What are your favorite aspects of your CX-5?

First up, the way it looks. That was a big selling point for me in the first place. Inside and out.
I love how many of these there are. I am so shallow. This is my number 1 requirement when shopping for a car. Not mileage, not reliability, not resale....
My car is now 6 years old and still to this day I see it in a particular spot and I look back as I walk away or even sometimes.... snap a photo.... My car is good looking.
Like the 1 I took yesterday. 🤣
 

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I just picked my '23 up on Halloween night. I had to drive it home 20 miles in the dark, knowing nothing whatsoever about it, and that was frustrating.

The worst thing was the dealer experience which soured me on the whole thing. I'm old (72), bought my first new car in 1968 -- a new Camaro -- and this Mazda deal was the worst in 54 years of car- truck-buying.

Now, after 2+ weeks and the horrible dealer experience fading (although I have to go back next week), I'm starting to like the car. But I've got a lot of things to figure out yet. My trade-in was a '17 Tacoma, and it had zero nannies on it which suited me fine. It had a touch screen, bluetooth, USB port, and not much else as far as high-tech.

Questions: I've not found the answer to this, even searching the PDF manual. What music formats will the USB drive read? I have a stick with a bunch of music on it but it doesn't see all of them and there are several different formats.

I don't think there is, but is there a button inside somewhere to open the hatch? (It has the "Preferred trim" with moonroof, climate control, etc.

Is there a way of shutting off the lane warning thingy?

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Regarding your question about audio files. You were reading the wrong manual. Mazda in its wisdom decided to separate certain things and created another manual strictly for Mazda Connect system and Mazda Navigation. Look for this on mazda website. Mazda connect manual for Cx5. I do have mazda cx 9 2022 (Canadian GT trim) but the system is the same. In this manual all the aspects of audio system are explained, including what audio files can be read. MP3, FLAC and WAVE are there for sure but also there are a few other formats which is quite impressive. One friendly warning however - Mazda does not specify which options and features are only for basic audio system and which are for Bose audio. So for example I was quite disappointed when I discovered that Bose does not have manual equalizer like the basic audio. My guess is that with Bose audio they did the audio equalization related to Centerpoint and SurroundStage, provided some settings and they did not want people to mess with it.

I do like Mazda audio system (Cx5 and Cx9 are similar in this regard), especially with Bose audio different speaker are outputting different frequencies and it is not just the matter of high or low frequencies but actually different equalizations for different bands which allows me to hear more details in the music. Listening to Flac format (lossless) is like listening to good old fashion CD.
 
I agree with the previous comments. For me it's also attention to details like 3 level heated front seats, height adjustable passenger seat, wiper deicer below the blades and on the left side of the windshield, 40/20/40 folding seat backs, carpeted cargo side panels, dual front seat back pockets, LED license plate lights, etc.
 
Regarding your question about audio files. You were reading the wrong manual. Mazda in its wisdom decided to separate certain things and created another manual strictly for Mazda Connect system and Mazda Navigation. Look for this on mazda website. Mazda connect manual for Cx5. I do have mazda cx 9 2022 (Canadian GT trim) but the system is the same. In this manual all the aspects of audio system are explained, including what audio files can be read. MP3, FLAC and WAVE are there for sure but also there are a few other formats which is quite impressive. One friendly warning however - Mazda does not specify which options and features are only for basic audio system and which are for Bose audio. So for example I was quite disappointed when I discovered that Bose does not have manual equalizer like the basic audio. My guess is that with Bose audio they did the audio equalization related to Centerpoint and SurroundStage, provided some settings and they did not want people to mess with it.

I do like Mazda audio system (Cx5 and Cx9 are similar in this regard), especially with Bose audio different speaker are outputting different frequencies and it is not just the matter of high or low frequencies but actually different equalizations for different bands which allows me to hear more details in the music. Listening to Flac format (lossless) is like listening to good old fashion CD.

Ok, thanks for that. :)

This is really dumb: I just discovered that locking the doors does not lock the hatch. So I search the manual and there were numerous pages of warnings and tons of other stuff on opening the hatch door, but nothing about actually locking it.

