia Telluride, the Honda Pilot, the Genesis GV80 and the Acura MDX. We ruled out the F-Pace and Genesis pretty early because we like the other four and the cost difference is huge. (Also the GV80 I drove must've been broken or something. It was slow as mud. I could have hopped out and pushed it faster than I could get it up to speed.)
So, between the Honda Pilot, Kia Telluride, Acura MDX and CX-90 we were just wowed by the look and feel of the CX-90s exterior and interior. It felt the closest to the Jag in interior "wow" factor and in being relatively fun to drive. (It's not as fun as that F-pace with a six-cylinder, but it's MUCH more engaging than the MDX or the Pilot in my opinion.) The Pilot is probably the most practical of the bunch and my head was telling me that the Pilot or the Telluride had the most room, the most storage, etc. But I had no real emotional connection to either. They were... fine. So for us, it was really the CX-90 or the MDX. We ended up going with the CX-90 in Turbo S Premium Plus, Artisan Red with the tan interior. The Acura has a better sound system but that was the only place it was clearly better to me unless you went with the MDX Type S, and the Type S is about 16k more than the CX-90 we got, which still felt more fun to drive.
So living with the new CX-90 for a week, do I notice some of the quirky things reviewers have pointed out? Well... sort of, but I think maybe my car was built late enough a lot of these were ironed out before I ever really experienced it. My car was built in June of 2024. I have felt a bit of the low speed jerkiness, but I quickly changed how I use the accelerator to accommodate and essentially have not noticed it since then. I do us i-stop and I get very smooth engagement when the engine kicks back on and pretty smooth acceleration. As mentioned above the CX-90 isn't going to win a drag race. With that said, where I think it is actually super impressive though is not 0-60 but 50-80. When you're on the highway and you need to quickly get some speed to get out and around traffic the CX-90 offers a swell of mid-range power. Passing on the highway is a breeze and you never feel like the transmission is searching, or that you're going to be left hanging in a dangerous situation.
As far as the door closing sound, vibration at the bottom of the door, after reading about, I do see it from outside the vehicle. I never noticed it before I read about it and then went to try it out, but that's just me. It might bother you way more than me.
The lack of storage inside is a little mind-boggling, but a good friend of mine has a CX-9 and I never felt like the CX-9 had enough space inside either. Both are surprisingly small inside for vehicles this big. And I'm not just talking about storage space, although the storage space is an issue. Packaging in the CX-90 is a little weird, especially if you go drive something like a Honda Pilot, which is just stupid functional inside. There is stacked storage in the doors in the Pilot, there are deep cupholders everywhere. There is a shelf in the dash. it's just a much more usable place to be in comparison to the Mazda. The trade off though is I just wasn't excited about the Pilot. It would've been a perfectly functional appliance type car for me, and I'm sure I'd have been bored with it in two years and want to trade it. No clue if I feel the same with the Mazda in two years but I doubt it. However, it is a compromise. If you really need a three row SUV to be functional and highly practical, the CX-90 may not be the one for you.
The tech inside is fine with me. The Bose audio system is underpowered in my opinion, but is good at the things that Bose is usually good at, that being realistic, relatively un-filtered audio reproduction. You can turn on centerpoint for a little "surround-sound-esque" approach if you want, but the regular stereo in "linear" is pretty good audio reproduction. I find the audio system to be a little bass-heavy, as most Bose systems are, out of the box, so I currently have mine with the bass dropped down one notch and the treble raised one notch. Again, I think it's a good system. Probably an A-tier audio system, but you could maybe drop it to a B tier for something that costs 60k plus, like the MSRP on ours. The MDX Bang and Olufsen system is much better, but again, the MDX ends up costing a lot more too. Audio is one of the most important things to me, and I feel like the Bose in the Mazda is pretty darn good.
The safety/nanny tech is annoying, but it's annoying to me in all new cars. I don't find the Mazda any worse than others, and it's not nearly as aggressive as the safety tech in my wife's work car, which is a Subaru Outback. It's only been a week, but I haven't really received a lot of false warnings, or phantom beeps. Only thing I really sort of laughed at was it yelling at me on the highway for a lane departure warning as I move too far left to avoid being hit by an 18-wheeler moving into our lane, which the safety system also knew was there, because it was showing it on the interactive driver screen. lol.
