No fixes needed in new CX-5
The CX-5 has been a huge success for Mazda, accounting for 25 per cent of its sales. Paul Owen drives the improved new model.
Did Mazda really need to do anything to the heroically-successful CX5? It’s been our most popular medium-sized SUV model for yonks when it’s just Mums-and-Dads that are doing the buying rather than Toyota RAV4centric rental fleets, although it did recently surrender this status to the Kia Sportage.
Despite that changing of the medium SUV guard, the previousgeneration CX-5 could have happily soldiered on as it was given its on-going popularity with private buyers on this side of the Tasman Sea.
Mazda being Mazda, it’s fixed what was previously unbroken. In come 698 new parts for the latest CX-5, while a near-equal number go in the nearest bin. The Hiroshima-based company has been cleaning house with the latest CX-5.
By that I mean the all-new body parts that add up to cleaner external design, and the efforts made to add extra refinement. In terms of the hushing of ambient cabin noise levels, the new CX-5 sits a cut above the whispering Hyundai Tuscon, and just below the far more expensive BMW X3, according to the sound test data from Mazda. And that cabin is now a more comfy, happier place to be.
Seats, both front and rear, are much improved, and those in the second row now have access to their own heating/ventilation ducts and charging ports. The 40/20/40 folding rear bench is also mounted lower than before, increasing headroom while twostep recliners give the opportunity to have a nap back there while on the move. Behind the bench, there’s now 455 litres of luggage space, 50 more than the previous CX-5.
Equipment levels take a hike upwards in a model range that offers all the extras for a modest average price increase of $700. At mid-range GSX model level, you get everything required to impress the neighbours in terms of driving aids – blind spot monitors, rear cross traffic alert, traffic sign recognition etc and all models now come equipped with heads-up-displays, autonomous emergency braking at city speeds and reversing cameras.
Buy your CX-5 in the new Soul Red Crystal colour ($300) if you really want the jaws of said neighbours to drop. The three layers of different paint that make up this dazzling player of light and shadow combine light-absorbing particles with bright aluminium flakes. It’s a stunner.
Yet the new CX-5 range could have been cleaner, in terms of its emissions of both climate-changing gases and toxins. The carry-over powertrains still comply with the EU5 emission standard introduced in the noughties, and the old standard is much kinder to Mazda’s 2.2-litre turbo-diesel than it is to the 2.5 and 2.0 litre nonturbo petrols, which have to offer stricter emission control under its rules.
These are now heavier vehicles, which means fuel consumption and corresponding outputs of CO2 rise, bucking the trend for most newly-released vehicles to offer improvements. Mazda says that a 7 per cent improvement in the aerodynamic efficiency of the new body helps counter the weight added by the extra equipment, body reinforcements, and sounddeadening measures, but that’s a hard claim to verify when the company declines to disclose coefficient of drag (Cd) figures.
Suffice to say then that these are slightly dirtier, slightly thirstier cars than the ones that they replace, despite new engine management software across the board and the lower friction pistons given to the petrol 2.5. Fuel use over the combined city/ highway driving simulation is 6.9 litres per 100km for the 114kW/ 200Nm 2.0 petrol four that powers the $39,995 GLX entry model (up $250). This rises to 7.5 for the 140kW/251Nm 2.5 petrol four that is likely to be the engine most popular with buyers, and lowers to 6.0 for the 2.2 diesel in adaptive all-wheel-drive form.
For perspective, these figures represent an average fuel use increase of 0.1 of a litre every 100km over the outgoing CX-5 range. That amounts to the price of a glass of beer after a drive, say, from Auckland to Christchurch.
There’s also plenty of progress to be appreciated in the driving dynamics of the new CX-5s, especially the two AWD Limited models I got to sample at the launch. The $55,495 2.5 was the pick of these when it came to cornering, the more evenly-distributed mass of its powertrain aiding its agility and balance. The more front-heavy diesel ($57,495) would succumb to understeer earlier than the petrol, giving the well-calibrated stability system quite a bit more work to do.
Yet the diesel was the pick whenever the road straightened up for the increased access that it offered to mid-range grunt. This made overtaking less of a chore, and added the relaxed driving persona that is essential to any SUV.
These were both enjoyable-to-drive Mazdas that live up to the ‘‘zoom-zoom’’ ethos of the brand, but I suspect the best-driving model of the CX-5 range has yet to arrive. If the new CX-5 ever receives the 170kW/420Nm directinjection turbo-petrol four of the acclaimed CX-9, it’ll create a super-CX-5 that’ll make Mazda ‘‘the fear of Europe’’ (stolen from the late, great LJK Setright). Then this affordable Japanese medium SUV will have a powertrain that can live up to its adorable mini-Jaguar F-Pace looks.