Mazda Problems

You’ve got a limited budget, which will determine the car you can buy. It will be a relatively old car, so buy one in the best condition you can find, with the lowest odometer reading, a good service history, and the best safety rating. Try a Mazda3, Toyota Corolla, Kia Rio, and Hyundai i30 from 2008/2009.

Try a Toyota RAV4, Mazda CX-5, Kia Sportage, or Subaru Forester. Any of them would be good choices.

It’s far too soon to be thinking about asking for another car. It’s under warranty and Mazda is required to fix any problems that might crop up. Let the dealer replace the screen as they have offered to do, and hopefully that will fix the problem and your concerns.

You can buy a steel tray for it, but that alone is unlikely to stop the back end from stepping out in slippery conditions. The old way of stopping this sort of thing happening was to put some load in the tray, some bags of concrete or sand will help, but you also have to drive it to the conditions.

Go for a car from a well-respected brand, such as a Toyota Corolla, Mazda 3 or Hyundai i30. All will give you economical motoring, low maintenance, and should hold their value quite well for the next couple of years or so.

There is a current recall affecting 30,505 MY 2016-2018 BT-50s. It relates to two front brake issues, one for a potential front brake hose failure, the other for possible front brake calliper cracking. Both could affect the car’s braking. To see if your BT-50 is one of those affected phone Mazda Customer Support (1800 034 411).

Camper trailers typically weigh in the range of 850 kg to 1200 kg without the extra weight of things like food, bedding, clothes, etc. so it’s probably best to look at a compact SUV. A Mazda CX5 will tow up to 1800 kg, which would seem to fit your needs. Then there’s a Kia Sportage (1600 kg), Mitsubishi Outlander (1600 kg), or Suzuki Grand Vitara (1600 kg).

It’s indicating that the coolant isn’t yet up to temperature. Once the engine is warmed up the light will go out.