Mazda3 Saloon review - Reliability & safety

We're very impressed with Mazda as a company – it competes with more upmarket brands on standard features and design, but also stands out as producing safe, reliable cars too.

Mazda3 Saloon reliability

The Mazda3 specifically doesn’t feature in our 2024 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey, but its predecessor was rated highly in the 2019 edition. As a brand, however, Mazda performs well, having come in a respectable seventh place in 2024. 

Customers rate the user-friendliness of its cars’ controls highly, and the brand came in first in this area, which speaks volumes of Mazda’s choice to include more analogue controls and a rotary controller for its infotainment, rather than a touchscreen. Mazda is also rated highly for value for money, its exterior design and build quality. Acceleration and visibility of its cars is a weaker point, but overall things are very positive. Official reliability stats are nothing to write home about, but nor are they terrible, with around 25% of owners reporting an issue with their car in the first year.

Safety

The Mazda3 also scored well in the Euro NCAP crash test in 2019, earning five stars out of five. It’s fitted with a system named Smart City Brake Support, which will automatically apply emergency braking if a hazard is detected in the path of the car. The Saloon wasn’t tested but the same technology and structures are lifted from the hatchback.

All the other safety equipment that you’d expect, like anti-lock brakes, electronic stability control and a full suite of airbags are fitted, as well as normal driver aids such as traction control. There’s also a hill-start assist feature which holds the car on the brakes when you’re pulling away on an incline.