In the city the CX-90 has been great. Roads in Charlotte are really bad in a lot of places around us and while I do find the ride in the CX-90 firm, it is not punishing to me. Now remember, I'm coming from a 2022 Land Rover Defender 90 on all-terrain tires and a 2011 Grand Cherokee in desperate need of new air shocks. lol. Before that I've had a lot of sports cars (Jaguar F-type, Corvettes, etc.) so I'm coming from a much more punishing ride than most. If you want a very cushy ride, the CX-90 is not the best for that, but I find a really cushy ride to feel like the car is wallowing to me so the sportier springs feel good to me. With that said, at 60k plus this is the one place I kind of wish Mazda had just spent a little more money and offered an adaptive suspension, even if it bumped the MSRP up a little. The comfort mode on the MDX Type S air suspension is amazing, and having an option like that on the highway would be phenomenal. Like I said though, I like how Mazda has sprung the CX-90. It's a solid 8 out 10 ride for me in most conditions. It's "good" at most scenarios but only really great on the handling side. If you care more about comfort than engagement then again, you should drive a few different SUVs to be sure you'd want to live with the CX-90 on the daily. I dig it, but I can 100 percent understand why it may not be what you'd want in a three-row.
Second and third rows are fine in my opinion. Could you have a little more leg room in both? Sure, but by adjusting the second row seats, you can make the third row work for medium to small adults easily enough for short trips in town, which is all we'd ever use it for anyway. We will mostly have the third row down. I already got a folding cargo mat to lay back there for trips to Home Depot and it will just stay laid out across the back 95 percent of the time. Nice to know I have the seat back there if I need it though.
Oh, one other kind of weird thing is the sunroof. The panoramic sunroof is nice, and I often ride around with the shade open to let in light. I did this on my Defender all the time too. However, when you open the actual sunroof on the CX-90 it really doesn't open very far at all. I've seen plenty of people comment on that and I agree, it's weird to have all that glass over your head and then the maximum you can open the roof is about 1.5 feet. Just seems like another weird packaging thing. It doesn't really bother me personally, as I just don't open the sunroof that much, but it is a bit of an oddity.
All in all, I look at the CX-90 and I agree with a lot of the choices Mazda made in order to provide something that is a lot like one of German SUVs in practice. There are still some little things that probably should be there that are not tech-wise, but at the end of the day, for the first model year, I think Mazda knocked it out of the park and I'm interested to see where they go over the next few years as they tweak this platform. I wouldn't consider the CX-90 a full on luxury SUV yet, but it feels luxury-adjacent. It's right there with Acura and Infiniti, while doing some things (rear-wheel biased, inline 6 motor) in the same class as Mercedes and BMW. Here's to hoping the reliability is typical Mazda and I'll be really, REALLY happy in 5 years with this purchase.
Quick background, my wife and I had a 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland that we adored. Bought it in 2014 as it was coming off a lease with about 35k miles on it. Traded it last week as part of this deal with 151k on it. It was time. As part of the deal for the CX-90 I also traded my 2022 Land Rover Defender 90. I also adored that truck, but we moved to a new house to down size, hopefully retire one day, etc. It made no sense to keep two cars of our own in addition to my wife's work car. Also, the Defender wouldn't fit in the garage at the new place as it is too tall for the really short garage doors built in 1965.
I did a ton of research on different cars. We wanted something that could be a "jack of all trades" and do a lot of different things well. We didn't need a third row, per se, but we wanted it as a nice to have just because of the few times it would be very nice to easily haul two extra people to the restaurant/bar/etc.
I won't bore you with all my research, and my spreadsheet, etc. but after a lot of that, we boiled it down to really looking at the Jaguar F-Pace (I love that car, even with no third row), the Kia Telluride, the Honda Pilot, the Genesis GV80 and the Acura MDX. We ruled out the F-Pace and Genesis pretty early because we like the other four and the cost difference is huge. (Also the GV80 I drove must've been broken or something. It was slow as mud. I could have hopped out and pushed it faster than I could get it up to speed.)
So, between the Honda Pilot, Kia Telluride, Acura MDX and CX-90 we were just wowed by the look and feel of the CX-90s exterior and interior. It felt the closest to the Jag in interior "wow" factor and in being relatively fun to drive. (It's not as fun as that F-pace with a six-cylinder, but it's MUCH more engaging than the MDX or the Pilot in my opinion.) The Pilot is probably the most practical of the bunch and my head was telling me that the Pilot or the Telluride had the most room, the most storage, etc. But I had no real emotional connection to either. They were... fine. So for us, it was really the CX-90 or the MDX. We ended up going with the CX-90 in Turbo S Premium Plus, Artisan Red with the tan interior. The Acura has a better sound system but that was the only place it was clearly better to me unless you went with the MDX Type S, and the Type S is about 16k more than the CX-90 we got, which still felt more fun to drive.
So living with the new CX-90 for a week, do I notice some of the quirky things reviewers have pointed out? Well... sort of, but I think maybe my car was built late enough a lot of these were ironed out before I ever really experienced it. My car was built in June of 2024. I have felt a bit of the low speed jerkiness, but I quickly changed how I use the accelerator to accommodate and essentially have not noticed it since then. I do us i-stop and I get very smooth engagement when the engine kicks back on and pretty smooth acceleration. As mentioned above the CX-90 isn't going to win a drag race. With that said, where I think it is actually super impressive though is not 0-60 but 50-80. When you're on the highway and you need to quickly get some speed to get out and around traffic the CX-90 offers a swell of mid-range power. Passing on the highway is a breeze and you never feel like the transmission is searching, or that you're going to be left hanging in a dangerous situation.
