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Comment by prmph | Hacker News Reader

Mazdas too. I find Toyota's suspensions and driving dynamics terrible. Mazda represents a perfect combination of good Japanese reliability and good handling dynamics. I also like that they still offer a proper automatic transmission in their cars (as opposed to the CVT epidemic in other makes), as well as naturally aspirated engine options (whereas many other makes only offer turbos now).

The days of their collaboration with Ford are long gone, and with it their body durability problems. They still collaborate with Toyota though.

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My 2014 Mazda 3 has fairly regular infotainment issues, audio playing on my phone but no audio from the speakers, resolved by rebooting it.

Also had an issue with the backup camera cutting out. Was caused by a loose connector. Dealership was unwilling to help for free so I just cleaned the contacts and reseated the connector myself. Months later I received a recall notice with no fix available, still more months later hey finally said there was a repair but I haven’t brought it in yet.

All that said I’m still happy with the car despite these imperfections and will keep driving it until the wheels fall off, and wouldn’t have any reservations about buying a new one.

A recall notice with no fix for a backup camera? Did they expect you to just cease use of the car entirely or what?

I mean, the rear window was still transparent it’s not like a couldn’t see where I was going entirely. I did miss the much wider FOV of the camera when backing out of my garage though.

For a 2014 that’s fairly normal tbh, all the infotainments of that era were shit.

Maybe they are better now, but I had two Mazdas between about 2005 and 2015. They were fine for the most part, but their frames rusted out and had to be scrapped well before the rest of the car was worn out. They're not really suitable for long-term use in the midwestern/northeast US salt belt unless you're a high-roller who only leases cars.

That's what I meant, those problems have been solved in recent years. Their partnership with Ford ended by 2015 at the latest

Isn't that basically all cars in the northeast?

Yes, but the Mazdas we had were worse than average. They were made of thinner gauge metal than I've seen on any other car (both frame and body panels) and I they didn't bother to add even a token amount of paint or other rust prevention.

Mazda is responsible for one of the biggest reliability cock-ups in modern automotive history. A lot of Americans are not aware of this because this generation of diesel motor didn't make it to the American market but for many years they sold cars with a diesel engine with multiple critical manufacturing and design issues that resulted in thousands and thousands of defective engines. In many markets this was never recalled and at least in some markets Mazda's response was to draw another line higher up on diesel dipsticks so the owner could monitor if their crankcase was filling up with diesel, which would eventually dilute the engine oil and destroy the turbo and other components.

In my country used car dealers will not touch Mazda diesels for trade-ins because they always come back to them with destroyed engines.

You've gotta be in Australia because I had a cx-5 2014 2.2 TD and it was a nightmare. I'll never buy a Mazda again. You know its bad when years after the warranty has expired Mazda are fixing head gaskets or outright replacing engines for free.

I had a sub 5sec 0-60 Miata set up for the track and I gotta tell you that I can whip our Prius much more than I thought was possible. Camry is a barge though.

Yessss. Happy to hear this. A Miata has been on the wishlist for a while now.

My mother has had two of them and they are very fun to drive -- even completely stock. The first was a 91 (how I learned to drive a manual transmission) and the second/current is a 2005. The newer one is more powerful (not sure how many HP but it seems significant) but I still prefer the older one. The design was peak 80s Japanese functional minimalism and there was no magic behind any of its features.

However, as it applies to the parent comment, I can't actually say too much about reliability, as both of them were driven primarily on weekends and _maybe_ 2K miles per year.

I own a 2011 3 hatchback, bought new in 2010. Besides wear items, I think I’ve replaced one belt and one hose. It’s only on its third battery and 2nd/3rd lightbulbs all around. Absolutely the most reliable car I’ve ever owned, whether I measure by problems/mile, problems/year, or dollars/year.

I also have a Miata (ND - 4th gen) that gets driven less than 3K miles/year. No problems there other than Mazda’s buggy CarPlay (and insane choice to disable the touchscreen when in motion).

I believe there’s a way to enter dev mode on the infotainment and reenable the touch screen while in motion. Try looking on YouTube. I found the method for my 2014 but neglected to actually do it since I prefer the center console wheel anyway.

New manual miatas have transmissions that grenade themselves. miata.net has a whole forum dedicated to it: https://forum.miata.net/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=172

From what I know, Mazdas are the most European Japanese cars: more fun and less reliable. I was considering an MX-5 / Miata once, and... they rust quickly (maybe the current model doesn't).

The Mk1 Miata was prone to rust - I had one of those. But I think the more recent ones are better. It was a good car though - 15 years old when I bought it, 30 when sold and only needed to go to the garage about once a year.

What's your beef with CVT, especially with Toyota's planetary gear? The latter is probably the greatest development in transmission in the last 50+ years.

The Corolla I was driving recently can definitely not be recommended. It was a rental.

Was a Hybrid, though that shouldn't affect this. It wouldn't save most of the settings I changed. Apparently you can either save it "to the key" (I googled how to do it, didn't work) or to your "profile" with a mobile app. I would never want to have to use my mobile to save car settings, even if I owned it, let alone a rental.

It has a feature that scans road signs and displays them on the dash. Awesome feature, which I've had in other cars before. Just in case you missed one and usually more accurate than Google maps for dynamic situations like construction zones. Unfortunately it loudly beeps and blinks at you if you happen to go over the limit or god forbid set the cruise control above the limit. This can be disabled individually but is part of the settings that don't save across car shutdowns.

Why is that an issue? Because setting the cruise control to 50 when in a 50km/h zone will have you driving 45 in reality as evidenced by speed measuring displays I drove by. At 100km/h you'll probably be going 90. I learned the 6 key presses on the steering wheel to disable this after starting the car real fast. Unfortunately it disables the entire feature (else it'd be a lot more key presses and I ain't doing that). If this wasn't a rental but a purchase I'd be in this guys boat and trying to return the car.

This is just one example. The other more dire one is the cruise control. I've mentioned it elsewhere before and this Corolla isn't the only one, but the automatic breaking in these cars nowadays is dangerous. The amount of time I was sitting in the car with my foot right above the accelerator in case I need to power through an automatic breaking situation was unreal.

So glad to have been back home after vacation, driving my Subaru (with an adaptive cruise control that does not have this issue).

> setting the cruise control to 50 when in a 50km/h zone will have you driving 45 in reality as evidenced by speed measuring displays I drove by. At 100km/h you'll probably be going 90.

This is very common and it's probably a deliberate choice of the manufacturer.

I know that my old car in the 90s reported 10 km/h more than the real speed and most other cars did the same, especially at low speeds. My current car is not as bad but I have to set 52 to go 50, 72 to go 70.

Furthermore some speed displays are calibrated differently. Some of them report me at 50, 47, 53 at different towns on the same route. I know I'm OK at 52 because I never got a fine.

I'm more conservative on roads that I'm not familiar with (eg: on a vacation in another country.) The general rule has always been to go at the same speed of the other cars.

Fun fact, you can buy a 500$ immobilizer thing at a Toyota dealership, and it has an option to persist that 6-key press setting.

> if you happen to go over the limit

Yeah I hate when that "just happens" too.

> or god forbid set the cruise control above the limit

The word limit is the key here.

> Because setting the cruise control to 50 when in a 50km/h zone will have you driving 45 in reality

Dear god! I hope you somehow made it through that insufferable experience. To think of the few seconds of your life you've irreplaceably lost! Sending a virtual hug!

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