We're driving North America's best kept secret

[rweatherford]

I had 5 people in the car 2 times for less than 3 miles each direction. I guess I should have been more specific.

Generally, it was me and my daughter (21 lbs) and my wife came along the final 3 days. Considering I get 22 mpg in our CX-7 commuting and slightly more on trips to So. Cal., I just wasn't that impressed.

Ok. Yea that seems pretty poor. To be honest I have never gotten that low and we have 5-6 people in ours all the time. (I have 4 kids)

We have taken many trips of over 1000 miles, we just pack light.

I went to the airport in STL yesterday. Drove back roads on the way down and had fun. Pulled into the airport with 33 MPG. The car showed a max speed of 77 MPH and a max RPM of 5400. This car loves corners.

On the way back we got about 30 MPG and the tank right now stands at 31 + MPG.

But I'm the wierdo that runs 50 PSI in my tires....

 

[Antonio DiMarco]

Yep

That's totally fine...just two comments:


(2) People seem to buy vehicles based on what they think they need, or might need a couple of times a year, rather than what is practical for everyday use. The 5 wasn't big enough for your one isolated situation. By the same token, there have been a couple of times when our old MPV could have come in handy over our 5. Then I remember how we hated driving something that big on a regular basis and I come to my senses.

I think these two things are partly responsible for why the 5 is still a "niche" vehicle in the US. If people could get over the fact that they may not need something the size of an Odyssey or a Yukon for a family of three or four, perhaps the market would increase further. Or if gas went back to $4 a gallon. This is not inherently a criticism of your comment - everyone has their own needs to judge by. One could make the same argument that our Honda Fit, which has a trunk as big as your Impala, is big enough for our family of four. (We took it on a 900 mile road trip last week!) We do have a dog, we car pool, and we have visiting relatives, all of which puts the 5's third seat in use fairly frequently.

This was exactly our situation when we got the 5. I kept thinking we needed a larger car and I think I looked at the 5 about 20 times before we took the leap. The luggage space even with the rearmost seats down seemed small and I questioned whether our family of four would have enough room. Well 4 years later and we still find it to be a great car. The only complaint my wife has that it doesn't have enough storage space like the huge center console area our Pilot had. Still it swallows more stuff than you'd expect and is comfortable for long trips. Reliability has also been fantastic.

 

[DKaz]

offset_98, the 5 will fit an umbrella stroller fine with six people. I agree, it does not fit any of the enormous strollers very well if the third seat is used. But it raises the question of how much does one child really need. Without passing any judgment on your hauling needs (big dogs? future children? work needs?)...isn't it kind of mind-boggling that a family of three would need an Odyssey?

I bought a used Graco Mosaic travel system for standby in case we needed to carry 6 people like the past few days when we had family over (although we find that we use it VERY often). It's one of the only umbrella strollers that fits a car seat for our infant yet folds down to less than half the bulk of our regular stroller easily fitting in behind the third row. It has small 4" wheels and no shocks so it's a very light duty stroller and it's not as small as a more compact umbrella stroller but for trips around town, it's been great and our regular stroller is really only used for taking walks on rougher surfaces now.

Actually I'd say the 5 isn't much of a secret anymore!!! I can't drive down a street without seeing at least 2 others drive by. Even the Sharkfin isn't very unique any longer!!! They're everywhere Amazing considering the lack of advertising!!

My record was seeing over 20 Mazda 5s parked in 5 different park and rides in one day when i was on the commuter bus, as well as countless others on the street. On a typical day I'll see 5 to 10 on the streets. It's just a great car.

(1) When compared to other minivans for carrying capacity, the 5 will never win. It's a smaller vehicle and it can't be expected it to haul six plus large cargo. I see comparisons against Odyssey/Sienna et al and people complain about the lack of cargo room. That's not the point of the 5.

Mazda 5 + roof rack = road trip for 6!!!

 

[Katner]

I guess I agree with those who say the 5 isn't for everyone. But (go ahead and flame me for this) I think a lot of people write-off the 5 because of it's size (in that it's smaller than their Yukon that they love so much) and it's stigma (in that they believe it's a minivan). With out really thinking it out.

Yes, it's all opinion, but there is also something called 'sense' and the 5 makes a whole lot of it. Unless you're towing, the 5 provides most everything a 5-passenger SUV does, with better mileage. And it's fun-to-drive to boot.

My bro-in-law and sister just bought an '04 MDX with 80k miles and now get 16mpg around town (on premium fuel), hold slightly more cargo than us, and still have useless 3rd row seats for adults. But hey, they wanted a black SUV because they are "good in the snow" and "it looks cool." They paid the same as we did for our Grand Touring with 12k miles.

Our last road trip they got about 19.5mpg. We got 28.5mpg and passed them in some canyon twisties.

 

[MD5]

When I bought my 5 my wife had a diesel Excursion. I could almost park my 5 in the back of it.

Sure, the Excursion was the King of the road trip, but when diesel hit $5/gal, it took $200 to fill it up (it had a 44 gallon tank). The best I ever got out of one tank was 673 miles (from Colby, Kansas to my home in Dallas/Fort Worth).

But, the 5 is very capable also. I took the wife and 2 kids with the back loaded down with luggage on a 7 day Disney cruise out of Port Canaveral. It's over 1,100 miles from DFW to Port Canaveral and the 5 did just great.