2016 Mazda CX-5 acceleration problems

Filed Apr 28, 2026 · Acceleration, Engine · CA · crash

My wife was driving our 2016 Mazda CX-5, and was getting ready to pull into our daughters' driveway. My wife slowed down to a stop before entering the driveway. She gave the vehicle some gas to move forward. She stated that there was a pause, then the vehicle accelerated forward slamming into the garage door and the corner of the garage/house. There was also a Tesla parked inside the garage that was knocked back about a foot and a half. The distance from the edge of driveway and street to the garage door is about 27 feet. This happened at 1:30 PM. The weather conditions were great, sunny and dry. Thankfully, no one was hurt. If my wife was another foot to the right, she would have hit the support post for the upper balcony, and there would have been a good chance of the balcony falling on top of her. Or, if someone was standing in front of my wife when she entered the driveway, they could have seriously been hurt! There were no warning lights on prior to the accident. This happened last Sunday, April 19, 2026. We had the car towed to a local body shop on the same day as the accident. The vehicle was towed away the very next day to our insurance company's salvage lot in Bakersfield. I do have all the information, address and phone number, of the lot where our car was towed to. Hopefully, the car can still be inspected by the proper authorities. Thank you for your time!

Filed Nov 19, 2023 · Acceleration · MD

11/19/2023 - About 8 pm. on November 17, 2023, I was parking at my condo parking lot and slowly drove the car into the parking space when all of a sudden the car accelerated on its own. I immediately pressed on the brake pedal and it stopped. I felt fortunate that nobody was on the sidewalk. The same thing happened about a month ago but I thought it was just something unusual but now that it happened again I am very concerned and I am going to call the Maxda dealership to see what they say.

Filed Jul 27, 2022 · Acceleration, Engine · NC

I own a 2016 Mazda CX-5 Touring with AWD. I purchased it brand new from a dealer--no miles on it. It's been a great car until this Sudden Unintended Acceleration problem (about 60K miles now). It's happened 5 or 6 times--twice when in a drive thru. It seems that if I am idling (not pressing on gas or brake) the car will sometimes suddenly accelerate. I have used suggestions to brake, then place car in neutral. That seemed to resolve the problem. However, recently I pulled up to my (rural) mailbox and the car tried to accelerate out of control. I had the brake on (was on a downhill) when it happened, so this was scary. I really had to press down more on the brake pedal, then shifted to neutral, then to park. The acceleration finally stopped. I did not observe tachometer readings during this or other events, but will pay more attention if/when this happens in the future. I do not drive with both feet, and as these incidents have occurred I have been able to maintain more composure and analyze what is going on. I am not getting my foot caught in the mat and I'm not mistakenly pressing on the accelerator. I've been to my local Mazda dealer (Sport Durst in Durham) on May 13, 2022 and they were unable to replicate the problem, so could not repair or even troubleshoot it. The car was T-boned about a year ago, with some damage to the passenger front tire. Could that have anything to do with my problems? My partner feels this could be an issue with the Throttle Control Sensor (hardware) or with the software managing throttle control (much more difficult to diagnose, he says). I wanted to ask: for anyone experiencing this problem, did replacing the Throttle Control Sensor or diagnosing software problems resolve the issue? And, do you have any recommendations for me? Since the car is (barely) out of warranty, (just over 6 yrs/60,000 miles) would filing a claim with Mazda be a good approach? Would you suggest I just trade the car in?

Filed Apr 13, 2021 · Acceleration, Lights · 34,980 miles · FL

The following warning and warning lights began around 34,980 miles on my 2016.5 mazda cx-5 grand touring 2.5l skyactiv-g while driving down the interstate: master warning light, check engine light, power steering, keyless system malfunction, smart city brake support malfunction, forward scbs disabled, check engine light, tcs/dsc indicator light, tcs off indicator light, blind spot monitoring (bsm) off indication, brake system warning light, ABS warning light, electric brake warning light, air bag/front seat belt pretensioner system warning light, tire pressure monitoring system warning light, LED headlight warning light, and the speedometer does not work. The vehicle takes several attempts to turn off. Using the left blinker will cause the vehicles power to restart and yes, while driving! This started november 14, 2020 and when I notified mazda, they did not seem concerned and a couple days later the light were no longer there. This occurred again december 15, 2020 and march 5, 2021 when I decided mazda needs to run a diagnosis because clearly something is not right. My dealership insisted it was my battery (basically the only warning light not on) and my rear brake pads. Then when this did not correct the issue, they said corrosion needed to be cleaned which was not shown in the vehicle inspection video. Also, my car was just serviced at my mazda dealership july 2020 with 33,706 miles. September 2020 my vehicle was parked and I returned to a large crack on the driver side. Around 25,000 the tired needed to be replaced, now at 36,666 miles tire thread depth is in the yellow' my vehicle alignment has zero issues and my mazda dealership is the only one who rotates the tires (or suppose to).

