Every one loves to complain about American car manufacturers but "other" car manufacturers can be just as stubborn. The CD only adds one mpg. Just give your customers the option of turning off the damn cylinder deactivation. Are you listening, Mazda?
Oh they are listening.....quietly though. I don't know if you noticed but it appears as if Cylinder Deactivation is being silently scrubbed from their lineup for 2021. It appears to be removed for the Mazda 3 as well as CX-30 unsure of cx5 but I wouldn't be surprised if the whole idea was dropped. Even on the Canadian site where you can "Build a Mazda" you can't choose a car with CD for model year 2020 anymore. Before it always said 2.5 litre blah blah with Cylinder deactivation on the top models and now it just says 2.5 Litre engine. I swear I didn't start having vibrations until I had the CD recall about a year ago. I had driven it for about 10,000 km at that point and never even noticed the cylinder deactivation. After the recall I started to notice the shaking and vibration, driving home from work one day and I was like WTF is that, is my wheel bent?
My theory is they changed some parameters that prevents engine damage, but the side effect is increased torsional vibration and they are trying to resolve that with updated brackets that reduce vibration as well as a supporting software update.
The salesman at the dealership also told me Cylinder Deactivation will not be in the 2021's
Unfortunately that leaves all the people that bought one and have issues to fend for themselves and wait for Mazda to solve an issue it doesn't seem like it can. But ya, I would be satisfied if they put an option in the menu to shut it off like MRCC, even if I had to do it on each start of the car. The most frustrating thing is that it's not across the whole range of cars, some people have never had a problem. I have noticed in the last two months, many more people coming forward with the problem though.