2026 Mazda CX-50

On several occasions, moving the gear selector from Reverse to Drive, the transmission has failed to engage Drive, with the dashboard displaying "D" and the vehicle moving in reverse upon throttle application. Fortunately, objects, pets or pedestrians were not present behind the vehicle during the occurrences. The dealership was unable to duplicate the condition and found no software updates or other notices from Mazda addressing the issue.

I parked this hybrid rental vehicle on a steep street facing uphill and remained in the car with it on for about 15 to 30 minutes. When I put the vehicle back in Drive, released the brake pedal, and pressed the gas pedal to drive away, the car quickly free-rolled backwards. There was no throttle response, and I had to quickly brake to stop the car from its quick backwards descent. Multiple attempts to correct the issue, including various combinations of placing the car back in Park and back in Drive, engaging the electronic parking brake, etc., had no effect. There was no throttle response at all when in Drive, and no ability to control the free-roll of the car after pressing the gas pedal when in Drive without braking. I even tried placing the car in Reverse, and this allowed me to go backwards at a controlled speed instead of free-rolling, but Drive only initiated an uncontrollable backward free-roll. Note that the hybrid vehicle was on, but the engine did not sound like it was running, and I believe it was in electric mode while experiencing this issue. There were no warning lamps, messages, or other symptoms of problems prior to or during the issue. Over the course of these various attempts I rolled backwards several car lengths. Had there been a vehicle or person behind me, there would have been an accident. I eventually placed the car in Park and turned it off and left it there. When I returned about 2 hours later the vehicle behaved as normal, and the issue was never experienced again while I had the rental car. Since this was a Budget rental car, they would need to be contacted about any availability for inspection. I did not report the issue to Budget or to Mazda. This issue concerned me enough to report it directly to NHTSA.

We are having concerning issue with Mazda CX 50, 2026 hybrid. not going into reverse gear or stopping unexpectedly after attempting to shift to reverse. We recently took the vehicle to the Mazda dealership where we bought it.: Luther Mazda in [XXX]. After repeated attempts, they said they had no way to address the problem since they couldn’t re-create it. We reiterated that it just happened several times to us, but we cannot re-create it on demand. I sent the dealership the following information from the Internet, that was posted about the 2025 model having the same issue as our new 2026 is having. Factory Transmission Software Mode     •    Recall Numbers: NHTSA ID 25V487000 (approx.) early production CX-50 Hybrid units were shipped to dealerships with their software accidentally locked in a specialized "factory testing mode". [1 ([XXX])]     •    Safety Impact: When trapped in this mode, a driver can shift the vehicle directly into Drive or Reverse without depressing the brake pedal, which violates federal safety standards and poses a roll-away or sudden acceleration risk. [     •    The Remedy: Dealers must replace the Engine Control Module (ECM), reprogram the Power Control Unit (PCU) and Hybrid Control Unit (HCU), and use a proprietary diagnostic tool to formally deactivate the factory mode at no cost. [1 ([XXX])] We sent our dealer list, but they still say they cannot do anything for now to resolve the situation with our 2026 model. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)