2011 Mazda CX-9 - Excellent Vehicle Except for the Persistent and Costly Door Actuator Failures
My vehicle will be 10 years old in a couple of weeks. I have driven it around 128,500 miles and it's an excellent vehicle except for one major pitfall -- the door actuators. I have now replaced seven actuators and the eighth one is about to fail. Of course, there are only four doors (not counting the tailgate) so there are only four door actuators, but several have failed twice. Each replacement costs around $400. The Mazda Corporation finally acknowledged (through the dealer) this should not be happening and and began reimbursing the replacement costs to the dealer (and ultimately to me through no-cost replacements of the last couple actuators). The performance of the rest of the car, both mechanical and non-mechanical has been excellent. I used to get around 22 mpg when driving on the freeway during pre-pandemic times. Unfortunately, post pandemic driving around town with little or no freeway driving greatly reduces gas mileage to the 14-15 mpg range.