I think it is too early to have to replace the clutch. I expected Mazda to be a better quality car than a major repair at 52K miles @ $1300, 3 days car-less. I was not sure if this was early but after reading about it, clutch replacement in a good quality car should be troublesome after 80K sometimes 100K. I have been reading blogs and other complaints about Clutch Problems, Replacement and Premature Failure on Mazdas 2010 and other years. In fact there is a revised clutch assembly that will be used to replace the current one (on 2009-2013 Mazdas). Mazda knows it, corrected the clutch, but will not pay for it or recall it. I joined a Consumer Class Lawyers blog to keep informed and to be updated on any legal action on these complaints. Maybe I can get reimbursed later, but for now I need my car and will have to pay to replace the clutch. :(

Gratitude first...the situation could have been significantly worse. I live in a rural, mountainous area and the roads have no shoulders. Fortunately, when my clutch completely failed, I had just made it out of the twisty-turns and onto a major highway.

I concur with others who have chimed in on this same issue, it is a real head scratcher. Not knowing what the matter was, I had the car towed to Reliable Mazda. They wanted nearly $2,000 to completely redo the clutch...soup to nuts! After contacting a few other shops, I decided to have my car towed to a mechanic I dearly trust. The service technician, after pulling everything apart, said he has NEVER seen a clutch fail like this particularly with so few miles. The clutch was destroyed.

My first car was a manual transmission and I have owned many in the past thirty years. Additionally, I have been trained on amateur road racing. Without belaboring the point, I know how to finesse a clutch. If anything on my cars should be in question it is the accelerator. She gets the most use!

What is the most unfortunate part of this matter is that there seems to be a lack of ownership for this problem on the behalf of Mazda. I sure love this car, but as a professional/consumer/someone who is mindful of my personal well-being, I doubt I will own one again. It is time to return to my old faithfuls...Honda/Acura.

It seems that the thousands of dollars that will be lost in future sales could have been mitigated by owning this problem from the beginning. Personal and professional stewardship seems to be a dying art.

Purchased new. Manual transmission. Loved the car! 4th Mazda I have had over the years. At approximately 44,000 started to hear clatter sounds when starting motor and starting in first gear. took to my mechanic for inspection. He told me the clutch was worn out.

Had my mechanic repair it after my Mazda dealership informed me it was my fault for premature clutch wear and not covered. Quoted me an estimate for repair of $2100? My mechanic bill was $1600.

In followup contact with dealer and their bogus attempt to blame it on me for bad driving habits I did get a parts manager to acknowledge that the probable source of the problem was inferior engineered Ford parts! Seems Ford and Mazda parted company in 2011.This person also suggested I consider a newer Mazda as a replacement since they no longer have inferior Ford parts! I informed him that this will be my last Mazda purchase!

My only concern now is to how to unload it before the word is out on how bad it is and its value drops!

Seasoned driver of manual transmissions. Been driving for 40 years. I work from home and have for the last 9 years. Put about 8k miles a year on my car and don't drive it hard at all. Had to replace it at 56k. Totally unacceptable. The worst is that I took it in a few weeks before and Mazda told me there was nothing wrong with it. This will be my last Mazda and I was pretty pleased with it before now. Unfortunately, I read this can happen often. How Mazda can refuse to see this as a defective part is truly immoral.

This is the third clutch to go out on this car. The first two clutches went out at 6,598 miles and, subsequently, at 9,793 miles. Mazda covered the full cost on the first clutch, and only cover parts on the second clutch--despite the car being under full warranty--claiming driver error. When I picked the car up at the dealer garage the second time, they had conveniently thrown out the parts by the time I arrived. The first clutch to go showed extreme signs of uneven wear on the fly wheel.

The car has had a persistent chatter in the clutch pedal since the day we bought the car new. My current mechanic has said this is not uncommon for 2010 Mazda 3s, and surmises that the single-disc clutch configuration to be the problem.

Averaged out, I'm getting 10,000 miles per clutch - that's outrageous. I drove a Toyota Tercel, with factory installed clutch, for 193,000 miles before having to replace the OEM clutch. I have drive manual transmissions my entire life (over 45 years). This car, or this model, has a problem and owners are being force to pay the price.

I have owned four Mazdas, including this one, and I will not go near another Mazda, I want this car GONE.

Replaced my 2005 Mazda 3 GX sedan (manual) after getting rear-ended in 2014. Just as note, I had purchased my 2005 Mazda3 new and it had close to 200,000km on it at the time of the accident with no clutch issues.

