Two problems related to transmission stuck in gear have been reported for the 2012 Mazda MAZDA3. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2012 Mazda MAZDA3 based on all problems reported for the 2012 MAZDA3.
Driving home last night (on the freeway) at approximately 9:45 pm I attempted to excelerate to make a lane change. I noticed the car wasn't moving any faster the only thing I heard was the engine gunning. The car was slowing down in very fast traffic and I immediately put my hazards on while trying to move the gear shift which was stuck. Its a miracle that I didn't get hit trying to get tnate to have it apoenhis vehicle over to the right shoulder which I eventually did. I removed a small cover beside the gear shift inserted a screwdriver in the hole and was able to release the shift. I put it in park, turned the car off for about a minute. Started the car and shifted it to drive but the car jerked back and the gear shift is stuck again. I had to be towed home. This was a very dangerous and frightening situation for a male adult and would hate to have this happen to a single mother with children in the car. This is not the only time the gears have locked. I was fortunate to have it happen in my driveway and was able to unlock with the method I described above. I feel this really should be looked into.
I was driving a steady 55 mph on the freeway on a dry sunny day with my wife and kids. The roads were smooth and dry, and the gas tank was 1/2 full. The car was 3 months old with 2700 miles on it. The car suddenly lost power and started to decelerate. The engine was still running, but pressing the gas pedal had no effect on engine rpm or vehicle speed. I looked down and the stability control light was on (steady lit, not blinking). I thought that maybe the stability control was confused, so I tried hitting the stability control switch to turn it off. No luck, the light was still on and the car continued to slow. I then moved the shift lever over to manually select gears since I though maybe the tranny was stuck in 6th gear - no luck as the display didn't even show what gear it was in. There was no freeway exit in sight and I was not able to coast to the next exit. I finally pulled over the car at less than 30 mph dodging cars zooming by at 60 mph. I turned off the car and restarted. The stability control light was now finally off and I was able to drive off.