My fob does not have a hatch button on it, so there must be a way of locking the hatch with a button inside somewhere. Is it hidden or not obvious?
 
Ok, thanks for that. :)

This is really dumb: I just discovered that locking the doors does not lock the hatch.
There is one sentence buried in the 2020 manual that says, "A locked liftgate can also be opened while the key is being carried."

To wit, In my 2020 with the manual liftgate, after locking the doors by whatever method, the hatch will open if the fob is in my pocket. If I move the fob out of range of the hatch, just a few feet, the hatch is locked, won't open. Try that if you haven't already. It's a nice convenience feature except when I go to load my golf bag and the keys are still in the cart, no harm no foul. ;).

As a new owner coming from a vehicle with limited gadgetry (been there, done that) you may be discovering features, functions, behaviors for thousands of miles and many months to come. :eek: If you can find a PDF version of the 2023 manual to which you can apply word searches you might find that very helpful. I found the quote in the first paragraph above by doing a PDF word search on "liftgate lock"--9 instances identified so it was easy to find.
 
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Simpler still: there is no lock for the hatch, because it is always locked. It will always open when you are near it with a fob. But it is locked. If you use the unlock button on the fob it will unlock the hatch. Temporarily.
 
Simpler still: there is no lock for the hatch, because it is always locked. It will always open when you are near it with a fob. But it is locked. If you use the unlock button on the fob it will unlock the hatch. Temporarily.
In your attempt at simplicity you oversimplified, at least with respect to my 2020 with the manual liftgate. If you unlock the doors and move the fob out of range then the hatch will be unlocked just like the other doors. The hatch is not always locked.

I'm not sure what "temporarily" is supposed to mean. If you leave the doors unlocked and walk away they stay unlocked including the liftgate. That's a good thing in the event you inadvertently leave the fob in the vehicle.

The simplified explanation is that the lock/unlock state of the liftgate is always the same as the other doors with one exception: fob in range of the locked liftgate allows opening without unlocking the vehicle.
 
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In your attempt at simplicity you oversimplified, at least with respect to my 2020 with the manual liftgate. If you unlock the doors and move the fob out of range then the hatch will be unlocked just like the other doors. The hatch is not always locked.

I'm not sure what "temporarily" is supposed to mean. If you leave the doors unlocked and walk away they stay unlocked including the liftgate. That's a good thing in the event you inadvertently leave the fob in the vehicle.

The simplified explanation is that the lock/unlock state of the liftgate is always the same as the other doors with one exception: fob in range of the locked liftgate allows opening without unlocking the vehicle.
I didn't know the doors could stay unlocked. Is there a way to turn this function off? My cx5 auto locks after a few seconds...even if I simply move towards the back door or hood. It's extremely inconvenient especially when working under the hood.
 
Messing with the alert features that make the CX5 one of the safest cars on the road can lead to disastrous results. It may be better to adapt yourself to the car. That said, the crash sensing and auto braking can scare you and car behind you to death.

There have numerous times where the car I was following was turning into a driveway and I had plenty of space between to clear it but the car felt otherwise. Small braking episodes will startle you and your passengers will holler “what the hell was that”. The near lockups will shake you up pretty good.

If I wrecked my car tomorrow, I would buy the CX5 again. I also love how quiet my 2019 is on the highway. I couldn’t hear the radio of my 2014 Mazda 6 whereas I can now listen to music and have conversations with others even with the OEM tires.
 
I think we need to clarify if we are talking about regular key fob and basic locking system or advanced keyless entry with proximity sensors. I do have 2014 Mazda cx5 with basic keyless entry without proximity sensor and it it just the matter of pressing locking or unlocking button on the key fob and that either unlocks or locks all the doors and the hatch. Nothing else to it.
However my new Mazda cx9 has advanced keyless entry and this comes with proximity zones and different functions:
1. You can turn this on or off in mazda connect - locking all doors and hatch when you just simply walking away from the car - I know that also this is the most confusing part because there are certain circumstances when not always hatch is being locked.
I disabled it for now and in this circumstances the doors and hatch can operate separately. The doors can be still locked but if I only approach the hatch the sensor senses the key fob and let me open just the hatch, once I decide to close the hatch (by pressing the button on the hatch for example) and walk away the hatch stays locked without me doing any other action. If I simply unlock all the doors even with the keyfob but I am not near the hatch and sensor can not sense my keyfob hatch stays still locked - I think.