As far as the door closing sound, vibration at the bottom of the door, after reading about, I do see it from outside the vehicle. I never noticed it before I read about it and then went to try it out, but that's just me. It might bother you way more than me.
The lack of storage inside is a little mind-boggling, but a good friend of mine has a CX-9 and I never felt like the CX-9 had enough space inside either. Both are surprisingly small inside for vehicles this big. And I'm not just talking about storage space, although the storage space is an issue. Packaging in the CX-90 is a little weird, especially if you go drive something like a Honda Pilot, which is just stupid functional inside. There is stacked storage in the doors in the Pilot, there are deep cupholders everywhere. There is a shelf in the dash. it's just a much more usable place to be in comparison to the Mazda. The trade off though is I just wasn't excited about the Pilot. It would've been a perfectly functional appliance type car for me, and I'm sure I'd have been bored with it in two years and want to trade it. No clue if I feel the same with the Mazda in two years but I doubt it. However, it is a compromise. If you really need a three row SUV to be functional and highly practical, the CX-90 may not be the one for you.
The tech inside is fine with me. The Bose audio system is underpowered in my opinion, but is good at the things that Bose is usually good at, that being realistic, relatively un-filtered audio reproduction. You can turn on centerpoint for a little "surround-sound-esque" approach if you want, but the regular stereo in "linear" is pretty good audio reproduction. I find the audio system to be a little bass-heavy, as most Bose systems are, out of the box, so I currently have mine with the bass dropped down one notch and the treble raised one notch. Again, I think it's a good system. Probably an A-tier audio system, but you could maybe drop it to a B tier for something that costs 60k plus, like the MSRP on ours. The MDX Bang and Olufsen system is much better, but again, the MDX ends up costing a lot more too. Audio is one of the most important things to me, and I feel like the Bose in the Mazda is pretty darn good.
The safety/nanny tech is annoying, but it's annoying to me in all new cars. I don't find the Mazda any worse than others, and it's not nearly as aggressive as the safety tech in my wife's work car, which is a Subaru Outback. It's only been a week, but I haven't really received a lot of false warnings, or phantom beeps. Only thing I really sort of laughed at was it yelling at me on the highway for a lane departure warning as I move too far left to avoid being hit by an 18-wheeler moving into our lane, which the safety system also knew was there, because it was showing it on the interactive driver screen. lol.
In the city the CX-90 has been great. Roads in Charlotte are really bad in a lot of places around us and while I do find the ride in the CX-90 firm, it is not punishing to me. Now remember, I'm coming from a 2022 Land Rover Defender 90 on all-terrain tires and a 2011 Grand Cherokee in desperate need of new air shocks. lol. Before that I've had a lot of sports cars (Jaguar F-type, Corvettes, etc.) so I'm coming from a much more punishing ride than most. If you want a very cushy ride, the CX-90 is not the best for that, but I find a really cushy ride to feel like the car is wallowing to me so the sportier springs feel good to me. With that said, at 60k plus this is the one place I kind of wish Mazda had just spent a little more money and offered an adaptive suspension, even if it bumped the MSRP up a little. The comfort mode on the MDX Type S air suspension is amazing, and having an option like that on the highway would be phenomenal. Like I said though, I like how Mazda has sprung the CX-90. It's a solid 8 out 10 ride for me in most conditions. It's "good" at most scenarios but only really great on the handling side. If you care more about comfort than engagement then again, you should drive a few different SUVs to be sure you'd want to live with the CX-90 on the daily. I dig it, but I can 100 percent understand why it may not be what you'd want in a three-row.
Second and third rows are fine in my opinion. Could you have a little more leg room in both? Sure, but by adjusting the second row seats, you can make the third row work for medium to small adults easily enough for short trips in town, which is all we'd ever use it for anyway. We will mostly have the third row down. I already got a folding cargo mat to lay back there for trips to Home Depot and it will just stay laid out across the back 95 percent of the time. Nice to know I have the seat back there if I need it though.
Oh, one other kind of weird thing is the sunroof. The panoramic sunroof is nice, and I often ride around with the shade open to let in light. I did this on my Defender all the time too. However, when you open the actual sunroof on the CX-90 it really doesn't open very far at all. I've seen plenty of people comment on that and I agree, it's weird to have all that glass over your head and then the maximum you can open the roof is about 1.5 feet. Just seems like another weird packaging thing. It doesn't really bother me personally, as I just don't open the sunroof that much, but it is a bit of an oddity.
