Autoweek article by Mark Vaughn

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2023 CX-5 Premium; 2018 Mazda 3 GT hatch
Mark Vaughn published an article in this week's Autoweek (http://www.autoweek.com/article/20140526/CARNEWS/140519817) in which he gave a brief recap of the career of Dave Coleman, who holds the enviable position of head of "Product Excellence" at Mazda. Of particular interest are his comments about CX-5 suspension development towards the end of the article. The article raised a couple of questions for me, so I shot off an email to Mark and he recontacted Dave Coleman and responded with a very interesting and complete answer. What follows is the text of our exchange:

Hi Mark:
Just read your recent article on Dave Coleman of Mazda and have a question about his comments on CX-5 handling. Did you understand him to mean that the changes he suggested were made before the CX-5 went into production in 2012 or that these were running changes made sometime after the vehicle was introduced? Reason I ask is because there have been rumors on the internet lately that some changes have been made to the car's suspension in the last six months or so. Thanks.


Here's what Dave just said:
Have no fear, that particular adventure was early in development when we were just driving mechanical prototypes. Handling was so good by the time we hit production that we actually introduced the thing at Mazda Raceway (you know I have to, Mark...) Though it seemed like a ridiculous place to show off an SUV, the CX-5's lap times were actually better than the contemporary Mazda3 with the same engine in it!

Your reader heard right, though. We did make some recent running changes to the suspension tuning to maintain the handling when the body stiffness changed due to some tweaks to the body structure for the new offset frontal crash test (the test was introduced after we started building the car or else we would have done this from the start.


Thought many of you would enjoy this little insight into the historical and ongoing development of our cars.
 
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Thanks for that! Nice to be kept abreast.

The logical deduction is that the suspension was slightly softened to compensate for the stiffer chassis.
 
Thanks for that! Nice to be kept abreast.

The logical deduction is that the suspension was slightly softened to compensate for the stiffer chassis.
Thats my take away too. I was surprised to read the CX-5 with a higher center of gravity corners better than the Mazda 3 with the same engine. Mazda nailed the suspension.
 
Thats my take away too. I was surprised to read the CX-5 with a higher center of gravity corners better than the Mazda 3 with the same engine. Mazda nailed the suspension.
That's the last generation 3 he's referring to remember.
 
I don't see why a slight increase in body rigidity would necessitate a change in suspension. We really don't don't know what changes there were, could be something as simple as a durometer change in the bushings.
In one of the dealer sheets for UK cx5's, it mentioned suspension changes for '15 and that was after '14.
 
I'd like that Head of Product Excellence to chime in on the crappy USB/iPod interface issue.
 
I don't see why a slight increase in body rigidity would necessitate a change in suspension. We really don't don't know what changes there were, could be something as simple as a durometer change in the bushings.

A softer "rubber" in a suspension bushing would qualify (to my way of thinking anyway) as a softer suspension.

And that may have been all that was necessary.
 
I don't see why a slight increase in body rigidity would necessitate a change in suspension. We really don't don't know what changes there were, could be something as simple as a durometer change in the bushings.
In one of the dealer sheets for UK cx5's, it mentioned suspension changes for '15 and that was after '14.

Well, I would suspect that vibration (mainly) and noise would/could increase from a change like this so they change something to make up for it. Probably a rubber part like Michael said.

That's the last generation 3 he's referring to remember.
True, still impressive though.
Thats my take away too. I was surprised to read the CX-5 with a higher center of gravity corners better than the Mazda 3 with the same engine. Mazda nailed the suspension.

Yea, and it's amazing what a slight drop, and a stiffer rear sway bar will do (not to mention chassis reinforcement bars); especially on an AWD model. Power on torque vectoring through turns is always fun.

Thanks for that! Nice to be kept abreast.

The logical deduction is that the suspension was slightly softened to compensate for the stiffer chassis.

I like breast
 
Good info in that article, thanks.

The stiffer chassis maybe allows same level of handling with slightly softer suspension settings. I'm guessing intention was slight improvement in ride comfort.
 
I'm only hypothesizing that they changed the bushings. I doubt that you'd feel a difference with a change in durameter, but softer bushings will hurt handling.
 

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