It's a broken record that may bear repeating: Consumer reports shows 4 out of 5 for "Engine - Major" for years 2017 - 2019, with 2017 being pre-CD. 2020 - 2022 rate 5 out of 5.
Mazda sells 150,000 CX-5's, give or take, per year in the US along. You're going to need a whole lot more anecdotes than what you've seen to raise this to a level of probabilistic concern. Of course no one needs to be told that scare tactics sell on the webinets and interweb, which have become a fear-industrial complex in all manner of things.
Your repetition on this matter is beginning to sound like schadenfreude. So, you keep your 2016 with, what was it, 3 recalls and 7 repairs during the warranty period and I'll keep my 2020 with neither of each.
Yeah I still remember Consumer Reports recommended new VW Rabbit and then listed those in Do Not Buy list years later. I still remember CR put out a couple of fake reports about roll-over stories on Isuzu Trooper and Sidekick where the editor ordered the driver doing whatever it takes to make the vehicle rolled. I still read the CR from time to time, but I do use my own judgement to make decisions.
Apparently you keep ignoreing the YouTube video which showed the evidence of poor design of the cylinder head on the 2.5L NA with CD. Yeah my 2016 CX-5 does have 4 recalls and 10 warranty repairs (1 of them has become a recall later), but none of them are as severe as the cracked cylinder head and failing hydraulic lash adjusters. And I do recommend 2016 and 2016.5 CX-5 here all the time.
You said repeatly a previous member here made a fake report about the cracked head, and implied there’re many more who are trying to ruin Mazda’s reputation. But I’d say this has to be very rare. If there’re people who are trying to destroy a car manufacture’s reputation, they should go against Toyota who is selling the most cars, or even Honda, but not against Mazda.
If you read car news world wide, you’ll find Mazda’s quality and reliability have been falling recently in Asia and many car enthusiasts have no longer consider Mazda vehicles which are reliable.
I’m not trying to scare people here like you accused, but only stating the fact.