Why we’re ran it: To see if the Japanese firm managed to inject any of its flair into the family-friendly Mazda CX-5 SUV
Month 3 - Month 2 - Month 1 - Specs
Life with a Mazda CX-5: Month 3
It departs our fleet with its reputation as a family SUV for keen drivers intact, but there is one important caveat
If we’re being completely honest, the Mazda CX-5 didn’t have the easiest start with us at Autocar.
And none of that was the Mazda’s fault. You see (and I can hear your heartstrings pinging from here), I jumped from a McLaren GT long-termer straight into the Mazda. On the same day, in fact. Supercar GT meets 2.4-child-family SUV. It was like a mid-life crisis in reverse.
But as in any relationship, time is a great healer, and now that CX71 CVT has gone back to its maker, I’m honestly going to miss it. The element that stood out most was the little twinkle that it had, that extra hint of body control and handling aptitude that meant it wasn’t a simple monobox solution to ferrying the children around.
We asked at the start whether Mazda could inject a bit of Japanese sparkle into a family SUV and, spoiler alert, it just about did. Granted, it was no MX-5 on stilts, but there was enough to set it apart from most others in its class.
It turned in sharply and gripped well, with the sort of poise that shouldn’t be possible from a tall-ish SUV, or at least not one lacking pricey electronic anti-roll bars and variable damping.
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The screen-brightness issue is an easy but completely unintuitive fix. Set the day and night brightnesses via iDrive and select the Auto mode. If the display doesn't change automatically, just press the old-school button on the instrument cluster...
Think this version is 1660kg kerb weight, 33mpg, not so brilliant.
1,560kg. Mazda brilliance.