Mazda no 1

MAZDA has taken Number 1 spot in the C.R. Ratings for reliability. Great news.
But according to some motoring hack from Drive Tube, they weren’t the first name in reliability in the past.
Well I disagree I spent quite a few years as a Parts Manager for a Mazda Main Dealership and most of our trade was selling body parts and service kits and consumables, I don’t think we kept many engine and electrical parts on the shelf in them days. Reliability for Mazda’s were far superior than a lot of German and British makes ( decline of British car manufacturing bares that out ) at the time. Maybe he just had a bad experience with the odd car. I have owned numerous Mazda’s in the past including three MX5s of different periods and my present one is 20 years old and none have let me down in any big way. CONGRATULATIONS MAZDA.

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I would say that as far as MX5 posts are concerned, mechanically there are very few posts/questions, they relate more to upgrades and rust. As reliability is more of a mechanical issue, I think that Mazdas seem very well engineered. Obviously there will be some problems, but certainly fewer than other makes - Land Rover anyone?

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I’ll never forget the sight of a British plated landrover defender pulling into a services outside Nice with a beautiful young couple beautifully attired on board and fluid pouring from its transmission. I could see it flowing from 30 yards away and I know the were beautifully attired as they jumped out and were rolling around in the dog “exercise” area trying to see what had happened. I didn’t offer to help.

That said I like Landrovers a lot and have a freelander 2 as one of our other cars.

I’ve had 2 x series Land Rovers and 5 x Defenders and currently own a 2013 Defender 90 XS with the 2.2l Puma (Transit) engine and until last year hadn’t had any major problems, the EGR valve needed changing which is a common Transit problem but the only reason I knew about it was when the engine light came on, the other issue was the intercooler split in the Lake district but it still got me home. So I totally agree that Mazda have great reliability but to me the Landy has been reliable.

Reliability is one of those things that does not obviously apply to all cars, but if you look at the reliability surveys over many cars and the warranty companies, there are trends.

I understand that Land Rovers have a higher chance of going wrong - the majority will be ok, but it the size of the minority that is crucial. Freelanders were one of the most unreliable cars on the road for many years, but I am sure many were fine. Renault Espaces were also a reliability headache I seem to remember. On the whole, Japanese cars have tended to be more reliable.

As far as Land Rovers (actually Jaguar Land Rover) are concerned and I have never owned one, it will be interesting how they get on considering their newly announced strategy. they have decided not to go for volume (as if that were an option anyway) and reposition themselves as not “premium”, ie against Audi/Merc/BMW, but as “Luxury”, ie against Bentley/Aston. Ignoring the economics, they absolutely need to get reliability sorted as this will seriously count against them. Having said that I have no idea what Bentley/Aston reliability is like as there are so few sold.

Anyway, Mazda are great and that is important to us all!!!

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I have a 61 plate Jaguar XFR that I have owned from new. It has covered 140,000 miles in entirely an flawless fashion. The only issues I have had have been a wiring loom to the rear camera but they are £38 and are known for failing every 4/5 years, 20 minute job. And the drivers window regulator cable snapped a few years ago. That’s it! It is as reliable as night follows day. Even the original battery is still performing perfectly and holds enough charge to work the stop start. It’s a boring drivers car, but it’s an awesome luxury missile.

One reason Mazda MX5 are less prone to problems is because they are so basic. There’s nothing to go wrong! Fit loads more bells and whistles and the odds of a failure go up, that’s simple maths. I do agree they are nicely build tho. The ND suffers rear hub failures, gear box failure, will rust… do not entirely perfect.

Yeah the two Land Rover Defenders I had were reliable especially the green one, the black one wasn’t to bad just needed, keeping on top of maintenance wise

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Surely the Defender was as simple a car as you could get?

I remember my dad buying a Defender 90 in about 1981 - it was an E plate I seem to remember - so about 1967 - not that old at the time I suppose. He had bought a 26 acre field and he wanted to use it for doing some work. He got it home and turned the key and took it out - but the engine was still going - a diesel I think. He rang the seller and he said that you had to lift the bonnet and pull the distributor lead off (or something like that - it was a long time ago!), but put it back again or it would not start. I suppose this is the opposite of an unreliable car!!! It made us laugh and was not a problem as far as I know. Also had moss in the window gutters!

