What are your favorite aspects of your CX-5?

[7eregrine]

The only car I ever obsessed over was my 1998 Saab 900SE Coupe. Paid $400 for a spoiler on the back that I got shipped from the UK... The only place they made them. Still haven't forgiven myself for letting that go.

I constantly think about dumping this CX5 for a Volvo. Obsessed? You don't know me at all.
Hell, I barely post here anymore except in the thread about PC building.

 

[7eregrine]

Im in the northeast US.

Does that mean New England or lower? Wow, that is surprising.

 

[Jack Rabbit]

Does that mean New England or lower? Wow, that is surprising.

PA

 

[181962]

I constantly think about dumping this CX5 for a Volvo. Obsessed?

See what I mean?

You'll be happy to know, if you didn't already, that Volvo has sold only about 69,000 units per year on average in the US since 2005, only about 1/4 of Mazda's sales. Watch out, though--Volvo's sales have been on the rise in recent years with 2021 being their best year since 2005 at 123,000 units. Still, that's less than half Mazda's total so your annoyance at seeing so many of your brand should be alleviated.

 

[CO CX5]

What are my favorite aspects of your CX-5? I like the driver oriented engineering/design, the dark blue color against the body lines, the tiny landing light wanna be fog lamps, when it exceeds the stated fuel economy, the slight growl of the engine, the Bose system...

 

[7eregrine]

See what I mean?

I am starting to think you might be obsessed with me.

 

[potownrob]

not sure how this thread got derailed into a battle of who has the biggest mazda dealer network, but i'd like to point out my area has very few mazda dealers. i haven't gone online to figure out how many in 40 miles or 100 miles, but there are definitely very few within 40 miles, maybe 4 or 5. go out 100 miles and there are many more, but i don't consider 100 miles very close (says the man who bought a mazda from a dealer almost 200 miles away).

 

[Antoine]

Back to the topic of favorite CX-5 aspects, please...Thanks.

 

[sxa]

Mazda in General I fell in love with by accident when I had a Mazda3 as a rental in Colorado back in 2010. In 2013 I bought my CX-5 ('14 Touring FWD). For a daily driver it's pretty perfect. It is fun to drive but also fairly versatile. I have towed a small utility trailer with it and hauled plenty of stuff in it over the years. No major issues in ~140k miles. It is hard to pick one thing but I would say the style is what sold me on the CX-5. I went in with the intent to buy a Mazda3 Hatchback. The CX-5 on the showroom floor really caught my eye enough to test drive it and I still love looking at it when I am walking out to it.

 

[Chocolate]

Headlight appreciation post...

The projector headlight and taillight assemblies are made by Stanley Japan. I think they look and perform great.

 

[Freedom55]

Headlight appreciation post...

View attachment 314350

The projector headlight and taillight assemblies are made by Stanley Japan. I think they look and perform great.

I'll second that! The LED headlights have a nice cutoff and are super bright plus they are standard on all trims. Many competitors still have halogens on lower trims...but they are catching up; when I tried the CRV in 2020 only the top trims had LED but their 2023 have them across the board.

 

[Chocolate]

I'll second that! The LED headlights have a nice cutoff and are super bright plus they are standard on all trims. Many competitors still have halogens on lower trims...but they are catching up; when I tried the CRV in 2020 only the top trims had LED but their 2023 have them across the board.

Yeah, I posted (post #3) about how Toyota really, really cuts costs on the RAV4 until you pay up for a higher trim. The entry level trim uses cheap reflector LEDs with worse performance (per IIHS headlight testing), and gives you a plastic steering wheel and steel wheels.

Here's a higher than entry trim (2022 SE Hybrid) and it has a laughable screen which looks a smartphone glued to the dash. And this costs $34,000.

 

[Oleman]

Yeah, I posted (post #3) about how Toyota really, really cuts costs on the RAV4 until you pay up for a higher trim. The entry level trim uses cheap reflector LEDs with worse performance (per IIHS headlight testing), and gives you a plastic steering wheel and steel wheels.

Here's a higher than entry trim (2022 SE Hybrid) and it has a laughable screen which looks a smartphone glued to the dash. And this costs $34,000.

View attachment 314352

The reason I didn't get another Toyota base models the Mazda was nearly $5K cheaper and a better looking car. Along with the fact every time I've went to my Toyota dealership in the last 4 years they made me feel like they were robbing me!

 

[potownrob]

Yeah, I posted (post #3) about how Toyota really, really cuts costs on the RAV4 until you pay up for a higher trim. The entry level trim uses cheap reflector LEDs with worse performance (per IIHS headlight testing), and gives you a plastic steering wheel and steel wheels.

Here's a higher than entry trim (2022 SE Hybrid) and it has a laughable screen which looks a smartphone glued to the dash. And this costs $34,000.

View attachment 314352

also notice the SE has cloth seats. i believe they are power seats, with lumbar control even (way too lazy to look up now lol), but cheap looking cloth. also have to step up to some convenience package to get heated seats and some other goodies, last i checked. even the base LE gas model was closing in on $30K USD, last i checked.

 

[Freedom55]

also notice the SE has cloth seats. i believe they are power seats, with lumbar control even (way too lazy to look up now lol), but cheap looking cloth. also have to step up to some convenience package to get heated seats and some other goodies, last i checked. even the base LE gas model was closing in on $30K USD, last i checked.

No leather available on RAV4; Softex (leatherette) only on upper trims. Depending on trim, CX-5 has cloth, Ultrasuede & leatherette and leather.

 

[7eregrine]

I'll second that! The LED headlights have a nice cutoff and are super bright plus they are standard on all trims.

Even the base model? If true, that's cool, but let's not pretend it /edit/*didn't take* a long time to get here. Had to get the GT in 2016 for LED heads and tails and 2017. I think it started trickling down after that but it did take awhile.

 

[potownrob]

No leather available on RAV4; Softex (leatherette) only on upper trims. Depending on trim, CX-5 has cloth, Ultrasuede & leatherette and leather.

yeah, always forget about that. i believe the last generation had leather on the Limited trim and pleather on the SE trim. The newer ones ('19+) have cloth on the LE, XLE and SE and the pleather on the XLE premium and Limited. the hybrid models sometimes get extra features/packages thrown in automatically. might be forgetting trims or details; it's early/late (late for me). even the cx-5 touring seats are nicer than at least the cloth rav4 seats, other than maybe not having power lumbar (the touring has manual lumbar adjustment, no?). the cloth and suede seats always looked nice to me. i do like me my beige leather seats though.

 

[Freedom55]

Even the base model? If true, that's cool, but let's not pretend it took a long time to get here. Had to get the GT in 2016 for LED heads and tails and 2017. I think it started trickling down after that but it did take awhile.

I'm not sure exactly when LED headlights became standard on all trims perhaps in 2017 but in 2020 when I bought mine they were!

 

[potownrob]

I'm not sure exactly when LED headlights became standard on all trims perhaps in 2017 but in 2020 when I bought mine they were!

Wasn’t it just GT (and later the higher trims) that got the auto aligning headlight beams?

 

[7eregrine]

I'm not sure exactly when LED headlights became standard on all trims perhaps in 2017 but in 2020 when I bought mine they were!

It wasn't 17. The 17 Sport for sure didn't come with. Not sure about Touring.
//Actually looked it up. 17 WAS the year LED was standard across the range. My bad.
So yea, they did it pretty early then.
I was thinking of uh, yea, REAR LED's. Yea yea, that's the ticket.
They weren't on all trims in 17.