Mazda CX-5 review – hands-on

The all-new Mazda CX-5 is Mazda’s first foray in to the burgeoning compact SUV market, but this isn’t just another ‘me-too’ saloon-on-stilts. Mazda has imbued the CX-5 with SkyActiv technology, which is Mazda’s term for its collection performance-enhancing and environmentally friendly features. The CX-5 is completely new and nothing has been carried over from previous models..

To sample the fruit of this new technology, we drove a 2WD 2.2-litre diesel variant through Skye and the highlands, and the blustery, torrential weather was perfect for experiencing the CX-5’s road-handling and safety features.

The all-new Mazda CX-5

Starting the car is easy, and involves nothing more than depressing the clutch and pushing the Start button. The first thing that struck us was the quietness of its diesel engine, and the relative serenity of Mazda’s new powerplant was to impress us throughout our time with it. The second thing was the immense cabin. With the driver’s seat in a realistic driving position, we were able to sit behind it and still stretch our legs out. The boot has a 503-litre capacity that can be fully utilized due to its straight sides and flat floor, but drop the rear seats and the capacity increases to a massive 1,620 litres.

The Mazda CX-5 has a spacious interior

We found the driving position comfortable, even after many hundreds of miles. The seats had more spring to them than we’re used to, but that suits a car such as this, and they were comfortable, with good lumbar and lateral support. Thankfully, Mazda has given the CX-5 a relatively small steering wheel, which increased comfort but didn’t obscure the instruments in front of us either.

Controlling the multimedia system is easy with the CX-5’s steering wheel

Driving it was just as natural, and its diesel engine pulled away quickly and continued to provide positive amounts of power smoothly as we accelerated to 60mph. It feels like a large saloon car to drive, and this is helped in no small part by its heavy power steering. This is great when driving around town or parking because you can just throw it in to reverse and quickly manoeuvre the CX-5 in to a space, but we felt it could afford to be lighter when driving at speed.

The CX-5’s new 6-speed gearbox further increases its driving comfort. Mazda is proud of its MX-5 gearbox and wanted the CX-5 to have the same short-throw feel enjoyed by the MX-5. As a result, the CX-5 has a 45mm throw that feels more, but not exactly, like the MX-5’s. Mazda claims that its new thinking and modern approach to gearbox engineering has resulted in a “box with a reduced number of moving parts, a 3Kg weight reduction and a one per cent increase in fuel economy”. One thing’s for sure, gear changes are smooth, precise and remind us of the last-gen Toyota Celica’s gear shift, which is a good thing.

The CX-5’s 45mm throw gives gear changes a more sporty feel

Its great visibility and large wing mirrors mean that it feels smaller than it actually is. Its handling is superb for such a large car, and we had no problem or scary moments zooming our way across single-track highland roads in wet conditions. Mazda has strived to create a car that’s as lightweight as it can be within its economic constraints, and the use of high-tensile steel no doubt helps it feel lithe and nimble.

Unfortunately, its positive and confidence-inspiring handling means you’re likely to forget about its weight and step-on a bit, right up until something pulls out in front of you. Thankfully, the CX-5’s powerful and responsive brakes soon bring you to a halt. Indeed, each CX-5 is fitted with a superb feature called Smart City Brake Support (SCBS), which helps avoid low-speed collisions if you’re momentarily distracted. We put SCBS to the test by driving in to a large obstacle at 15mph. Our instincts told us to slam our foot on the brake pedal as we got closer to the object and nothing happened, but the CX-5 came to a controlled and abrupt stop before we’d even finished our first Hail Mary.

SCBS works up to 19mph, and even though it won’t prevent every low-speed collision, it will decrease the consequences. It’s a great safety feature that works as a fail-safe rather than something on which drivers rely, and it’s something we’d like to see on other cars.

The Mazda CX-5’s touchscreen multimedia system is full of hot tech

No matter how well it drives, no car is complete without gadgetry and in-car entertainment, and the CX-5 is well endowed with both. In addition to the usual complement of electric window switches and automatic wipers, you also get a number of wheel-mounted controls for the in-car entertainment, cruise control and telephony systems. The buttons are large enough to press accurately while driving and are sensibly located so you don’t accidentally hit them. Using them became second nature in a matter of minutes.

