I'm assuming there's someone from Mazda that looks through these forums from time to time...
Thought I'd ask if anyone else that has a 2017-2018 Mazda 3 and lives through winter conditions ever looked at the 'pod' at the top of the windshield and said, "I hope they fired the guy that thought THIS was a good idea..."

4th Mazda, so it's not that I don't like them...but... On our 2017, there is a large pod for the rain sensor and rear view mirror. the glass surface on the outside of the pod never sees warm air from the defrost.
When you drive in the snow (snowing), the snow melts on the windshield, the wipers push the water away fine, but it instantly freezes on the square of glass insulated by the 'pod'. Within 15 minutes of driving on a snowy day, you have a 1/2" thick iceburg built up at the top of the windshield, 2" down in the wiper path. So the wiper thunk-thunks over the ice, building it up thicker with every swipe, AND the portion of the blade that's thunking away at the block of ice will then build up slush and leave you with the top part of the blade not touching the glass because of the ice build-up on it.

There was never a whole lot of concern for the small demographic that deals with considerable snow and ice when designing a car (the bottom of most windshields aren't warmed and ice builds up, GM's horrific 'hideaway' wiper phase, washer nozzles always frozen over, etc) so we're used to dealing with pains in the butt that can't be helped....but the huge square of unheated windshield in the wiper path? You goofed there Mazda.

Anyway....I've never been a complainer, and can honestly count the number of repairs I've needed on the other 3 Mazdas on one hand...and after 8 years of being a GM service advisor and warranty admin, I'm the LAST guy that will be standing at the service counter expecting them to redesign my car while I have a coffee and watch TV in their waiting room. There's no point crying to the dealer because that's what Mazda built. ....hehe....'design intent'..."Yeah, we admit it sucks, but that's the way it was built so it's functioning as designed"

So....Mazda, if you're watching.....you've done a million things right, but did one very wrong...for those of us that have 2/3 of a year of winter. Possibly something to put on the drawing board. hehe

 

Wow. I guess I am better off having a 2015 without the pre-collision system.

Mazda Forum People: The title of this posting would be a great section title. I would love to be able to provide feedback to Mazda that they could incorporate into future models. (starting with an off button on the audio system. Mute is not the same when you are listening to a downloaded book and need to concentrate on traffic.)

 

I'm not saying they should recall them all and crush them into a cube....It's just something that it seems they simply never thought of... which is odd....or they got far enough into the design that it didn't make sense to start over. Either way, it would work great in Florida... Unfortunately not here.
Maybe there will be a recall in the future (yes, a recall as opposed to a TSB, since being able to see is a safety-related issue)... but it's hard to say... I was just talking to a friend who's looking at a new vehicle, and that was about the only thing that's not 'right'about the new 3. We've had 2 of the older body style, and I actually liked them more ....the 2017 is my wife's car. My very first impression of it was they tried to make it 'feel' like a bigger, heavier, more substantial car than it really is. The brakes feel less crisp, the throttle feels more rubber-bandish, the doors have a more substantial 'whonk' when you close them, plus a few other thing that I just kind of 'feel'. There's nothing wrong with it, and it's not anything that would make me drive a Ford, I just don't like the feel of it as much as my 2015. I just find it has less...in-touch feel to it. Like you can't really 'meld' with the car because there's a layer of..smoosh...in between you and the car.....kinda like touching boobies while wearing oven mitts.
Again...not complaining....my local dealer is awesome, and between them and the price and reliability of the 3, we'll just keep buying them...just tossin' it out there in case anyone's taking notes. :-)

 

That is a little brutal... I was thinking they should install a defroster line for that area like they do on the rear windows. It could be in a cold weather package.

I am surprised that you are saying that you have found a significant difference between the 2015 and 2017 Mazda3. I thought the only changes were incremental changes.

 

Interesting, our 2016 Mazda3 s GT which has the auto wipers has no such issues, and our car has seen plenty of snow, and ice in the two winters we've had it, and trust me, here in New Hampshire, our car has seen plenty of winter weather.

 

And now the world knows that I'm old enough to have reached that point to have stopped caring about particulars and just want a car to be dependable. Not 2015....2013. Like when I bought an air filter...the age thing hit me when I had to supply the engine size...having been a car guy in the past, the realization hit me that I didn't even know.... Gone are the days of being excited to lay in the driveway and do my own repairs....I didn't even open the hood on the new one when we looked at it...several years ago that would have been the first thing I did.

 

And I just asked a co-worker that bought a 3 the same day I did....he made a face (hmm...), and said a couple times he had to stop several times and clear the ice from the end of his driver's side wiper, but never considered why (so didn't go looking and see the ice pad that would have formed where the pod sits.)...and both times it was on a snow day during a cold snap we had (about -20c without considering the wind chill). I don't believe it would happen if it was slightly below freezing as that spot would get enough warmth to be above freezing. Maybe it's one of those things that just happens in the right conditions.

 

A couple of comments:

• Wind chill is irrelevant unless you're discussing exposed skin.
• In the last two winters we've driven our Mazda3 on long(ish) trips with the OAT down in the below zero Fahrenheit (say -18°C to -25°C range) with falling snow and not once had a pad of snow/ice form above the pod near the windshield mirror. I'm wondering if it was just freak confluence of events which caused your issue.

 

Shipo,

gcfishguy identified the problem as occurring on a 2017/2018. I suspect it is limited to the models with the big pre-collision block behind the center mirror. Do you have this on your Mazda3? I do not have either the problem or the system on my 2015 2.5 Touring.

 

How much bigger is the pre-collision block than the block which contains the auto wiper and headlight sensor? I cannot imagine it is all that much different in size.