Upgrading from Mazda5 - Which car?
- Thread starter ms2000
- Start date
I recently picked up a 5 sport manual, and you're damn right this thing ticks all the boxes. most recent trip was 5people plus gear and everybody and everything traveled just fine. a top box or receiver with a gear rack would free up all the space inside sure, but it wasn't a nightmare of a drive with everything inside. the one thing i will give a bump to is the rear suspension, as i've seen what others had done with theirs. getting some new shocks in the rear with helper bags seems to be the winning solution. it was a lucky find with this, and i'm just trying to keep it as long as possible. as i've told a number of people who know how much i adore my P5, it's exactly like my P5 only taller.
In many ways I wish we had not traded off our '06 5. It was a brilliant vehicle, and we could find nothing at all that did what it did. I still cannot see anything out there which offers what it offered. The combination of seating, space utilization, sliding rear doors, and a small footprint (as compared to 'minivans') was truly perfect for us with a young family. My wife got to disliking the manual transmission in and around town, which is about the only place she ever drove at the time, it was LOUD on the freeway, and fuel economy was far too low on the freeway, due almost entirely to the stupidly short gear ratio(s) in the M/T. Would we have kept it if we'd bought the A/T instead? We will never know. I wanted and really liked the M/T, except for the short gears and poor FE.
I've really never found anything that fills the spot the MZ5 filled for us. We have a 6 now, but our oldest is no longer at home.
I've really never found anything that fills the spot the MZ5 filled for us. We have a 6 now, but our oldest is no longer at home.
tough call, because i call it a wash as far as the FE i've gotten in it so far. if i can get avg 30mpg in my P5 with over 180k on the clock, and get the same in the MZ5 with 90k on the clock, and the fact that it's a 2.5 vs the 2.0 in my P5. Nevermind the fact that it only JUST MISSED the skyactiv treatment. also yes, i do find myself moaning a bit that 6th gear gets me barely 500rpm away from 5th gear. unless i'm on a pan flat road, ive found myself leaving it in 5th gear just to ease engine load, and also because mazda engines love to rev. perhaps somebody out there will mad scientist a late model skyactiv 2.5 engine into the MZ5 and completely break the simulation.
jschwartz6
Member
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- USA
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- 07 MZ5; 08 CX-9
Yeah we have the 2007 automatic and it gets pretty bad fuel economy. 4 speeds, hits 3000 rpm at about 68 mph. I've never reached 30 mpg.
dlarkin_dc
Member
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- Mazda 5 2007 Touring
Only 70k on my 2007 (carpooling preschoolers has turned into college drop-off/pick-ups) but when we do think about replacing it... it's with a later model for the better fuel efficiency.
Did a road trip to Oregon and back, and I got to say that a) sound insulation is non-existent, next time I'll just wear noise-canceling headphones b) the acceleration dynamics is quite ok for such an underpowered car, given you ride alone and with minimal luggage.
Bottom line: it's a perfect stealth camper on a brief road trip, and just perfect for hauling elementary school kids, but that's about it.
Bottom line: it's a perfect stealth camper on a brief road trip, and just perfect for hauling elementary school kids, but that's about it.
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