All in all, I look at the CX-90 and I agree with a lot of the choices Mazda made in order to provide something that is a lot like one of German SUVs in practice. There are still some little things that probably should be there that are not tech-wise, but at the end of the day, for the first model year, I think Mazda knocked it out of the park and I'm interested to see where they go over the next few years as they tweak this platform. I wouldn't consider the CX-90 a full on luxury SUV yet, but it feels luxury-adjacent. It's right there with Acura and Infiniti, while doing some things (rear-wheel biased, inline 6 motor) in the same class as Mercedes and BMW. Here's to hoping the reliability is typical Mazda and I'll be really, REALLY happy in 5 years with this purchase.
- :
- 2024 CX90 PHEV Premium Plus
I never had any gripes about the CX-9’s power. It wasn’t crazy fast, but it was quick enough. I never had issues pulling ahead of traffic from a stoplight. And were it really mattered to me, passing at highway speeds, it always had plenty of grunt above 70mph. The CX90 PHEV feels a little quicker, not significantly. But being RWD, I don’t get the tires chirping so it hooks up perfectly every time.
Handling, I can’t tell much of a difference. The CX90 feels planted in the same familiar stretches of road and curves. I was excited about going to a RWD platform, but the CX9 was so good, it wasn’t much of a leap from the CX9 to the CX90. Overall, I preferred the CX9. The steering was quicker. Gave it more of a nimble feeling. Bonus - CX9 had a much better ride/handling balance. For as well as it handled, the highway ride was comfortable. In the CX90, my 10 yr old asks why the ride is so “thumpy”.
We rented a CX-90 six cylinder for two weeks and had similar opinions. The six cylinder engine is more powerful than my 4 cylinder normally aspirated 2017 CX-5, yet in some ways it doesn't feel a lot more powerful than my CX-5. The car is significantly heavier than my CX-5 so maybe that contributes.
The ride is pretty stiff - arguably stiffer than my cx-5. It rides comfortably on perfect roads. On less than absolutely perfect roads, you feel every single flaw in the road. Tar strips? You hear and feel every one. Small uneven patches in the road sometimes felt like i hit a pothole, even when i didn't see anything even out of the ordinary on the road. The ride is often downright choppy at times and on some "imperfect" roads, the car is constantly in motion. I'm in the market for a replacement for my CX-5 because of the stiff ride and hoped that the CX-90 might have a more comfortable ride. Now i am considering Acura and audi SUVs instead.
The car is a land barge - it's very long and very hard to park in head-on spaces. It's hard to turn into such a space because of the length of the car. I bypassed numerous spaces that i would have no trouble with in my CX-5.
The front doors rattle and clank when i shut them rather than a reassuring clunk. This immediately made me question the build quality of the car and really turned me off.
The new shifter is annoying - Park mode requires that you shift up to Park and then slide the shifter left. Many times trying to start the car, a message would display on the dashboard telling me that the car had to be in Park before i could start before it would start even when the car WAS in Park. Had to shift out and back into Park numerous times before it would finally figure it out and start.
After driving down some gravel roads, ae found plenty of dust inside the back doorsills when we opened the doors. Dust should be on the OUTSIDE of the car, not the INSIDE. I've driven my CX-5 over many dusty gravel roads and never seen dust inside the doors.
This car seems to have a chime for everything- quite a bit more than my CX-5. all the chimes get annoying after awhile. When the car is in reverse but the driver has the brake on, there's even a repeating chime outside coming from the front of the car. I can't figure out why the car needs a chime outside!
To me, this car feels like kind of numb like a big American car from years gone by. It doesn't have the "personality"(?) and feel of my CX-5. the car definitely does not exude the "zoom zoom" that mazda pitches.
I'm unimpressed with this car. I expected/hoped for a lot more .
Last edited:
- :
- Canada
The reverse chime may be there because the car is quiet in reverse. My cousin had a Nissan Ariya EV, it would emit a low-pitched chime in reverse. I would expect this in the PHEV, but maybe they added it to the 6cyl versions just to simplify the packaging.
Took delivery of a CX-90 Premium Plus at the end of September and just drove it from Florida to Connecticut. Just past the 2000 miles mark so far and I have to answer Yes to the Question posed by the OP.
Build quality seems good but doors do sound a little tinny when closing. Not a big deal however.
Radar cruise control is a complete disaster. During our trip we spent many hours in bumper to bumper traffic or just heavy high speed traffic. It was almost unusable in both situations. When accelerating it drives like a teenager. Flooring the accelerator to fill a gap left by a car changing lanes then breaking when it catches up to the next car. Drove me and other drivers nuts. One time when changing lanes to pass a slower car, the cruise control hit the brakes, slowing down by 15mph. There was no car in front to cause this to happen. The only thing I can guess is that the lane making on the road we're heavily faded and maybe the camera thought the car I was passing was in my lane. Also, the resume button is very sensitive and if accidentally depressed when trying to increment the speed by pushing up, the car will revert to whatever speed it thinks is the limit. This happened a handful of times. The worst case was when we were in a 70mph zone, but the car picked up a 35mph sign on an exit we were passing at 75. Yikes!! It slammed on the brakes and dropped by 20mph before I could react and hit the pedal. Luckily no one was tailgating at that time. This seems like a safety defect that should be a recall.
