2020 Mazda MAZDA3

in May 2023 the visors of the vehicle hinge melted causing the visors to hang down to eye level and would not hold up causing visibly issues for driver and passenger. dealer said it is a common issue in heat but it blocks forward visibility and won't hold up and if there were and accident, forward movement of passenger or driver can cause the head to hit the visor causing injury.

on 3 occasions may 2023, June 2023 and July 2023 the forward Collison camera activated. in May and June it showed the vehicle to near stop like radar cruise control in rush hour speed traffic. in July 2023 it sounded the alarm and came to a full stop in heavy traffic. it occurs on bright hot days going straight no turns no oncoming traffic no traffic around and no obstacles hold or dips. this can cause the car to stop immediately and cause an accident. App detects problem with system but dealer cannot find problem and blame camera or GPS or satellite radio factory equipped.

I was driving down 2nd Avenue in Manhattan, traffic was crowded but flowing with an estimated speed of 20mph between lights. I believe the distance between my front bumper and the car ahead was only slightly under 2 car lengths in motion. Coming to a stop light, the car in front of me slowed and I followed, applying pressure to the brake gradually. Roughly 2-3 seconds into my braking, the forward collision warning activated (fast beep) followed by a hard brake causing myself and one passenger to lurch forward. The car behind me managed to hard brake before hitting me by a very small margin. As my car came to a near stop the space in front opened to several car lengths, that is a continuous application of gradual braking would have been totally sufficient to stop. Weather conditions were good. A similar situation had occurred to me before on the highway (unnecessary forward collision warning, but thankfully no auto brake) and so after this I decided to check the front for any obstruction of sensors and could not find any. I have heard from at least one other owner of a similar model Mazda that they have experienced the same during city/Manhattan driving.

Lane departure warning activated and attempted to correct during a gentle curve. The location had shifted lanes due to construction, so clear lines were visible but not the actual lane to follow which is a frequent occurrence in New York City. The system came close to steering me into the adjacent lane occupied by another vehicle forcing me to fight the correction. There was a lane departure warning on the dash and I believe the blind spot indicator was on (i.e. the adjacent vehicle was detected in some capacity). I considered this especially dangerous as in this zone also had very tight lanes so my physical correction could have also caused an accident. There was no malfunction of the physical components. No dealer or service center has reproduced the issue however I have discussed with other drivers of the same line (2020-23 Mazdas) who have had similar experiences leading to a decision to disable these "safety" features. Mazda provides a reasonable description of scenarios where lane departure and assistance will disable itself due to poor conditions or low confidence. I would recommend at a minimum requiring the system to detect and potentially differentiate lane widths, as city driving sometimes has extremely tight lanes (for example, the inner roadway of the Williamsburg Bridge where two adjacent lanes are perhaps 8-9ft with less than 2ft on either side to the wall). In these scenarios, any steering correction at all is more dangerous than if it were off.

•The first incident I had with the SBS was about a month on the highway, I was approaching a vehicle that was braking due to upcoming traffic. I had plenty of time to stop, upwards of 8-10 car lengths. Yet my SBS kicked in and slammed the brakes, jarring me forward. Luckily no one was directly behind me at that time because I have no doubt it would have caused an accident. At that time, it was the only time it had occurred, so I wrote it off as the sensor being a bit too sensitive. •The second incident I have had was recent, 11/23. I was pulling into a parking spot at work, that has a concrete wall to section off parking spots. I was low speed, turned into the spot and the SBS activated, slamming the brakes, resulting in me being propelled into my steering wheel. I was roughly 5-6 feet away from the wall

Was letting car slow down for red light. No cars in front of me. Suddenly the car braked and the brake warning came on. I was pretty far back from the light. I took the car to the dealer and he said the occurrence did not show on the computer. There was a recall for this problem but not for my car. If someone had been behind me or if this happens on a busy street, I would be rear ended. There have been other computer problems with this car but they never happen when the dealer checks for them.