Originally Posted By: Pablo
Thanks guys.
My questions are general in nature about the car at this point. Any problems? Picks and pans? Stuff you have heard/read?
With my vehicle, I have not yet had a problem with it, and I now have over 6000 miles on mine. A mixture of city and highway driving, with last week's near 1800 mile all highway, and some in Kansas City driving around. I have driven it in snow both with the stock OEM Yokohama tires, and with my Yokohama IG-50 snow tires.
I also live at well over 5k feet in altitude, and this trip to Kansas City was it's first ever trip to low altitude since it was purchased.
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I know nothing about Mazda's AWD. Is a Ford design or???
Nope.
Mazda has had their own AWD technology that they have used on the Mazda CX-7, CX-9, plus the older Mazdaspeed 6 for a while. The only vehicle that shared Ford AWD technology was the Mazda Tribute, and that isn't the same technology as what is in the CX-5.
You're going to be hard pressed to learn much about the Mazda AWD technology, as they don't go tooting their own horn about it, like how Subaru or Audi does. But it is seemless, and does work very well in actual use.
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Oil consumption?
I used about 1/4 quart in my initial factory oil fill, which lasted to 4200 miles, just before the trip. The car uses 0W-20 engine oil, but since we're talking about you, I don't think I need to make any oil recommendations at all.
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Oil capacity in the 2.5? rated 4.8qt real 5 qt?
My oil change use the entire 5 quart bottle of PP 0W-20 that I picked up at Walmart, plus an OEM Mazda oil filter picked up at the dealer. Do not use any oil filters that are not OEM, because Mazda has their internal bypass spring ratings much different than the aftermarket company parts that are the same size. If you use the aftermarket oil filters, you will run in bypass much more often, as the OEM filter's bypass pressure is much higher than the aftermarket filters.
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How is tire wear?
I started off the first couple of months usage of the CX-5 with the winter tires on, then swapped back to the OEM tires (mounted on aftermarket wheels, snow tires are mounted on OEM wheels). I rotated the tires just before the trip to Kansas City, and there wasn't any noticeable wear on them at that point, during my inspection while I was rotating them in my garage.
I am planning on rotating them again once I have access to the car again (My whole family is in town, and the car is on loan to my little sister and her family. They actually own a Mazda Tribute up in Canada, so I look forward to how they feel the CX-5 compares to their Tribute when they give the car back), so I will fill you in on if there was any tire wear during the ~1800 cross country trip on I-70. I pretty much had the cruise control locked in at 77 mph the whole trip.
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Interior noise?
Biggest creator of interior noise is from the huge side mirrors at highway speed, and the engine during cold starts. The cold start noise tends to only last between 7 and 15 seconds after starting the car from several hours of not being run. It is a bit loud during this rapid convertor warm up period, but all the new SkyActiv engines that I have test driven have done this (about 10 different cars between the Mazda 3, CX-5, and Mazda 6). Once the convertor warm up is finished, the engine is greatly subdued.
The 2.5 engine does have a very nice tone at wide open throttle, however.
It's not quite as good as a Maserati GranTurismo V-8 at wide open throttle, but it is enjoyable for a 4 cylinder engine in a small Crossover SUV.
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Paint durability?
I paid extra for the Soul Red paint for our car (there's an upcharge for the Soul Red, and the Crystal White Pearl Paint, but it is only $200), and we are extremely happy with the color. We also installed clear bra on the hood, mirrors, A pillars, door cups, and the roof to help protect this nice paint from stone chips. I don't see any flaws in the paint in the car, but my eyes might not be as sensitive as your eyes might be.
Go to a dealer, and look at the paint jobs of several cars on the lot, and any cars they might have in their used section for comparison.
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Little issues?
My main complaints are not having manual transmission versions offered in all trim levels here in the US market, nor offered with the 2.5 engine here in the US market. But, this complaint is fully negated by the fantastic automatic transmission that the car is equipped with. It really is the best automatic transmission I have ever driven, and it makes me a smidge sad that I'm actually saying that I really like it, because I love the interaction with the manual transmission shifter, and clutch on all my previous cars.
Let me put it this way:
After 6k miles with the automatic in the CX-5, and the way that it is programmed, I am 100% satisfied with this purchase. It is a stunning automatic, and will make you rethink the need to want a manual transmission, just for better driving feel. I'm looking forward to testing the transmissions in the upcoming MX-5 to see how they do with making a RWD SkyActiv transmission. That could end my need for a manual if its as good as as this transmission is.
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Warm-up time?