The transmission is less than ideal and pretty horrible in bumper to bumper traffic. It literally lurches anytime I hit the gas going less than 20 and seems to regularly stumble when downshifting. It was so bad I'm taking it in for service to make sure it is not malfunctioning.
Car Play has it's issues as well. When using Google Maps to navigate, the screen would change back too Mazda Connect communications screen whenever Google provided verbal alerts or navigation instructions. So right when you need to see the map to make the correct turn, the map screen disappears. It also sometimes loses Car Play and refuses to reconnect. I finally figured out that the phone thought it was still connected but the car had lost the connection. Disconnecting Car Play on the phone allows the phone to be reconnected from the infotainment screen.
I also had a problem with the rear hatch. I had loaded groceries into the back and manually shut the hatch. When I got home the hatch refused to open. I had to press the emergency button on the Inside of the hatch. This caused to hatch to click closed allowing the hatch to then be opened using the normal buttons. There was no door ajar alert on the dash, so this is likely a safety defect.
I do like the handling, drive comfort, interior and looks of this car. It's the software that powers all of these features that needs to be improved. If future software releases fix these issues, this will be an excellent vehicle. Otherwise, I may have to get rid of it for something more refined.
Build quality seems good but doors do sound a little tinny when closing. Not a big deal however.
Radar cruise control is a complete disaster. During our trip we spent many hours in bumper to bumper traffic or just heavy high speed traffic. It was almost unusable in both situations. When accelerating it drives like a teenager. Flooring the accelerator to fill a gap left by a car changing lanes then breaking when it catches up to the next car. Drove me and other drivers nuts. One time when changing lanes to pass a slower car, the cruise control hit the brakes, slowing down by 15mph. There was no car in front to cause this to happen. The only thing I can guess is that the lane making on the road we're heavily faded and maybe the camera thought the car I was passing was in my lane. Also, the resume button is very sensitive and if accidentally depressed when trying to increment the speed by pushing up, the car will revert to whatever speed it thinks is the limit. This happened a handful of times. The worst case was when we were in a 70mph zone, but the car picked up a 35mph sign on an exit we were passing at 75. Yikes!! It slammed on the brakes and dropped by 20mph before I could react and hit the pedal. Luckily no one was tailgating at that time. This seems like a safety defect that should be a recall.
The transmission is less than ideal and pretty horrible in bumper to bumper traffic. It literally lurches anytime I hit the gas going less than 20 and seems to regularly stumble when downshifting. It was so bad I'm taking it in for service to make sure it is not malfunctioning.
Car Play has it's issues as well. When using Google Maps to navigate, the screen would change back too Mazda Connect communications screen whenever Google provided verbal alerts or navigation instructions. So right when you need to see the map to make the correct turn, the map screen disappears. It also sometimes loses Car Play and refuses to reconnect. I finally figured out that the phone thought it was still connected but the car had lost the connection. Disconnecting Car Play on the phone allows the phone to be reconnected from the infotainment screen.
I also had a problem with the rear hatch. I had loaded groceries into the back and manually shut the hatch. When I got home the hatch refused to open. I had to press the emergency button on the Inside of the hatch. This caused to hatch to click closed allowing the hatch to then be opened using the normal buttons. There was no door ajar alert on the dash, so this is likely a safety defect.
I do like the handling, drive comfort, interior and looks of this car. It's the software that powers all of these features that needs to be improved. If future software releases fix these issues, this will be an excellent vehicle. Otherwise, I may have to get rid of it for something more refined.
I rented a CX-90 for two weeks and noticed the same acceleration issue with the radar cruise. If i braked to slow down then hit resume for the radar cruise, the car goes into warp speed - it just floors the accelerator to get back up to speed. Pretty unnerving and definitely unnecessary.
At around low speeds like pulling away from stop sign in a hurry or any other reason you need a burst of power, flooring the accelerator causes the engine to make big noises but it ddoesn't actually do much else.
Yeah, i felt like the doors didn't shut solidly - they seem to rattle when closed tether than giving a solid "thunk".
After driving on gravel roads i found dust inside the doors on the doorsills. That doesn't happen with my CX-5.
I haven't been off pavement but I will keep my eyes open for dust intrusion. I haven't noticed any acceleration issues. In my experience it moves when I ask it to. I did have to jump off the line when I found myself in the wrong turning lane at a stop light and it easily got me ahead of the other cars to get me where I needed to go.
Owner of a 2024 Mazda CX-90 3.3 Turbo Preferred Plus in Platinum Quartz Metallic: purchased in March 2024, w/8,000 miles so far.
