Hey yal, I got a 2021 cx5 with a little over 5000 miles and a maintenance light ready to go off. I will be buying oil and oil filter from world pac with the brands called Idemitsu and Denso. I will also be doing a tire rotation. The tire rotation is the part that is throwing me off! The owner manual says "the front tires are moved to the back of the car and kept on the same sides. The rear tires are moved to the front, and the sides are flipped." The problem is that I have an AWD!! They are using a one size fit all approach in the owner manual. But the website i googled called "hamdenmazda - how to rotate a tire" guide gives these instructions instead which seemed more legit? So the owner manual has been giving the wrong info out maybe? I called the Dealership and nobody there could give me an answer. I was trying to see how the service tech would've done it and I get a different answer every time. Do most people just "yolo" it??!!! Please help, this is so frustrating lmao.

Below is the info/guide from hamdenmazda. What do yal think and what do yal do instead?

TIRE ROTATION PATTERNS: FWD, RWD, AWD

• RWD Tires: The rear tires are moved to the front and kept on the same sides, but when the front tires are moved to the rear, the sides need to be switched.

• FWD Tires: The front tires require the opposite: the front tires are moved to the back of the car and kept on the same sides. The rear tires are moved to the front, and the sides are flipped.

• AWD/4WD Tires: The pattern for AWD/4WD cars is a little simpler, however:
  • Left rear tire switches places with the right front tire
  • Right rear trades with the left front

 

I rotate mine (also an AWD) using what the owners manual recommends but I really doubt that it makes much difference as long as the fronts and rears are switched. The fronts definitely wear much faster, pretty much just like any FWD car that I have owned.

 

This would be the rotation pattern from the 2021 CX5 Manual.

I would note that this rotation pattern can change depending on the tread pattern. If you purchase replacement tires with unidirectional tread, the rotation pattern would change from the illustrated pattern to just trading front to back on the same side of the car to keep the tread all rotating in the intended direction.

The Michelin CrossClimate2 tire would be an example of a unidirectional tread pattern.

 

Regardless of fwd,rwd awd or 4wd ( excluding directional tyres) I rotate tyres in a X pattern. LF to RR --- RR to LF & RF to LR --- LR to RF

 

I just purchased a new 2022 CX-5 ,and in the USA all are now only AWD.
That said , this tire rotation makes complete sense -
My tires are non-directional , as I suspect yours are IF they are OE . You can tell by tread patterns , but most easily by looking for an arrow which clearly indicates one rotational direction - If you have directional tires , then this rotation would not apply.
My 22 owners manual has the same rotation , front crossed to back ( rotation direction reverses. , then back to front , it stays on the same side ,thus same direction .
So why ....?
Think another rotation ahead and another and you have the answer - draw the next rotation(s) after ( using the same method ) on paper and it makes sense .

You will notice that the direction of all tires eventually reverses and the locations make the wear even - its actually very well thought out.
Each tire ends up on every location of the vehicle rotating one way on 2 and 2 on the other- Then your at 20k miles - starting over -

 

The only issue is feathering of the front tyres will only increase staying on the same side on the rear.

 

Well - each front tire goes across to the opposite rear , rotating a diffrent direction and rear camber wears the inside of that tire (coming from the front ) thus putting most wear on the opposite side of said tire where the outer edge would be most worn ? no