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Woman Buys Brand-New Mazda CX-5. Then She Tries Taking It To The Dealership For Service

“Mazda did me dirtier than my exes!”

Photo by: Elias/historyhorses/24K-Production

JT Wilson

By: JT Wilson

Oct 2, at 6:00pm ET

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A teacher saved for years to buy her first new car: a 2026 Mazda CX-5. She says that within a month, it had started braking on its own in the middle of intersections. She also says that the dealership’s service manager observed the same issue on a test drive, but after consulting with Mazda, the dealer reassured her that the car was fine.

Phoenix, Arizona teacher History&Horses (@historyhorses) addressed her car problems in a video that has so far drawn more than 10,100 views. Her caption reads “Since @Mazda USA isn’t addressing the situation, I want to know what y’all would do here.”

“This is my first ever big girl car, my first ever brand new car. I saved for years so that I could buy this car,” she says. Her issue is with driver assistance features: “It decided to start auto stopping in the middle of intersections as traffic was continuing to flow.” She says it happened three or four times on the drive home from school, each time nearly causing a rear-end collision, and she says she had her first-grade son in the car.

The Service Manager Saw It Too

History&Horses says she took the SUV to Chapman Mazda in Phoenix, where staff told her they hadn’t seen the problem before. “And so their service manager takes it out and drives it and gets the exact same issue,” she says. “It auto brakes on him. He loses power.”

The dealership kept the car for about two weeks and gave her a CX-50 loaner. Then the service manager called. After contacting Mazda’s customer support, technical support, and regional and national service teams, she says he told her, “They are telling us that your car is completely fine. There is nothing wrong with your car.”

“I’m sorry, what?” she says she replied. “You told me it auto braked on you too in the middle of the road.”

In the comments, she wrote that she had switched the feature off and “it continued to auto brake and lose power anyway,” and that after Mazda opened a case and assigned her a case manager, “I’ve never heard from her again.”

Gallery: 2026 Mazda CX-5 First Drive Review

2026 Mazda CX-5 First Drive Review

Source: Anthony Alaniz / Motor1

What Mazda’s Manual Says

Mazda calls the system Smart Brake Support. The 2026 CX-5’s owner’s manual says it uses “sensors and cameras” to “operate brake control if there is a possibility of your vehicle colliding with the object,” including functions built for intersections, and that if it decides the driver has pressed the accelerator by mistake, “sudden acceleration is suppressed.” It lists situations in which the system “may operate,” such as when “there is a metal object, bump, or a protruding object on the road,” and says switching it off in the settings menu turns off all of its driving functions.

In 2019, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) documents, Mazda recalled 35,390 Mazda3s because the system “can falsely detect an obstacle while driving, activating the automatic emergency braking system and suddenly stopping the vehicle,” and dealers updated the software.

Commenter mikeymazda3 remembered it in History&Horses’s thread: “The 2019 Mazda 3 had this issue, but they fixed it with a software update.”

There’s no current recall on the 2026 CX-5. The agency lists 14 owner complaints for the model year, 11 of them involving electrical, software, or telematics faults. One, filed in May, describes Smart Brake Support triggering “false positive” emergency braking while merging onto a highway, and says pressing the accelerator fully “does not disengage the automatic braking.”

Lemon Law Math

As is often the case in comment threads about automotive faults, people were quick to recommend invoking lemon laws.

“Once you hit 3 times you can start engaging lemon law,” wrote disgruntledpelican83. Arizona’s statute actually sets the bar a little higher than that, mandating that the same problem needs to have been “subject to repair four or more times” or the car has been out of service “for a cumulative total of thirty or more calendar days,” and only after the manufacturer “has received prior direct written notification” of the defect. If a defect that “substantially impairs the use and value” of the car can’t be fixed, the manufacturer must replace it or refund “the full purchase price,” less an allowance for use.

She says Mazda’s national customer service line told her it doesn’t handle buybacks and that she would need an attorney. Mazda’s owner’s manual describes a free arbitration program, BBB AUTO LINE, that owners must use first “to the extent permitted by the applicable state ‘Lemon Law.’” Arizona’s law requires that step when a manufacturer’s program meets federal rules, and BBB National Programs says Mazda owners can use it “without the need for an attorney.”

The same manual tells owners who think their vehicle “has a defect which could cause a crash” to report it to NHTSA, because “if NHTSA receives similar complaints, it may open an investigation.” Complaints can be filed on NHTSA’s website.

"I Drove More Loaner Cars Than My Own"

Other people who said they’re new CX-5 owners had stories of their own.

“I just bought a 2026 Mazda CX-5 in July, and it was hesitating to accelerate,” wrote carmy069. “It was in the shop over and over again. I drove more loaner cars than my own.”

They said they eventually settled with the manager and corporate: “They traded me out for a 2026 CX-90.” History&Horses replied that Mazda had stopped calling her back: “Mazda did me dirtier than my exes!”

Commenter mexmar2013, who owns the same model, wrote: “I have taken my car multiple times and they said everything is normal.”

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For now, she wrote, she would spend what little downtime she has at work “calling around to see who wants to try and tackle this for me.”

Motor1 reached out to History&Horses via TikTok direct message, and Chapman Mazda via their website for comment. We’ll be sure to update this if they respond.

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