The blue engine cold light tends to go off within 1/4 to 1/2 a mile of driving, after leaving my house. That's at 35 mph once on the main avenue after getting out of my little subdivision of houses. My commute is under 8 miles one way, and I have good heat not too far after turning off of the 35/40 mph avenue onto the 45 mph boulevard. From there, it's another 5 miles to work, in comfort.
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Cargo space utility?
The Touring and Grand Touring versions get a 3 piece rear seat, with release levers on the insides of the walls of the cargo area. Very, very convenient. The seats in the Sport version are two pieces, and don't have the release levers. Also, the Sport seats don't fold as flat as the Touring and Grand Touring trims do. The bottom part of the seats move slight forward and down to allow more room in the higher trims.
Overall cargo space is plentiful. We typically use it to toss a black lab mix back there, but we have brought home baseboards and other items of long odd sizes from Lowes/Home Depot without issue. I do plan on picking up a trailer hitch receiver soon, so that I can use my small HF utility trailer to tow things like my motorcycle, and carry larger objects when the need arrives.
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Seat folding hassles?
If you're tall like I am, you will need to move the front seat forward a bit if you have the headrests on the rear seats. I have taken the rear headrests out of my car, so this is a non-issue for me. If I know I'm going to have rear passengers, then I put the headrests back in for that drive. No other issues other than that. Just pull the lever, and the seats shoot forward. If you have a noisy kid bouncing around you, have them stick their head in front of one of the seats when you release it, and you can get a bit of satisfaction from the events that transpire after you pull the release lever.
Oh, and each section of the 3 piece seat has its own release lever in the hatch area, so if you just need the skinny center section to fold down, it's easy.
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AT smoothness and speed/engine matching?
I can go on an on about this forever, but it simply is a fantastic transmission.
My fiancee's best quote was "Every time I would have shifted in a manual transmission is exactly when the CX-5's automatic was already completing its shift." She hasn't owned/driven an automatic car since her Chevy II back in the late 70's. That's high praise, because she's a wee bit picky about transmissions.
We love the transmission.
See? I'm just going on and on about it.
Test drive one, or seven.
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Glass durability on WS?
Not quite sure what you mean there?
Do I have stone chips on the windshield yet? That would be a no after 6k miles here in Colorado, where DOT doesn't salt on the roads, they use gravel/sand mixture. Hence, all the clear bra material mentioned earlier.
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Robustness of wipers?
Very, very large driver's wiper (22" or 24"), and an 18" passenger wiper leave a very clean windshield during rain and snow. Very good settings for intermittent operation. I do not have the rain sensing option on my car, so I can not comment on that feature for you.
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Headlight brightness/coverage?
I find the headlights to be fantastic. I also thought Mazda RX-8 headlights to be the best I had ever owned. The fog light option on my CX-5 doesn't provide as much corner lighting as my Fiance's Fiat 500 does, which is simply fantastic, but her headlights don't provide near as much light as the CX-5 does on low beam. Honestly, I find low beam does such a good job providing light in the CX-5, that I don't use the high beams at all. It was the same on the RX-8.
My Porsche Boxster was probably the best mix of low-beams, high beams, and fog lights, but I prefer the RX-8 and CX-5 for low beam illumination of the road over the Porsche low beam. The Fiat provide the worst low beam and high beam, since they are a flapper projector style headlight. With the fog lights on, and the low beams on, that car is much much better. The Crossfire had good projector low beams, but the highbeams were also projector, so that didn't really change things much when flipped on. The combination of low beams and fog lights is better on the Crossfire than on the CX-5, however.
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Steering numb or good road feel?
Fantastic road feel for a small SUV.
Not nearly as good as the RX-8, and nowhere near the steering and feel of the Porsche, but you can tell that there was thought and love put into the suspension and steering dynamics of the car.
It's well above it's direct competition, that's for sure.
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Snow/ice performance?
We had a couple decent dumps of snow this winter.
To give you an idea of what I was dealing with, I had my RX-8 equipped with Hankook i-Cept Evo snow tires (and it had a limited slip rear axle), and had little trouble at all with my winter commute in snow. The CX-5 with Yokohama IG-50 tires requires no effort at all, other than dodging the people on the road who don't have snow tires on any of their cars. One of our test drives was done after a decent snow, when we went up into the mountains, and put the car through trail roads with 4 to 10 inches of fresh snow. Never had an issue at all.
Let me know if you have more questions, or want to send a PM with more specific stuff that you wouldn't want to mention on the open forum.
BC.
