The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mazda CX-5: Boring is beautiful
It’s also fun and easy to drive with a 2.5-liter engine, 187 horsepower.
Please don’t hate me for saying so, but the Mazda CX-5 is one of the dullest cars on the road.
In terms of styling, performance and technology, it’s just … plain. No fireworks. No fanfare. No drama.
No one is going to slide up to you at a red light and say, “Hey, man, is that the new CX-5?” No one is going to stop you in the parking lot at and say, “Wow. Is that yours?” If you go somewhere nice to eat, the valet guys won’t park it out front with the hot cars.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Boring isn’ t bad. No drama can mean no problems.
Though there may not be any reason to fall calamitously in love with this car, there’s also nothing not to like about it. The CX-5 works.
The 2017 CX-5, a second iteration of the successful SUV, is all new, Mazda says, and not just a simple makeover.
On sale since March, it features a re-engineered and redesigned chassis, body, interior and exterior, and now comes with some fancy upgrades. Upper trim level vehicles can be had with a heated steering wheel, power liftgate, reclining rear seats and heated front and rear seats, a relative rarity in affordable vehicles.
Upper trim levels also come with helpful safety technology, like lane departure warning, blind spot monitoring and more sophisticated braking assist features.
(They’re part of the reason the Institute for Highway Safety gave the 2017 CX-5 its highest “Top Safety
Pick+” rating.)
The Grand Touring vehicle, with the premium options package, also includes a very good adaptive cruise control system — Mazda calls it “Radar Cruise Control” — and a head-up display that includes traffic sign recognition.
Arear-view camera is standard on all models, as is the head-up display withou ttr affic sign recognition.
I t’s fun — and easy — to drive. Around town, the 2.5-liter engine, which makes 187 horse power and 185 pound feet of torque and is the same power plant found in the Mazda6 sedan, made the CX-5 scoot with confidence.
The front-wheel-drive system was nice and grabby — the car is also available in an all-wheel-drive
configuration — and had a nice, planted feel.
The short wheel base and great visibility mad ei t easy to park. The seats felt comfortable, and everything in the driver cock pit was sensibly placed and easy to reach.
On the freeway, thou gh, I experienced more tire noise than I like, while the car tracked confidently and held its own in fast-moving traffic.
I didn’t do any long-distance
driving, but the 60-cubic-foot storage capacity made me wish I was headed out of town. The back seats fold flat with the push of a button to create room for the mountain bike, cooler, tent and sleeping bag. Camping, anyone?
The upgrades and the refreshed design seem to be working.
Mazda reported recently that 57,077 CX -5s had been sold in North America this year through the end of June—up 10 percent over the same six-month period last year. That puts this SUV well ahead of the roughly 39,834 CX-3s sold during that time, and makes the CX-5 the company’s best-selling vehicle.
Those numbers aren’t massive when measured against comparable compact SUVs. Honda sold 187,256 CR-Vs during the same period, while Toyota sold 184,766 RAV4s.
But they’re important to Mazda. The company’s North American year-to-date car sales, at the end of June, were off almost 20 percent. But year-to-date SUV sales, led by the CX-5, were up 18.5 percent.
The CX-5, like all of Mazda’ s vehicles, is priced to move. An entrylevel model can be had for as little as $24,985. The Grand Touring trim level starts at $30,335, and the one Id rove cost $32,785.
The low price, and the company’s current Driving Matters advertising campaign, won’t be enough to lure some ca r shoppers wh oare looking for more comfort, more styling or more horsepower.
But, really, how much of that stuff does a car need? If you’re not running hot laps at a racetrack or trying to win a best in show ribbon at your local car show, this is a practical and unpretentious people mover.