Filed Jan 7, 2019 · Acceleration · IL · crash

I was stopped but did not have the car in park when vehicle lunged forward at high speed. I was in a driveway and hit someone's garage.

Filed Jun 24, 2018 · Acceleration, Brakes · 18,168 miles · PA · crash

I slowed down in my neighborhood, going about 10 miles and hour, and was coasting into a parking space at about 5 MPH in my home neighborhood. It was about 1:15 pm on a sunny, clear day. I was applying the brake to stop the car as I pulled into the spot yet I was going slow and coasting straight into the spot. Suddenly, the car sped up, the brakes had no response, and the car jumped over the curb and ran into two bushes. I did not have my foot on the accelerator, I had my foot on the brake...but more than anything, I had no control, it was unintended acceleration. Then the car stopped after I hit the bushes. I was shaken, but no bags deployed. I then moved the car off of the grass, and pulled the car around to the same parking space. This time the car stopped normally. I have 18,168 miles on this car. I have been the only owner. I am afraid to drive this car because I am concerned it will do this again and I will be in traffic or near people and I could hurt or kill myself or someone else. There was no warning of any problem.

Filed Jun 6, 2018 · Acceleration · 44,229 miles · OK

Sudden acceleration turning left pulling into a parking spot. Foot on brake/off of accelerator, cruise control off, slowly pulling in. Accelerated enough to jump curb onto sidewalk. Able to break just about three feet short of brick building. Car at dealership for several days. Technicians unable to recreate or discover problem.

Filed Mar 19, 2018 · Acceleration, Transmission · 36,500 miles · MO

Coasting. Driving to a stop sign or stop light or stopping point at a declining speed from 30mph to 25/20/15mph intervals are where the 'tugging'/'stutter' happens. Dealership says it is normal operation for the car to shift into gear when declining in speeds. Even corporate agreed with them. The only thing that is not normal is how come awd variation doesn't have this issue? My older mazda 3 from 2009 I drove didn't have this issue. Tested a mazda 3 new 2018 and they had this issue. Also tested a sales department 2016 fwd cx 5, similar issue. My friend who is a physoclogist, her cx 5 2016 has the same tugging issue. Dealership said it could be a torque converter/transmission/ or cold weather within th transmission lines. No error codes were present when they checked. The driving experience seems very degrading for the newer models. The abrupt tugging could cause an accident to someone ahead of me or the jerking could make me hit the gas pedal even harder. Spoke to: service request number 1-1225218842 spoke to roy from mazda csdepartment 800.222.5500 select prompt 2, then ext. 1148. The cs called dealership and followed dealership guidance. If this is new for the vechicle as a standard of driving, then this must make it very unpleasant and predictable for future accidents.

Filed Jan 4, 2018 · Acceleration, Airbags · 7,600 miles · NY · crash · 1 injury

2 incidents of sudden acceleration while making a right hand turn into parking spaces first on 5/18/17 and second on 12/15/17. The air bags deployed the first time but not the second time. The insurance company is ordering an engineer investigate since it occurred on 2 separate occasions

Filed Aug 14, 2017 · Acceleration, Driver assistance · 3,600 miles · CA

My complaint is identical to complaint # 10913740. I special ordered my cx-5 & picked it up feb 2017.does not shift properly, revs up to 6000 before engaging, can't accelerate when I need to (like merging on freeway or changing lanes). Please see complaint # 10913740 because he describes it better than I, a non "car person" can. I've put my my gas foot to the floor trying to gain some speed so I wouldn't get rear ended and it takes, literally, about 10 seconds to respond at all. The dealer claims it is shifting as designed & says they can't recreate the problem. Car was there @3600 miles & they told me the tech couldn't find anything wrong with the car but did I want a drive with him. I did one, & he tried to tell me that revving to 5000 when on a small incline was normal. This is a lie. I brought the car back again- it was in for 7 days. 2nd time manufacturer involved, & supposedly its engineers would work on it. But all they did is run diagnostics (doesn't anybody actually look at the actual car anymore - computers do malfunction) and what they came up with is that I was engaging the gas and the brake at the same time, causing the car not to shift. First of all, my tiny foot couldn't be on both pedals if I tried; second, my left foot is a clutch foot. I am so used to using it on a clutch only that it dangles where a clutch would be if I hadn't bought this stupid automatic 2016 cx-5. So now mazda is saying that their engineers & dealer technicians are infallible and they will do nothing for me. Meanwhile, I am stuck with this pos I bought for $27,000 cash which is not only dangerous but extremely un-fun to drive due to the jerking, revving, etc., which are very unnerving, and with 5000 miles on car, I should want to drive it. Instead I am driving my nearly 12 year old vw so that I can get places safely and without the jarring problem of the mazda.