New '12 owner: Been a father for a while, but today I'm a DAD (w/1st drive review)

[JingChuan]

WARNING: EXTREMELY VERBOSE

Yep, after months of poring over data, test drives, reviews, and web forums (thanks everyone here!) I finally did it. I traded my monster of a '08 Mazdaspeed3, and my somewhat more civil but still pretty fast '06 APR-chipped turbo Jetta for a 2012 MZ5 GT, liquid silver, black leather (they threw in some cash too). I'm no longer a guy who happens to have kids, but does his own thing - I'm a DAD with a (sort of) minivan! I'll be honest, I do miss the crazy power of the 'speed (I may have enhanced the power a bit ), but it is more rewarding for me to see how well the family-friendly 5 fits for us. We have two kids (3 and almost 5) and they already love the enhancements of the 5 vs the Jetta. They love the sliding doors, the elevated seating, and the option of middle or back seat - depending on where we put the car seats, of course. They are also stoked that we can pick up grandma and grandpa, cousins, friends, etc. when we all go out, as opposed to taking 2 cars. I like that too. Of course, this is mom's car (I still have my pickup truck) and her opinion was paramount in this purchase too. She *never* used the power that Jetta had, so she can't tell the difference between 157hp/163tq and ~252hp/303tq (APR stage1).

We just picked it up last night, so sorry for the dark pictures. I had visited a few Mazda dealers here around Chicago (yes, we have options) and I was getting called regularly about making a deal happen. Last night, I decided to stop thinking about it and just do it - yeah, the 5 isn't anywhere near as fast as either of the other two cars, but it's also brand new and isn't having the out-of-warranty issues that the other cars are having. I drove to the place I did because of an odd set of circumstances: I've never been a big fan of the look of the new 5, but I really liked the picture ErikO posted and figured that if we got one of these microvans, it would have to be in silver. Shockingly, this was one color topic that art-school-mom and color-clueless-dad actually agreed on. Of course, I never saw a silver in person, and none of the dealers I wanted to work with had one. On my way to work yesterday, I merged onto the expressway in back of - you guessed it - a new silver 5. Interesting. So at work, I checked all the local dealers' inventory online, and no one had a silver. Gray would have been good too, except for the "sand" interior. Our Jetta had tan leather interior, and I learned my lesson. Anyway, just for the heck of it, I called back on one of the numerous salesman messages that was waiting in voice mail. I was totally non-commital, but casually asked the question about inventory that I already new. As I thought, he said there were two GTs in stock: a black/black and a gray/sand. "Oh wait, we are unloading some cars off the truck, let's see if there are any more." Wait. Wait. "Oh, we just got a silver/black."

Is that coincidence or fate? I assumed fate, so I loaded up the stock wheels into the back of the 'speed and headed to the dealer. A couple hours later, we're 2 cars gone and driving home in a mini-minivan, looking at the odometer, after my 2.7 mile test drive...

We're all loaded up with our junk from two other cars, and two past-their-bedtime kids, so I wasn't exactly looking for the zoom-zoom, but I was able to make a few observations. My closest frame of reference to the 5 was obviously the 'speed3. Of course, there is no power comparison, but that is a given. The 'speed was not exactly quiet, but I noticed more driving noise in the 5. Wind, road, tire, whatever, the 5 definitely lets in more noise than the 3 did. The seats of course are different, as the 3 seats were very track-day-friendly. I know from experience I never had a problem on road trips, but it was more difficult to stretch out in the passenger seat. I don't see that as much of an issue in the 5. Still - what is up with those headrests? Funky angle, eh? Windshield wipers - why no rain sensing wipers? Or do I need to read the manual? The 3 had them, and I actually liked them for the light misty rain (like last night). As far as I could tell, the 5 only has that super hi-tech variable speed wiper. Wow! Welcome to the 70's! Ok, not a big deal, I'm just surprised my '08 Mazda had them, but my '12 Mazda does not. And the lowest speed on the variable? Definitely too fast. The stereo is not quite as good as the Bose in the 'speed, but it's not as bad as I've been led to believe. It is certainly missing some punch and resolution, but I'm not looking for "competition quality" anyway. It sounds fine. If I need audiophile sound, I've got a nice set up at home. Of course, I'm driving a rough, noisy, oversprung Toyota TRD truck anyway. Nothing sounds good in there... (shrug) Ok, what is the deal with that antenna? Really, off to the right side? Why?? Seriously, put it in the middle, eh? It looks silly. And then there is the smile. For some reason, it looks so much more obvious in pictures than in person. It's actually not as bad as I thought.

It's more of an evil Pokemon kind of smile - which I can live with. And as someone on this forum pointed out, who cares about the outside when you are really going to dig the inside. I can see that happening. I can't say how awesome having the option to pick up a couple extra people when necessary is going to be. Considering that her parents are coming here for a month from overseas, and shortly after they leave, we are hosting an exchange student, I can see the 5 working out well. Exterior size wise, we are both pleasantly surprised. The Taco and the 5 take up less room in our cramped city garage than the Jetta did. And the sliding doors... ah, yes, the sliding doors. As you folks with little kids know, those doors are an absolute godsend. We love 'em.

I'm anxiously looking forward to the mpg results. I've kept a spreadsheet of all fillups on all my cars since the early 90's and of course, there will be one for the 5. I know one trip is nothing to judge mileage by, but I reset the computer anyway and checked the mostly highway mpg after we got home from our 27 mile ride home... 32.7mpg. I can live with that. It's no Skyactiv number, but it ain't bad. In my experience with the 3, the computer was generally 2mpg generous with average. My hand calculations showed consistently 2 mpg less than the display. Still, the engine has to break in and the mileage always gets better. I think.

Anyway, I'm glad to be part of the 5 crowd now. This makes a lot more sense for us in the city, than the Jetta + the speed + the Taco. Sorry again for the verbosity, I'm just feeling all chatty with the new car and all...

 

[dieseldriver]

I thought you alread had the 5 all this time?? But I guess "congrats" Silver looks really eloquent, one of my favorite colors. I had lots of silver cars in the past, even a 2002 VW Eurovan MV in silver. You and the family will enjoy the 5 for sure. I really love mine, it seems as it's nearing the 10K mark, it's driving even better. I know what you mean about Speed3 and APR chipped Jetta. I've had both cars too and I really like to eventually own a Speed3 as a weekend car and not as a daily driver. I've crossed the VW's off my list for now as a potential future car purchases due to nightmares I've had with the last one. Anyway, welcome to the 5 family!

 

[torquelover]

Your MZ5 is supposed to have rain-sensing wipers. The GT we test drove did, but the salesperson did say that the 6-Disc changer might be getting quietly deleted as everyone seemed to use the BT or line-in aux anyway, so maybe the rain-sensing feature has been deleted, too? Your car being fresh off the truck would have the most recent equipment roster I imagine. Silver does look good on these, but since our Town and Country is silver we didn't mind going with the Clearwater Blue. Still black interior for the kiddies, too. You shopped a lot of dealers it sounds like. The one you bought from and the one in Schaumburg seemed to have the lowest prices and best inventory but we found a dealer in IN that blew them both out of the water on price, so we got lucky. The antenna is offset so that if you run the roof rack with crossbars and want to transport skis, kayak, bike, etc it's not in the way. The wind noise is pretty pronounced in these, especially with the windy days we've had lately out here. The stereo is not too bad unless your other two vehicles have very good sounding stereos as I have which makes it more pronounced. This is my wife's primary as it is yours and she's fine with it so it stays stock for now. Almost went with a Focal component set up front and an Infinity Basslink but the idea was nixed.

That's really good gas mileage. Ours started out at 20 MPG city and has gone up a few clicks after 1k miles of break in, getting us to 23 MPG city. Only one highway run in it 3 adults 2 kids no luggage and we ended up around 26 so you're doing great so far. Check your tire pressures, BTW. Ours was delivered low, 30 PSI all around.

 

[90210]

Nice car. We have gotten 27-29MPG over the 8800 miles we have on ours. Ours is a touring model--so no rain sensing wipers. Plus I live in So Cal..and out of 8 cars and 4 motorcycles we have, they have NEVER gotten wet in rain. Out of the 10 days it rains a year, we don't take our cars/bikes out, so they stay garaged and pristine.

We have one kid--so he sits in middle row.

Curious..if you put kids in third row like you said--is another adult able to sit next to them in the 3rd row next to a car seat?

 

[fitzski]

Curious..if you put kids in third row like you said--is another adult able to sit next to them in the 3rd row next to a car seat?

Yes... Did this on the weekend; had my sister sitting in the 3rd row beside my 4-year old in his Graco Nautilus. Width is not the issue - legroom is the issue, for all 3 rows (especially with driver at ~6'). In front of my sister was my 2-year old in a First Years True Fit, behind the driver. All 3 of us have to compromise on legroom to fit; my sister basically sat twisted, with her feet in between the 2nd row seats. Of course, with both 3rd row seats in use, there is only luggage space enough to leave you in envy of a Miata trunk.

But, 6 of us made an hour long trip, in one vehicle where it would have otherwise been two (or more likely wouldn't have happened at all). Car drove comfortably; so far, I've not noticed the surplus of road & wind noise that others have commented on.

My GT has rain sensing wipers... and they cannot be made to work in alignment with how I think they should work for the current conditions (as is my experience with auto wipers in my other vehicles). At all times, they are just too sensitive, and they cannot be configured with a long enough interval. I don't use the auto setting in my other car, and I won't be using it in the Mz5, either. <harumph!>

Congrats on the vehicle; best of luck with it!

 

[Nurburgringer]

Congrats!

I agree with the others, that mpg is almost too good to be true. I'm using an E-Scan gauge backed up with gas receipts and on long trips, unloaded, mostly at a steady 70mph and the best my 6sp M5 can do is ~27-28mpg.
You should notice more torque as the engine breaks in, I sure did starting around 3-5k miles.

best of luck!

 

[ErikO]

Congrats, glad I could be of service! I'll post up more pictures this summer.

For what it's worth, my wife hates the headrests as well, as she is really short and can't sleep comfortably (when riding as a passenger, of course). I wish our 5 didn't have the rain sensing wipers, though. I hate them with a burning passion. they never seem to go at the correct speed, regardless of where I set the sensitivity.

That's really my only personal complaint. The road noise and stereo quality are things that I accept given that it's a cheap vehicle with lots of space. They had to cut cost somewhere in order to deliver the car with such awesome value.

Enjoy your 5! I hope you have many happy miles in it.

 

[JingChuan]

We took advantage of 5's seating arrangement for the first time this weekend. We live in the city and had a birthday event for my 3 year old daughter out in the burbs. Her (rather large) godfather came in for the weekend, and we all piled into the 5 for the trip out to the burbs. The arrangement was dad and goddad in the fronts, 3 year old and 5 year old buckled into their Gracos in row 2, mom (5'4", 115lb) in row 3 with one seat down for the load of gifts we'd be bringing back.

It was relatively snug, i.e., this isn't our old '77 Caprice Classic family truckster, but once we were all seated, it was pretty comfy. The footwell for the front seat passenger does go surprisingly deep into the firewall, so there is some stretch room for longer legs. With car seats mounted into row 2, it can be challenging to get back into the 3rd row - skinny, limber folks only. The trip was only 30-45 min, so I can't say whether or not this arrangement would have worked for a long trip. I was able to talk to mom in the 3rd row, but I think we were right at the limit of clear communication. There is still a fair amount of road/wind/tire noise at the 65mph speed we maintained most of the time. I have a slight suspicion that one of the sliding doors wasn't closed all the way, but I can't be sure. I sort of zoned it out, and didn't think about it if it was there on the ride home. While I wasn't getting on it by any means, I don't recall wanting for extra power at any time on the round trip ride. Having kids in the car tends to mellow us more aggressive drivers, and considering I've been driving an underpowered, overconsuming, tall pickup truck most of the time anyway, I'm pretty used to going easy on the skinny pedal. Nevertheless, I never had to floor it to merge, pass, etc., which leads me to be confident that the 2.5 is sufficient for the car's needs. The kids definitely appreciate the higher seating position - they can actually see what is going on outside. My son couldn't stop commenting on what he could see. "Hey dad! Look at the plane!" "Hey dad! Look at the building!" "Hey dad! Look at the babe in the car next to us!" Or something like that. The average mpg said 22.7 or so after the trip. i expected a bit more, although that still includes mpg which comes from its primary use, which is short, cold, stop and go city jaunts. I don't exactly know what it got on the highway leg.

Regarding the headrests - has anyone thought to switch the 1st row and 2nd row headrests? I just thought of this now, but our 2nd row headrests aren't used anyway - not with the kid seats in those locations. I may try that when I get home.
EDIT: The distance between the two posts is different for the first row and second row headrests, so, no, they're not interchangeable.

And a question about the dome lights. Do any lights turn on in front when the door is opened? I only saw that back seat lights light up. If I remember correctly, the front lights only had "ON" and "OFF" positions - no "DOOR" position. Of course, I haven't looked at the owners manual yet though.
EDIT: ON=On when door is open. Duh.

 

[1987cp]

the salesperson did say that the 6-Disc changer might be getting quietly deleted as everyone seemed to use the BT or line-in aux anyway,

People must be waaaay to high-tech for their own good these days. (scratch) Lolzorz.

 

[JingChuan]

People must be waaaay to high-tech for their own good these days. (scratch) Lolzorz.

Then there was a salesman that I almost bought a 5 from; he said that the 5 didn't have a USB port because Mazda recognized that USB jacks were too fragile and would break too often, causing too many warranty issues. The salesman could verify this because he himself broke a number of USB plugs in his various phones.

Naturally, I checked out the input in the new CX5 and it has - that's right - a USB port.

Moral of the story is, the salespeople generally don't know jack about the cars they're trying to sell.

 

[manualist]

Moral of the story is, the salespeople generally don't know jack about the cars they're trying to sell.

I don't think that's the moral of the story at all. The immoral of the story is that car salespeople deliberately bulls*** you in every aspect at all time just to get you to buy the car and pay a lot money for it.

 

[JingChuan]

Your MZ5 is supposed to have rain-sensing wipers. The GT we test drove did, but the salesperson did say that the 6-Disc changer might be getting quietly deleted as everyone seemed to use the BT or line-in aux anyway, so maybe the rain-sensing feature has been deleted, too? Your car being fresh off the truck would have the most recent equipment roster I imagine.

I checked the Munroney again last night, and sure enough it does list the rain sensing wipers. But on the the stalk, it clearly says INT for intermittent. According to the owner's manual, there should be a setting on the windshield wiper stalk for either INT (intermittent) or AUTO (rain sensitive).

So either the decontenting you referred to has started already and the window sticker department hasn't been notified, or someone didn't follow the build directions when our 5 was rolling down the assembly line.

Silver does look good on these, but since our Town and Country is silver we didn't mind going with the Clearwater Blue. Still black interior for the kiddies, too. You shopped a lot of dealers it sounds like. The one you bought from and the one in Schaumburg seemed to have the lowest prices and best inventory but we found a dealer in IN that blew them both out of the water on price, so we got lucky.

Where in IN? I actually shopped most dealers in the greater Chicago area. Silver GTs seemed to be rare at the time, so when mommy heard that a silver GT was freshly unloaded at Countryside, that pretty much ended the search right there. We did a 2 for 1 trade-in too, so that muddied the negotiation waters a bit. Previously I had only been negotiating on purchase price, with the intent of selling my other cars outright. But the tax savings and convenience factor weighed in at the last moment, and I ended up going to the manager with my offer, to which he just replied, "Ok. We can do that." D'oh! (bang) But I guess I'm not going to beat myself up too badly about it. It still turned out good enough. Just not my typical record-breaking deal that I'm accustomed to.

The antenna is offset so that if you run the roof rack with crossbars and want to transport skis, kayak, bike, etc it's not in the way. The wind noise is pretty pronounced in these, especially with the windy days we've had lately out here. The stereo is not too bad unless your other two vehicles have very good sounding stereos as I have which makes it more pronounced. This is my wife's primary as it is yours and she's fine with it so it stays stock for now. Almost went with a Focal component set up front and an Infinity Basslink but the idea was nixed.

I still don't understand why the antenna is offset though. The antenna was centered on my 'speed3, and I did have a roof rack for that. I never found myself in a situation where the antenna was in the way. But like someone here said a while ago, the inside of this car is really what matters, and you'll forget about anything on the outside; so far this is true. The previously garish clown smile on the front is not even noticeable to us anymore. So far, the stereo is ok, and the 6 cd changer is still there. The wind noise is loud enough to almost be intrusive at highway speeds. I can see a potential Dynamat project coming soon, as per Dieseldriver's thread.

That's really good gas mileage. Ours started out at 20 MPG city and has gone up a few clicks after 1k miles of break in, getting us to 23 MPG city. Only one highway run in it 3 adults 2 kids no luggage and we ended up around 26 so you're doing great so far. Check your tire pressures, BTW. Ours was delivered low, 30 PSI all around.

I've been following the tips on ecomodder.com for quite a while now; I managed to get my 'speed3 up to about 26mpg combined, nicely improved over the EPA estimate of 20. One of the easiest tips is to bump up the PSI in the tires to the max listed on the sidewall (or close to it). That makes a noticeable difference. Of course, the low profile of the stock size encourages a lower pressure, in order to keep the ride on rough roads a little more compliant. A good idea would be to bump the size up a bit. Speaking of which, I ordered some new tires in 215-50r17 size. After all the poor reviews I've read about the OEM Toyos, and experience with crappy stock tires in general I talked to my tire guy (yeah, I've bought so many tires that I have a "tire guy") who is going to trade the Toyos in for a set of 60k mile Nitto Motivos. He participated in a company roll-out (ha!) for this tire, and highly recommends this tire. Although it will work in light snow, it is no match for a dedicated snow tire, which I already have leftover from the 'speed3. His recommendation was based on its dry grip and impressive wet grip. And considering the 5's cargo, safety in these conditions in paramount, in my mind. I'll pump up the pressure in the new tires to a comfortable level and keep track of any effect on mpg. But since the ECU is still learning / car "breaking in", etc., the likely improvement in FE might be hidden in the overall break-in improvement.

 

[torquelover]

We got it from Kennedy Mazda in Valparaiso. Nice people there. Also nice to not have the front bumper drilled as every dealer in Illinois seems to do with their PDI. On the wipers, here have been a few instances of cars showing up with missing equipment so if it's not decontenting the dealer might work something out for you. I'm not sure about the MZ5 but on another car I looked at the windshield was different due to the moisture sensor. If that's the case I know I wouldn't want to pull a windshield on a new car. I had a "tire guy" as well that let me trade in some OEM Michelin MXV4 Energy Green Xs on my then new '95 Accord EX Coupe for some Pirellis due to the low carbon content shocking the heck out of everyone. I don't see a problem with the Toyos although the Bridgestones on the GT I drove were definitely quieter/softer. If they were quieter it would only make the wind noise more pronounced so it seems fairly balanced for now. I'm looking forward to hearing about the Nittos after you get them on.

 

[jake25]

wow...you have nice taste. It looks pretty and spacious, just fits for your family. I also got myself a Kennedy Mazda. It will be helpful to some people out there head to a website I came across and compare automobiles and prices before you go purchase your car, just like what I did. Here is where you let others do the job of finding good quality cars.

 

[1987cp]

Then there was a salesman that I almost bought a 5 from; he said that the 5 didn't have a USB port because Mazda recognized that USB jacks were too fragile and would break too often, causing too many warranty issues. The salesman could verify this because he himself broke a number of USB plugs in his various phones.

Naturally, I checked out the input in the new CX5 and it has - that's right - a USB port.

Moral of the story is, the salespeople generally don't know jack about the cars they're trying to sell.

FWIW, looks like the '13 Five has a USB jack standard on all trim levels. (cool)

 

[eyeballs]

Yea, same with the 2's. I'd definately love to have one in mine...but thats really the only improvement I'd care for on the '13s. Just thinking about it....its strange that I own two of mazdas least popular cars in the least popular trim/powertrain combinations. Had to have both dealer traded from out of state to get what me and the wife wanted.