The IT Nerd

The GT trim level of the CX-5 is one nice place to spend time in. Let me walk you through the interior to illustrate why:

The door has leather accents and a fair amount of soft touch material. The audio is supplied by Bose.

Here’s a close look at the stitching which is top quality everywhere in the CX-5.

Something that I didn’t notice when I reviewed the CX-5 last year and I appreciate is the fact that the bottom of the door designed so that it keeps dirt off the bottom of the door sill. That means that dirt doesn’t get onto your pant leg.

The front seats are leather and heated. It’s ten way power adjustable with two memory settings. I found that there wasn’t enough thigh support for my very long legs but it was otherwise comfortable. In other words, your mileage may vary.

The foot area has a dead pedal for long drives.

The buttons for the electronic overseers, the button to open the rear hath, and levers for the hood and gas cap are on the left side.

The steering wheel is leather wrapped and heated. You also have the buttons for the cruise control as well as the infotainment system.

The gauge cluster is made up of two analog gauges, and a LCD panel that is on the right. The latter is customizable. It was easily readable in all lighting conditions.

The 7″ infotainment screen sits on the dash. Below that, you get the engine start/stop button below it as well as a couple of vents and the hazard lights.

Here you see the HVAC controls. Plus a cubby that fit my iPhone 7 Plus. You can also see the leather trim as well as a shiny piano black finish.

The leather wrapped gear shift, sport switch, HMI Commander switch, hill hold button and electronic parking brake are visible here. You get two cup holders just behind that.

The cup holders hold a Starbucks Venti sized coffee with ease.

You get a deep storage area that has a removable shelf, two USB ports, 12V outlet, and 3.5mm audio jack. When it’s closed, it is an armrest.

There’s a glove box on the right hand side.

You get a power moonroof that has a manual sunshade.

The rear seats are comfortable for two adults. Three could work if everyone is friendly. Three kids are no problem.

If you don’t need to seat three people, you’ll have access to a pair of cupholders and the switches for the heated seats and….

Plus you get a storage area and a pair of USB ports to keep your devices charged.

There’s ventilation for the back seat passengers.

There’s a fair amount of storage back here. Plus there’s 40-20-40 folding seats to crate more space should you need it.

You have a handle on the seats to allow you to fold them down.

And in the cargo area, you get another handle to do the same thing from there.

Not only were we able to get our groceries in here with ease, but my new Giant SLR1 front and rear carbon wheels for my road bike fit in here as well.

One thing that I didn’t notice the last time I reviewed the CX-5 is this 12V power connector in the cargo area.

There’s a handle on the rear hatch that allows you to close it without getting your hands dirty. But you don’t need it as it is powered.

Overall the interior is very upscale and well executed. Mazda really did a great job putting the interior together as it competes very well against others in the Compact SUV space in almost every way. I should also note that there’s very good vision in every direction for the driver. No rattles, squeaks, or other annoyances were noted during my week with the CX-5.

Tomorrow, I will be taking a look at the technology in the CX-5 which is very extensive. Stay tuned.

Yesterday I mentioned that Mazda made one significant change to the CX-5 for 2018. And that change is under the hood:

This is the 2.5 L four cylinder Skyactiv engine that puts out 187 horsepower and 186 pound feet of torque. That’s slightly up in both categories from last year. But the engine also includes cylinder deactivation technology that automatically shuts down two of the cylinders in light-load situations such as when cruising at a constant speed. That means that in certain situations you’ll save some fuel, which given the price of gas these days is a good thing.

Here’s a video that illustrates how this technology works:

Now Mazda claims that you’ll consume 20% less fuel when cruising at 40 KM/h and 5% when cruising at 80 KM/h. Those are not earth shattering gains. In fact they fit the definition of the marginal gains I spoke of in part one of this review. The question is, do you notice it and do you see those fuel savings? Well, in terms of noticing it, I didn’t. The 2018 CX-5 behaved the same as the 2017 CX-5 from what I can tell thus far. Getting off the line was a non-issue. Passing transport trucks was effortless. So from that standpoint, the average driver won’t be able to tell if they’re running on four or two cylinders.

Now over to if this technology actually saves fuel. As I type this I am doing 8 L per 100 KM/s in mixed city and highway driving. Mostly the latter thus far. When I compare that the CX-5 that I drove last year, I was getting 9.9 L per 100 KM/s. And based on my notes, I was driving on mostly the same roads at the same times of day. So while it’s not an exact comparison, it does indicate that cylinder deactivation technology works. A couple observations that I have noted:

• I have seen the overall fuel economy change rapidly from as high as 8.2 L per 100 KM/s to as low as 7.8 L per 100 KM/s during the three or four drives I’ve had in the vehicle thus far.
• I have noted that the instant fuel economy readout has been as low as 3 L per 100 KM/s on the highway.

