M5s marketed incorrectly?
- Thread starter ChEPhD
- Start date
socialcarpet
Banned
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- 2014 Mazda5 Sport 6 speed manual
Too late now I'm afraid. Mazda is discontinuing it next year. I don't feel like it got a fair chance. They could have redesigned it to make it look a bit more like a sporty wagon with a Kodo front end and the 2.5 Skyactiv motor and it would have been much more competitive.
Sadly we're expected to accept the CX-5 as a substitute. The CX-5 is a really nice vehicle, in fact it's what got me into the Mazda showroom, but after driving a 5 and seeing how much better it handles than the CX-5, how much more comfortable it was, how much more useful the interior is, how much quicker off the line the 2.5 MZR is versus the 2.0 Skyactiv... well there was no way I was buying a CX-5 after that.
I don't think of it as a van at all really. It's a high roofed Mazda 3 station wagon. I'm sad to see the 5 go, but if Mazda would just bring a 3 or a 6 with proper wagon length and room and a manual transmission, I will be happy and that will probably be the next car I will buy after the 5. But an SUV isn't going to cut it. I care more about handling and practicality than being cool and trendy. If they can make the interior of the CX-5 as comfortable and roomy as the 5 and make it handle like a 5 and put the 2.5 in it with a manual THEN I'd be interested, but until then, I'll pass.
Glad I bought a 5 while I still could!socialcarpet
Banned
- :
- 2014 Mazda5 Sport 6 speed manual
So true. I'm a single guy and I don't give a crap what anyone thinks about me driving a microvan or a mini wagon or a... whatever this thing is. I picked the car that drove the best and had the highest number of the qualities I was looking for. How sexy and cool a car looks is like item number 427 on my list of important things about a car I buy.
socialcarpet
Banned
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- 2014 Mazda5 Sport 6 speed manual
Yup. I have weird ideas about what's cool to me.
The 5 is so uncool that it's cool IMO.
Anyone can go buy a Dodge Challenger and drive around like a posturing rooster. It takes a real man to drive a mini-mini van and give zero f***s what anyone thinks about it. LOL
Once I had my 3rd kid I had to go with the Odyssey for longer trips. Around the town I try to use the 5 when the whole family is in the car, but my kids are getting too big to get to the back seats. Oddly enough one of my mother's daily drivers growing up was a 72'Camaro with a family of 4. That was an uncomfortable squeeze getting into that back seat.
2007, the tranny sucks. It shifts into overdrive at such a low rpm that the van makes a noticeable noise and vibration . We have had it at the dealership more times than I can count, basically they told me to live with it. It is my wife's car primarily, when I drive it I turn the stereo up to ignore it. I also owned a Honda fit and loved it, the car was tight for what it was. The minivan has a few rattles that I find unacceptable.
Right now it is the most practical vehicle for the family and our lifestyle. My wife had a Jeep Cherokee, and would like another when the kids grow up.
Right now it is the most practical vehicle for the family and our lifestyle. My wife had a Jeep Cherokee, and would like another when the kids grow up.
I forget sometimes that we grew up in another world
That was before car seats and 3 point belts
rodslinger
Member
Mazda5 marketed incorrectly?
How about never marketed at all. I don't recall seeing any magazine or TV adverts for them. I think I originally learned about them from getting one as a rental in Florida back in 2006.
How about never marketed at all. I don't recall seeing any magazine or TV adverts for them. I think I originally learned about them from getting one as a rental in Florida back in 2006.
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- 2015 Soul Red 6 Sport Auto 2016 Accord EX Auto
Our '05 Oddy Touring had cylinder deactivation, and when this happened at low RPM and light load it created a resonance that was offset by speakers in the rear of the vehicle. This system failed on ours briefy, causing me to think an exhaust gasket was leaking causing the booming resonance. We got rid of ours in the first year due to several issues related to being a first model year product so no feedback here on the trans. I had bought several Hondas new in the first model year before that without issues.
Too bad the MZ5 had zero marketing budget, in my area at least. At one of the gyms the kids go to the parking lot is kind of tight, causing people to have to get help from outside in pulling out of parking spots, while my wife just zips around them doing their 7-point turns. This would make a good commercial for the MZ5.
Too bad the MZ5 had zero marketing budget, in my area at least. At one of the gyms the kids go to the parking lot is kind of tight, causing people to have to get help from outside in pulling out of parking spots, while my wife just zips around them doing their 7-point turns. This would make a good commercial for the MZ5.
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socialcarpet
Banned
- :
- 2014 Mazda5 Sport 6 speed manual
Yep, the only reason I really knew anything about them is that I'm a car nut so I know something about every car on the road. When I am going to buy a new car, it begins as a vast 6 month research process with me poring over tiny inane details like wheelbase, rear shoulder room, lbs ft of torque per lb of curb weight etc. I'm exhaustively comparing pros and cons of all the vehicles I'm considering like Rain Man for 4-5 months haha.
The 5 sold itself to me though. All I had to do was drive it. Within the first 5 minutes of the first test drive, I knew it was at the top of my short list. It's definitely true though that Mazda barely made and effort to promote it in the U.S. I've never in my life seen a Mazda 5 commercial air here and I think I saw perhaps ONE magazine ad and it was years ago and for the older body style. I noticed that Mazda was more ambitious about advertising it in Canada and in the JDM though. If you Google "Mazda5 commercial" you'll come up with at least 3 Canadian commercials. It seems like Canadians are more pragmatic and less image conscious and concerned about keeping up with the Joneses than Americans. They also have more European sensibilities when it comes to cars. They buy more Mazda5's per capita. They buy more manual transmissions. They buy more hatchbacks. It makes me want to move to Canada. (sssh)
Again, it was probably inevitable that it was going to get overtaken by the more fashionable SUV's, but I still think there is a sufficient market for a sporty wagon type vehicle that Mazda could exploit it. Volkswagen manages to sell a fair number of Jetta Sportwagens. Mercedes, BMW, VW/Audi and Volvo all still sell traditional wagons. There are people in this country who still want small, sporty wagons and it's an underserved segment IMO. I don't know about you guys, but I didn't buy the 5 because I wanted a minivan. I bought it because I wanted a sporty wagon with a manual transmission and I recognize it for what it actually is, a Mazda 3 wagon. If the styling was too...domestic, then Mazda should sex it up a bit. Take the Mazda3 hatch if you want and make it 2 feet longer. I'd would have bought THAT in a heartbeat as long as it had a manual transmission option. I don't know what Mazda's focus groups say, but I still feel like with the 5 gone, there's still enough room for a 3 or 6 wagon in the lineup. The kind of people who buy Mazdas are mostly the kind of people who buy Volkswagens, Subaru's, Volvos, BMWs... that is they aren't into the same old vanilla appliance cars. I'd like to think that, as a group, most of us are savvy enough to see the benefits of a sporty wagon and to be interested in one instead of caught up in the superficial notion that station wagons are stodgy and uncool. Not everyone wants to accept the compromises inherent in choosing an SUV when they know they are not likely to ever need the ground clearance.
I believe those are CUV. I was shopping for a Land Cruiser today for our winter property. The LC and the 4 Runner had plenty of ground clearance.
