The Car Thread.

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My Mazda CX-30 has kept push buttons and knobs for most controls. I read a headline in a news feed last week that says Mazda are going to touch screen route now. I just thought "really!! you held out for so long and now manufacturers are starting to go back to physical controls, your going to do the opposite"

We've had multiple Mazda's over the years and my wife has a CX30 with the Skyactive-X 2.0 litre, so called compression ignition petrol engine but still has spark plugs!

Always liked the Mazda's, very reliable and proper physical controls for most things but this latest one is proving not so reliable! Also a constant annoyance is the info to check the tyre pressures is reached in an obscure menu system several layers deep. It also has a most obscure battery power management so whenever you get near the car with the remote fob in you pocket it goes into some sort of standby mode and powers up multiple circuits pulling over 9 amps from the battery! It led to a completely dead battery on two occasions when we were giving it a thorough clean in and out and when I was fitting front and rear dash cams. So now if I am going to do any work on the car I will unlock it and then move the key fob well out of range of the vehicle.

Last year the folding door mirrors started playing up, apparently a long known about fault on Mazda 3 and CX30 etc. Luckily they had a 5 year "goodwill" policy and fitted two new ones FOC. That was a relief as each mirror unit was over £350 plus they had to be programmed at a Mazda Dealer of course!

Now we are getting an "In vehicle network malfunction - have the vehicle inspected" which seems to be caused by the TCU unit being unable to get a 3G cellular signal (only really used for the SOS button) as they have been shutdown. It can't be upgraded with new firmware as it has the Version one unit and a replacement is around £500 plus fitting/programming of course!

Now we have a problem with the power rear hatch which needs a replacement lock unit - £495 + Fitting + VAT

We also might have a pending failure of injectors/top end/mini supercharger as they changed the Skyactive-X engine shortly after we bought ours to a lower compression ratio plus other mods to stop excessive carbon deposits, on short trip/low mileage use vehicles, destroying the top end!

At least the multi beam adaptive LED headlights are wonderful and are very dazzle free to other road users it seems.

Don't think we will be buying another !