Mazda3 review - Reliability & safety

Although the current Mazda3 itself has not appeared in our Driver Power customer satisfaction survey, Mazda as a brand performs better than average, with owners seemingly happy with their cars. The Mazda3 recorded excellent scores across the board in Euro NCAP safety testing, resulting in a five-star rating.

Mazda3 reliability

We’ve not heard any horror stories about the latest Mazda3’s reliability. As a brand, Mazda came in seventh place out of 32 brands overall in terms of customer satisfaction in the 2024 Driver Power survey, though a marginally worse-than-average 25% of owners reported an issue with their Mazda in the first year of ownership. For context, rival brand Toyota did much better, with just 18.1% of owners reporting a fault, and 20.8% of Peugeot and 18.2% of Nissan owners having an issue in the first year.

Safety

The Mazda3 achieved a five-star result from Euro NCAP when it was tested in the spring of 2019. It scored an impressive 98% in the adult occupant category, as well as 87% for child occupant protection. The former matched that of the Tesla Model X and was only bettered by the Mazda CX-30; the SUV version of the Mazda3.

Standard safety includes the latest technology, such as autonomous emergency braking, lane keeping assist and driver fatigue warnings, along with the usual myriad passive devices like airbags and ISOFIX child-seat mounting points.