No, almost 80 000km here and still had 5mm at last service

 

Only rear is very unusual, normally front brake pads go first. I owned a 2010 Mazda 3 for 8 years and ~120,000km and never changed the rear brakes (fronts at 5 years ~80,000km)



Good to know, I'm only at 16,000 km

 

Something is not right. Did you ask the Service Manager for the reason for such rapid wear? Normally, the front brakes wear faster than the rear ones because of weight distribution during braking. It seems that your electronic parking brake (EPB) might not be releasing fully or your disks were warped. The fact that the disks needed replacement also points in this direction, as they definitely should not wear out in 20K unless you drive with your foot permanently on the brake pedal. I hope it was done under warranty and they didn't ask you to pay. By the way, what is your car model, engine specification, is it FWD or AWD and is it auto or manual?

 

How is your gas mileage? low gas mileage could indicate that your rear brakes are not completely releasing.

 

Never owned an automatic (or a vehicle this heavy) before my CX-30, but my understanding is that they tend to wear out brakes faster even when you are actively minimizing their use by anticipating stops ahead of you & taking your foot off the gas accordingly to passively reduce speed & thus braking workload when time to use them. Using sports mode does offer up more natural engine braking than regular mode also I have noticed, when taking your foot off the gas when you anticipate a stop coming up ahead, since your vehicle tends to stay in lower gears longer & passively slows down faster (without braking) when you take your foot off the gas. It's much easier to minimize braking use with a manual though via appropriate downshifting as needed, & none of the dozen of so manual vehicles that I drove over the years before my CX-30 needed new brakes before the 90-100K mile mark. When I traded in my little lightweight 2015 Yaris SE hatch 5-MT back in late 2019 at 60K miles, it still had over 3/4 brake pad life left.

Some automakers do build better brake systems than others in terms of longevity of brake pads & such, but aggressive driving + stopping habits can definitely result in almost any brakes needing replacement every 20-30K miles. From observing all the "in a hurry" & non-anticipating "autopilot" drivers on the road & how they drive, I would say most actually fall into the that severe use category or close to it for brakes, transmission & more.

Plus, it also ultimately depends on whether you drive a lot of stop & go miles, requiring constant brake use, or driving lots of open highway miles where you don't hardly use your brakes much, on top of everything else.

 

Did you see the worn parts?
Rears wearing before fronts is not the usual pattern.
As for how long brake pads last, well that’s got some huge variables.
Terrain, style of driving, environment all can change the life span of pads.
Brake rotors at 20,000 is unusual too.
You make have been duped.

 

All this does remind me of a few years ago when I was reading up on a top trim used CX-3 available for sale in my area that only had 18K miles on it. I was looking at its service history & noticed all the brakes had been replaced & was thinking WTF, since I couldn't imagine brakes wearing out that fast. Seemed like a big red flag to me for poorly designed or defective brakes at the time. I also remember Honda going through a period a decade or two ago where brakes on certain models were having all sorts of problems & premature wear/replacement reported in their forums by owners with less than 15K miles on their cars. Seems as though something like brakes (among other things) would be a perfected design by now, but it never fails to amaze me how some core mechanical stuff still goes wrong on various new gen redesigns as automakers try to reinvent the wheel on various systems in their zeal to build lighter, cheaper-cost versions & such.

 

I agree with the replies generally. This seems odd. The front pads usually wear out first for reasons already mentioned here. As for the discs needing replacing I would be inclined to challenge this and insist that this is done under warranty. As someone else has said, I would ask to see the supposedly worn out discs too. I have learnt over the years to adopt a healthy caution with any dealer.

 

I was looking on the internet and I found a set of pads and rotors for the rear brakes on Car Parts.com for $126.99 and they look pretty good.

 

Just had my 36,000 mile service yesterday. Front brakes are at 8mm, rears at 7mm. I drive it HARD...

 

So weird because I have a CX 30 that is 10 mos. old (2023) with ONLY 9200 miles and needed rear braking pads replaced!! Much is highway driving and I do coast a lot to stops in city driving with ave. 30.8 MPG--- I came home from being away for 6 weeks (it was not driven) to find on first trip out it was grinding with braking and turns-- the service team had no explanation when we asked which my hubs and I find odd. Thanks for insight above from readers it was helpful, luckily mine was covered on warranty, but it does make me miss my life of Toyotas despite consumer reports equally high rating of Mazdas. Any other thoughts are welcome here.

 

Yeah going through same issue, planned obsolescence. I'm in a good position financially so getting rid of it for toyota. May seem like a big leap but I can't stand this kind of bs. 100k on a freaking nissan no issues but mazda breaks after 20k.