2016 Mazda MX-5 - Ratings, Complaints and Recalls

"6 speed manual transmission, vehicle stationary and doesn't want to go into 1st gear and you sometimes must shove it in, intermittent issue. also a ton of gear whine under moderate throttle in 3rd and 4th gear. failure mileage is 41,118 miles. failure of the transmission in gear at speed could result in a catastrophic accident due to loss of forward propulsion. mazda has released a tsb on this ref is r083/16b and 05-007/16 yet are basically telling me it's up to the nhtsa to recall it or there's nothing they will do until it completely grenades and potentially causes an accident. this is not a small issue affecting a small batch of cars, this is a fairly widespread issue affecting a large span in production. from internal sources i've learned mazda is on the fourth separate revision of the 6 speed manual transmission in the 4th generation mx-5 and even some 3rd revision transmissions have shown weakness. in short, the 6 speed manual transmission was not designed for the 2.0l engine in the u.s model, instead was only intended to be used with the less torquey 1.5l in the european and japanese model. mazda usa pushed for the 2.0l last minute in production for more power in the u.s market despite not having a suitable manual transmission available. the difference in manufacturing tolerances has led to several instances of complete gear failure in stock completely unmodified cars and is an accepted design flaw by mazda and why they have had so many complete transmission overhauls in a short span. in short every manual mx-5 that was produced before september 6th 2016 has a transmission that's a ticking time bomb. mine is september 2015 production date. i strongly believe this tsb should be referenced and these transmission recalled. a weird coincidence is this very car also had an automatic transmission recall. i have attached the referenced tsb below. please recall. *tr"

"tl* the contact owns a 2016 mazda mx-5. while driving approximately 10 mph across an intersection, the vehicle decelerated. there were no warning indicators illuminated. another vehicle traveling across the intersection colided with the rear passenger side of the contact's vehicle. police report number: 2019643494 was filed. there were no injuries reported. the vehicle was towed to a body shop and repaired. the manufacturer and dealer were not notified of the failure. the approximate failure mileage was 49,000."

"while driving on a public 2-lane road and upshifting into 3rd gear at about 6,500 rpm my transmission failed. i immediately slowed from about 65 mph and coasted to a stop. i was lucky that there was a just adequate shoulder, and i was able to avoid being rear-ended by faster traffic. i pulled as far to the right as i could, still withing 4 feet of the pavement. i determined that i could still drive in 1st gear and, driving only on the shoulder, drove the car to a wider, safer spot. a friend came by later with his truck and trailer to take my car to my home. i thereupon had it towed to a mazda dealer the next day. the dealer diagnosed a manual transmission failure, 3rd gear specifically, and told me i was lucky the gearbox didn't sieze and cause a lack of control. they replaced the entire transmission at no cost to me."

"transmission is made of weak grade materials and running at high temps causing the transmission to fail randomly while driving. i am on my second transmission and mazda fails to help or address the concern. the problem has been proven by many shops at this point and most importantly by a mazda engineer on a youtube video. this mazda engineer specifically states that weak tolerances are causing manual transmissions to shear teeth under load. both times my transmissions parts exploded i was at speed. the first time was on a city street, the second time was on a very busy highway during rush hour. the first time, no gears were usable and i had to be towed home after coasting my car to a stop in neutral. the second time i could only use 4th gear and had to limp home."

"vehicle spontaneously jumps out of 4th gear into neutral at highways speed. this will typically happen on a moderately steep downward grade (e.g. california highyway 17 between sugarloaf road and glenwood cutoff heading towards san jose, or the curve known as the "valley surprise" just past summit road and highway 17 intersection) as the vehicle slows and engine braking kicks in. steps to reproduce: place vehicle in 4th gear. drive at approximately 60 miles per hour. on downhill grade back off accelerator as engine braking begins the vehicle spontaneously jumps into neutral. this happens repeatedly and reproducibly. vehicle is under mazda warranty. date is just an indication. the fault occurs daily."

"the car was stationary, in neutral with the parking brake in place when i heard a loud bang and then the next day, the transmission was making an unusual whining noise in third gear while driving on the city and in the highway (during traffic) at around 30-35 mph. this led me to suspect that the transmission is having issues and brought it to the dealer a few days later. even though the loud bang couldn't be replicated, the whining noise was still there and surely enough the transmission was acting funny. after some research i found that the 2016 mazda mx-5 is notorious for eating up second and third gear and mazda hasn't really considered putting out a recall. they have to put a recall out, they need to fix these cars because there are reports of cars with transmissions failing while in neutral or when driving in gears outside of second the third (the two gears that like to self destruct). *tr"

"when accelerating from a traffic light the transmission stopped working and i lost acceleration in a busy road. this is the second time this has happened in a busy intersection."

"while accelerating my transmission gears have disintegrated twice leaving car with no way to use power. once was a side street, other time i was making a left turn in an intersection."