2020 Mazda MAZDA3 - Ratings, Complaints and Recalls

The 2020 Mazda Mazda3 has received a stellar overall safety rating of 5 out of 5, making it one of the safest cars on the road. It excels in various crash tests, including front and side crashes, as well as rollover scenarios. Additionally, the Mazda3 comes equipped with essential safety features such as stability control, forward collision warning, and lane departure warning, providing added protection for both the driver and passengers.

In terms of complaints and recalls, the vehicle has had 24 complaints reported, which suggests a generally positive user experience. There have been 2 recalls issued for the Mazda3, indicating that the manufacturer is proactive in addressing any potential safety issues. Overall, the 2020 Mazda Mazda3 stands out as a top choice for those seeking a safe and reliable vehicle in the compact car segment.

auto generated summary, may be inaccurate.

Top stats at a glance

Complaint Count

24

Recall Count

2

Investigation Count

0

Safety Rating

5/5

Search Vehicle Details

Advanced Search

The advanced search lets you search by safety ratings and features. This will return a list of vehicles that match your search criteria.

Safety Features

2020 Mazda Mazda3 4 DR FWD Safety Features

Here are the safety features that come as standard on the 2020 Mazda Mazda3 4 DR FWD

Electronic Stability Control (ESC)

ESC is an advanced safety feature in vehicles designed to help drivers maintain control during challenging driving conditions. By continuously monitoring various factors such as steering angle, vehicle speed, and individual wheel speeds, ESC can detect and reduce the risk of skidding or loss of control. It achieves this by automatically applying brakes to specific wheels to stabilize the vehicle.

Standard
Forward Collision Warning (FCW)

Forward Collision Warning (FCW) is a safety feature in vehicles that helps prevent frontal collisions by alerting the driver of an imminent collision with a vehicle or obstacle ahead. Using sensors such as radar or cameras, FCW monitors the distance and speed of vehicles in front, and if it detects a potential collision, it provides visual and/or auditory warnings to prompt the driver to take evasive action.

Standard
Lane Departure Warning (LDW)

Lane Departure Warning (LDW) is a safety feature in vehicles that alerts drivers when their vehicle unintentionally drifts out of its lane without signaling. Utilizing cameras or sensors to monitor lane markings on the road, LDW detects when the vehicle crosses these lines and triggers visual, auditory, or haptic alerts to notify the driver of potential lane departure.

Standard

2020 Mazda Mazda3 4 DR FWD Safety Ratings

Here we have the crash and rollover ratings for the 2020 Mazda Mazda3 4 DR FWD Where possible we've included the ratings for the oldest and latest models of this car so you can compare how the safety ratings have changed over time.

Frontal Crash Ratings

Combines Driver and Passenger star ratings into a single frontal rating. The frontal barrier test simulates a head-on collision between two similar vehicles, each moving at 35 mph.

Test 2005 Score 2020 Score 2024 Score
Overall Front Crash Rating Not Rated 5 5
Front Crash Driver Side Rating 4 5 5
Front Crash Passenger Side Rating 4 5 5

Side Crash Ratings

Combines Side Barrier and Side Pole Star Ratings into a single side rating.

Test 2005 Score 2020 Score 2024 Score
Overall Side Crash Rating Not Rated 5 5
Side Crash Drivers Side Rating 3 5 5
Side Crash Passenger Side Rating 3 5 5
Combined Side Barrier Pole Rating - Front Not Rated 5 5
Combined Side Barrier Pole Rating - Rear Not Rated 5 5
Overall Side Barrier Rating Not Rated 5 5

Rollover Ratings

The Rollover Resistance test measures the risk of rollover in a single-vehicle, loss-of-control scenario.

Test 2005 Score 2020 Score 2024 Score
Rollover Rating Not Rated 5 5
Rollover Possibility % 0% 0% 0%
Dynamic Tip Result No Tip No Tip
Side Pole Crash Rating Not Rated 5 5

Complaints for the 2020 Mazda MAZDA3

This chart show the number of complaints for each car component. A Higher number of complaints could indicate that this car might have a common fault. Something to look out for when purchasing one.

Component Complaints

Choose a component to see what complaints people have made about them.