It is confusing because I think that If I am sitting inside the car and doors are unlocked my wife can simply just open the hatch by pressing the button on the hatch. Some one can correct me if I am wrong.
 
I love how many of these there are. I am so shallow. This is my number 1 requirement when shopping for a car. Not mileage, not reliability, not resale....
My car is now 6 years old and still to this day I see it in a particular spot and I look back as I walk away or even sometimes.... snap a photo.... My car is good looking.
Like the 1 I took yesterday. 🤣
I am not really shallow with most things, but with cars looks definitely matter.

But for me its the driving experience as well, and I don' mean what cool tech gimmick it has, or some cool infotainment system or feature, I mean just that, the driving. I'e got a pretty barebones/basic Gen 1 when you look at what a base Touring in 2014 had vs now, but my Gen 1 is legitimately fun to drive. Sure, its just a CUV, but doesn't have to be boring like other CUVs are/were. My Gen 1 accelerates well (can not say the same for any Gen 2 with NA engine I have driven unfortunately), takes corners well, and I can feel the road so it feels very engaging.

To 7's point, my CX-5 is just about to turn 10 years old and I still look at it (while ignoring obvious paint blemishes and scratches in certain spots) going, damn that's a really great looking crossover.
 
I didn't know the doors could stay unlocked. Is there a way to turn this function off? My cx5 auto locks after a few seconds...even if I simply move towards the back door or hood. It's extremely inconvenient especially when working under the hood.
Perhaps. In the 2018 on-line manual Personalization section there are table items for setting keyless entry that read, "Time for automatically locking". Go to this link and scroll down:


Is that what we're talking about? Sounds like it but I could not say for sure.

The meanings of the right hand columns are provided above the table but the Search link @ 1.A is no help. Could it be be a dealer-only setting? Perhaps there's a touch screen "off" setting that I breezed over long ago and have since forgotten but I wouldn't bank on it. Maybe somebody else will know. Below the table *1 says, "...these systems can be turned off," however nothing in the table has an * so that's confusing. Maybe all of them can be turned off.

I can tell you this--the 2020 manual reads the same and my 2020 does not automatically lock. I park in a garage with the doors unlocked and the next morning they are still unlocked. The car came this way and I've not seen any need to investigate any further. This vehicle was a dealer loaner that I bought under the CPO program so I may not have the factory setting. Lucky me if that's the case.

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it.... You know the rest.
 
Perhaps. In the 2018 on-line manual Personalization section there are table items for setting keyless entry that read, "Time for automatically locking". Go to this link and scroll down:


Is that what we're talking about? Sounds like it but I could not say for sure.

The meanings of the right hand columns are provided above the table but the Search link @ 1.A is no help. Could it be be a dealer-only setting? Perhaps there's a touch screen "off" setting that I breezed over long ago and have since forgotten but I wouldn't bank on it. Maybe somebody else will know. Below the table *1 says, "...these systems can be turned off," however nothing in the table has an * so that's confusing. Maybe all of them can be turned off.

I can tell you this--the 2020 manual reads the same and my 2020 does not automatically lock. I park in a garage with the doors unlocked and the next morning they are still unlocked. The car came this way and I've not seen any need to investigate any further. This vehicle was a dealer loaner that I bought under the CPO program so I may not have the factory setting. Lucky me if that's the case.

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it.... You know the rest.
Thank you sir.. ill have to try reset and report back
 
I am not really shallow with most things, but with cars looks definitely matter.
Most people would be lying if they said appearance was entirely irrelevant unless they were scrounging for a high mileage, low priced point A-to-B driver. It's a question of priorities.

I confess--I'd have a hard time buying a Toyota or Lexus with one of those gaping maw grills. Hideous. But if it checked all the other boxes I'd just look away when getting in. ;) At least Toyota is moving away from that hideousness.
 