Replaced my 2005 with a used 2010 Mazda 3 GX sport (manual) as I was under the belief that Mazda had done a great job with building a reliable and fun car to drive in the 3 and would have only improved on earlier iterations of the product. I Purchased a used 2010 with approx. 47,000 km. When I bought it at the time I did notice that the release point for the clutch seemed a bit higher than my 2005, but I just figured that this was normal for the car.

Drove the car for about 10,000km over 1 year (usually only on weekends). Within the month of May of 2015, my car began to have difficulty accelerating and RPM's would shoot up with light pressure on the gas (even at highway speeds in 5th gear). After a couple weeks of experiencing this I took it into a Mazda dealership to get it looked at. One of their service techs and I took a drive in my car and within a few seconds the tech told me that I would need a new clutch. After the repair the clutch release point now seems closer to what I remember existed in my 2005 Mazda 3.

Like others who have experienced this issue. I am extremely disappointed with the situation. It has degraded my confidence that I had placed in Mazda as a car company and has made me wary of purchasing another Mazda product in the future. In fairness to Mazda, I don't know how the previous owner drove my car for the first 47,000 km and so it is possible that the clutch was abused. However, there seems to be overwhelming evidence that there is a manufacturing defect that is leading to premature clutch failure.

I would recommend anyone looking to purchase a used Mazda 3 from 2010 or later to insist on having the clutch assembly and other related components inspected to determine if you might run into premature clutch wear/failure.

Companies consist of people, and people make mistakes. I just wish Mazda would take more ownership of the problem with their 2010+ Mazda3 manual transmission and not place blame solely on the assumption that is is the mistake of the user/owner.

I bought this car as a certified car at 48k miles. The clutch was always a little spongy, but I figured newer clutches might just be easier to handle and are much smoother (my last manual was a '91 240sx). Was I ever wrong. My clutch snapped in half and the remaining half was not much remaining. I don't ride with my foot on the clutch and the difference between my new clutch and what I had when I first bought it was significant. It was almost impossible to lose traction accelerating or to stall before. Be aware if getting a 2010 Mazda 3 that hasn't had its clutch replaced with a corrected revision.

Bought my 2010 Mazda 3s used in December of 2014. Great shape, 2 previous owners, strong clutch, smooth as butter. This car is great fun to drive, I love everything about it (almost). Last Sunday I taught a friend how to drive a stickshift with this car, and yeah, there were the predictable stalls and a few black rubber 11's laid out on the parking lot, but nothing any more stressful on the car than when I (or most likely, anyone else) learned how to operate a real transmission. But as I drove home, I noticed the trans shuddering and slipping on every gearshift. Awwwr, crap. So it's time to replace the clutch. I don't blame my buddy, it's just a thing, and people are more important than things.

So I called my Mechanic, and he quoted me $1200 for the repair, which is reasonable. he also found out something interesting about the clutch on this car (and this is the kicker): The clutch assembly is faulty in the first generation of these cars. When the clutch pedal is fully depressed, the throwout bearing doesn't fully disengage the clutch plate from the flywheel so it slowly, quietly, kills the clutch. sitting in stop-and-go traffic, or at a stoplight with the pedal depressed? friction disk is rub, rub, rubbing against the flywheel and wearing things down substantially faster than normal. the real juicy bit is that Mazda knows about the problem, and they've quietly released an upgraded version with a longer fork and new bearing which WILL fully disengage the clutch, and decided not to issue a recall.

So if you take it into a dealer or an honest mechanic, they'll replace your old clutch with the redesigned kit. I've already stated that my Mechanic quoted me $1200 to fix; Just for kicks I called up my local Mazda dealer in Chantilly VA, and they quoted me $2100 to perform the same exact work. Really, Mazda? Really? That's not good business, and it IS a manufacturing defect the likes of which is only really proven in the field, after years of real-world driving. As such, I hope others will join with me in urging Mazda to do the right thing, and to issue a recall and just fix the problem. This is a great car! people love it, and would love it even more if the defective clutch wasn't an issue.

To have the clutch die at less than 70,000 miles: Well, that just sucks!

And it appears that MANY of us are reporting that same problem!

Update from Mar 7, 2015: Repaired, bill was just over $1,400. Took the bill to the Mazda dealership from which I bought the car. Sales manager was nice enough, but told me that he would have to forward my info to the manager in charge of the repair dept., who would not be in until Monday. He made a photocopy of my bill. If the dealership cannot do anything, I will next go to Mazda corporate...

Bought in Dec, 2010 from Car$ense. Previous owner purchased the car in April, 2009 from dealer. It had 17300 miles when I bought it.

