2024 & 2025 Miatas Have A Traction Control Issue
Whether you’re a first-time sports car owner or a seasoned enthusiast, few cars provide the thrills offered by the Mazda MX-5 Miata. But according to a new recall issued by the NHTSA, the Miata may be more thrilling than Mazda intended. The recall documents (under campaign number 25V336000) say that 12,244 Miata models from the 2024 and 2025 model years have traction and stability control systems that may not behave as designed.
Once Again, Software Is To Blame For A Glitch
Mazda
Mazda
Mazda
The NHTSA says that the traction control and dynamic stability control indicator light “may fail to illuminate as intended due to a software error,” which makes them nonconformant with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 126. Looking deeper, the federal agency says that the lights may not be activated when the vehicle detects an abnormal yaw rate. In other words, once the vehicle gets a little sideways, the software may not warn drivers that the vehicle is losing control. Since the software for the traction and stability systems is faulty, the systems may not kick in, which could lead to a crash.
At Least It’ll Be An Easy Fix
Mazda
The root cause of the issue is an error with the dynamic stabillity control system’s diagnostic programming, and in an age of over-the-air updates, this sort of thing should be easy to resolve. However, the recall notice doesn’t say that the update will be performed remotely, so if you own one of the affected vehicles, you’ll need to visit a dealer for the update. Worse still, you’ll need to wait for the fix; Mazda says this will be a phased recall with a long lead time since the required parts are unlikely to be available until the second quarter of 2026. Customers will be notified whether the part is available by July 21, so for the next few weeks and months, take it easy out there.
About the author
Sebastian Cenizo
Senior Editor, Autoblog