Are Mazda Brakes crap? Replacing yearly.
 

My wife has a 2017 Mazda 3 and every year we have to replace the rotors and pads. She drive less than 12k a year and has a 7 mile daily commute. We do live in upstate New York where it snows so the car is exposed to sand and salt from the roads.

Are others having to replace brakes this often?

Hmmm, not sure what is happening with your car, my wife's 2016 Mazda3 just started grinding when she hits the brakes yesterday, that with nearly 60,000 miles on the factory brakes.

There is nothing wrong with MAZDA/Ford brakes (specifically production years 2014-2019) and there are no TSB's or service advisories posted of premature brake wear from at least 2014 to present MAZDA 3s having to do with their brake system and individual parts.

Most of the time with concerns like this threads brake wear is really effected and determined by the end user more then anything else. Your information only suggest that you may simply be using the brakes more then usual and perhaps re-training the use of the brakes might be a thought. This is a conclusion based on your reported frequency in changing normal wear parts and tends to supports an over use of brakes.

I am sure you have had this concern question with the service shop and they may have even in so many words said the same thing I just posted?

And if not then have your complete brake system inspected!

I've done just over 111,000kms / 69,000 miles, my brake pads are probably about 1/2 worn.

Why are you replacing brakes?
Brake shudder? Corrosion? Noisy? Worn pads? Worn rotors? Please explain.

So, time for me these days is a precious commodity, as such, I took my wife's 2016 Mazda3 s GT in to have the brakes done; they just called and said only the rears need doing, after 60,000 miles the fronts are still in good shape.

The odd thing is that brake bias is factory set and "engineered" (for safety and optimal braking braking with reduced driver input) the front pressure is greater then the rear and the front brake pads and rotors should be wearing slightly faster then the rears? You service advisor didn't think this was unusual?

This is also a reason you don't see many rear Big Brake Kits (BBK) offered for any platform. It changes the brake bias!

This is sneaky but you must do it.
When your wife is going to use her car, follow her in your car but don't let her see you. You will be taking note of how she is riding the brakes from the tail lights.
I'd bet that's what's going on.

You know your post is truly funny.

I have taken several classes to improve my abilities on a road track @ Laguna Seca and Sears Point Raceways, and one of the classes provided cars that had a large red light mounted in the center of the dash that lit up every-time you hit the brake. The point was to learn to drive the car as fast as possible and to use the brake as an assist rather then the main way to slow down except obviously in a emergency situation. You would be surprised how some of us that thought we had good driving and braking habits relied on the brake more then what was needed or to the point more then we thought we did.

So you agree with me?
:p

In the case of my wife, nope, I follow her all of the time; she doesn't ride the brakes.