I bought this car from new in April 2008, after a delay in delivery with no reason given i took delivery on September 2008, didn't think anything of it as i was too excited to care!

I will outline my issues as to keep this as brief as possible:

1. Limp home mode twice with only an engine management light appearing, dealer charged me for a forced DPF regeneration even though no DPF light appeared.

2. Tyre valve snapped whilst driving - casually driving i heard a loud bang and the car instantly went to the side, tyres deflated in about 10 seconds. Took it to the dealer and they blamed consistent curb damage. My alloys and tyres were in PERFECT condition i have pictures to show anyone. I was charged as warranty would not cover it, another tyre valve started to corrode and bend so i was forced to change this also. Other Mazda drivers have had this changed under warranty but some didn't.

3. Engine run-away - i was travelling on a motorway, infact about 100 miles away to pick up a microwave that my mum had won on Ebay for £5 :S, anyway! i was near my destination and 700 yards from a roundabout when the car instantly hit maximum revvs and started speeding up with immense power! (not compared to a Ferrari of course) a huge cloud of white smoke bellowed out behind....i was forced to switch the engine off at 110mph and force the car between 2 lanes coming close to hitting cars and stopping luckily on the side of a ditch.

This engine run-away was caused by diesel contaminating the engine oil which means the car will just run on its own fuel giving the driver no control & many drivers of the old face 6 was unable to switch their engines off due to an air-intake being able to be closed & opened. The drivers who couldn't turn the engines off was left with a blown engine and a huge repair bill.

The diesel contaminates the sump when failed DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) occur, the way the DPF works is that when it builds up enough soot, it will have to regenerate its self i.e. to burn that soot off, so the DPF has to reach an 'optimum' temperature and use raw diesel which is injected with the main engines injectors into the DPF to combust thus clearing the filter out. Problem starts there, when you have a failed regeneration you will have a small amount of diesel being left 'hanging' around and can find its way down the injectors, piston rings, cylinder heads & then left to contaminate the engine oil....imagine if you have numerous failed regenerations without any warning light? What would happen....you would have the high risk of having an engine run-away.

Mazda state to check your oil levels 'Periodically' but i have a confirmation in writing from the head office to state weekly checks should be carried out - in the week of the engine run-away i must have travelled about 800miles +.

Since the problem with the run-away in August 2009 i refused to drive the car - my local dealer first looked at it and came up with CRAZY suspicions! for example: "You must have gone to a petrol station, opened your bonet and accidently put diesel inside your engine oil"

It went to 2 dealers and they couldn't find out what caused such a high diesel contamination in the short space of owning the car and whilst i always gave the DPF enough of a thrashing for it to regenerate, they always failed to explain and brushed it off when i asked them why no DPF light has ever come on.

So, since then i've been fighting my case with Mazda and the car only on 12,000 miles is rusting away on my drive. I have a solicitor and a barrister on board with the case & i will prove this is an inherant defect and the car is NOT fit for its purpose also being extremely dangerous. Mazda's customer service is the biggest put-off, i thought their customer service was good but i was far down the scale of being wrong!! compared to the amazing service from VW! wow, my next car is definetely a passat.

I have not specified the whole case above because this is just a review, you will see my posts and many others who have had DPF problem on HJ Back Room, Technical & Motoring discussions.

Mehdi - www.mazda-campaign.co.uk