The all-new Mazda CX-5 has a tough job on its hands if it is to build on its predecessor’s excellent reputation. James Foxall finds out if it can.
Our car: 2.2 Sport Nav 150PS Skyactiv-D List price when new: £30,195 Price as tested: £30,995 Official fuel economy: 50.4mpg (EU Combined)
May 1st, 2018
Fuel economy this week: 42.7mpg
As you may have gathered with a model name like Sport Nav, our CX-5 does indeed have satellite navigation. It’s ironic then that while I’m generally becoming a big fan of the CX-5, the one feature I’m not sold on is the – you guessed it – satellite navigation.
For a start, it relies on icons at the bottom that you highlight to find out what they mean. And only when you cancel those can you use the rotary knob to zoom in and out. That it took a bit of fiddling around to work out how to perform the simple zoom-in function speaks volumes.
The satnav’s most recent faux pas was not recognising the postcode of a destination I wanted it to navigate me to. When I plugged in the first three characters of the postcode it gave me the option of one digit; and it wasn’t the digit of where I wanted to go.
The system didn’t recognise the village or road names either. This destination was on a main route in rural Oxfordshire, so hardly the back of beyond.
The Mazda satnav has a great screen with good-looking graphics, making it even more of a shame that I had to resort to the navigation app on my phone to get to where I was going.
April 24th, 2018
Fuel economy this week: 42.8mpg
The parcel shelf is a funny thing. For a start the name is something of a misnomer as I don’t believe I’ve ever stored a parcel on one. And, strangely, despite it being such an apparently simple component, car makers can’t seem to reach a consensus on how best to resolve it.
For the CX-5, Mazda has come up with an elegant solution. Rather than installing a removable shelf it’s gone for the retractable plastic cover option. But instead of having this attached to the sides of the car, as Honda does with the Civic hatchback, it clips to the tailgate. Open the boot and it’s as if the luggage cover doesn’t exist, but there’s still something to keep prying eyes from seeing what you’re carrying.
If you’ve got something a tad taller for the boot, you simply unclip the cover from the tailgate and it disappears into its housing. Remove it altogether and it’s much easier to store than the traditional shelf solution.
April 17th, 2018
Fuel economy this week:42.6mpg
Perception is a funny thing. From behind the wheel, the CX-5 feels like a wide car. It certainly feels significantly wider than the Seat Ateca it replaced. Yet, oddly, it isn’t. There is a single millimetre in it – and that goes to the Spanish motor, measuring in at 1,841mm in width.
Granted, the Mazda is longer than the Seat. At 4,550mm, it has 187mm over the Ateca. And the top of its roof is 60mm higher. No surprises there, it does feel like a bigger car.
If I had to, I would also swear that, of the pair, the Mazda had the bigger boot. Wrong again. It’s actually smaller than the Seat’s, if only by a miniscule 4 litres. As I said, perception is a funny thing.
April 13th, 2018
Fuel economy this week: 42.4mpg
There is a mere £2,000 between the price of the Seat Ateca in the specification we chose and our £30,995 CX-5. Add on a bit of diesel premium for the Mazda and that puts them pretty level in price terms. That equality isn’t reflected in the feel of the two cars.
While the Ateca is a long way from feeling budget, the CX-5 definitely has a more premium ambience to its interior. Whether it’s the large welcoming seats front and back, or the stitched leather covering the dashboard, the CX-5 feels distinctly upmarket.
That’s reinforced by the higher quality plastics around the cabin, the tasteful use of chrome to ring features such as the satnav screen, and the quality of the sound deadening when on the move.
April 3rd, 2018
Fuel economy this week: 41.8mpg
The more time you spend with any car, the more of its idiosyncrasies you pick up on. One of the irritants I’ve discovered about the CX-5 isn’t peculiar to Mazdas or even Japanese cars. But that doesn’t make it any less annoying.
With many of today’s cars – particularly German models – turning off the ignition doesn’t kill the sound system. That doesn’t happen until you take the key out of the ignition (if it has one) or open the door.
With the CX-5, if you’re waiting for someone and you don’t want to leave the engine running needlessly, the sound system turns off with the engine. To carry on listening you must remove your feet from the pedals and prod the stop-start button again. By which time you’ve invariably missed the crux of the thing you were listening to.
March 27th, 2018
Fuel economy this week: 40.6mpg
The engine I’ve chosen in this CX-5 is the lower-powered of the pair of 2.2-litre diesels on offer. With 150PS, a 0-60mph time of 10.1 seconds and a claimed EU Combined economy of 50.4mpg, it’s expected to be the best seller of the bunch.
I certainly don’t feel as if I’ve been short-changed on the power front. And aside from a bit of diesel clatter on start-up, the engine is smooth and refined at speed. The six-speed automatic gearbox is equally unobtrusive, going about its business smoothly no matter how slowly you’re travelling.
Although the CX-5 looks like a larger car than the Seat Ateca it replaced, it doesn’t feel significantly bigger from behind the wheel. The steering is nicely weighted, too, and it gives the car a nimbleness that belies its size.
It’s helped by Mazda’s G-Vectoring Control. This reduces engine torque to the front axle as you turn into a corner, pushing the car’s weight over its front wheels. As you accelerate through the bend, the torque is restored rearwards.
Like most modern tech, you don’t notice any of this happening, just the more effortless and engaging drive that results.
March 20th, 2018
Fuel economy this week: 40.2mpg
The first thing to strike me about the new CX-5 was that it looks much better from more angles than the model it replaces. No matter how large its wheels were, the old CX-5 always looked over-bodied.
The new model appears to put that right with even 17-inch rims managing not to be overwhelmed by the metal surrounding them. Our Sport Nav model sits on monster 19-inch Gunmetal wheels which certainly look the part and I can already tell you are fairly easy to keep clean.
With slim projector headlamps at the front and trim at the leading edge of the bonnet protruding over the grille, it has the sort of assertive appearance you’d expect from a premium brand such as Jaguar.
Side-on, the new CX-5 appears sleek and compact, although its profile is definitely more substantial than models such as the Nissan Qashqai, Seat Ateca and Kia Sportage. And this is matched inside, where there is more space than the aforementioned rivals.
March 15th, 2018
Love ’em or loathe ’em, SUVs are the must-have motor of the moment. One example at the heart of the SUV mainstream is Mazda’s CX-5. This is the second-generation version, all-new and only launched last year. Its task is to kick on from the previous model that first went on sale in 2012.
Swimming against the tide, we’ve gone for the 2.2-litre diesel engine. With 150PS, this is the lowest powered of the engines offered in the CX-5. But it is available with Mazda’s six-speed automatic gearbox – I was curious to live with this after spending six months with the VW Group’s excellent DSG semi-automatic in our Seat Ateca.
When it came to extras, my target was to get as close to £30,000 as possible. And the Mazda is so well loaded in Sport Nav specification, the upper of the two available grades, that the only extra spend was £800 for the Soul Red Crystal Metallic paint.
The result was a £30,995 total price. In finance terms, via a Mazda PCP it equates to £369 a month with a £3,423 deposit.
Over the next months I’ll be finding out more about what this mid-size SUV is like for everyday motoring.
For all the latest news, advice and reviews from Telegraph Cars, sign up to our weekly newsletter by entering your email here