Messing with the alert features that make the CX5 one of the safest cars on the road can lead to disastrous results. It may be better to adapt yourself to the car. That said, the crash sensing and auto braking can scare you and car behind you to death.
Those first two sentences are somewhat contradictory with the last, wouldn't you say?

There are a few discreet auto braking functions integrated with a couple of different systems--smart city, radar cruise, yada, yada. One of them has near-middle-far touch screen options. or with some similar terms. I believe that setting addresses tooling down the road above smart city speed where the far setting, or whatever the exact term happens to be, will activate more frequently at a further distance from the vehicle in front. The near setting will activate less frequently, but then again this function audibly alerts first and then brakes if you do not react which could be too late.

I'm not sure which system is kicking in when I move into a left turn lane at low speed without/before braking with a vehicle making a right turn from my left pointing at me and me pointing toward him, but I get an audible alert. It does not happen very often, but the vehicle appears to think those angles indicate a pending collision. It's a false positive but I've come to expect it so it doesn't bother me. The first couple of times it was a WTF moment.

So, choose your poison, near, far, on or off where allowed. I can't say for sure but I don't believe Mazda designed these systems--it's gotta be 3rd. party stuff in whole or part I would think. So similar phenomena are probably par for the course across some manufacturers. Tesla's stuff is proprietary Level 2 self-driving, a term that makes me laugh unless one is coming toward me with the driver fiddling with his phone.
 
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Thanks to all who addressed the hatch lock issue I asked about. I think I've got it now.

My summer car is a 2007 Corvette and in some ways it is more advanced than my '23 Mazda (climate control for one). From what I'm reading, it is probably the same as the Mazda with the optional fob features which I do not have.

Someone mentioned about having a PDF manual -- yes I had that before I even got the car, for its ease of word searching mostly.
 
What I really like about the Mazda cars in general is sort of timeless design. Even my 1st generation Mazda 3 after 14 years looked decent and was still eye catching. I think silver metallic also helped but when I was getting this car ready to sell and took some pictures on the sunny day this car still looked modern and handsome. I can not say this about many other brands when they do play with some drastic generation changes but these cars after just a few years just look ugly and boring.

I know that this is also a matter of personal taste but I have the same feeling about Cx 5 and my new Cx9 - the way they look it is still eye catching and pleasant to look at even after so many years and they do stick out in this positive way.
 
Buffalo, 90 or so miles to the west of me, had 46" of new snow on the ground as of 6 PM tonight, more expected. The Bills' home game on Sunday has been moved to Detroit.

I have maybe 4" on the ground, probably won't get any more. I'm itching to see how well this car tackles my uphill driveway in deep snow compared to my 4WD truck that I traded in.

Not that I'm itching for a 1-2 foot storm, I'm sure it will come soon enough.
 
To me it is the handling first, how well the engine/trans work together secondly, and looks for third. I remember when it first came out in 2012, Car & Driver did a comparison test with Honda CRV, Toyota Rav4, and others. The CX-5 came out on top, and the main reason they said was that, "It not only handles like car. It handles like a good car".
 
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Buffalo, 90 or so miles to the west of me, had 46" of new snow on the ground as of 6 PM tonight, more expected. The Bills' home game on Sunday has been moved to Detroit.

I have maybe 4" on the ground, probably won't get any more. I'm itching to see how well this car tackles my uphill driveway in deep snow compared to my 4WD truck that I traded in.

Not that I'm itching for a 1-2 foot storm, I'm sure it will come soon enough.
Way off topic, but Orchard Park. NY where the Bills stadium is located about 15-20 miles south of the Buffalo city center, is now up to 6 1/2 ft. of snow over the last two days! I'm about 25 miles north of downtown and we have 1" on the ground, expecting 6" today. Holiday Valley, a ski resort about 50 miles south of the city center, is running their snow making machines today.

While 4 - 7 ft. is spots is highly unusual, record breaking in some spots, narrow bands of lake affect snow off of Lake Erie are not unusual, in this case 20-30 miles wide swinging a bit north and south over the last two days.
 
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