Mazda as a brand.

[Dave Lehnert]

Looking to buy a new SUV next summer.
What do you think of Mazda as a brand? Good reliability? kinda like the CX50
Always been a Chevy, Ford and Dodge owner.

[Bill Dufour]

The brand has no relation to the old light bulb company run as part of GE.
Mazda and Ford have sold many cars and trucks under different names. Some Ford Ranger parts are a little cheaper at the Mazda dealer.
i think it may be a Ford focus, Volvo S40,S50 platform?
Bill D

[Bruce Page]

We had a 626 in the early 2000's. It was a solid, reliable car. I don't recall having any issues with it.

[Bill Dufour]

We had a 626 in the early 2000's. It was a solid, reliable car. I don't recall having any issues with it.

I believe our Ford Escape is a re-bodied 626. It has been Fords number one seller several years. A sold as a Mazda Tribute.
Bill D

[Lee Schierer]

I have owned four mazda vehicles and one relabeled Ford Escape (Tribute). All have been excellent vehicles. The two 626's we owned went over 100,000 miles with no major repairs, just routine maintenance. They were still going when we traded them.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

We had a 323 in the 1980s and a MPV in the 1990s Both were good cars. Both were at the end of life when we acquired them and I nursed them along into a lengthy afterlife. I gave the 323 to a shopmate who had a gig driving the motorhome for a NASCAR driver from our town. It ended up being a training car at a private auto park - demolition derby. I have pictures of the racing star and my friend driving it around on two wheels and rolling it back over after a flip, then going off on two wheels again.

[Rob Luter]

I've never owned one, but knew a couple folks that did. A neighbor bought one after a long stint with a Toyota 4Runner and he says they're happy with it. That said, they don't seem to be that popular. Not sure why. I can say that we're real believers in Subaru for an import SUV. We're on our third Subie and second Outback. Not a lick of trouble in a combined 150K miles. My Daughter has driven a Forester for a few years and loves it.

[Chuck Saunders]

I have a 2010 Mazda 5 bought new. currently has 325,000 miles, still gets 30mpg, burns no oil. No major repairs. When I bought it I was concerned because their warranty was none too stellar 12mo 12,000 miles bumper to bumper, 36,000 mile drivetrain. Regular oil changes make a huge impact on an engine. I would feel good buying another one.
Chuck

[Curt Harms]

I've never owned one, but knew a couple folks that did. A neighbor bought one after a long stint with a Toyota 4Runner and he says they're happy with it. That said, they don't seem to be that popular. Not sure why. I can say that we're real believers in Subaru for an import SUV. We're on our third Subie and second Outback. Not a lick of trouble in a combined 150K miles. My Daughter has driven a Forester for a few years and loves it.

Maybe because they were being sold with a Ford label?

Mazda and Ford collaborate

In 1979, Ford took a 25% stake in Mazda. In 1996, due to Mazda’s economic slump, Ford took a controlling stake to help them avoid bankruptcy. Ford changed Mazda’s name to Auto-Alliance International, but Mazda is still how buyers knew the brand. The two companies would share manufacturing facilities as well as vehicle platforms and numerous other resources.

During this partnership, Ford would produce flexible-fuel vehicles, sell the first taxis that used natural gas to New York City, and go through the 2000 Bridgestone/Firestone recall crisis involving 271 rollover deaths in Ford Explorers.

2005 was a particularly rocky year for Ford, even with the release of the new gas-electric hybrid SUV and the settlement it received from the tire crisis. But Ford would lose market shares for the 10th year in a row, lose the title of America’s best-selling brand, and see a drop in market shares of 18.3% from the previous year.
The end of a great relationship

The relationship between Ford and Mazda would end after 40 years. In 2008, the companies parted ways, with Ford selling most of its shares, only retaining 11%. The economic crisis was a global issue and caused autos sales to fall, leaving Ford no choice.

In 2009, Mazda would celebrate the 20th anniversary of its MX-5 Miata, a top-selling car with almost 900,000 in sales and about 180 major auto awards at the time.

Ford and Mazda would still share information and partner on projects, but the development of vehicles together would end. It was smart on Ford’s part, though — it was the only major automaker in the U.S. to avoid bankruptcy during the recession.

https://www.motorbiscuit.com/is-mazda-owned-by-ford/

[Dave Fritz]

I was curious about the relationship to Ford. It seems they still are influencing the Mazda brand?