To me those are indications that that the cylinder deactivation technology is working. But I do expect the fuel economy to go up a bit as the week goes on. We’ll see how different it is versus last years model.

Other than that change, everything that I liked in the 2017 CX-5 I still like in the 2018 model. Body movement is well controlled, the suspension is on the firm side without beating you to death. It’s insanely agile at both city and highway speeds. And I actually get feedback from the steering wheel, which by the way has a very heavy feel to it that I liked. It feels sure footed because of the fact that it comes with a very good all wheel drive system, and tacked onto that is  G-Vectoring Control technology which enhances steering response through subtle engine-torque manipulation. In other words, it’s a form of torque vectoring that makes things like lane changes and turns smoother for you and your passengers. And there’s that sport switch to make things more fun if you find a back road someplace that you want to have some fun on.

In part three, I will be taking a look at the interior which in typical Mazda fashion is a Class Above. Stay tuned!

So I’ve come to the end of my week long review of the 2018 Mazda6 Signature and I walk away from this review very, very impressed. By that I mean that every aspect of this vehicle impressed me. The interior, exterior, driving experience, everything is above and beyond what one should expect from a mid sized car. The folks over at Toyota and Honda might want to take note because to be frank, they now have a competitor that they should really be concerned about. Besides the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, you can cross shop it against the Nissan Altima, Hyundai Sonata, and Kia Optima to name a few competitors. None of which in my opinion match what this Mazda6 has to offer.

My final fuel economy was 9.1 L per 100KM’s which was outstanding since I didn’t make any attempt to drive in a fuel economy. Though I will note that my average fuel economy went up to 10 L per 100KM’s because I took a trip into downtown Toronto rush hour traffic. But a trip to the Oro African Methodist Episcopal Church which is a National Historic Site of Canada brought it back down:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Given that there’s a really fun to drive 2.5L turbo engine under the hood, the fuel economy that I got this week is pretty impressive. Mazda has a winner in the mid sized class and anyone who drives it will likely be impressed enough to buy it rather than one of the usual market leaders. Especially in the Signature trim level which is class above. You can expect to pay $40,895 including freight for the Signature trim that I had this week. But the Mazda6 starts at $28,930 which is well in line with its competition.

For all those reasons do not be surprised if you start to see many more Mazda6’s on the roads than you are used to seeing in the not so distant future. Also, don’t be surprised if this vehicle ends up being an IT Nerd Award winner at the end of the year as it is a strong contender for that award. Again.

Even though the 2018 Mazda6 has a whole lot of technology in it. Here’s what it comes with starting with the safety technology:

• Blind Spot Monitoring: This system keeps an eye out for cars in your blind spots so that you don’t hit them when changing lanes. It also detects cars that are rapidly closing in on you from a distance.
• Smart City Brake Support: Let’s say that you you do not react in time to a car that panic stops in front of you. This Mazda is capable of coming to a stop at low speeds, or slowing down to make the impact less severe. You can get more details on this system here. I should note that as of the 2018 model year, this is a standard feature which means that getting such a key safety feature won’t require you to go to the top of the food chain.
• Lane Departure Warning System: If you cross over into another lane, this system will buzz you on either the right or the left side. The buzz really gets your attention I must say. For bonus points the Mazda6 will also perform minor steering corrections to help guide it back to the centre of the lane.
• Rear Cross Traffic Alert: If you back out of a parking space in a busy shopping mall and you have limited visibility to your left and right, you’ll love this system as you will be warned of any cars that cross into your path.
• Radar based cruise control is included to make long drives easier as it will allow the Mazda6 to slow down or speed up relative to traffic conditions.
• Adaptive Front Lighting System and High Beam Control: This trim level comes with LED headlights with LED daytime running lights that look cool. The lighting can be set to automatic so that you never have to worry about turning the lights on and off. I found that the levels where the lights might turn on to be better than most cars that I’ve driven as on a dark overcast day, the lights would come on. That’s something that would not happen in a lot of cars in similar systems. The high beam control is a handy feature to have as it adds to your visibility on dark country roads. So is the fact that as you steer, the headlights allow you to “see” around corners.
• You get anti-lock brakes, traction control, stability control, and electronic brake force distribution. Plus you get hill holding technology which keeps you from rolling backwards when you’re on a hill.
• You get dual front air bags, dual front side air bags and dual side air curtains and knee airbags.

