Welcome to the Mazda Family

[nsmith]

To solve my growing love/need for more space I decided on a 2010 Mazda5. Dealer did not have any sports with the 5sp man. so I said I will pay xxxxx if they get me one with no dealer ad ons and in the silver or dark gray. They said fine. The one the found had the bonus options fog lights and the auto adjust mirror at no cost to me!

Future upgrades in the short term may be a short shifter. Little long compared to my daily beater Elantra with a B&M short shifter.

 

[DKaz]

Welcome and congrats! Although there are no official short shifter kits unfortunately. Site sponsor jbarone sells an adapter that will reduce the length of throw but otherwise TWM has not expressed any interest in building something for the 5.

 

[Heat]

If you can back out of the deal... the 2012 (on some dealer's lots already) has a 6 speed manual.

The manual transmission in the Mazda5 is geared lower than the automatic transmission giving you more pep at lower speeds but high RPMs at highway speeds (around 3,200 RPMs at 70 mph). The 6-speed manual in the 2012 should take care of that and provide several more mpg's at interstate speeds.

One way or the other, welcome to the site!

 

[nsmith]

I was looking at the jbarone adapter. Just waiting a little bit to see if I can live with it. Heat I don't care for the styling on the 2012s. Plus I paid 4 grand under MSRP.

 

[Foolish]

Congrats on the purchase and the nice deal! We just picked up our 5-speed-5 in early December. LOVE IT!! Did you end up with Silver or Grey?

Funny thing you mention the shifter... We immediately put a B&M in our Protege5 as anything feels long after driving a Miata, but the stock shifter in the 5 feels about perfect to us. I did put a Voodoo shift ball on there, so it's physically shorter by about 1/2"-1", but the throw felt great stock. I especially love the way it just falls to hand when you take your hand off the wheel.

The Voodoo knob, I've been using these since I had my Miata. Not sure if they're still in production, I do know the original owner sold the company a few years ago:

 

[speed5]

Just got a 5MT 5 as well! And this is our first Mazda. a used 06 Touring w nav, black, picked it up on the day before Thanksgiving. Gotta have the stickshift. I have a 93 Honda Accord wagon 5MT, with engine, tranny, suspension mods. My wife has an 01 BMW 325xi wagon 5MT. We needed a van because of the kids and their stuff, and our 98 Odyssey AT had to go. Going to the 06 Touring 5MT was definitely an upgrade from a 98 which had numerous issues: rusting, ABS out, rear window stuck closed, rain puddles up in trunk, AC leaked, and solid fixed radio antenna snapped off from corrosion. MZ5 a bit smaller trunk but can still squeeze 2 snow tubes in the back with 3rd row folded down. Yay! Only thing I'll miss is the 4-bike hitch rack. Wont miss the auto tranny. No mods yet for my 5 except the HID headlights and yellow fogs. Thought about H&R springs and front lip spoiler but after the last couple of snowstorms, probably not. As stock it handles surprisingly nicely anyway.