Complaint:
"while driving on a residential street the automatic emergency braking system activated and brought the car to a very abrupt stop but there was nothing in the front of the car to activate the system. there were no cars in the on-coming lane and no cars in the lane beside my car. when the car stopped the brake warning appeared in the windshield and a warning tone sounded. it was in the early evening and it was raining. fortunately there were no cars behind me so there were no injuries. i took the car to the mazda dealership and upon inspection they noted that the radar system associated with the automatic emergency braking system was malfunctioning and not correctly calculating the distance between the car and other objects. they are in the process of replacing the radar. if this had happened on the highway at higher speeds or if there had been a car behind me i would have been injured."
Components Involved: FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE
Date of incident: 2024-06-09
Complaint:
"on 3 occasions may 2023, june 2023 and july 2023 the forward collison camera activated. in may and june it showed the vehicle to near stop like radar cruise control in rush hour speed traffic. in july 2023 it sounded the alarm and came to a full stop in heavy traffic. it occurs on bright hot days going straight no turns no oncoming traffic no traffic around and no obstacles hold or dips. this can cause the car to stop immediately and cause an accident. app detects problem with system but dealer cannot find problem and blame camera or gps or satellite radio factory equipped."
Components Involved: FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE
Date of incident: 2024-05-07
Complaint:
"•the first incident i had with the sbs was about a month on the highway, i was approaching a vehicle that was braking due to upcoming traffic. i had plenty of time to stop, upwards of 8-10 car lengths. yet my sbs kicked in and slammed the brakes, jarring me forward. luckily no one was directly behind me at that time because i have no doubt it would have caused an accident. at that time, it was the only time it had occurred, so i wrote it off as the sensor being a bit too sensitive. •the second incident i have had was recent, 11/23. i was pulling into a parking spot at work, that has a concrete wall to section off parking spots. i was low speed, turned into the spot and the sbs activated, slamming the brakes, resulting in me being propelled into my steering wheel. i was roughly 5-6 feet away from the wall"
Components Involved: FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE
Date of incident: 2023-11-10
Complaint:
"i was traveling approximately 5 mph with approximately 15 feet from the car in front of me, maintaining a constant following distance. the collision warning sounded, followed by emergency braking within 1 second. no collision was imminent."
Components Involved: FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE
Date of incident: 2024-07-03
Complaint:
"i was traveling 25mph with no obstruction in front of me, when the collision warning sounded. the braking system did not activate. no collision was imminent."
Components Involved: FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE
Date of incident: 2022-12-05
Complaint:
"was letting car slow down for red light. no cars in front of me. suddenly the car braked and the brake warning came on. i was pretty far back from the light. i took the car to the dealer and he said the occurrence did not show on the computer. there was a recall for this problem but not for my car. if someone had been behind me or if this happens on a busy street, i would be rear ended. there have been other computer problems with this car but they never happen when the dealer checks for them."
Components Involved: FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE
Date of incident: 2024-07-03
Complaint:
"while driving the vehicle decided to suddenly brake ....... thinking it was dangerous ..... lucky no one was behind me ..... that was really scarry and could have caused an accident for no reason."
Components Involved: FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE
Date of incident: 2022-03-07
Complaint:
"i was on the queensboro bridge headed from queens, ny into manhattan on the afternoon of august 29. weather was partly cloudy and dry conditions. traffic was bumper to bumper and moving anywhere from 0mph to maybe 5mph. i was in the middle of the bridge driving approximately 5mph and my 2020 mazda 3 beeped (collision warning) and applied brakes. i was almost rear ended and my two passengers were jolted forward. i maintained a safe following distance the entire time. i believe a van on my left triggered my car’s actions as it passed. i was in no danger of getting into an accident although i was quite shaken up since this is the first time my car applied its brakes. i have an appointment to bring my car in and would like the automatic braking system disabled. previously, the car from time to time has alerted of a collision always under 40mph and a previous inspection of my vehicle (after i reported collision warning activation) revealed everything was working properly."
Components Involved: FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE
Date of incident: 2023-05-08
Complaint:
"the mazda radar cruise control (mrcc) system performs poorly (it does not hold a set speed well up and down hill; compared to our 2006 mazda3), but the safety concern is the forceful, sudden, and not-always-predictable braking the vehicle does even if there is not another vehicle in front of us. it brakes, sometimes, for a vehicle in the right lane (we, in the left), and continues to brake unless we override the system. no problem--except if there may be someone following too closely, it could cause a collision. it seems to be related to the mrcc, as no "brake!" warning accompanies the unwanted brake application. i've contacted mazda numerous times; they recommended taking it to the dealer. i have--they can find nothing wrong. all of this seems related to a mrcc update (ssp c5) that was done to smooth the mrcc's operation. it did fix the sudden deceleration and acceleration when following other vehicles, but now is worse in other aspects. i may be wrong, but it all seems to be a software issue, so it's not surprising that the dealer can find "no concerns". as to the date of this incident, it happens nearly every time we take the car on a highway or interstate."
Components Involved: FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE
Date of incident: 2021-04-08
Complaint:
"the front radar sensor failed and doesn’t work anymore rendering the fcw and acc useless. there is a tsb out about water damage getting into the sensor. there are 2 warning lights on. they first appeared when i turned on my car one day."
Components Involved: FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE
Date of incident: 2021-08-06