Two things really stand out though. Let’s start with the 360 degree camera, which is made up of four cameras. There’s the backup camera, along with:

A front mounted camera:

And a camera mounted on each side mirror. Those cameras combined with some software give you this view:

There are sensors all around the car that work with the 360 camera system to ensure that you don’t hit anything. For example, I was navigating a tight drive through and the camera came on automatically when the sensors thought I was getting too close to an object. That allowed me to have the visibility to properly navigate the drive through without hitting anything. The sensors also play a role when parking as well which is very handy as I could ensure that I was not only in the parking spot, but I could also make sure I didn’t hit anything. I have to admit that this was my favorite piece of technology during the week that I had the Mazda6.

The second piece of technology that stood out was this:

The Mazda Active Driving Display is a heads up display that places everything from speed and blind spot monitoring info, to navigation and warning for the lane monitoring, and how close you are to the car in front of you. On top of that, the car is capable of reading speed limit and stop signs so that it can display them on this heads up display in color. It works very well with the only thing that I should mention is that my Oakely Prizim Road driving sunglasses filters the display out. Thus choose your sunglasses carefully.

Now how about actually driving the Mazda6 Signature? You get a proximity key with push button start. Thus all you have to do is press a button on the driver’s door handle. Press it and the car will unlock. Get in, hit the start/stop button and drive away. One nice touch is that the start/stop button will light up with a green light if you press the brake pedal to start. That’s a nice touch to remind you to press the brake pedal to start the car. When you’ve reached your destination, press the start/stop button to turn off the car. Then get out of the car, close the door and walk away. You’ll hear two beeps. One after you close the door and one about 10 seconds later. When you hear both, the car is locked. You never need to pull out the key fob to do any of this. But the key fob does have the ability to lock and unlock the doors and it has the ever useful panic button. As an added bonus, it has a backup key inside the key fob should you need it.

Mazda Connect is on board with the combination of the 8″ touchscreen and the HMI (Human Machine Interface) Commander Switch. It gives the driver a easy to learn, easy to use infotainment system. I wrote about it in detail here if you want to see what it has to offer. And before anyone asks, the Mazda6 doesn’t come with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. But that’s coming later this year. An 11 speaker Bose audio system is on board as well that sounds insanely great regardless of what music I threw at it. Which was the contents of my current audio torture playlist made up of Austra, Ruelle, TV On The Radio, Chemical Brothers, Electronic, Lana Del Rey and Black Coast among others. In fact, here’s a free tip for Mazda dealers to show off how good this audio system is. Play the Lucian Remix Black Coast’s Trndsttr. This song really shows off what this audio system is capable of at all ends of the audio spectrum and it will totally impress buyers.

The final part of this review will tie up some loose ends and I’ll give you my final verdict. Watch for it on Friday.

The interior of the 2018 Mazda6 Signature is simply a class above. Though I do have three very minor complaints, it’s a total winner. Let me walk you through it:

The drivers side door (not to mention the rest of the car) has a mix of Nappa leather, aluminum, Sen wood and Ultrasuede accents that really gives an upscale feel to the interior. Along with piano black accents around the buttons.

I’m zooming on the stitching, wood and aluminum accents that show how well this is all done.  Clearly a lot of time and attention went into this.

Bose supplies the audio. I’ll talk about that more in tomorrow’s review of the technology in the vehicle.

There are red puddle lights on all the doors for added safety.

Here on the drivers side of the Mazda6, there’s all the controls for the electronic overseers, the hood, gas cap, and trunk releases. Along with the pedals including a dead pedal. It’s all very functional, but if Mazda wanted to kick things up a notch, they could have included aluminum pedals to give it a bit of a sporty or upscale feel.

The driver and passenger get 10 way adjustable nappa leather seats that are heated and cooled. The seats are very supportive as long as you dial it in to fit your body. Once you dial it in, it has memory settings to memorize those settings.

The steering wheel is leather wrapped, heated, and has controls for the infotainment system and cruise controls. You can’t see them here, but there are paddle shifters on the back of the steering wheel. They’re plastic which works. But given the amount of detail that you’re going to see in the rest of the interior, aluminum paddle shifters might kick things up a notch.

Though the picture isn’t straight, you can clearly see the gauges. Now the one in the center is completely digital and customizable. The outside gauges are analog.

The 8″ Infotainment screen is mounted on top of the dash and is easy to read in any light. The start/stop button for the engine is to the left of it.

There’s dual zone climate control below the infotainment screen. The display related to this is digital and easy to read in all lighting conditions.

There’s a cubby that is below the HVAC controls that fit my iPhone 7 Plus.

Here you see the leather wrapped shifter, the sport switch, electronic parking brake, a button that holds the brakes on a hill, and the HMI commander switch for the infotainment system. There’s a door to the right of all of that….