The good:
- Great handling for a 3 row SUV. Easy to drive on windy roads. Stiffer suspension so ride not as smooth as something like the Toyota Grand Highlander, but we wanted a more sporty SUV, so Mazda was an easy choice.
- Nice interior and not nearly as cluttered as others. Heads-up display big: with the Mazda/Android Auto/Apple CarPlay navigation, shows up on the heads-up display, so that's also big.
- Comfortable seats; like the strength of the heated seat feature.
- Power good but not great; expected better acceleration from an inline 6 turbo.
The bad:
- VERY irritating uneven acceleration from a start. Poor engine/transmission mating? Too jerky, hesitant. With an 8 speed transmission, should be silky smooth. This alone makes me drive it less - but my wife likes the SUV and overlooks this.
- Poor quality audio system. Mazda should allow one to upgrade the audio without having to upgrade a bunch of other options.
- No touch entertainment screen.
- AC underpowered: not as powerful as expected.
- Tinny sound when closing the doors.
- Center storage console way too small (buying a console organizer a must).
Reviews say the CX-90 is excellent off-road/in the mountains. Hoping to head up to the snow soon and will update after.
The good:
- Great handling for a 3 row SUV. Easy to drive on windy roads. Stiffer suspension so ride not as smooth as something like the Toyota Grand Highlander, but we wanted a more sporty SUV, so Mazda was an easy choice.
- Nice interior and not nearly as cluttered as others. Heads-up display big: with the Mazda/Android Auto/Apple CarPlay navigation, shows up on the heads-up display, so that's also big.
- Comfortable seats; like the strength of the heated seat feature.
- Power good but not great; expected better acceleration from an inline 6 turbo.
The bad:
- VERY irritating uneven acceleration from a start. Poor engine/transmission mating? Too jerky, hesitant. With an 8 speed transmission, should be silky smooth. This alone makes me drive it less - but my wife likes the SUV and overlooks this.
- Poor quality audio system. Mazda should allow one to upgrade the audio without having to upgrade a bunch of other options.
- No touch entertainment screen.
- AC underpowered: not as powerful as expected.
- Tinny sound when closing the doors.
- Center storage console way too small (buying a console organizer a must).
Reviews say the CX-90 is excellent off-road/in the mountains. Hoping to head up to the snow soon and will update after.
@Euroken , hope you're doing well these days. Just curious, how's the CX-90 holding up? Did you end up going on that road trip?
I've had mine since Aug 2024 and overall I enjoy it. I do regret not getting a trim that has the 360 degree cameras though. The land yacht with a huge nose can be pretty annoying to park.
I pretty much have the same complaints as everyone else. Radar is touchy, lane keep is harsh, it can be sluggish and jerky at low speeds, etc. It does seem like they are listening though because of recent recalls and TSB for the complaints most have.
The fuel delivery system might be the issue with the sluggishness/jerkyness. I was originally thinking it might be the transmission being laggy but last week the sluggishness/jerkyness became extremely exaggerated. It was incredibly jerky and lost almost all power at low speeds. Driving it to the dealer, it was fine at highway speeds but when I got off the highway and stopped at the light it started to jerk really bad and would barely go. I dropped it off they said it was the fuel pump. Over the weekend Mazda released a TSB that basically said the fuel system doesn't know how much fuel to send to the engine causing it to lose power and jerk around. The tech called me shortly after they opened so he didn't read the full bulletin yet but he said that Mazda basically wants the fuel tank, fuel pump and possibly a couple other things to be replaced. Fuel issues could definitely cause the slughish and jerky issues so it will be interesting to see how it drives whenever I get it back.
The loaner is a 2025 CX-70 S Premium, I haven't noticed any of the issues that many complain about with the CX-90. So I'm confident that the 2025 90 will have the issues addressed.
I pretty much have the same complaints as everyone else. Radar is touchy, lane keep is harsh, it can be sluggish and jerky at low speeds, etc. It does seem like they are listening though because of recent recalls and TSB for the complaints most have.
The fuel delivery system might be the issue with the sluggishness/jerkyness. I was originally thinking it might be the transmission being laggy but last week the sluggishness/jerkyness became extremely exaggerated. It was incredibly jerky and lost almost all power at low speeds. Driving it to the dealer, it was fine at highway speeds but when I got off the highway and stopped at the light it started to jerk really bad and would barely go. I dropped it off they said it was the fuel pump. Over the weekend Mazda released a TSB that basically said the fuel system doesn't know how much fuel to send to the engine causing it to lose power and jerk around. The tech called me shortly after they opened so he didn't read the full bulletin yet but he said that Mazda basically wants the fuel tank, fuel pump and possibly a couple other things to be replaced. Fuel issues could definitely cause the slughish and jerky issues so it will be interesting to see how it drives whenever I get it back.
