What are your favorite aspects of your CX-5?

My brother picked up a used 2017 Tiguan, so before the move to the MQB platform. Yesterday I got to spend some time behind the wheel of it for about 45 minutes heading home from our cabin which consists of some back roads, winding roads, and highway. The suspension is really soft, which feels great over potholes, but I really didn't feel the confidence carving corners at the same speed I do in my CX-5. The throttle response was really weird, and I just felt a sense of disconnectedness from the road. Made me more content in my choice with the CX-5. Neat little vehicle though, it was a base trim that had heated leatherette seats, heated side mirrors, and lumbar adjustment.
 
Highs:

No auto Start/Stop.

No cylinder deactivation.

Not having a panoramic moon roof.

An actual gear shift selector.

Not having a CVT, 8-9-10 speed hunting transmission (last time I had an automatic was 1994), or dual-clutch transmission.

Styling, inside and out.

Road handling.

Quiet cabin.

Powertrain not new- has been refined and proven.





Lows:

Accent lights should have been DRL’s (pulled the relay).

Piano black B pillars scratch easy. Only has been washed once by the dealership for delivery to me.

License plate seats directly to the paint (easily fixed thanks to a search here).

Wish the sub was larger.

Feel cheated that the rear defrost, heated mirrors, wiper de-icers, and heated steering wheel are all controlled with one switch, and it cuts off after 15 minutes.

I will say the infotainment system- but I am the Gen X guy that still listens to CD’s, no CD player option. I realize I need to step up there.



I only have 103 miles on her. Please understand the “highs” motivated me to purchase this- the lows are *very minor*. Would do it again in a heartbeat.
 
Blizzak DM-V2 was my first experience with winter tires and I LOVE them. Outrageously grippy. Does anyone have any experiences vs the WS90 or other common brands who have used both?

Intelligent AWD + Pre-loaded rear axle + winter tires = Unstoppable
 
Favorite aspects of the CX-5 -- capable AWD; comfortable, up-scale feel and appointments, for a mid-priced vehicle; fairly spacious, for a smaller crossover/SUV.


Blizzak DM-V2 was my first experience with winter tires and I LOVE them. Outrageously grippy. Does anyone have any experiences vs the WS90 or other common brands who have used both?

It is pretty amazing, the first experience with "winter" tires on a decent car, isn't it?

Have used a variety of winter-specific tires, over the years.

Have done the Nokian Hakkapeliitta, Nokian WR G4, Dunlop WinterSport, and a couple of others. Hands-down, I think the Nokian Hakka's are the best in varied winter conditions. In snow, I was shocked how grippy the Dunlop WinterSport tires were, though that tailed off markedly during the third season.

Am on my third winter of Nokian WR G4, currently. It's been a 365 days/yr tire, for me, given its all-weather, year-'round compound. Just now starting to lose a couple of the sipes due to wear, though the grip's still stellar. If the compound stays decent, I suspect I'll get ~5 years of wear from them. Not quite the Hakka all-out winter grip, but fairly impressive for a year-'round tire.

Haven't had any of the Blizzak tires on my cars, though I've driven cars that had them on a couple of occasions. Grippy stuff.

VW Passat 4Motion, Subaru AWD, Mazda CX-5 AWD. The Mazda holds it own among solid company.
 
I was looking for a lower payment so i traded in my Silverado and i seen this 2018 CX-5 on the lot, its a base model and i have had a couple of CRV's before, but for being the lower model it had more features than the EX model CRV's i have had. The lane assist and navigation along with LED lights and the option to lower and raise them is great. I am hoping to get the update file for firmware so i can update the radio to have android auto and i may lower it in the future.
 
Lows:

I will say the infotainment system- but I am the Gen X guy that still listens to CD’s, no CD player option. I realize I need to step up there.
This is where I am with getting one of these or any new vehicle. I have hundreds of CDs. But there are external players that can be bought and connected to a USB port. Not sure how good they are, but those are out there.
 
This is where I am with getting one of these or any new vehicle. I have hundreds of CDs. But there are external players that can be bought and connected to a USB port. Not sure how good they are, but those are out there.
Rip em to a thumb drive and be done with it. You'll never look back.
 
Apple Music's paid tier has iCloud Music Library where you can upload your own files and edit the information of the file (artist, album, title name, artwork, lyrics, etc.) to your liking. Then you don't need to worry about losing them ever, as long as you subscribe. If you're subscription-phobic, obviously this wouldn't work for you.
 
I literally took the time to rip all my CD's. It was a lot. My entire library is on my phone. ON MY PHONE, MRM. Bluetooth to my car. WHAM.
Gave all my CD's away. Kid was ecstatic that I gave them too.
Highly recommend Media Monkey to organize your collection on your PC.
And to synch to your phone if you have the room. Or even if you don't have the room. You can tell it to synch "Just 48 gigs" and every time you connect shuffle a fresh batch on it.
As big a task as it was, it truly wasn't that time consuming...and worth it in the end.
Happy to answer any questions about the job.
 
I also ripped all my cds to a SanDisk Ultra Fit 32gb flash drive. It’s so tiny it fits in the console’s USB port and does not stick up more than a centimeter.
 
I literally took the time to rip all my CD's. It was a lot. My entire library is on my phone. ON MY PHONE, MRM. Bluetooth to my car. WHAM.
Gave all my CD's away. Kid was ecstatic that I gave them too.
Highly recommend Media Monkey to organize your collection on your PC.
And to synch to your phone if you have the room. Or even if you don't have the room. You can tell it to synch "Just 48 gigs" and every time you connect shuffle a fresh batch on it.
As big a task as it was, it truly wasn't that time consuming...and worth it in the end.
Happy to answer any questions about the job.
You can fit all of your CD collections into your cell phone? My iPhone has only 128 GB and I can fill it up easily with only photos! The other thing I was worry about is the sound quality. I can’t seem to find a sound file format which offers CD sound quality with reasonable file size when I compare them listening back and forth.
 
You can fit all of your CD collections into your cell phone? My iPhone has only 128 GB and I can fill it up easily with only photos! The other thing I was worry about is the sound quality. I can’t seem to find a sound file format which offers CD sound quality with reasonable file size when I compare them listening back and forth.

I prefer FLAC, but the general consensus from what I've searched is that you cannot tell between FLAC (lossless) and 320 kbps MP3.

 
When I got my '23 last fall, I put hours of music on sticks. I already had the files on my laptop, so copying them over wasn't a big deal. A 64 or 128 GB stick will hold a ton of music even with videos.
 
I was looking for a lower payment so i traded in my Silverado and i seen this 2018 CX-5 on the lot, its a base model and i have had a couple of CRV's before, but for being the lower model it had more features than the EX model CRV's i have had. The lane assist and navigation along with LED lights and the option to lower and raise them is great. I am hoping to get the update file for firmware so i can update the radio to have android auto and i may lower it in the future.
a lot of features that were exclusive to the top trim or not even available are now available on the lower trims. my '12 cr-v ex didn't have half the features of a new base model cx-5.
 
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