Total Recallection: The Mazda Saga

"ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable)" (adabofoppo)
03/19/2014 at 10:42 • Filed to: Zoom! Zoom! Bitches.

On Monday, Travis so !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! that sales of the Mazda3 are abysmal, and that despite it being an altogether better car, people would rather die slowly a thousand deaths and have their souls quietly sucked out in their Corollas and Civics. At least they know these cars are safe, and reliable. Not so fast, there, Buddy.

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After getting tons of flack for my opinion on the matter, I decided I would fight back with the only weapon I could; numbers . Numbers do not lie. They just stare back at you with that cold, distant stare of one who knows how it all ends. In a game of who will blink first, numbers always win. Always. Uncaring, without mercy, numbers always tell the truth.

Finding those numbers, however, proved to be a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . This was confirmed with another !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! on how elusive the data for recalls really is. It would seem as though someone doesn't want you, the consumer, to be able to find out how reliable your trusted auto maker really is, or isn't.

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With some excellent help from "It's a 'Porch-Uh," who was able to analyze the Flat File data the NTHSA provides through their website, we are finally able to see clearly how everyone's favorite brands have been doing in terms of reliability over the last 10 years. I chose the last decade because it presents a good picture of how a brand has done in the recent past, and if they have had issues, that they have learned from and corrected them. Beyond 10 years, I feel, you approach historical data that isn't relevant to the current production of cars. Especially since beyond 2004 there is so little technology in most cars, which we have learned can !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to appear as though a company can't build a car that starts, stops, turns, and drives well, even though it's just those danged new-fangled touchy-wiz gizmos they put in cars these days.

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Looking a the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! "It's a 'Porch-Uh" compiled, Mazda ranks in at 78th, with 95 product recalls, among all companies that have vehicles recalled. They are 16th among only US car makers. Clearly Mazda is quite capable of building a very reliable car.

But where are Honda and Toyota? Well, I'm glad you asked. Toyota ranks in at 5th overall, with 1,037 recalls; 2nd among just US auto makers. Honda is 19th overall, with 418 recalls, and is 7th among US brands.

Okay. "So what? How many total vehicles have been affected by such recalls?" Toyota leads the list with 486,010,971 vehicles affected since 2004. Hmm...And people still swear by Toyota's "legendary reliability." Honda is 4th with 130,243,311 total vehicles affected. Also, not quite as reliable as people had thought.

Mazda is 13th among US brands, 24th when included with all vehicle manufacturers, with a total of 5,461,345 vehicles affected by recalls since 2004. Granted, Mazda's sales have never been on the same scale as their Japanese cousins. However, Toyota and Honda recalled orders of magnitude more vehicles in the last 10 years. One would expect them to have a few more cars in their totals owing to their production numbers. But a discrepancy that large is shocking.

The numbers do not lie. Mazda is the most solid, reliable, and best Japanese brand to buy.

Zoom, Zoom!

DISCUSSION (6)

jariten1781 > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable)
03/19/2014 at 11:00

Reliability meant something when it was the choice between a car that would start stranding you at 20k miles or one that lasted until 100k. Now it's just sort of turned into a buzz word since all cars are worlds better than they were in the 70s/early 80s.

Tom McParland > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable)
03/19/2014 at 11:01

Numbers don't lie...but they also don't change the long-engraiend "truths" that your average car buyer believes. I don't really think it is quality that is holding Mazda back nor do I think it is advertising. It really just comes down to access and pricing. I had a client who was shopping the 14 3, dealers would not budge off price. I got a '13 Civic leftover for 5 grand off sticker. He didn't care that much about performance to pay 5 thousand more.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > Tom McParland
03/19/2014 at 11:07

Your client is lame, but I understand that's how it goes.

Those "truths" are clearly lies, and need corrected.

Seitz > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable)
03/23/2014 at 00:08

Recalls don't = reliability

you can't just say "This company has had less recalls and therefor are more reliable"

The only thing the number of Recalls a company has had tells you is how many recalls a company has had. Toyota will recall for ANYTHING

This is coming from a MASSIVE Mazda fan.

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ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > Seitz
03/23/2014 at 10:17

You and I know that.

But to the average car-buyer who only cares what CR has to say, recalls = reliability.

I will also argue that despite that Toyota deemed it necessary to make owners bring their cars in to deal with some arachnids, the lack of recalls from Mazda really does say something about how well they build their cars. Toyota is supposedly reliable, but then why must they have so many of their cars return to the dealer to get something fixed after they are purhcased?

Mazda probably uses the same suppliers, and yet they haven't had to make their owners come back in as often. Thinking about it now, I wonder how many of the Mazdas recalled were rotaries?

Specifics aside, the larger implication here is exactly what I was trying to say with my comment on the Morning Shift last week; Mazda is just as reliable as their Japanese cousins, maybe even moreso, and people should be buying a Mazda over anything Honda or Toyota because they are better to drive, and probably even come better equipped at the same price point.

Seitz > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable)
03/23/2014 at 11:55

There is no doubt that Mazda is the best Japanese car company ever in existence, but I think a better way of putting it would be

"Mazda is the same quality, if not better than their Japanese cousins"

or

"Mazda is better quality than their Japanese counterparts" Which, with your research, I think is a bold, but completely fair claim.