The loaner is a 2025 CX-70 S Premium, I haven't noticed any of the issues that many complain about with the CX-90. So I'm confident that the 2025 90 will have the issues addressed.
Thanks so much for sharing your insights @Jon12232 ! I believe you're one of the first to have some quality hands on experience with both a CX-90 and a CX-70, so your feedback is really valuable to the community!
Many have wondered, if the CX-70 drove any differently than the CX-90. Perhaps the CX-70 being released a year later might've given Mazda the chance to make the minor tweaks that came up after the 1st year launch of the CX-90.
To do a followup on my review.
I've had few more recalls done on her including a full hybrid battery replacement which took close to a month (apparently the batteries need to come from Japan and dealers did not see this coming)
Before this I had another recall done which seemed to have tweaked the transmission which is now surprisingly responsive especially at low rpms.
This came with its own tradeoffs such as the driver recognition system which now strayed from behaving like it should(never had an issue with it) and now will either set the driver's settings from the previous driver or simply will not do anything.Resetting it did not help.That means everytime I take the car from my wife I have to go into the menu and manually select my profile.
We have 3 phones in our household, despite setting the connection order it is never respected.Will always connect to a random phone or will not connect at all to any phone unless I restart the car.
The trunk stayed half open few times although I did press the close button and there were no obstacles in the way.
Stubborn as I am I kept pressing the dealer for a potential wireless pad fix to which he replied "Mazda is aware of the issue and when they will put a fix out we will call you" which is bs, he probably got hammered by other ppl about it and wanted some peace. My guess is that Mazda in order to cut costs put a cheap pad under that is underperforming and will probably never see a fix for it, therefore I bought my own charger.
To sum up my 1year of owning it after (potentially) everything got fixed:
- I still love how she drives and the power delivery.
- She is pretty stylish. The back hump is an acquired taste
. but still...
- The inside is not all that bad, it is still relatively cramped for a car this size and not very practical overall.
- I still hate all the minor annoyances (electronics mostly)
- The AC and the cooling seats are severely underpowered.
-The Bose audio is...OK but the volume calibration is weird, At ..let's say volume 5 can barely hear anything, in other words the volume is calibrated rather conservatively and one needs to crank it up in order to hear the radio/music etc And no I don't have hearing issues. And the sound is also meh
-Mechanically she seems ok and I think it's too early to make a judgement, I hope the recall train has stopped and I can enjoy my car.
For me it seems like they had something good on the paper hoping to take on BMW or Lexus but during the construction phase their enthusiasm faded half way through and decide to cut corners which gave us the weird hot/cold ownership experience. Yet they presented to the public like the BMW killer which is totally not.
For those who are thinking buying one:
- It is a more than ok car
-If you want bargain luxury this might not be for you.It is not a deluxe experience, If you think you are buying an Acura for half price ...you are not, This is a slightly more upscale Mazda but still a Mazda and not nearly as refined as the top tiers from other luxury reputable brands.
The 1mil question: Will I buy another one?
I am not sure, the car is rather new (1year) and I have had my fair share of issues(recalls) with it.
It seems that the newer models (i'm told) are much better, The time will tell how reliable she will be.
I tend to see the positive aspect of it. Lot of new cars from pretty much all manufacturers seem to have lots of issues, Reliability is something that everybody is struggling with lately.Seeing all that I think I'm ok and I will wait in the years to come what is out there.
I've had few more recalls done on her including a full hybrid battery replacement which took close to a month (apparently the batteries need to come from Japan and dealers did not see this coming)
Before this I had another recall done which seemed to have tweaked the transmission which is now surprisingly responsive especially at low rpms.
This came with its own tradeoffs such as the driver recognition system which now strayed from behaving like it should(never had an issue with it) and now will either set the driver's settings from the previous driver or simply will not do anything.Resetting it did not help.That means everytime I take the car from my wife I have to go into the menu and manually select my profile.
We have 3 phones in our household, despite setting the connection order it is never respected.Will always connect to a random phone or will not connect at all to any phone unless I restart the car.
The trunk stayed half open few times although I did press the close button and there were no obstacles in the way.
Stubborn as I am I kept pressing the dealer for a potential wireless pad fix to which he replied "Mazda is aware of the issue and when they will put a fix out we will call you" which is bs, he probably got hammered by other ppl about it and wanted some peace. My guess is that Mazda in order to cut costs put a cheap pad under that is underperforming and will probably never see a fix for it, therefore I bought my own charger.
To sum up my 1year of owning it after (potentially) everything got fixed:
- I still love how she drives and the power delivery.
- She is pretty stylish. The back hump is an acquired taste
. but still...- The inside is not all that bad, it is still relatively cramped for a car this size and not very practical overall.
- I still hate all the minor annoyances (electronics mostly)
- The AC and the cooling seats are severely underpowered.