The main focus of the in-car entertainment, navigation and telephony systems is the 5.8in touchscreen. Three large buttons let you quickly switch between the navigation, audio and phone screens, and we had no trouble viewing the screen because of its slightly recessed position.

We connected our phone to the CX-5 using Bluetooth and were soon listening to music stored on it through the CX-5’s high-quality speakers. Pressing the relevant directional button on either touchscreen or the steering wheel changed tracks, but track changes weren’t instantaneous, which proved annoying after a while. Conveniently, you can connect your phone to the multimedia system and charge it at the same time by plugging it in to a USB socket located in a cubby hole in the centre console. The CX-5’s telephony system was similarly straightforward to use, and we could communicate clearly with the people we called.

Its SatNav system is powered by TomTom technology, and we were mightily impressed by it. The display is large enough to see the map clearly and its spoken-word instructions are clearly articulated and infrequent enough not to irritate. Indeed, the timing and clarity of the spoken-word instructions were so good we rarely needed to look at the map and left the touchscreen on the audio page instead.

The Mazda CX-5 hides its bulk well

Prices for the Mazda CX-5 start at £21,395 on the road for the 2.0-litre 165ps 2WD manual version, which includes 17in alloys, an auto-dimming rear-view mirror, front and rear parking sensors, privacy glass, SCBS and the touchscreen interface. The TomTom navigation system costs £400 more, but that’s a premium definitely worth paying.

Mazda is heavily promoting its new SkyActiv technology with the launch of the CX-5, and that’s because all future Mazda’s will benefit from it. Although Mazda has created an electric vehicle (the Demio EV), it isn’t commercially available. Mazda believes that all-electric vehicles don’t have much of a future, and that improving and refining the internal combustion engine with certain EV technologies will produce more efficient and environmentally sound cars that people will want to buy.

One such SkyActiv technology is i-stop, which cuts the engine when you’re stationary. This technology is nothing new, but it’s available across the range, and it cuts noise and pollution when driving around town, in addition to increasing fuel economy.

i-Stop conserves fuel and cuts noise by stopping the engine when stationary

The initial CX-5 line-up includes a 2.0-litre petrol engine (SkyActiv-G) with a power output of 165ps and a 2.2-litre diesel (SkyActiv-D) with power outputs of 150ps and 175ps. We test-drove the base 150ps 2.2-litre diesel. In addition to these new engines, drivers can choose an automatic or six-speed manual gearbox, 2WD or 4WD, and select one of four equipment levels.

We’ve also driven the all-wheel drive 175ps 2.2-litre diesel CX-5 with manual transmission, and for us it’s the best of the bunch. There’s plenty acceleration for pulling away away from junctions and roundabouts quickly and safely, and there’s a decent amount of torque up to fifth gear. There’s enough shove left in 5th gear for a bit of gentle overtaking on the motorway, but there’s little power in sixth gear, which is best used when cruising on the motorway.

The all-wheel drive’s handling is pretty good at lower speeds, especially when you consider the size and height of the CX-5, but we encountered a bit of unwelcome understeer at speeds of around 60mph.

The 175ps model’s diesel engine is plainly audible at speeds up to around 30mph, but it becomes less audible at higher speeds. Sadly, the 175ps 2.2-litre engine is only available if you opt for a CX-5 in Sport trim.

We really like the CX-5, especially its saloon car feel and its multimedia features. We heard very little road or wind noise when cruising at 60mph and the diesel engine smoothly delivered the right level of power when we needed it. Plus, its multimedia system is easy to use and sounds great. It’s a big car, but it doesn’t look as conspicuous as some of its rivals. It’s well priced, and if you need more space than a typical saloon provides, along with some well-crafted in-car gadgets, book yourself a test drive to check it out.

For more information, check check out the Mazda CX-5 official website.

Even the base model includes front and rear parking sensors