I've found that it really all depends how much you goose it when the steering angles are 'way off the centre position. I tend to try to commit my most serious acc to 'wheel pointed 'near straight, and I tend to be really quite gentle with my acceleration when the 'wheel is cocked-over. That is to say on four of my five cars (i.e. all those that are fwd).

 

They seem solid. To help lengthen CV service life on any make, I regularly inspect the boots for tears. Always keep spare sets left & right for immediate action. Otherwise, wrap them thoroughly up to keep dirt & water off til tinker time. Garbage bags, zip ties & duct tape work well.[emoji4]

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I just expected the Mazda to meet standard service life from most models.. I shouldn't have to baby the car to get decent service life out of its components.. especially when buying the top line model..

 

I've gotten, thus far, about 150,000 miles out of the halfshafts on my four cyl Camry. Got the car at about 115,000 miles, so I can't really vouch for how it was driven before me... but I suspect, based on the fact that it was sold from new to a lady with a Polish surname (and first name) that she was schooled in driving manual transmission cars in Poland (I'd bet 95% of cars in Poland are manual)... and she wasn't racing this box stock / plain-Jane Camry around... so my car, generally, has been driven with some mechanical sympathy.

I'm guessing, here, and equating that she ordered a plain Camry, from new, with a manual... that she was a more recent emigreé, 'cuz how many North American women in the demographic that would want a Camry, would order one in a manual?

My Mazda6... 'way too few miles on it to know yet...

 

I drove my '07 GT to 185K miles before trading for my present '18. The CV joints were happy, and the boots looked good to my eyeballs.

My younger brother has a '00 Camry four-banger with about 240K miles on the original axle shafts. His daily is a Highlander, but the Camry is driven weekly. The last vehicle I had axle shaft work done to was our former '07 Nissan Quest, which had them replaced about ten years into its life. That minivan had a long wheelbase and a big turning circle, so the wheel was hard over fairly often.

 

I'm around 140k miles on my '14 Japanese built 3 and on my original CV's. Only suspension work was done around 130k, but can't remember exactly what it was. I think it was stabilizer linkages front and rear (really needed it, clunking coming from both,) and I can't remember if they did ball joints or anything else at the same time.

 

I have 130k on mine no noises. Boots intact, no dry rot.

 

Their respective lifespans are, with the rare exception of a factory flaw, totally contingent on the driver... Goose-it while cranked-over... you'll be buying new half-shafts soon.

 

Cv axles tend to last a long time, barring any outside factors like debris damage, intense use like doing rocking horses, or like some people tend to do without thinking going from reverse into drive without being fully stopped. Hard jackrabbit starts and hard braking can also affect life. Rough roads and I paved surface running can also degrade axle joints. The only axle I’ve ever had to replace (knock on wood) was on a $300 87 cavalier, and a fiesta due to semi tire tread had gotten caught by the axle and wrapped around it. Causing major damage to the boot and the axle itself.

 

I've never had the actual joint fail, only boots. IF you let the boot go too long and run the joint dry, with no grease in it, then it will fail.

Mk5 VW Golf/Jetta/Rabbit/Beetle all have the same platform and I've had to replace 3 boots on 2 different Rabbits that were only 5-7 years old. VW seems to have a quality problem there.

My 280,000km, 14 year old Mazda6 MT never had such a failure, but my 1988 Nissan Maxima MT had a boot failure at 13 years old (~150,000km). Caught it early and just re-booted, put another 50,000km on it before I sold it. I drove that car hard most of the time...

My BMW is 17 years old with 150,000km and the boots are fine, but they are rear CVs so not much articulation.

 

Over 250k on my originals. But, it's mostly highway here.