…..That has a pair of cupholders…..

…..which holds a Venti sized Starbucks coffee with ease.

There’s a very deep central storage area with a 12V outlet as well as 2 USB ports and a 3.5 mm audio jack. When this is closed, you have a handy arm rest.

Why am I showing you the rear view mirror? It’s frameless. What that does is give you a bit more in terms of viewable area. Which in turn gave me amazing amounts of rear visibility.

The glovebox is average sized and was occupied the owners manuals.

You get a decent sized moonroof. The glass portion is powered, but the sunshade isn’t. My wife commented that having both powered would have been cool. I can see her point. But that’s really not a deal breaker.

The rear seat will fit two adults with ease as I was able to “sit behind myself” which is no small feat as I am 6 feet tall. Three adults may be a stretch if the person who sits in the middle is tall. My wife is 5′ 6″ and her head almost touched the roof in that position. Three kids back here would be no issue.

If you don’t need to seat three in the back, you can flip this down and get a couple of cupholders and the controls for the rear heated seats.

You can also open it for some storage as well as a pair of USB ports.

There’s ventilation in the back.

All the interior lighting is LED based which is very upscale and pleasing to the eye.

The trunk is very large as well as having the hinges boxed in so that they don’t crush anything beneath them. On the left and right sides are recessed storage areas so that you can keep stuff in there and not have it slide around the trunk.

It held our weekly grocery shopping haul with lots of space left over.

There’s a handle on the inside of the trunk that allows you to close it without getting your hands dirty.

This Signature trim level really is impressive. And any criticisms that I mentioned are really minor as these are areas where Mazda could have taken an impressive interior, and made it perfect. To be frank, I’ve been in luxury vehicles that aren’t as good as this. If you spend any time in it, you’ll be impressed as much as I was.

Tomorrow I will discuss the technology in the Mazda6, and there’s a lot of it. Stay tuned!

The Mazda6 in the recent past has only come with a Skyactiv 2.5L normally aspirated four cylinder engine that put out 187 horsepower and 186 pound feet of torque. While those don’t sound like big numbers, none of the Mazda6 models that I’ve driven ever felt lacking in any way when it came to power. And quite frankly I saw no need for them to change anything. Now that engine is still available in the 2018 model year (and as a bonus it comes with Cylinder Deactivation technology). But for the first time, you have a second option if you need more power:

This is the Skyactiv 2.5L turbo engine that puts out 227 horsepower (250 if you use premium gas instead of regular) and 310 pound feet of torque. If this engine and those numbers sound familiar, it’s because a similar engine is in the Mazda CX-9 7 passenger crossover. In this application, this takes a car that is already fun to drive, and amps it up by several orders of magnitude. If you put your foot down, it will leap off the line (in fact, I chirped the tires accelerating off the line from a light). Turbo lag exists if you look hard for it, but it is minimal and you blow by it in a blink of an eye. While it’s not quite “pin your back to the seat” acceleration, its acceleration is very authoritative and you will have lots of power for any situation that you find yourself in. Be it passing trucks or merging onto the highway. Plus it sounds great when you put your foot down.But if you want something closer to that “pin your back to the seat experience”, hit the sport switch and hang on. Though I will note that whether it is in normal mode or sport mode, it’s also one of those cars that has enough power and enough smoothness that it can get you to license suspension country in a hurry if you are not careful. It’s paired to a six speed automatic that in the Signature trim level has paddle shifters for those who like to shift gears themselves. But this is a well sorted transmission that really doesn’t require any human intervention at all. Thus I would leave it alone and let it do its thing. For those of you who want a real manual with a clutch pedal, that option is not available anymore. Likely because like many other car makers have discovered, the take-up on manuals was likely low.

#SaveTheManuals

The accelerator is easy to modulate. Ditto for the brakes. Noise, harshness and vibration is approaching luxury car low. The only times I heard anything was when I put my foot down to accelerate was the growl of the engine. Body roll is minimal and the suspension is firm without being so firm that it shakes you to bits unless you are on really rough roads. It’s also extremely agile and moniker of “sports sedan” fits it very well. What helps with that is G-Vectoring Control which responds to driver inputs with fewer steering adjustments, so your vehicle behaves as you intend and you enjoy a more enjoyable drive. It has a great amount of road feel which makes it very easy to figure out what the car is doing beneath you and the steering is well weighted at all speeds. Finally, visibility is excellent in all directions.

In terms of fuel economy, I am currently getting 9L per 100 KMs which is quite good as I am driving in city and highway traffic, and I am making no attempt to drive in any way that saves fuel.

Tomorrow I will discuss the interior which can be described in two words: “Class Above.” Tune in tomorrow to find out why.