Is Mazda the Most Reliable Brand at France's Roadworthiness Test?

In our brand ranking, one result often goes unnoticed behind the single-model manufacturers that artificially dominate the top of the raw table: once those too-small samples are excluded, Mazda comes out on top. Here’s the detail.

Mazda on top — once the small samples are excluded

In the raw ranking of the 38 brands tracked on this site, Mazda only shows up in 4th place. The three brands ahead of it — Alpine (6.99%), Chrysler (8.2%) and Cupra (10.58%) — each have just one model tracked: too narrow a sample to be comparable, and too dependent on a specific fleet profile (low-volume runs, a particular customer base) to say anything about the brand as a whole.

Once the ranking is limited to brands with a statistically significant sample — more than 5 models tracked, the same threshold already used in our 2025 barometer — the picture changes: Mazda takes the lead, with a weighted average retest rate of 13.81% across 11 families tracked (62,656 roadworthiness tests represented). It beats Hyundai (14.86%, 17 models), Land Rover (16.76%, 8 models) and Dacia (16.78%, 10 models). The national reference rate, across all models, is 18.94%: Mazda clearly does better than the average for the French fleet.

Model by model

Here are the 11 Mazda families tracked, ranked from most to least reliable by retest rate:

Model	Retest rate	National rank (/530)
MX-5 IV	3.06%	8
CX-30	3.37%	11
CX-5 I	3.37%	10
CX-3	8.23%	92
2 III	8.47%	96
3 I	16.05%	199
CX-5 II	17.49%	223
MX-5 II	18.00%	228
3 III	23.36%	300
MX-5 III	24.36%	316
2 II	26.39%	357

The top three are remarkable: MX-5 IV, CX-30 and CX-5 I are all within a whisker of each other, all three in the national top 15 out of 530 models tracked, all recent generations. There’s then a sharp break with the rest of the range — the CX-3 and 2 III stay below the national average, but the next six families (3 I, CX-5 II, MX-5 II, 3 III, MX-5 III, 2 II) all rank beyond 199th place, none dropping below 16%. The 2 II, the oldest generation tracked, brings up the rear at 26.39% — a gap of more than 23 points with the MX-5 IV, within the same brand.

Manufacturer recalls

RappelConso lists 8 distinct notices concerning the Mazda families tracked on this site, published between 2020 and 2021. Counted using the same method as our recalls-per-brand ranking (a recall counts once per family it affects), that comes to 13 recalls cumulated across 5 of the 11 Mazda families tracked — CX-30 (4 notices), CX-5 I and CX-5 II (4 each, across two shared notices), and MX-5 II, III and IV (3 notices grouped under one shared filing). All of these notices concern a risk of injury. As with other brands, a recall doesn’t mean a widespread defect across every unit of a model — but its frequency usefully complements the retest rate, which doesn’t cover this type of defect.

And in the Netherlands?

The RDW (the Dutch vehicle authority) publishes its own APK (Algemene Periodieke Keuring, the Dutch equivalent of the roadworthiness test) data as open data. Across the 240,953 Mazda tests it covers, the average failure rate stands at 33.46%, against 37.54% for the Dutch fleet as a whole — a result above average, consistent with the French ranking.

The gap holds at every age bracket:

Age bracket	Mazda	National average (NL)
3-5 years	18.06%	23.24%
5-8 years	21.43%	26.51%
8-11 years	27.95%	32.18%
11-15 years	38.42%	39.72%
15 years+	46.15%	47.50%

Two methodological caveats apply to these Dutch figures, as with every APK ranking published on this site: the data is aggregated across all generations of a model (the RDW doesn’t natively distinguish between generations), and the pass/fail result isn’t published directly — it’s inferred by cross-referencing test events with recorded defects. It’s therefore not as direct a pass/fail verdict as the French retest rate. Full model-by-model detail is available on the Mazda in the Netherlands page (in French), and the inference method on the methodology page (in French).

What this means for a purchase

The retest rate measures compliance with the safety points checked (braking, suspension, emissions, lighting), not overall mechanical reliability — see the full methodology page (in French). On this specific measure, Mazda ranks top among brands with a significant sample, both in France and in the Netherlands — a consistent result on both sides. But the brand average hides a sharp split between the recent models (MX-5 IV, CX-30, CX-5 I — all in the national top 15) and the older generations (3 III, MX-5 III, 2 II), which lag well behind. The full model-by-model detail, including maintenance budget, is available on the Mazda brand page (in French).

Source data: UTAC-OTC (French roadworthiness test, 2025), RDW (Netherlands, CC0 licence), RappelConso (data.gouv.fr). Full methodology on the methodology page (in French).