Hey guys, been perusing your forum for a few days since I got my CX-5 on Saturday. I've never owned a Mazda before, however my parents have a 2011 MX-5 and a 2014(or 15?) Mazda3.
I come from a long list of Cadillacs (DeVille, STS, CTS), Infiniti, and two BMW 5 series (528i, 550i). Wife currently has a 2014 Kia Sorento which has served us very well. My last car was the 2008 BMW 550i.
Big change coming from a powerful gas guzzling sedan to a gas sipping mini sport-ute. Why you ask? There are a few reasons, but almost all of them fall under: Money.
The BMW was awesome - fast, the most comfortable seats I've ever sat in, and well handling. But the negatives were creeping up quickly. It was getting old, was way out of warranty, and gas isn't cheap.
My dad has worked for Mazda twice now selling cars and I figured I would come back home and get a car from him. I drove the CX9 before, and we have the Sorento already - no need for a full sized boat of an SUV. I drove the Mazda3 and it felt really dinky, noisy, and just not worth $27k. It handled superbly and got great gas mileage though. The Mazda6 was kind of mushy, I was surprised. It looked amazing though! We tested a used 2015 Soul Red Grand Touring without the Tech Package (whatever comes with HID headlamps). It's funny, we tested one last year and it didn't seem very big. We have a car seat for my 20 month toddler so back seat room was a big deal. This time it seemed fine since 90% of the time it's just me and my daughter mainly. I also haul a lot of servers back and forth, so an SUV makes sense. The CX5 handled well, had decent power (3400-3500lbs helps eh?), and got 32mpg on the short test drive. Impressive. The only, and I mean only requirement I had was that any car I purchase have stock HID BiXenon headlamps. I hate hate hate halogens, and I can't stand retrofitting HID lamps as they are never remotely of the same quality or beam pattern. Unfortunately for me, to get the HID package I had to get the Grand Touring (I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing). We ran the lot for an hour finding which ones had it (you can see a chrome ring around the headlight projector for HID, no chrome for halogen) in 102F weather. I found a Black Mica fully loaded unit and drove it. When my dad drove it around it had the weird J-gate shifter and I remembered the Soul Red one having a normal shifter. Turns out he drove a 2014 around, lol. He found a 2015 and we went with that. Got it for E-rate with 0% financing.
It was a bit more than I wanted to spend, but I figure it this way:
I can now use normal gas - $3.20 vs $4.00 - 20% savings on gas cost alone. The 550i loved premium, and loved to gulp it excessively.
I already am getting 32-34mpg the past 3 days vs 17-18mpg in the 550i. That's a 200% increase in MPG, or 50% reduction in fuel consumption. I'm about 85% highway, 15% city.
I get paid mileage about $.60/mile so each month's gas check will pay all of gas and probably half the car note. Before it barely covered gas.
Insurance should drop about 20% from the BMW to this car.
On weekends we'll take the CX5 instead of the Sorento, saving about 12mpgs.
Did I mention 5 star crash rating?
Oh and a full warranty, with less likelihood of major repairs. I mean... BMW=break my wallet, Mazda = almost 100% Japanese made. I just got lucky with the BMW and didn't have huge repairs @ 90,000 miles.
All in all, in a year the car should cost literally 80% less to own, and 100% less worry
It looks good, too!
Driving it thus far I like how sporty it is. It's 2.1s slower to 60 than the BMW, and I will be honest in that I used the full acceleration quite often in that car. It's time to get older, wiser, and spending my money in more efficient ways with the family in tow. I don't have any plans on doing anything it yet, but who knows. The BMW had a Magnaflow exhaust, but then again it was a v8 and it made a difference. I think I will do the OEM options.
I ordered the cargo cover today ($180 ouch - was free on the Sorento), and the rear bumper protector. I want the door sills, LED interior lighting, and maybe roof racks sometime. I saw a weird "OEM" front skid plate with LED DRLs, but I'm not sure if it's actually OEM. Does anyone know? I do like what I saw on this site - someone posted the CX5 lowered a little bit with all black on black rims that looked quite sleek. I don't want a huge drop, but I dislike the gigantic wheel gap.
Anyways, I'm glad to be on the forum, and hope to learn from all the Mazda owners. My friend has 5 RX7s and an RX8 sitting in his garage, so I've talked Mazda long before I was here. It's just different when you're an owner.
