Now are you guys talking -10 C or -10 F, because I'd expect everything on the car to be pretty stiff at 32 f (0 C).
My Protege gets stiff and creeky at -20 C and lower. I don't think it gets that cold in Japan, haha.

Had the same issue dealer replaced bushings here in Canada. As soon as cold weather hit, creak creak.

I have a "06 GT in Ottawa, Canada with 20,000 km's, noise is there intermittently when below 0 Celsius. I am a mechanic (not mazda) and checked everything on a hoist and nothing was falling off or loose so I left it rather then have somebody guess and throw all kinds of parts at my car. The noise is so minor and irregular I am leaving it until it gets worse. I love my car and the way it handles and I don't want somebody playing with the suspension. Besides the reason dealers are changing all kinds of parts it because they don't have a clue. My suggestion is have the dealer document it on a work order and wait till Mazda Engineering finds a fix.

This is a loosing proposition.
 

I had the dealer do the fix on my Mazda 5. It used to creak when it was cold now it creaks all of the time.

Additionally I have had my car returned five times needing reprogramming of the switch blade key.

I hope they fire the SOB who designed that. About two months ago mine fell apart - literally when I was taking it out of the ignition. TG for super glue it is a quicker fix then going to the dealer - again.

Have a little over a year left on the lease and then it is no longer my problem.

really? i upgraded to a switch-blade key (flip key) for my 3 and it still looks like new over a year later, except for a tiny bit of paint that flaked off the "lock" button. it hasn't once not worked like a precision instrument. programmed it myself and it's never needed reprogramming.

I'm through with the 5
 

After the fix my car makes more noise than it did before. I am not impressed at all with the dealer I leased my 3 & 5 from and consequently I have not been impressed with Mazda at all.

Expect to be moving out of the 5 soon. The 3 is great - no complaints but the unresponsive dealer kills it for me. Good luck with your Mazdas.

Always a shame to see bad dealer response ruin a brand for someone.

Even more so when it's a brand that truly has some great offerings out there.

No car will be perfect, but the response from the person who should be fixing it makes all the difference. I feel for you dude.

AWD MPV FTW!!!...?

Bummer, because just lately, I've kinda been eyeballing those 5s. They're just about the right size to be a perfect surf car, and the dual sliding doors are a good idea. Too bad about the glitches, and hopefully Mazda will find (and apply) a fix for it.

*Goes for a drive in the MSP and listens to the rear swaybar clunk.*


Ninja EDIT: O gawd, did I say surf car? I take it back. This is just hideous.
http://www.mazdausa.com/MusaWeb/disp...zda5Quiksilver

I smile whenever I see a Mazda5 on the road.. if I wasn't almost always alone in my car it would be a great choice. As it stands the P5 is too big for me :P

sucks to hear people having problems with them. A lot of issues seem to stem from the fact that they just tossed a slightly modified JDM car into North America and it doesn't hold up to the New England and Canadian climates very well.

I can now report that we've had our 06 Mazda5 for 11 months & have about 28,000 km on it and have not experienced any problems of any kind. We live in the snow belt off Lake Huron in Southern Ontario. Great in the snow with winter tires. Never had the suspension noise in the cold last winter. My key has not fallen apart.

I'd agree that the air conditioning is weak, especially to the rear area

My only other niggling complaint is how much it collects mud and snow, especially on the rear window. Oh yeah, the gas tank is too small, we are used to making 7 hour runs without stopping and we now stop to refill. The last few months we have averaged 8.4 l/100km I think that's 34 mpg "imperial"

I still get great pleasure form how it handles.

I'm back, and so is the "crunch in the suspension".
Obviously the "Fix" was temporary; and so will be my journey with my Mazda5. Too bad but they will never enjoy the presence of my company in their Service (?) department or dealerships again.
So long.

bye! Was it at least fun to drive while it lasted? No car or car company is perfect, but hopefully the shortcomings of your next car don't bother you as much as some rubber bushing noise apparently does.

A handful of Mazda5 issues I've seen come up relate to lack of decent cold weather testing. It is as if they assumed their testing for sale in the Japanese market was enough to sell it in North America. Hopefully Mazda smartens up. This isn't the first time, as Protege5s in the Northeastern and Midwestern US plus Canada have awful rusting problems that plague owners within two years of ownership. Again, though the Protege sedan was likely cold weather tested, they made the assumption (this is all conspiracy theory of course) that if the sedan was fine, the wagon that is 90% similar would also be the same. The rear fenders, which are not the same, exhibit the worrying rust levels.

Mazda needs to build a car that can last in whatever climate it is sold in. I have a hard time recommending Mazdas to friends because of this. There's no telling if they'll last here or not.

Have fun with the new car!

ok. had problem apparently fixed last winter. Its back now I hear creaking from the front AND the back..these cars are lemons. Goes to dealer on Thursday. Also checking major wind noise from driver side window. Locks that will not unlock passenger side rear slider when you hit remote. Key falling apart. All this under 35,000km?, and well babied 35,000kms I may tell you.

more cold weather testing failures.. bah!

but seriously unless the lemon laws there are crazy, you'll be hard pressed to get that considered a true lemon. Typically it has to be a serious malfunction (i.e. makes the car un-drivable) not just some suspension noise.

My problem is the wind noise, no one can figure it out. My suspension noise is a coil spring. The bushing cracks and then the coil spring rubs. Otherwise I really like the 5. If they would just own up and take care of the fixes.