DRIVER'S JOURNAL

DAY 1

You instantly recognize it as a Mazda, with assertive body lines and cat eye headlights. The only chrome to be found on the vehicle was on its nameplates giving it a modern clean look, with black powder coated rims to complete the look. Gazing through the windows, two-tone leather and an understated interior invite you to hop in and go for a ride!

DAY 2

Ran some errands around the city. Two-tone leather accented by twotone stitching on the seats, doors and dash give the impression of a luxury vehicle. Driving through the city the CX-5 handled all traffic conditions with ease. Smooth easy acceleration and decent visibility for the most part made the drive comfortable and enjoyable. Parking the CX-5 is a breeze with tight turning radius and a rear facing camera.

DAY 3

Merging onto the freeway from an off ramp the car had decent acceleration, but there is a slight hesitation due to turbo lag. It isn't a huge problem, it's just there. Once at speed changing lanes and dealing with traffic isn't an issue and the interior is comfortable enough where you can spend extended periods of time and not become too weary. At first the heads-up display drove me crazy and seemed to be a distraction more than a help. But as I got used to it, I found it very convenient. Displaying your speed, the speed limit of the motorway and simplified GPS instructions (if you have entered co-ordinates) and a lane/traffic awareness system all make this tiny display incredibly helpful. I found myself looking for it in my personal vehicles when I switched back. Also enjoyed the adaptive headlights that moved during sharp turns to illuminate where you were going rather than straight off into nowhere.

DAY 4

Seats could use a little more support on the sides, not awful, just an observation. One thing I found interesting about the instrument cluster is most of the gauges are analogue, but the speedometer is digital and they have done an excellent job of making the digital speedo look like the rest of the gauges in the cluster. The heated steering wheel only seems to heat up at 10 and 2 leaving the rest of the wheel cool to the touch. The infotainment system easily ties into an Android phone (I didn't test it with an iphone) and maps and Spotify are easily seen on the screen, but I didn't like how the system is controlled by a knob. The BOSE sound system was very clear and made for an enjoyable listening experience.

DAY 5

Picked up my teenage kids and their friends. Loading up every seat, a couple of things became apparent. The back seat is meant for smaller humans! While the teens were able to fit, it would not be a comfortable ride for long journeys. They noticed while exploring the car was if you have three people in the back the heated seat controls become inaccessible as they're on the foldaway arm rest in the seat. The final feature I hadn't noticed before but found great was the rear seatbelt indicator. On the dash are three indicators showing an icon of a seated passenger that lights up red if the passengers do not have their seatbelt on and green if they do. The teens in the back told me that they were all buckled up but the indicator told me otherwise. Their final review was that the car while being “cool” was a tattletale!

DAY 6

Tested the AWD and winter tires; fresh snow and the roads had not yet been plowed. The CX-5 handled the roads with ease. Almost shockingly so. The car gripped while accelerating from red lights without even a hint of slippage. Lane changes were confident despite the snow being piled up between the lanes, the car clawed across the lanes with ease.

DAY 7

Time to fill the car and wash it. The car is advertised as using 8.7L/100 km highway and 10.8L/100 km city, and this is exactly what I experienced. On average during my time with the car I got 9.0L/100 km.

PROS

Two tone leather and stitching

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Great AWD and braking systems

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particularly on snowy days

Heads-up display was very helpful

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and appreciated

CONS

Infotainment system was very

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cumbersome to use with the knob control

The heated seat control in the

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rear seat was inaccessible when the car was at full capacity

Seats could use a bit more

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support