One, it sounds like a good anti theft device, leaving the distributor lead off after stopping. Second, what was Stirling doing in your Dads Land Rover :joy::joy:

ha ha ha

They were simple. Mine has alarm, central locking, ABS, traction control, air con, heated half leather seats, heated front screen and if you don’t clean it much in the winter it still gets the moss in the rear window gutters :grin: If you look at J_P’s top picture, he has let it go too far and he has a bush growing out of the roof. :rofl:

Oh yeah, must have been into my local Land Rover BRANCH :joy::joy::joy:

I think you should get your coat. :grin:

Perhaps Land Rover were trying to get the Police to use them - definitely one for “special Branch”…

I have my coat - bye!!

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Unfortunately I have to disagree, Mazda have not always been reliable. Between myself and my wife we’ve had 4 Mazda’s.
An MX5, Mazda2 X 2 and Mazda5.

The Mazda5 was a 2.0l Sport diesel. It was the most unreliable car I have ever owned in 30 years. The number of recalls, breakdowns.
I couldn’t wait to be shot of it. The Mazda2 of the same vintage wasn’t brilliant either, again a diesel sport.

However so far the MX5 NC has been good as has the most recent Mazda2 petrol sport.

Ah Deisel’s why do people do it. Sold a lie by manufacturers and Governments. Deisel’s were for commercial vehicles not cars and now we’ve gone full circle, what with climate zones and soon to be replaced petroleum engines by electric motors and life goes on and Land Rovers were commercial vehicles before you say it. It was the Chelsea tractor lot that turned them into every day cars.

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Oh I don’t know - I wasn’t sold anything other than excellent fuel consumption and shattering real world performance. I’ll maintain my old golf 7 gtd was the fastest point to point road car I’ve ever owned and prior to that I’d owned from new Porsche Boxster, Impreza STI, Caterham etc - to the point when I got rid of the GTD I specifically went for a lower power Scirocco diesel as I’d picked up more points in the GTD than everything else I’d ever had - combined.

Its the torque in a modern diesel - 380nm in a mk7 golf from 1500rpm in a car weighing 100kg less than a 6.2 litre supercharged corvette which is only producing about 30% more torque than a GTD at low revs. Its effortless as you’ve shove in any gear any time - and in a golf 7 no lag and the GTD would never drop below 48ish mpg. And the golf is a five seater, and you sit up fairly high which makes U.K. B fast road driving much easier in a Golf than that Corvette C7 LT4.

Of course as we now know from an environmental perspective the diesel is catastrophic. However as I already have one I’ll be keeping the ‘Rocco for a good long time as i like it and it was near as damn it the last Rocco imported. Plus I’ve gone from doing 20k pa pre Covid to likely 8k pa post Covid.

It’s partly why I like the MX5 - I have to rev the life out of it to get anything out of it at all. A modern turbo diesel is, if anything, to easy too get to and maintain warp speed.

I agree, a decent torquey diesel is a joy to drive!

When I went back to petrol I was actually disappointed. It’s a completely lazy driving style, similar to the American V8s ( I spend a lot of time in the US so I drive a lot of Mustang / Charger / Camaro’s.

Now they are moving to V6 it’s another change to the driving style!

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I can’t stand Diesel engines. I don’t like the power curve and the sound makes me cringe. If I have to drive one and there are people around in car parked I wait for them to walk away before I will start it. Hateful things.
A turbo diseasle only makes power because it has a turbo, naturally aspirated they would not pull your foreskin back. Who ever thinks a TDi is torquey should try driving a new petrol turbo they are just as torquey, and something like a B58 BMW would stun you.

Absolutely agree with all of that only when I got the GTD I was doing in excess of 40k miles pa and when I got the scirocco I was contemplating 25k which makes even the most recent BMW TURBO 6 B58 a tad pricey to run. I’m not tight but I could live with a 4.5 k red line to save several thousand pounds a year in fuel as the scirocco and the golf were / are both purely for commuting - I used to have a very long commute.

I can’t envisage a circumstance when I am frequently (or even infrequently) driving other peoples diesel cars unless I was a delivery driver for Nationwide Contracts. In what circumstances are you in a public car park setting off in someone else’s car?:grinning: