Mazda CX-5 extended warranty: cost, coverage and plans

CX-5 extended warranty coverage

An extended auto warranty effectively lengthens your warranty protection beyond what your vehicle comes with from the factory. For context, all new Mazda vehicles come with the following manufacturer’s warranties:

• A three-year/36,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty covering the vast majority of the parts on the car
• A five-year/60,000-mile powertrain warranty covering your engine, transmission and drive axle

If you buy a used Mazda, you’ll inherit whatever remains of the factory warranty. So, if you buy a two-year-old CX-5 with 20,000 miles on it, you should still have one year or 16,000 miles of bumper-to-bumper protection and three years or 40,000 miles of powertrain protection left.

» MORE: What does a car warranty cover?

That said, three years or 36,000 miles of bumper-to-bumper protection isn’t much. In fact, it’s the baseline for the automotive industry. (Mazda isn’t the only brand to offer this amount of warranty protection — Ford, Toyota and Chevrolet offer warranties that are just as short.)

Since Mazda’s bumper-to-bumper warranty protection is so short (and you’re reading this article), you’re probably interested in an extended warranty for your CX-5. If that’s the case, you have two main options:

1. An official Mazda-backed extended warranty (also known as a Mazda Protection Products Vehicle Service Agreement)
2. A plan from a third-party extended warranty company

The chief advantage of buying an official Mazda warranty is that you’ll get a $100 “disappearing deductible” option that waives your deductible if you return to the same dealer that sold you the warranty for covered repairs.

On the flip side, the advantage of buying a third-party warranty is that you don’t have to return to the dealer at all. You’ll almost always have the option of visiting any ASE-certified mechanic for repairs.

» LEARN: What to know about manufacturers’ extended warranties

A ConsumerAffairs investigation found that most drivers surveyed couldn’t afford to pay cash for a $1,000 repair bill, and 13% of respondents simply had no way to handle a bill that large — even with credit.

Mazda CX-5 extended warranty cost

We got quotes for four-year extended warranties on our sample CX-5, and the results varied significantly, ranging between $1,600 and $4,000.

You can usually save some money on your warranty by getting quotes from multiple warranty providers. Without that context, it’s hard to know if you’re being overcharged.

To find that range, we collected multiple quotes from Mazda and two third-party extended warranty companies — olive and Endurance. Mazda and olive were close together near the bottom of that price range, while a comparable plan from Endurance was more than twice as expensive (and lacked Mazda’s disappearing deductible).

For context, the average extended auto warranty costs around $1,000 per year of coverage. That makes the plans from Mazda and olive relatively good bargains at around half the usual cost.

» MORE: Car warranty guide: what you need to know

Mazda CX-5 extended warranty pros and cons

Is a Mazda CX-5 extended warranty worth it?

While your Mazda CX-5 extended warranty may be a relative bargain, that doesn’t mean it’s worth paying extra for. In general, you’re more likely to find that an extended warranty is worth the cost when either:

• You drive a vehicle with below-average reliability.
• The cost of the warranty is less than the average cost of expected repairs.
• A surprise repair bill could create financial difficulties for you.
• You don’t mind paying a few thousand dollars just for peace of mind.

Since the third and fourth points above are entirely dependent on your situation, let’s look at the first two.

In terms of overall reliability, Mazda tends to perform well above average. J.D. Power ranked the brand third out of 30 automakers, while Consumer Reports ranked it seventh out of 30 brands.

As for the Mazda CX-5 itself, Consumer Reports gave the crossover a predicted reliability score of 4 out of 5, citing minor trouble spots with in-car electronics. RepairPal, which ranks models based on the cost and frequency of their repairs, gave the CX-5 a 4.5 out of 5 rating. According to that site, CX-5s cost owners 22% less in repair and maintenance costs than the average SUV, and the probability of repairs costing $2,000 is just 8% (compared with the 13% SUV average).

» MORE: Mazda maintenance: cost, plans and service schedule

CX-5 owners who left reviews on our site seem satisfied with the vehicle overall but have mixed feelings about their dealership experience. (“While we love our CX-5 we are disappointed with the service we received at McKinney Mazda,” wrote John, a ConsumerAffairs reviewer in South Carolina.)

All things considered, you can probably expect a Mazda CX-5 to be highly reliable and cheap to own. That means an extended warranty probably isn’t a good investment, but if you want one for the added peace of mind, you may be able to find one at a relatively cheap price.

» MORE: Pros and cons of extended auto warranties