Recalls for the 2020 Mazda MAZDA3

Component Recalls

Choose a component to see what recalls people have made about them.

Recall:
"mazda north american operations (mazda) is recalling certain 2019-2020 mazda3 vehicles. the smart brake system (sbs) can falsely detect an obstacle while driving, activating the automatic emergency braking system and suddenly stopping the vehicle."
Consequence:
Stopping the vehicle unexpectedly increases the risk of a crash.
Remedy:

Mazda will notify owners, and dealers will update the SBS software. In addition, vehicles with certain production dates will receive an instrument cluster software update or replacement and a replacement owner's manual. These repairs will be performed free of charge. The recall began February 14, 2020. Owners may contact Mazda customer service at 1-800-222-5500, Option 4. Mazda's number for this recall is 4219L.

Component(s) Involved: FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE > AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
Date of incident: 2019-12-19

MAZDA Overall Complaint Ranking

This table shows the ranking of car manufacturers when it comes to most complaints and recalls. The manufacturer with the most complaints is at the top. However this doesn't necassarily mean they should be avoided. Some manufacturers might just have more popular or affordable cars which a lot of people have bought. Which means there's more scope for a complaint to be made. Use the ranking table below as a part your wider research into buying a car.

MAZDA ranks 16 out of 44 in the complaints ranking table.

Manufacturer Complaint Count Recall Count Ranking
FORD 208,358 3,259 1
CHEVROLET 111,306 2,082 2
TOYOTA 81,019 1,852 3
HONDA 61,937 1,268 4
NISSAN 56,226 930 5
DODGE 45,756 827 6
HYUNDAI 44,150 649 7
GMC 34,441 1,410 8
KIA 29,832 501 9
CHRYSLER 27,698 254 10
TESLA 26,230 730 11
BMW 24,890 1,877 12
VOLKSWAGEN 23,125 829 13
MERCEDES-BENZ 19,066 2,925 14
SUBARU 18,513 703 15
MAZDA 10,599 364 16
PONTIAC 10,430 138 17
CADILLAC 9,434 444 18
AUDI 7,865 1,093 19
BUICK 7,851 279 20
SATURN 7,672 84 21
MERCURY 7,374 135 22
LEXUS 6,373 408 23
LINCOLN 5,897 423 24
ACURA 5,722 382 25
MINI 5,585 366 26
INFINITI 4,000 187 27
MITSUBISHI 3,912 397 28
VOLVO 3,875 727 29
PORSCHE 2,646 1,231 30
SUZUKI 2,272 123 31
FIAT 2,205 80 32
SAAB 1,536 76 33
JAGUAR 1,195 198 34
SMART 528 17 35
GENESIS 436 42 36
ISUZU 249 37 37
ALFA ROMEO 161 37 38
MASERATI 76 46 39
BENTLEY 46 159 40
POLESTAR 42 2 41
LUCID 14 6 42
CODA 4 2 43
MAYBACH 0 0 44

Related Vehicles

Why not check out other MAZDA vehicles?

2006 MAZDA5
MAZDA
  • Overall Safety Rating: Not Rated
  • Complaints Count: 78
  • Recall Count: 3
View Car
2008 TRIBUTE
MAZDA
  • Overall Safety Rating: Not Rated
  • Complaints Count: 198
  • Recall Count: 5
View Car
2016 MAZDA3
MAZDA
  • Overall Safety Rating: 5
  • Complaints Count: 72
  • Recall Count: 6
View Car
2007 CX-7
MAZDA
  • Overall Safety Rating: Not Rated
  • Complaints Count: 526
  • Recall Count: 5
View Car