Ride along in the new CX-5 crossover as we go over the finer points.
TranscriptJAMES RISWICK: This is James Riswick for Autoblog. And I'm on the island of Coronado, just across the bay from San Diego. Well, at least for now. I'm about to cross the bridge. And I'm in the 2017 Mazda CX-5.
Now, there are four things that most impress me about this car. The first is, well, the interior. This is a big improvement over what was here before.
The quality was pretty strong before, but it just didn't really look as good as it actually was. But now, really nice details like these air vents. And a lot of stitching, padded surfaces. There's wood trim. Big improvement.
The other thing is how quiet this car is. This is a concrete surface here on the Coronado Bridge, and I can talk at a very normal level. In older Mazdas, it'd be quite noisy in here. But this isn't just quiet for a Mazda. It's quiet for any compact SUV.
The other thing I like is just the precision of the controls. This steering is so good. They have set this to feel like hydraulic steering. There is not a radical shift from low speed to high-speed control. It just feels linear and natural-- very good.
And then the throttle response is absolutely spot-on. Doesn't lag at all. And it's also not hyperactive, even when you put it into Sport mode. You can just hear that it did downshift for you.
And really, the transmission-- again, spot-on. It downshifts when you want to accelerate, it downshifts when you want to decelerate. You go into a corner, you hit on the brakes, and it downshifts for you. Same when you want to get some engine braking.
And finally, the thing I like about this car, again, is how natural it feels when you are driving. They did a lot of effort to make sure that this steering wheel is straight on in the middle of your body, that the accelerator and the dead pedal are shoulder-width. It just feels very natural.
The shifter, they raised by several millimeters to, again, feel like a more natural movement. It just goes to show the amount of effort that Mazda goes to to make a family SUV effectively feel like a fun-to-drive car. I'm impressed.
Now that I am quite predictably stuck in traffic here in San Diego, let me take a moment to discuss some of the things that, well, might not make the CX-5 an absolute perfect choice for you. Because although this is fantastic to drive and it looks great and you'll love the interior, it's just not as functional or utilitarian as, say, a Honda CRV. And that's OK for most.
Mazda is OK with that. For instance, the backseat-- not as spacious. It does recline now, which is nice. The trunk space-- very good. But again, doesn't give you that 75 cubic feet of space that the CRV does.
The center console, which feels very car-like and high, just doesn't have as much cargo capacity. It doesn't have as many places to store your various things. So for most people, for me for instance, coming out of a car this would actually seem a lot more of a natural progression. But if you're looking for that super mom and dad mobile, this still isn't it.
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