The lawsuit, filed in a California court, claims that the 2.5-litre turbocharged SkyActiv-G engine – found in the CX-9, CX-5 and Mazda6 – has a hidden flaw that can cause catastrophic engine failure. The cylinder head, a critical engine component, can crack and leak coolant into the combustion chamber. Once that happens, the engine is toast (a technical term meaning fudged).
American customers are being offered repairs and potential compensation. Aussie customers? They’re being handed the bill and told to get in line.
Which brings us to Charlie Brown – a loyal Mazda owner whose 2017 CX-9 Azami has just joined the long and growing list of SkyActiv casualties.
Charlie, a loyal Mazda customer, has five Mazdas in the garage. Or did. His 2017 CX-9 has been parked at Mazda Waitara for weeks, the victim of a known engine defect – a coolant leak in the 2.5T engine that’s already sparked a class action in the US and been the subject of a Technical Service Bulletin there (TSB 01-013/21). His Mazda is currently being “assessed” ($1100 so far) at his expense by Mazda Waitara and he is facing thousands more in repairs.
Of course, the good folks at Mazda Waitara told Charlie: “we’ve never seen this issue before”.
No goodwill. No cover. No car. No happy motoring.
It’s not that Charlie doesn’t know about tech. He is a leading technology commentator with Sydney radio station 2GB and a regular on the Nine TV Network.
Mazda knows this engine fault exists – their own technical service bulletins admit it. They have quietly redesigned parts to fix it. But instead of standing by their customers, they’ve left people like Charlie stranded.
This isn’t a one-off. Mazda’s recall record is longer than an Easter Road trip in a Tesla:
● 176,000 Mazda 3s and CX-3s recalled for dodgy reversing cameras;
● Over 55,000 BT-50 utes pulled back for stalling engines;
● And just last year, nearly 8000 CX-60s and CX-90s recalled for software glitches that stopped engines restarting.
So, let me get this straight – Mazda can recall a car because the camera flickers when you’re reversing out of Woolies, but when a known engine defect bricks a $70,000 SUV and strands a loyal customer for six weeks, suddenly it’s “we don’t comment on individual cases”?
When I asked Mazda Australia this week why they haven’t followed the US lead or offered affected owners support, they responded with a corporate shrug:
“We don’t comment on individual cases, but we have followed this up with the dealer.”
– Mazda Australia, April 2025. Translation? Not our problem.
In 2019, I wrote about a mum whose CX-5 lost power on a freeway with her kids in the car. About customers who were told their car problems didn’t exist – until they did, spectacularly. About NCAT hearings, dodgy extended warranty offers, and a company more interested in deflection than fixing what was clearly broken.
The ACCC eventually took Mazda to court for allegedly misleading customers and engaging in unconscionable conduct.
Now, here we are again, same script, different engine. But now it seems the only thing you can count on them for is them dodging responsibility.
And for customers like Charlie – and countless others – that’s the real engine failure.
At least the ACCC is taking one dodgy car company to court.
The ACCC has taken LDV Automotive Australia to court for misrepresenting the “durability and suitability” of the T60 ute and G10 van, which were advertised as durable and tough, and suitable for use in, near, or on, a variety of environments and off-road terrains but tend to “rust or corrode” within five years of being manufactured.
“We allege that despite being aware of the propensity for the vehicles to rust, LDV continued to make representations for a number of years that the T60 and G10 vehicles were durable and suitable for use in a variety of terrains,” ACCC boss Gina Cass-Gottlieb said.
Meanwhile, The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of Trump Land is investigating into 1.3 million 2015 to 2017 Ford F-150 trucks because they can change down a gear without telling you.
Go Ozzie
Ozzie Piastri isn’t just leading the F1 world championship – he’s making it look easy. That’s three wins in five, each one delivered like a seasoned tax auditor: quietly efficient, slightly terrifying, and not prone to emotion.
But Ozzie didn’t drive a flawless race as his biggest fans are telling you. He made mistakes. Fewer than Leaping Lando but he is not in the Mad Max league yet and he still has one of the two fastest cars on the track. But he will be world champion.
Verstappen tried a turn 1 trick but earned a five-second penalty and a wave from the stewards. It was a nice try from the most intelligent driver in F1 but Ozzie was in the right and Max could have won the race if he immediately gave the place back rather than wait for the five second penalty. Lead laps this year (124 vs Max’s 66 and Norris’s 60).
Yes, it’s Miami next weekend for F1 but the real action is the Mt Baw Baw Sprint, a highlight of the Australian Tarmac Rally Championship, where your Weekend Australian Rally Team will be pedalling the 1990 BMW to an easy last. And last weekend it was the Bathurst Six Hour where very popular trucker Dean Campbell and Cameron Crick started 66th on the grid and went through the field like a dose of salts, winning by less than a second from Simon Hodges, Jayden Ojeda and George (son of Andrew) Miedecke.
Biggest news was the Class E win by Phil Alexander, Ronin Lindenmayer and Kim DeBritt in a surprisingly reliable and non-recalled Mazda 3. The Raceaway Tracktime team finished 37th out of 72 cars marking five Bathurst podiums in five years.
The answer to dodgy car salesmen
Sick of slick-talking car salesmen? Meet Mornine – the AI-powered robot saleswoman who won’t ghost you after you’ve signed on the dotted line.
Launched by Chinese car giant Chery, Mornine can greet you at the door, make you a coffee, show you around a Jaecoo or Omoda, and probably won’t tell you “we’ve never seen this problem before” when your coolant starts leaking.
Unlike some human counterparts – naming no names, Mazda – Mornine doesn’t need a manager’s approval to do the right thing. She’s already been trialled in Malaysia (where she greeted King Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar, 67 of Istana Negara) and could soon be coming to dealerships near you.
jc@jcp.com.au
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Mazda is facing a class action in the US over a serious engine defect in some of its most popular models – and yet here in Australia, the company is pretending it’s not their problem.