Hi guys, My 2000 ML 320 is needing to be replaced, I'm looking at a low milage certified 2011 or 2012 CX-9 GT. Are there any notorious issues I should know about, or any reliability concerns to be aware of?

Feel free to list any pros and cons, right now it's my wife and I and our 15 month old and large dog, so the size is welcomed, but it's not going to be a huge improvement in gas milage...

Thanks
Shalil

 

Hey Shalil,

I just bought a 2011 pre owned certified CX-9 Touring AWD bose/moonroof with auto lift gate and backup camera and drove it on a cross country trip (seattle to wisconsin and back). I had absolutely no problems with it at all. Drove like a dream and I never got tired of sitting in the heated leather seats. Our trip returned 20.7 mpg with two adults, two kids and the third row folded flat and filled with 'stuff'. On our last leg, going through Eastern Washington and over the Cascades, we actually had a 24.3 mpg return with 400 miles before filling up just 16.7gallons -- it is a 20 gallon tank (no AC this time as it was at night).

We installed a drop down dvd player and the side mirrors still allowed for plenty of visibility out the back.

I also own a 2010 Mazda3 5door bose moonroof 'sport' and the CX-9 drives very comparable to that (probably drives more like a Mazda6 that I rented).

The difference between the 2012 and 2011 is negligible so I would recommend the 2011 to save on some dollars. We picked up ours for 28,000 with just 18,000 miles.

another bonus, we have a rather large kennel we bought from a pet store and we were able to put that in the back of the CX-9 with the second row slid up just a tad. It measures 27x25x26 (L,W,H).