No issues other than tires (I've had to replace all FOUR tires TWICE because the sensor blows the tire) and brakes - typical stuff - until January, 2014 when I heard a strange high pitched sound coming from the engine. Right side, near the front but not the radiator. Fast forward to inspection in August when I mentioned the noise.

HEFTY $ to replace the drive train. Right away the clutch started to act sluggish. I thought it was me getting old and not realizing my foot was on the clutch.

The last week of January, 2015 saw acceleration failures - like I was trying to accelerate while in neutral but only in gear 4, 5 and 6. Gears 1-3 were fine.

Back to the repair shop (not dealer and certainly NOT Car$ense) to be without my car for EIGHT days and have to get a rental for the week.

$1490 for the clutch - would have been cheaper if Mazda didn't change the design - another Mazda3 (2008) was in at the same time for the SAME issue but was $800 less because they could rebuild the clutch. Another $399 for the rental!!!

Update from Feb 23, 2015: ** Edited to correct that it was the TIMING CHAIN/HOUSING that was replaced in fall of 2014, not the drive train.

Just got this fine car 4 months ago. As soon as it began to snow, and the wheels began to lose their grip a bit, I began to smell an awful burning odor that permeated the entirety of the vehicle, from front to trunk. I thought I ran over something, or sucked something up, or perhaps got something caught in the calipers. NO...I found out today that the car, I have made only 4 payments on, is going to need a new clutch at 61000 miles. I haven't gotten the estimate yet, but my wife works at the dealership I got it at, so I get at discount on labor. I too have been told it's a 'wear item', and it isn't covered under warranty or service contract..Wheee.

I bought my Mazda 3 manual shift in 2010, brand new straight from Mazda dealer in Whitby. In 2011 car had 8000km, I started to smell a strange odor inside the car so I went to the dealer in Ajax to check it out - they said everything is OK. I don't think they checked anything besides oil levels.

Now in Sept.2014 the mileage is 40.000km and once again I brought my car to the dealer because driving my car became a big challenge, as well as dangerous. When I accelerate RPMs go up but vehicle will not accelerate and the car would go slowly as if in slow motion. The issue they found was that the clutch was worn out and they recommend replacing the clutch and machine flywheel-cost $1365.00 + TX. I have been driving the manual shift cars for 40 years and I haven't had any problems with the clutch. The last 25 years we had three Honda's and four Toyota's and never ever had clutch problems, even with 450.000km mileage on one of my Honda's.

I have talked with very experienced mechanics about it, they couldn't believe that it happened and they said that must be manufacture defect.

I contacted the Mazda Dealer and I have been told to contact the Customer Relations Department for further assistance.

In summary;

I had to replace the clutch paying 1600$CAN from my pocket. I was told that so called bumper to bumper warranty did not cover it due to wear and tear!!!!! Sign me up for a Class Action Suit. Very unhappy, first and last time Mazda owner.

Same issue as has been reported multiple times. The clutch disc was replaced by the previous owner at 11k miles. Multiple parts needed to be replaced at 32,500 including fork, bearing, pin, clutch disc, and clutch plate. Flywheel was fairly damaged as well.

What's worse is that the original clutch plate had a clear defect (a welded bolt on the retaining ring of clutch disc literally fell out of the car when the assembly was removed. The mechanic during the second repair said this should never happen, even given the 'wear and tear' pushback that the manufacturer gives the customers. Other parts were in horrible shape despite the car's mileage and age, likely due to the installation and their poor quality (all OEM).

Also, the mechanic during the second repair noted the part numbers have changed for several components of the clutch assembly. While there was never a formal recall, Mazda clearly has seen the issue quite a bit as they've updated the parts to correct and conceal the problem.

Horrendous support from Mazda corporate via the phone line, especially given that all previous repairs and maintenance for the car have been done at Mazda dealerships, and all maintenance/repairs have used OEM-recommended parts. No support or offer to cover parts or labor even with parts literally falling apart after only 33k miles and 2 clutch repairs.

I plan to sell car and won't buy Mazda again.

My clutch has to be replaced at under $35K. That's absurd, My previous car had just under 80K miles on it and the clutch was nowhere near being ready to be replaced. I have otherwise been pleased with my Mazda, but will not be purchasing another one. The clutch should last way more than 35K miles. Yes, the next car I am going to buy will be an automatic, but it will not be the new Mazda 5 I was going to buy.

Update from Jul 10, 2014: I meant to say my clutch has to be replaced at under 35K miles, not $35K.