-The Bose audio is...OK but the volume calibration is weird, At ..let's say volume 5 can barely hear anything, in other words the volume is calibrated rather conservatively and one needs to crank it up in order to hear the radio/music etc And no I don't have hearing issues. And the sound is also meh
-Mechanically she seems ok and I think it's too early to make a judgement, I hope the recall train has stopped and I can enjoy my car.
For me it seems like they had something good on the paper hoping to take on BMW or Lexus but during the construction phase their enthusiasm faded half way through and decide to cut corners which gave us the weird hot/cold ownership experience. Yet they presented to the public like the BMW killer which is totally not.
For those who are thinking buying one:
- It is a more than ok car
-If you want bargain luxury this might not be for you.It is not a deluxe experience, If you think you are buying an Acura for half price ...you are not, This is a slightly more upscale Mazda but still a Mazda and not nearly as refined as the top tiers from other luxury reputable brands.
The 1mil question: Will I buy another one?
I am not sure, the car is rather new (1year) and I have had my fair share of issues(recalls) with it.
It seems that the newer models (i'm told) are much better, The time will tell how reliable she will be.
I tend to see the positive aspect of it. Lot of new cars from pretty much all manufacturers seem to have lots of issues, Reliability is something that everybody is struggling with lately.Seeing all that I think I'm ok and I will wait in the years to come what is out there.
Well, here is just about a year of ownership review of my CX-90...Car now has ~9500 miles on it.
The car overall is doing great! Same positives and negatives (couple more added below)...Had the dog in the car (70+ lbs) for long hauls with no issues, other than the dog didn't want to sit in the trunk, but between the two second row seats (he barely fit). Installed an aftermarket roof racks for skis and Yakima roof box, no issues. All is well.
Bit of an interesting story...
In November'ish time, I was heading out of my driveway to drop my daughter off for her school. The car rolled, literally, 15 yards and it stalled out, indicating I needed to contact the service...what?!? I put it in park and press the start button....It would turn the engine but wouldn't start the car...called the AAA for it to be towed but after letting the operator know of the make and model of the car, the first truck shows up to tell me he can't tow the car as it needs dollies to pull the car up on the flat bed.
For your information, you CANNOT put the car OUT of Park and disengage the parking brake (EPB) unless the car is running. I was thinking there has GOT to be another way but the Mazda service told me it can't be done. Hence, needing dollies for the flat bed. Like it happened with my old CX-9, if a police officer or a state trooper shows up to tell you that you need to put it in neutral and the officer will 'gently push' your car out of the way, you NEED to convince the officer it can't be done without damaging your car.
The dealer had the car for two weeks, and they did provide me with a loaner...CX-90 Turbo S in same blue! Beautiful suede leather, fully loaded, all cameras, sensors, extras, name it.
I took the car skiing about two hours away...I fell in love with the loaner. The car felt smoother, even quieter, more features, perhaps a weee bit faster, and the door felt heftier with more solid closing noise...like THUD...not thunk. It was an absolute joy to drive...so, now my future goal is the Turbo S version...
With that said, it also had one thing I absolutely hated...electronic rear view mirror. The way it works is a camera installed on the rear window projects the image on the mirror it self. The reason why I hated it is that the loaner had the dealership decal right across the rear window that partially blocked the camera...really?!? Could have been a positive experience.
Back to my CX-90. I got the car back with a note saying the issue had to do with a lemon fuel pump. They fixed it and the car seemed okay...for about two weeks...then a light came on indicating to check the fuel cap...the warning light wouldn't go away so back to the dealer it went.
This time I got a premium CX-5 for a loaner but man I missed my CX-90. After a week it came back saying the fuel gasket wasn't seated properly and was losing pressure. They correctly seated it and got the car back and it's been doing great since (it's been about six months).
For those having some hesitation with the 280 horse power non-S version, I don't know if I can convince anyone this way, but on sport mode, the car rockets off the line...I have never felt that level of confidence in a SUV, and definitely not in my old CX-9. As I have stated before, not a race car driver but definitely will floor the pedal when needed and the car responds.
One additional little thing I noticed about the transmission. When not in sport mode, the shifting just is not that responsive. Meaning, let's say I gun the car off the line and if you ease your foot off the gas around 35-40 miles an hour, the car just stays up whining in high RPM until you slow down again to say below 30 MPH instead of shifting...thought that was odd...I can expect this on sport mode as the car likes to stay revved up for extra oomph...but not in the normal mode, no?
Couple additional annoyances since...
1) When it is raining and you are stopped at a light...the water drains off the hood right in front of the headlight and you'll see your head lights flicker...unexpected annoyance.
2) AC definitely feel underpowered...I have to blow the vents directly on my while driving to keep cool (which works well but you have a fan blowing in your face the whole time).
Hope the above helps those looking to decide on this car. I absolutely enjoy the vehicle and as long as I don't have anymore issues, I will continue to be a returning customer...
