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A Few Creaks and a Tight Suspension - 2014 Mazda Mazda3 S Long-Term Road Test
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A Few Creaks and a Tight Suspension - 2014 Mazda Mazda3 S Long-Term Road Test
With a little over 16,000 miles on the odometer, our 2014 Mazda 3 is starting to show its age with a few noticeable cabin creaks.
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You are extremely lucky. Every Focus I have ever been in has been an absolute rattle-trap. I love the cars, don't get me wrong, but Ford definitely needs to improve their assembly tolerances. They are always the same rattle points too: the steering column, the gauge cluster, the head unit, and somewhere in the hatch area.
Sorry if you don't have the same ownership experience with your car but no there are no rattles or squeaks or buzzing noises from the interior. At 130,000 miles the suspension's bushing and shocks and other components are wearing out and getting noticeably noisy. There is also the trademark Honda/Acura road noise. But the interior is as tight as the day I bought it. Before this I had a 1998 Honda Accord that developed a rattle around the sunroof after it was quite old and well over 100,000 miles. You could hit massive potholes and the Accord's entire dash would shake a little but it would make a sound. Say what you want but Honda has great build quality.
There have been some other annoying noises too. Odd squeaking/creaking noise from the passenger A-piller when stopping and starting, which I was able to fix by shoving a piece of a small rubber stopper between the dash and pillar trim. Occasional rattle from the sunroof cable which normally only happens when the sunroof is fully open. There are a few other ones, but those are the most prevalent ones that I can think of.
Currently, I'm at a little over 71k miles, but some noises and rattles started at less than half my current mileage. My friend recently bought a CPO 2014 Accord with less than 10k on the odometer. There's a noise around the passenger door that sounds like wind noise (it doesn't happen on the driver side), but all of the door seals appear to be fine. I know Honda has a reputation for reliability and build quality, but I think that their focus on the latter has waned during the past decade or so. It's understandable that economy-class cars like the Civic or Mazda3 aren't going to be as exceptionally well-built as an Audi, BMW, Lexus, etc. since more are being produced at a lower price point, but Honda needs to keep increasing sales numbers from affecting their quality control.
On the other hand, my 2007 SL550 is still amazingly tight even though it's a drop top.
On the other hand, my 2 month old 2014 Mazda 3 now has a squeaky steering wheel- it rubs against the turn stalk somehow so it squeaks everytime I indicate and then turn back to centre. Boo.