New 5 owner

[lindsayt]

Hi all, my wife and I bought a new m/t Mazda 5 Sport in the middle of December after our old car got smashed up by an inattentive driver. Bad circumstances, but we'd been eyeing a 5 for a couple years so that part was good.

Anyway, my wife and I are committed to manual transmissions, I wanted a compact vehicle and she wanted more seating capacity, so the 5 was chosen from a field of... exactly one vehicle that met all those specs. We're very happy so far, 1800 miles and my only gripe is with the fuel economy, but I'm used to motorcycles, scooters, and a Hyundai Elantra, so we were bound to find this a guzzler in comparison.

I'm active on forums about motorcycles, scooters, architecture, transit, technology, and (until last month) Hyundai Elantras so hope to find an active community here. Thanks! Oh, and a photo to get started:

 

[1WICKED6]

You'll love the versatility of this vehicle. I've had mine since May 09 and best vehicle I've ever owned...a little noisy on the highway but yeah well...Just wish it were 5 speed. Enjoy your 5!

 

[coolmazda5]

Anyway, my wife and I are committed to manual transmissions, I wanted a compact vehicle and she wanted more seating capacity, so the 5 was chosen from a field of... exactly one vehicle that met all those specs.

Sounds familiar: both like manual tranny, plus the seating capacity, compact vehicle... and we ended up with 2

welcome to the forums!

 

[sethro_GT]

Welcome and glad to see another 5 owner. Sorry to hear about your disappointment with mpg. Best we've done is 30 with our 07 sport auto, averages around 25 typically.

 

[AIMWO4]

Enjoy! I got 24.81 mpg in 2008, and 25.79 in 2009. My commute is 2.3 miles though. I managed 3 tanks of 30+ during 2009 when I had to commute 40 miles, so it is possible to excel.

 

[ZOOMit]

Mazda's are geared pretty high in my opinion. In the sense that, on the hwy the rpms are higher than they should be. My old P5 was great for carving thru the mountains but hwy wasnt so good. Looks like that carried over to other Mazda's...I really like the 5's, especially in higher trim level.

Welcome and enjoy your Mazda!

 

[thaxman]

Mazda's are geared pretty high in my opinion. In the sense that, on the hwy the rpms are higher than they should be. My old P5 was great for carving thru the mountains but hwy wasnt so good. Looks like that carried over to other Mazda's...I really like the 5's, especially in higher trim level.

Welcome and enjoy your Mazda!

Yeah - don't exceed 75!! Even then your eyeballs will pop out when you look at the tach. Our most common road trip involved Yuma, AZ, and all roads to Yuma make you want to either: drive 115 mph, or gouge you eyes out! We typically exceed the speed limit, returning less than desireable mpgs (comparable with city mpgs)

 

[thaxman]

drive 115 mph, or gouge you eyes out! We typically exceed the speed limit,

This is NOT an admission of guilt! Those kind of speeds with 3 kids in the car = (screwy)

 

[lindsayt]

Funny talk about the revs. Riding on two wheels a lot, my 790cc motorcycle turns about 4000rpm at 75mph and my 150cc scooter turns 6500rpm at 60mph; I've run the motorcycle at 80mph all day for a 700-mile day once and every year a group of my friends and I ride our scooters to the Canadian border maintaining 55 mph all day. The end result is that even a "high-revving" car like the 5 doesn't seem to rev that high to me. Just about any gasoline engine only begins to wake up at ~3500rpm, and although I know it's not the best for economy, I like keeping an engine where it actually makes some power. Still, a sixth gear for the super slab would be a nice fuel-saving measure on this car.

 

[lindsayt]

Took my 5 in to get its foglights installed last night, and they gave me a 2006 MPV LX as the loaner while they do the work. Wow, they should have every potential 5 purchaser drive an MPV first, I bet it would really increase the 5 sales. I don't want to say the MPV is *bad* - that's not entirely true. It's just that it wallows in the corners, it provides no feedback to the driver, it's unnecessarily big, it doesn't track nearly as well - in a word, it's a minivan. My five-year-old daughter asked me why I was making the car lean over so much in the corners!

The MPV is certainly no worse than my parents' Grand Caravan of the same year, but it really drives home what a unique vehicle the 5 is - nimble, responsive, lean, and engaging compared to anything else with sliding doors. Coming from small cars and a vow to never buy a minivan, I was surprised at how much I enjoy driving the 5, but it still didn't really strike me that it actually engages the driver; in contrast to an actual minivan, it's striking. The 5 might as well be a roadster compared to the MPV.

Again, it's not to say the MPV is a bad car; it's just a very traditionally-conceived big, wallowy van. Driving that makes it clear that the 5 is more a "sport wagon" with sliding doors.

By the way, I wanted to take a 2007 Mazda6 for the rental; my wife and daughter wanted the MPV. I'm glad I took it - the Mazda6 would have just reminded me that I like cars better...

 

[coolmazda5]

Took my 5 in to get its foglights installed last night, and they gave me a 2006 MPV LX as the loaner while they do the work

I got one as a loaner for 6 weeks when the exhaust recall hit my 06 (5 week old car, arrgh). It was nice and comfy, I used it to buy a lot of big things, travel long distances (mileage, hmmm who cared?) but boy, it really made me miss my car , especially the Manual Tranny and the fun-to-drive part

 

[sethro_GT]

Who says an MPV isn't fun to drive? I had one as a rental in Austin and did some power slides on dry pavement into the hotel parking lot. My co-workers were screaming like girls. HA HA! it was awesome.

 

[lindsayt]

That *is* awesome! I'd just hate to be the poor soccer mom who next rents that MPV

 

[coolmazda5]

Who says an MPV isn't fun to drive? I had one as a rental in Austin and did some power slides on dry pavement into the hotel parking lot. My co-workers were screaming like girls. HA HA! it was awesome.

Hmmmm, we did not try that (boom06)

 

[ms6acton]

welcome!!

 

[mpvue]

Mazda's are geared pretty high in my opinion. In the sense that, on the hwy the rpms are higher than they should be.

you mean they are geared 'low'; lower gears are higher numerically gears. the 5 speed M5 turns about 3500rpm @ 75mph. not really that high, compared to some others (IIRC my VUE was turning around 4K)
small engines need to spin higher to make power. really, the 2.3 is not straining at higher rpms, it's just getting going!

 

[lindsayt]

Got the foglights and the homelink mirror today and was really glad to get the 5 back - what a great car, so much nicer than the MPV! I was glad to find out the added foglights have the switch on the light stalk just like if the foglights came from the factory, and the mirror is cooler than I would have expected - the homelink was quick and easy, but the autodimming works much better than I thought it would. Very nice! We love our car!

 

[ZOOMit]

you mean they are geared 'low'; lower gears are higher numerically gears. the 5 speed M5 turns about 3500rpm @ 75mph. not really that high, compared to some others (IIRC my VUE was turning around 4K)
small engines need to spin higher to make power. really, the 2.3 is not straining at higher rpms, it's just getting going!

My 2.4L Honda runs 2500rpm @ 75 (2thumbs)

 

[coolmazda5]

My 2.4L Honda runs 2500rpm @ 75 (2thumbs)

I've rented Mazda3s and Mazda6s a couple of times and the RPMs were lower than the Mazda5 at cruise speed, but somewhere in this forum we concluded that the Mazda5 is geared like that so to be able to haul the extra weight it has.

I actually like that, the car it is quite peppy at any speed, no annoying need to downshift/upshift often, specially when passing or going uphill (I also owned a Honda Civic 5MT for 6-7 years)

As one article once said: The Mazda5 is not fast, but it certainly feels fast, LOL