The mystery of the missing demister
Also, dirt. By Anthony rench-Constant
Those even vaguely familiar with the 200-yard downwind-range olfactory cosh that is the current high street purveyor of handmade soaps to the perfumically challenged will have a pretty sound idea of what the interior of the CX-5 smells like this morning. Responsibility for the eye-watering intensity of the on-board atmosphere must be jointly shared between missus and Mazda.
The recent, sapling-snapping intensity of a bobble-hatful of early-morning frosts has required a slight rethink of the ff-C pre-school-run routine; namely a kneecap-numbing slither clad in loose robes and carpet slippers out to the car to fire up the windscreen de-mister a couple of minutes before departure.
No; make that five minutes… Ah; better make it 10… Hmmm; actually, better set the alarm a good 15 minutes earlier. Because no matter how much time we allow for the engine to start feeding any semblance of warmth to the vents, it’s never quite enough. A diesel unit does take its sweet time to show an interest of a chilly dawn.
All of which leads to one of two possible oath-laden outcomes. Plan A: the freshly-boiled kettle is snatched from my hand the instant before the water hits the coffee grounds; or plan B: some squelch of previously owned tissue is smeared haphazardly over the inside of the windscreen.
Plan B does little to melt the ice, but much to mar the view out, so I handed the Mazda over to the Soak ’n’ Vac section of our local supermarket car park with strict instructions to leave the Back to Black holstered but make hay with the glass cleaner, it never occurring to me that same constituted a careless amalgam of ground-floor cosmetics samplers from the world’s cheapest department store.
So now, if you’ll excuse me, I must dash off to the garage to buy a can of de-icer before slightly over-feeding the evil-smelling dog and taking it for a long drive in the hope of returning the cabin air quality to an acceptably chewy norm.
Mazda CX-5 2.2D 150ps 2WD Sport Nav+ Month 8
The story so far
Low-key but extremely competent crossover continues to impress everyone who uses it
+ The CX-5 is clean again, inside and out
Driving around with the windows wide to let the inside out
Logbook
Price £29,900 (as tested £30,460) Performance 2191cc turbocharged four-cylinder, 148bhp, 9.9sec 0-62mph, 127mph E ciency 49.6mpg (o cial), 44.4mpg (tested), 128g/km CO2 Energy cost 7.1p per mile Miles this month 455 Total miles 5297