[Jim Becker]

Mazda as a brand has decent current generation vehicles, IMHO. I still prefer Subaru, but had very good experiences with several Mazda's "back in the day", including a 626, a 929 and a Millenia S. It was a different company back then. They did collaborate with Ford for awhile as has been noted, but that's not unusual in the industry and there are a lot of collaboration projects going on even today across "brands" because it makes sense to do so.

[Michael Schuch]

I am not a Mazda fan but they rate pretty good with consumer reports. The CX50 gets pretty solid 4 out of 5 stars for reliability. It sounds like a nice vehicle from the CR review but a little tight on rear cargo space. CR's biggest complaint is acceleration. CR got 17mpg city, 33mpg highway and 24mpg combined.

Personally I prefer Toyota/Lexus for reliability. I never buy new cars, only used. Growing up my parents always bought domestic which really turned me off on all domestic cars. I do own a Chevy pickup but the engine is designed by Isuzu and the transmission is made by Allison.

[Alex Zeller]

Mazda has always been one of those small brands that just never grew. It's small enough so when large brands come along they usually agree to partnerships with them. I know Toyota (who also works with Subaru) was looking into using some of Mazda's patents 10 years ago and now have a joint owned plant in the US making cars for each company. The last time I looked (2013) at a Mazda the interior looked dated so the wife picked a Rav4. But the Mazda was going to be redesigned in a year or two. What I really was waiting for was to see if the rumors were true, that the CX-3 was going to get a diesel in the US. I've never heard anything bad about Mazda cars.

My biggest problem with my Subaru is that small car companies don't have the budget that Toyota, GM, or Ford has when it comes to car design. The seats were too low so if you were 5'8" or shorter the top of the steering wheel would partially block your view of the road. It had almost every gauge you could want but not a water temp gauge. Just a blue light when it warmed up some it would go out and a red light that would come on when it was too hot. Never understood why they didn't spend a few bucks extra and put in a gauge. The other thing was the dial for the temp inside the cabin. It had a small blue bar on the cold side, a small red bar on the hot side, and a large white bar that connected them. In the day it wasn't too hard to see but at night the red dash lighting turned the white bar red and the blue bar was crazy hard to see. If you drove the car all the time you wouldn't need to look. But it was the wife's car I occasionally used. A driver shouldn't have to take their eyes off the road to focus on trying to figure out which way to turn the dial when the windshield starts to fog up.

My point is that before I bought a Mazda I would spend time during the test drive in both day and night conditions playing with everything you would normally use. Adjust things like the seats further than you think you would ever want. If you plan on anyone else being with you in the car make sure they can adjust their seat to work well for them. With my Impreza it felt like it was a Friday afternoon and a guy just said, close enough.

[Nathan Johnson]

We bought my wife a 2017 Mazda3 manual that she absolutely adored. Pretty fun car to drive even with the 2.0.
That car was totalled and she liked it so much we bought a 2018 Mazda3 Gran Touring manual to replace it. This one has the 2.5 and every option but air conditioned seats. It's even better than the 2017.

Mazda is trying to rebrand as a "premium" option, and honestly, the interior fit and finish on newer offerings is nice. So is the paint.

Very happy owners here. We've had no issues with either.

[Jim Becker]

My biggest problem with my Subaru is that small car companies don't have the budget that Toyota, GM, or Ford has when it comes to car design.

That's less of an issue these days. BTW, Toyota owns 20%+ of Subaru and they are doing joint development on EVs. The initial EV offering (Toyota BZ4x, Subaru Solterra and the Lexus RZ-450e) utilizes Subaru AWD engineering for the AWD versions including X-mode (the Subaru version is only going to be produced in AWD) and Toyota's platform and interior designs. If I'm not mistaken, Toyota has a joint project with BMW for the Supra and the equivalent Beemer.

You mentioned seating in the Subaru...which model matters for sure in that respect. I'm very comfortable in my Ascent and our Forester, but less comfortable in the Outback because of the lower seating position, even when fully raised. My body needs a more "chair" orientation. The Ascent I drive has seating that's just as high and upright as the Grand Cherokee I drove previously. (The HVAC temperatures are all digital displays at this point, BTW, and the information is available up at dash level on most models with the new Global Platform that was debuted a few years ago)