-Tuan
I come from a long list of Cadillacs (DeVille, STS, CTS), Infiniti, and two BMW 5 series (528i, 550i). Wife currently has a 2014 Kia Sorento which has served us very well. My last car was the 2008 BMW 550i.
Big change coming from a powerful gas guzzling sedan to a gas sipping mini sport-ute. Why you ask? There are a few reasons, but almost all of them fall under: Money.
The BMW was awesome - fast, the most comfortable seats I've ever sat in, and well handling. But the negatives were creeping up quickly. It was getting old, was way out of warranty, and gas isn't cheap.
My dad has worked for Mazda twice now selling cars and I figured I would come back home and get a car from him. I drove the CX9 before, and we have the Sorento already - no need for a full sized boat of an SUV. I drove the Mazda3 and it felt really dinky, noisy, and just not worth $27k. It handled superbly and got great gas mileage though. The Mazda6 was kind of mushy, I was surprised. It looked amazing though! We tested a used 2015 Soul Red Grand Touring without the Tech Package (whatever comes with HID headlamps). It's funny, we tested one last year and it didn't seem very big. We have a car seat for my 20 month toddler so back seat room was a big deal. This time it seemed fine since 90% of the time it's just me and my daughter mainly. I also haul a lot of servers back and forth, so an SUV makes sense. The CX5 handled well, had decent power (3400-3500lbs helps eh?), and got 32mpg on the short test drive. Impressive. The only, and I mean only requirement I had was that any car I purchase have stock HID BiXenon headlamps. I hate hate hate halogens, and I can't stand retrofitting HID lamps as they are never remotely of the same quality or beam pattern. Unfortunately for me, to get the HID package I had to get the Grand Touring (I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing). We ran the lot for an hour finding which ones had it (you can see a chrome ring around the headlight projector for HID, no chrome for halogen) in 102F weather. I found a Black Mica fully loaded unit and drove it. When my dad drove it around it had the weird J-gate shifter and I remembered the Soul Red one having a normal shifter. Turns out he drove a 2014 around, lol. He found a 2015 and we went with that. Got it for E-rate with 0% financing.
It was a bit more than I wanted to spend, but I figure it this way:
I can now use normal gas - $3.20 vs $4.00 - 20% savings on gas cost alone. The 550i loved premium, and loved to gulp it excessively.
I already am getting 32-34mpg the past 3 days vs 17-18mpg in the 550i. That's a 200% increase in MPG, or 50% reduction in fuel consumption. I'm about 85% highway, 15% city.
I get paid mileage about $.60/mile so each month's gas check will pay all of gas and probably half the car note. Before it barely covered gas.
Insurance should drop about 20% from the BMW to this car.
On weekends we'll take the CX5 instead of the Sorento, saving about 12mpgs.
Did I mention 5 star crash rating?
Oh and a full warranty, with less likelihood of major repairs. I mean... BMW=break my wallet, Mazda = almost 100% Japanese made. I just got lucky with the BMW and didn't have huge repairs @ 90,000 miles.
All in all, in a year the car should cost literally 80% less to own, and 100% less worry
It looks good, too!Driving it thus far I like how sporty it is. It's 2.1s slower to 60 than the BMW, and I will be honest in that I used the full acceleration quite often in that car. It's time to get older, wiser, and spending my money in more efficient ways with the family in tow. I don't have any plans on doing anything it yet, but who knows. The BMW had a Magnaflow exhaust, but then again it was a v8 and it made a difference. I think I will do the OEM options.
I ordered the cargo cover today ($180 ouch - was free on the Sorento), and the rear bumper protector. I want the door sills, LED interior lighting, and maybe roof racks sometime. I saw a weird "OEM" front skid plate with LED DRLs, but I'm not sure if it's actually OEM. Does anyone know? I do like what I saw on this site - someone posted the CX5 lowered a little bit with all black on black rims that looked quite sleek. I don't want a huge drop, but I dislike the gigantic wheel gap.
Anyways, I'm glad to be on the forum, and hope to learn from all the Mazda owners. My friend has 5 RX7s and an RX8 sitting in his garage, so I've talked Mazda long before I was here. It's just different when you're an owner.
-Tuan
