White 2020 Mazda CX-5 Grand Touring Reserve AWD 6-Speed Automatic 2.5L 4-Cylinder
22/27 City/Highway MPG
KBB.com Consumer Reviews
Overall4.5Out of 5
Luxury Crossover without the pricetag
By KJ5094 | on Wednesday, January 10, 2018
5.0
I looked at several crossovers before making my decision. The CX5 provides all of the creature comforts and features of a luxury crossover without paying the premium for the badge. As far as features, the Grand Touring trim is loaded: a great heads up display, with blind spot monitoring, radar cruise control, collision avoidance to list a few. Leather seats are extremely comfortable, and there is plenty of room for rear seat passengers. Heated rear seats, driver and passenger seats are great in cold weather. Added ventilation for rear seat passengers and usb connections are great additions. I sacrificed a bit in terms of cargo space, but that is expected with a compact crossover. There is lots of space for drink storage with cup holders and bottle storage. This car is a pleasure to drive, extremely responsive and road noise is manageable.…
Great ride
By thequister | on Saturday, April 14, 2018
5.0
Im 1000 miles into my new Touring trim FWD 2018 model. This is my second Mazda & I love these folks. They seem to find the perfect mix of affordability, efficiency, reliability, styling, and truly great driving dynamics. Specifically:
- Driving this thing is a dream. The 18 sticks to the road in corners better than my 09 Mazda3 and at least as well as the VW golf wagons I drove. Its not worth mentioning the other small SUVs. The car just feels locked in all the time.
- for an SUV, the CX-5 turns on a dime and parks easily. There has been minimal adjustment between my older and smaller Mazda3 and the new CX-5 when it comes to u-turns and parallel parking. The CX-5 drives much smaller than it is.
- Im getting about 27-28 mpg in combined city/hwy driving with traffic and hills.
- exterior styling, esp 19 wheels, looks good. The LED headlights are fantastic at night.
- interior is great. Its very quiet. Materials appear durable and high-quality. Knobs, screens, and data are exactly where they should be with no stupid distractions or attempts to make you feel like youre in a night club when youre driving to work. The black leatherette in the touring trim looks good, breathes well, and is easy to clean (something I care about). Overall, the styling is fantastic. You can tell Mazda cares about these things.
- The AT is probably the best Ive driven. It downshifts at the slightest provocation and never hunts for gears. But it also gets good mileage from the engine. In sport mode it has immediate power right when you need it, but this keeps RPMs higher & mileage lower.
- Their trim levels seem to be right on (unlike, e.g., Honda). Regardless of what youre after theres likely a trim that provides exactly what you want without paying for things you dont need. My touring trim offered exactly what I need: a comfortable, fun, efficient car with all the current safety features that fits my surf gear & dog but also gets me around the SoCal highways and mountain roads. But I didnt have to pay for any extras that I dont need (heated steering wheel & rear seats, power liftgate...yuck, sunroof, leather, HUD, etc.).
- Back seats are plenty comfortable for 6+ adults. The 40/20/40 split turns out to be really useful for me and the release levers in the trunk will make you wonder why all cars dont have them. I only wish the headrests folded down automatically.
- My earlier Mazda3 was great; all the mechanical, electrical, & drivetrain systems were bulletproof for over 10 years. I have the same expectations for my new CX-5.
- Overall a great value. The car looks and feels like you spent 15k more than you did. Do you really need to impress your friends with pinwheels or four interlocking rings?
- Im confident the car will age well. Im not worried about getting sick of it after 3 years.
Options:
- I opted for the full suite of safety features, most of which were already standard.
- Living in SoCal, I didnt feel the need to spend 1300 on AWD.
- Color: Im not a car color freak, but the Mazda red is actually pretty great. Nevertheless I opted for the blue which did not require a 500 upcharge. But that red. Its pretty great.
- The premium package offered sunroof, upgraded stereo, navigation, and probably some other stuff. If the sunroof had been panoramic I might have been tempted. But as it is, the sunroof is nothing special and the standard stereo is fine for me (& I like to rock out in the car). Bluetooth from the phone is fine for navigation. But Android Auto would be much appreciated.
- I got the rubber car mats and that seems like a good idea.
In researching the car, I found 4 common criticisms: the engine isnt sporty enough; it doesnt have as much space as a Honda CRV; the infotainment system is weak; and active safety features are too intrusive. My reactions:
1) The engine does exactly what you need it to do without complaint. It wont win you a drag race against a GTI, but so what? The engine always has power when I need it for easy freeway merging or passing yet it still returns great mileage. Plus its been around for a while and used in several Mazda vehicles, which means its tried-&-true and easy to service. In other words, its very well designed for its intended purpose. I think the criticism of the engine really reflects how well the car handles. The cars great steering and handling makes you want to push it.
2) The interior space is good and meets my needs easily. But the Hondas cargo capacity is amazing. If cargo space is your overriding need then the CX-5 is good but not stellar. Check it out for yourself; I was bringing surfboards to dealerships to test out the cars.
3) The infotainment system has been very stable, quick to respond, and easy to learn. It has worked seamlessly with my phone on bluetooth. But the lack of CarPlay/AA is annoying. Mazda needs to get that sorted.
4) The rear crossing detector is great and generates few false alarms. Active lane assist is subtle and works well. The blindspot monitoring is way too sensitive; it tells you that cars over a car length behind you are in your blind spot. I turned off the audio warning for this immediately. The radar cruise control works very well and returns excellent gas mileage. I have had not any experience with the collision-avoidance braking. Overall, I would much rather have the active safety features than not. They all perform reasonably well and Mazda does a good job of allowing you to customize their sensitivity and notifications. Or you can turn them off.…
Love this SUV!
By Jerry | on Friday, November 08, 2019
5.0
My wife and I fell in love with the styling of this SUV and the mazda wasn't even on our list at first. Once we drove it, we were hooked.
40,000 miles later, not one issue and its' great.
couldn't be happier, except a little more pep, but its okay.…
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