future mazda5 owner

[eyeballs]

Hey everyone. After experiencing the usefulness of third row seating after my parents rented a caravan, my wife and I decided we will soon be replacing her forester with a mazda5 sport 6MT. I have 2 young daughters (2yrs and 5mos) and hate always having to drive two vehicles if we are going out anywhere with other people. If it weren't for the manual tranny, I might not have been able to talk my wife out of a caravan though. The only potential downside I see is that we might be somewhat more limited on what roads we can take the mazda5 down. We enjoy hiking and mountain biking so we'll be driving it on a fair amount of forest service roads. If anyone has a lead on a skid-plate, let me know! We'll most likely be making the purchase towards the end of the year. We'll also consider a used 5MT mazda5 if we can ever find one in the south (I promised myself never to buy a used northern car again).

This will be my 4th mazda. I've owned an '88 rx-7 se, '91 rx-7 gxl, and currently have a '99 miata. Before the kids came along I was able to get out to most local auto-x events. In the last two years, I've been to two.

 

[ErikO]

Hello eyeballs, welcome to the forums!

I feel your pain, as I replaced my Impreza 2.5RS wagon with our Mazda last year, and although the winter driving required a bit of adjustment, I haven't looked back.

You will have to be conscious of the lower ground clearance of the Mazda if you're taking it on more remote roads, but just be careful and you should be fine. Same goes for the lack of AWD. Avoid mud and deep ruts that your Forester would have had no problem with.

That being said, the Mazda has way more useable space inside, and gets better fuel economy. The maintenance is generally cheaper as well.

Good luck, and don't buy a Caravan! Get your wife in a 5 and she will appreciate the smaller size and great outward visibility. I know mine did.

 

[eyeballs]

Thanks. I've already been doing some swaybar research. I'll probably talk her into letting me throw on a larger rsb, I doubt I'll run into any warranty issues with that. I've also been thinking about going a step taller on the tire profile as well to help a tad with ground clearance, plus its a good excuse to ditch the factory rubber. What offset are the OEM wheels?

 

[cdnballer]

don't think bigger tires will help too much because it'll end up rubbing when you turn. Remember that underneath the Mazda5 is a mazda3. If you really intend on going off-road this car probably isn't the best idea.

Bigger RSB helps with cornering but not off-roading. Don't want to you see damage/crush such a nice car!

 

[eyeballs]

I'd only want to go a tad larger. Can you tell me or link a thread for reference what size wheel/tire combo rubbed on the 5? And big sways do fine off-road 99.9% of the time (and if needed they are easily disconnected). I'm not off-roading for fun, just to get where I need to go. I had an '03 wrx that I used for DD, auto-x, and whitewater kayak shuttle. Even with the low race susp I never had a problem, it was just slow going on the rutted roads. A skidplate and mudflaps helped(lots of goodies avail for subarus).

 

[eyeballs]

Got my spirited green mazda2 earlier this month, and this saturday we'll be picking up my wife's new car. Silver Mazda5 Sport 6MT. First mods (for both our cars) will be weathertech liners and splash guards. And since the 2 doesn't come with an engine splash shield I'll be getting the corksport skid tray soon I think. I hope we'll be able to get better mpg with the 5 than we got with the forester, but something tells me it'll be about the same. Oh, and I already ordered the inno roof rack for the 5 with 58" crossbars, fairing, and bike racks. My yakima kayak stackers and multi-mounts should hopefully fit on the new rack. We've got a yakima cargo box as well that'll fit. I think I'm more excited than my wife is about getting the 5.