How 'harsh' Australian environment impacts Mazda's diesel servicing

Mazda Australia is sticking with shorter servicing intervals for diesel vehicles, but has left the door open for these to be expanded.

“It’s just an engineering requirement from [Mazda Motor Corporation]; we continue to review it,” said Mazda Australia national marketing director Alastair Doak.

“They look at the conditions in Australia that they see as a harsh environment market – various things like weather, dust, whatever.

“In the recent past, we’ve increased the petrol models to 15,000km so it’s something we review on a regular basis.”

Late last year, Mazda announced its petrol and plug-in hybrid models would switch to intervals of 12 months or 15,000km, whichever comes first, while diesels would stick with 12-month/10,000km intervals.

That includes not only the existing four-cylinder diesel engines in the CX-5 and CX-8, but also the inline-six diesels of the recently launched CX-60 and CX-90.

One exception to this rule: Mazda offers 12-month/15,000km intervals on the BT-50.

That arguably comes as little surprise, as Isuzu builds the BT-50 for Mazda. The BT-50, therefore, matches the related Isuzu D-Max in its servicing schedule.

The 10,000km intervals of Mazda’s diesel SUVs stand in contrast to many of their rivals. Hyundai and Kia, for example, offer 12-month/15,000km intervals on all their diesel-powered SUVs.