As I said yesterday, “The rental CX-5, because it is a Mazda product, was a lot more engaging to drive than the last SUV we rented.” And while it is no Miata, it was pleasurable to drive along the backroads and its turbo engine made passing slow pokes a breeze. It is no wonder this thing is the most recommended SUV by nearly everyone who appreciates driving dynamics.
Because the CX-5 was the top of the line Grand Touring model it had all the bells and whistles. There was a Moon Roof, Navigation, Leather Seats (with 2 person memory for the driver’s), and a Powered Liftgate. The moon roof was barely used, because it was too noisy over anything over parking lots speeds. Navigation wasn’t needed because we had my phone and we brought the Garmin GPS. The leather seats were not the most comfortable because they felt hard and the bottom bolstering was a little narrow. I will admit the powered lift gate was nice, but not really necessary.
There was, of course, the usual suite of safety things, blind spot monitoring, lane departure warning, rear cross traffic alert and radar cruise control. The blind spot monitoring was worthless because I know how to adjust the side mirrors so I don’t have a blind spot. The lane departure warning was just a rumble in the steering wheel, but it was doing a lot of that because I have a tendency to apex all the corners, so I’m glad it wasn’t the type to try and keep me in the lane. The cross traffic thing did give a warning once that was helpful, but there were 2 or 3 that were not needed because I saw what was going on before it did. The radar cruise kept messing with me, for the longest time I was wondering why the car was slowing down on its own, but by the end of the trip, I was finally getting used to having to keep my foot on it, as I approached a slower moving car that I was going to overtake.
It is a good looking vehicle from almost every angle, front, rear and the three quarters are really nice. But I’m not a fan of the straight on side view though, the nose looks too long. The black one we had was probably the best looking color IMHO on the CX-5 because it makes the black plastic cladding disappear, but black is the absolute worst color because it shows any and all the dirt/dust, plus any minor scratches show up like they are backlit.
The CX-5 is 3 feet longer, a foot and a half taller and weights a 1,000 pounds more than the Miata, but it returned a respectable 30.4 MPG. The Miata has an overall MPG of almost 28, but on a trip like this were there is a lot of steady cruise, it would probably surpass the CX-5’s figure. The one road trip feature the Miata can’t touch is cargo capacity, with the back seats folded down the CX-5 has 59.3 cubic feet or 11-1/2 times the Miata’s 5.1 cubic feet of trunk space.
Would we buy one? Never say never, but if we are going the SUV way, maybe, just maybe Mazda’s new “activity” SUV the CX-50, a variation of the CX-5, would probably be a better choice. It is a little more rugged looking and it comes in a nice blue…
CX-50
