Okay so I know I said earlier that I was buying a Mazda3 Hatchback. Well, at the dealer today, we found the CX-5. It was phenomenal, it is perfect. It drives perfect, the transmission light years ahead of the one in the cruze in terms of smoothness, shift quality, and programming.
The interior is ridiculously nice. High quality, the gauges are beautiful. I ilked my cruze, but this just leaves it in the dust. The engine is so smooth, and you'd never believe it's a 2.0L 4 banger under the hood. Mazda has really hit a home run with the CX-5. We take delivery tomorrow night.
It's a 2013 Mazda CX-5 Touring with AWD, and the 6speed Automatic, with remote start, and the tech package which gets a leather wrapped steering wheel, Bose Centerpoint 10 speaker audio system, Blind spot monitor mirrors, and so on. The only engine is the skyactiv 2.0L I-4 which I'll get too in more detail below.
Now, first since I'm sure a lot of you are asking "why", I'll tell you. There are several reasons. First of all, ever since I started my 60 mile a day, 5 day a week commute, I've been growing less happy with my cruze. Gas mileage is disappointing, especially considering it's on premium fuel. The transmission is horrid at low speeds, stop and go traffic which I'm in for half an hour on the way home every day. It's jerky, shifts are rough. Once cruising, or at normal city driving it's fine, but stop and go is not pleasant. Also, we needed to get my car out of my mom's name so she can get her car out of my dad's credit., so they can get a mortage on a house in the next year or two. That wasn't anticipated back when we bought the cars last year.
So because of that, she is mulling over trading her equinox which she really does love, except for the really bad turning circle, and teh gas mileage with the V6, in for a lightly used Subaru Outback, and saving a ton of money in the process. For a few months now I've been more open to buying a foreign car, and strangely so has she.
When she test drove the CX-5 and the Outback she was amazed at the turning circle, and also how much "lighter" and more nimble they felt than the nox. So now she's basically sold on that.
Back to my cruze we needed to get it out of her name. And considering that the dealer was willing to give me within $1,000 of what I owe on the cruze, and everything considered, I decided to just trade it instead of refinancing it into just my name.
Filled out the loan application, came back approved for $30,000 with a 4.79% APR for 72 months. Which we were staggered by. I knew my credit was good because of how careful I've been since day 1, but I wasn't expecting that. The dealer went out of their way to help us make it work too. Now that I'm making 35-50k a year, and I don't have many other bills, I can easily afford it, and still put some into a 401k, IRA, and savings. It's not like I'm overstretching myself.
Now I was originally looking at the Mazda3 Hatch. Then I found this, which is just better. It's quieter, the interior is better, it has more room, it's built better, it has more low end torque. All around, it's just better. And it's AWD so it should be good in the snow here, especially since I have my new commute as far as it is. I wanted something bigger, I wanted more room. And I probably won't be sacrificing much in the way of MPG, as it seems like people are easily beating the fuel economy estimates, which is 28 combined, 31 highway. That's like, really good considering it's a crossover.
That brings me to the powertrain. It's the new Skyactiv-G 2.0L 4 cylinder. It's 155HP, and it has 150lb/ft of torque. If you dont' know about the skyactiv stuff, here is the link to Mazdas CX-5 explanation. It has a 4-2-1 exhaust header, 13:1 compression, Multi-fire Direct-Injection, and it can still run on regular 87 octane gas. I like it. instead of using tricks to acheive better gas mileage on the EPA test, they actually went out and improved the basics. Mazda has hit it exactly right with this car. It feels powerful, and it's smooth. The transmission and engine are matched perfectly. Honestly, I don't think Mazda could have done a better job.
Anyway this is what it looks like, I'll be sure to post plenty of pictures tomorrow night once I take delivery. This is what it looks like though.
http://mazdausa.com/MusaWeb/skyactiv.action
this first one is the color it is.
Here are the Mazda Skyactiv videos. They are really well done, and do a good job of explaining things in laymans terms.
The interior is ridiculously nice. High quality, the gauges are beautiful. I ilked my cruze, but this just leaves it in the dust. The engine is so smooth, and you'd never believe it's a 2.0L 4 banger under the hood. Mazda has really hit a home run with the CX-5. We take delivery tomorrow night.
It's a 2013 Mazda CX-5 Touring with AWD, and the 6speed Automatic, with remote start, and the tech package which gets a leather wrapped steering wheel, Bose Centerpoint 10 speaker audio system, Blind spot monitor mirrors, and so on. The only engine is the skyactiv 2.0L I-4 which I'll get too in more detail below.
Now, first since I'm sure a lot of you are asking "why", I'll tell you. There are several reasons. First of all, ever since I started my 60 mile a day, 5 day a week commute, I've been growing less happy with my cruze. Gas mileage is disappointing, especially considering it's on premium fuel. The transmission is horrid at low speeds, stop and go traffic which I'm in for half an hour on the way home every day. It's jerky, shifts are rough. Once cruising, or at normal city driving it's fine, but stop and go is not pleasant. Also, we needed to get my car out of my mom's name so she can get her car out of my dad's credit., so they can get a mortage on a house in the next year or two. That wasn't anticipated back when we bought the cars last year.
So because of that, she is mulling over trading her equinox which she really does love, except for the really bad turning circle, and teh gas mileage with the V6, in for a lightly used Subaru Outback, and saving a ton of money in the process. For a few months now I've been more open to buying a foreign car, and strangely so has she.
When she test drove the CX-5 and the Outback she was amazed at the turning circle, and also how much "lighter" and more nimble they felt than the nox. So now she's basically sold on that.
Back to my cruze we needed to get it out of her name. And considering that the dealer was willing to give me within $1,000 of what I owe on the cruze, and everything considered, I decided to just trade it instead of refinancing it into just my name.
Filled out the loan application, came back approved for $30,000 with a 4.79% APR for 72 months. Which we were staggered by. I knew my credit was good because of how careful I've been since day 1, but I wasn't expecting that. The dealer went out of their way to help us make it work too. Now that I'm making 35-50k a year, and I don't have many other bills, I can easily afford it, and still put some into a 401k, IRA, and savings. It's not like I'm overstretching myself.
Now I was originally looking at the Mazda3 Hatch. Then I found this, which is just better. It's quieter, the interior is better, it has more room, it's built better, it has more low end torque. All around, it's just better. And it's AWD so it should be good in the snow here, especially since I have my new commute as far as it is. I wanted something bigger, I wanted more room. And I probably won't be sacrificing much in the way of MPG, as it seems like people are easily beating the fuel economy estimates, which is 28 combined, 31 highway. That's like, really good considering it's a crossover.
That brings me to the powertrain. It's the new Skyactiv-G 2.0L 4 cylinder. It's 155HP, and it has 150lb/ft of torque. If you dont' know about the skyactiv stuff, here is the link to Mazdas CX-5 explanation. It has a 4-2-1 exhaust header, 13:1 compression, Multi-fire Direct-Injection, and it can still run on regular 87 octane gas. I like it. instead of using tricks to acheive better gas mileage on the EPA test, they actually went out and improved the basics. Mazda has hit it exactly right with this car. It feels powerful, and it's smooth. The transmission and engine are matched perfectly. Honestly, I don't think Mazda could have done a better job.
Anyway this is what it looks like, I'll be sure to post plenty of pictures tomorrow night once I take delivery. This is what it looks like though.
http://mazdausa.com/MusaWeb/skyactiv.action
this first one is the color it is.
Here are the Mazda Skyactiv videos. They are really well done, and do a good job of explaining things in laymans terms.
Last edited:
