New CX-5 Turbo Premium Owner

[cx5bayarea]

Hello everyone, I helped my 70 year old mom buy a CX-5 Turbo Premium recently in the San Francisco Bay Area. I have a Jaguary F-Type and a FJ Cruiser, and she recently totaled a CX-50. She felt the CX-50 was too big, too wide, so we went with the CX-5 this time, driven also by 0.9% financing.

I just wanted to let everyone know that from a car guy (myself, 6 Audi's, two S4's, etc) that the CX-5 is a dramatically better car than the CX-50. Both in fit/finish, build, and driving dynamics. My mom feels it too, and she's not a car person.

Also, this was just under the Signature trim. The biggest negatives on the CX-5 are a lack of ambient lighting in the cabin, and I don't mean stupid strips of light, but footwell, map pockets, door handles, etc, especially for an older person. I wanted to point out though that the spec sheet - see attached from Mazda - is a bit off regarding the Turbo Premium vs Signature.

For example, the Turbo Premium seems to have LED lighting throughout the cabin, just no footwell lights. The map lights, mirror lights, etc are all LED, including the Tailgate light. It also has the "Signature Unique Overhead Console" in black with a single LED downlight - "ambient lighting" - could be just the final year quirks.

Anyway, the car is QUICK, solid, and really premium feeling. A truly great car that doesn't really show its age.

 

[Lazy2.5]

I can tell you that Skyactiv Mazda's are better than any luxury brand out there, as far as reliability and real driving feel/engagement goes.

There are Skyactiv owners out there with NA engines, both auto and manual transmissions hitting 700,000KM with standard maintenance. I can send links to anyone curious.

Something like a Mazda 3, 6 with the NA engine, tune and manual transmission is a blast to drive, and with some basic suspension modifications as well as lighter wheels, performance tires will out-maneuver any luxury sports sedan due to weighing hundreds of pounds less.

The only thing that attracts me to certain luxury car brands would be RWD and an inline-6..

If you're willing to live with FWD or AWD, These Mazda's are superior in every category except for brand prestige, gimmicky luxury features and outright acceleration.