2007 Mazda5 Auto Tranny. Quick Rental Report

[coolmazda5]

I traveled to California for the weekend and rented a full-size car from Hertz (AAA discount is decent and they don't charge you a car seat, a mini-van rate is ridiculously high if you ask). Got to the airport late Friday and they were about to get me a Taurus or similar. Saw a Mazda5 and asked them, jokingly, why you don't give me that one instead? They say no, because that is a mid-size, so in other words, it was even a couple of bucks cheaper a day. So of course I did not care at all and I got it. I sweat my butt putting the toddler car seat though, it was weird (or I'm stupid)...

Now, you had to see my wife's face when I pointed to the car rented. She was like: "You have to be freakin' kidding me?.... Well, at least we know it will fit all the stuff we brought" (lol2)...

I won't go into (deadhorse comments, just some that called my attention:

Ups:

• 4AT feels peppy. To be honest my expectation was not set that high for an auto tranny, but it did a great job, from zero to cruise speed it does not feel weak at all.
• Love the sunroof. Shame I did not find MT Tourings in my area. I was not very interested on it, but it grew fast on me.
• To be a 2007 rental with 25K it still felt very tight. I have rented others that after 10K simply feel like they were taken through a Paris-Dakkar tour

Downs:

• I do believe the front wheels got a hard hit once. Alignment and balancing were great (better than my 06 I think) but there was a weird/constant/annoying noise after passing 40MPH
• Not surprised, usually rentals are washed more than 2-3 times a week at high-pressure, so they sliding doors had not received any lub love. Even my wife thought they were broken or something.
• Also, Hertz, do you mind some armor-all in the dashboard once in a while?
• No complaints about the tranny itself (it even feels very tight built, including the manual option), but I'm glad the 5AT came this year. At cruise speed, no issues, but if by any chance you are going uphill and need to maintain speed while the 4th gear is engaged (i.e. 70MPH) the overdrive is not very helpful, and if the 3rd gear kicks-in, the RPMs go way high.
• Not a big deal but I got ~18MPG. Possibly the tires were not inflated properly or car not properly serviced (it is a rental afterall), or the tank was not "fully" full when rented. I did not do a scientific analysis, purely gallons filled up vs. miles driven.

 

[coolmazda5]

Oh yeah, and before I forget, I was looking for the clutch the 1st day over there and found nothing, and in the way back, my car did not start, the clutch needs to be engaged!

Why in the heck the temp and manual fan knobs were swapped from 07 and 08? I have messed up my settings since I came back like 4 times already, duh!

 

[rweatherford]

Good deal. I'm not sure why you had to shift out of overdrive. We have some pretty good hills around here (for short distances) and my 5 has never downshifted. We were driving with 2 adults, 3 kids and 1.5 carts of groceries. I've also driven on 4-lane @ 70-75 MPH into windy conditions with no downshifts on hills.

I was suprised after the way people talked about it having little power.

 

[mrbwa1]

4at

The 4AT is our 2007 Sport is probably the best Auto I've Driven. The shifts are truely imperceptible (other than maybe the 1-2 under hard acceleration). The wife won't do the manual trans, so I'm relegated to automatics anymore.

This last week has been one snow storm after another, resulting in 20+ inches of snow around and many poorly and/or unplowed roads. The manual shift feature has been a godsend for down shifting to use engine braking on icy hills. Also, you can lock it into 2nd gear to minimize wheel spin in low traction. Using this method, I was able to make it a block down my parent's unplowed street that had about 15 inches of snow. the 5 was spinning the tires something fierce, and I was pushing snow up over the hood, but she made it!

So as far at long term on the Auto, there are a couple quirks. That main thing is that's it's really really lazy to down shift unless you pin the pedal to the medal. a partial press that would work to down shift on a non drive-by-wire car leads to the car "thinking" for about a second and then lazily down shifting, all while letting the power fall off. On the flip side, if you keep the gas pedal steady on a hill, it seem to down shift a little faster to keep in the powerband (still slowly) and does a great job of holding the lower gear until the top of a hill, even if the grade flattens out a bit.

The manual shift mode is one of the better ones I've used, though it has a BIG quirk. Mazda's zoom-zoom factory sets up shifts like a true race car: UP = Down shift, Down = Upshift. this is opposite of all other autosticks I've driven and drives my wife nuts! The car geek in me loves it however. Also, If I'm in 3rd gear manually shifting Manually and floor it, the tranny still down shifts to 2 or 1 under hard acceleration. I also automatically shifts to 1 at a stop in M. However, if you lock into 2nd gear mode, it will only shift down to 2 at a stop. therefore, I've spent most of a week driving in 2 and sometimes 3.

I think the biggest drawback to the auto is that it probably uses a bit more gas. We seem to average 25 mpg is a good 60/40 or so City/Freeway mix. I think on pure freeway, we might flirt with 30MPG, whereas the stick might edge on toward 31-32. Around here the freeways are 60/70mph, so that also works against us. Other than that, I have to wonder how much more the stick could offer power wise. On paper it should be faster, but not sure you would feel much, other than that giant grin the comes from the operation of a well balanced clutch and shifter that Mazda is so good for (I am not sure if it gets much better than my dad's '88 RX-7 GTU Commemorative Edition 5 speed trannny)...

 

[coolmazda5]

The 4AT is our 2007 Sport is probably the best Auto I've Driven.

Well, I have not driven many auto trannies but for the Mazda 4AT I drove gave me the same perception as for the 5MT. The Mazda5 gear to RPM ratio is great. On the contrary, the old Honda I used to own: You could be shifting i.e. from 3rd gear to 4th at "high" RPM and the RPM would go down radically once shifted, losing momentum, that to me is terrible. Again, except by that 4th to 3rd overdrive kicking in from time to time, the rest not a problem (I also played around a little by driving auto-stick more, a lot of fun).

 

[coolmazda5]

I'm not sure why you had to shift out of overdrive. We have some pretty good hills around here (for short distances) and my 5 has never downshifted. We were driving with 2 adults, 3 kids and 1.5 carts of groceries. I've also driven on 4-lane @ 70-75 MPH into windy conditions with no downshifts on hills

Steep hill going from where we stayed to downtown San Diego, it happened twice. I admit, I did "pedal-to-the-metal". I think my auto tranny skills are not very good to "control" the shifts better with the right acceleration

I was suprised after the way people talked about it having little power.

+1. I even burned some rubber (lightly, of course) a couple of times (yes, tires were the OEM, but still not bad). I have rented RAVs and VUEs (the new 4cyl one) and they feel very anemic to take-off from a full-stop.

 

[dreamym5]

we test drove 06 used before we got 08.

it was not long term, extended driving, but i can say there is bit of difference between 4 and 5 speed tranny.

5 speed is bit "smoother" compare to 4 speed but since 06 already had about 34K on it.. smoother does not mean much..

i read 4 speed had some problem especially working with "cruise control" and "manual mode"..

i have not driven my 08 much .. but high driving from dealer to my house was quiet and smooth...

after all, i am still under the magic of new car's spell(doh)

 

[rweatherford]

The hills I was on were 4-lane highway with cruise control, which probalby helped to resist downshifting. I've never run the cruise with manual mode.

If I did more city driving I might use manual mode more.