The IT Nerd

The interior of this Mazda CX-9 Signature is impressive. Anyone who has seen it is wowed by how good it is. And by the fact that it’s made by Mazda and not by BMW, Audi, Mercedes Benz, or Lexus. Let me illustrate why by walking you through the interior:

Let’s start with the drivers seat. It’s made of nappa leather and is comfortable to sit in once you dial in your position. Though if I could offer up a suggestion, a bit more thigh support for taller drivers would be welcome. It’s ten way adjustable with a pair of memory settings. The front seats are heated and cooled.

Door, window and and mirror controls are on the left and surrounded by some glossy piano black trim (which as you can see from this photo does attract fingerprints). In front of that are the buttons for the electronic overseers and the button for the rear hatch.

One nice touch is that the area near the handle is lit to add some ambiance.

Another nice touch is that the bottom of the door is wrapped around the bottom of the car so that when get in and out, your pants don’t get dirty.

The gauge cluster has a pair of analog gauges on the left and the right. But in the center is a massive TFT screen that allows you to customize it to display whatever info you need in front of you.

Speaking of in front of you, there’s a heads up display that projects speed, blind spot monitoring, cruise control, navigation and other info right onto the windshield. I will have more on this in part four of my review.

The steering wheel is leather wrapped and heated. It has buttons for the infotainment and cruise control systems. I must admit that it felt really nice in my hands.

A 8″ display sits on top of the dash. Plus it also gives you a great view of the Nappa leather and brushed aluminum that is all over this vehicle. Below the display are the HVAC controls.

Below the HVAC controls is the shift lever which is leather wrapped and surrounded by more piano black glossy trim. There’s also the HMI Commander Switch for the infotainment system and the electronic parking brake.

There’s a pair of cupholders that pass the Venti Starbucks drink test.

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The armrest when opened has a pair of USB ports and a healthy amount of storage. It opens up in two halves which is kind of different. One thing that I should point out is that because the USB ports are here, I put my iPhone XS in here and left it there. Which meant I was less likely to try and use while driving.

You get a decent sized glove box on the passenger side.

My wife pointed this bit out. When you flip down the visor and slide the mirror open, the light that’s above it comes on. And when you flip up the visor, it turns off. She loved that clever feature.

Another thing that my wife noticed was the 12v outlet on the passenger side. That’s very handy.

One thing that I noticed was the fact that the rear view mirror is frameless. That gives you a lot more visibility when you have it properly positioned.

Now the sunroof that’s in the CX-9 was a topic for discussion as some felt that Mazda missed an opportunity to get a 10/10 on this vehicle by not having a panoramic sunroof in the vehicle. My response to that would be that by not having a panoramic sunroof, they make sure the vehicle stays stiff which makes it drive and handle better. And driving performance is a core reason why you buy a Mazda. Thus having a sunroof of this size makes total sense to me.

The second row can seat three kids. Maybe adults if they are friendly. The second row seats are heated for all except the person in the middle. And they slide back and forth to create more room for either those in the second row, or for those in the third row.

Those in the second row get access to their own set of HVAC controls.

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If you don’t need to seat three people in the second row, you can flip down this armrest which not only has a pair of cupholders, but it has a storage area with a pair of USB ports in it.

Accessing the third row is straightforward. You pull a lever at the top of the second row seat (which split 60/40 by the way) flips down partially and the seat slides forward. Now adults will have a challenge sitting back here as headroom is limited. But kids should be fine.

There’s cupholders on either side of the third row.

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Cargo room is not an issue. The third row folds flat and the second row folds mostly flat to give you lots of room (over 2000L of storage) for lots of cargo.

The CX-9 came in handy for me to pick up this TCL 43″ UHD TV that is up next to review in the coming days. I folded down all the seats to ensure that it would fit. But I think it might have fit even if I didn’t fold down the second row seats..

I also got this new TV stand and I only had to slide one of the second row seats forward to make it fit.

Shopping for groceries were a total non issue.

There is underfloor storage as well.

The cargo area has handy hooks like this one to secure your cargo.

Plus there’s a 12v outlet back here as well to power your gear.

Overall the interior is top shelf in every way possible. Mazda really did a great job putting the interior together as it it really impresses anyone who sees it. I should also note that there’s very good vision in every direction for the driver. Though I will note that when you have the third row seats up, the headrests cut off some of your rear vision. No rattles, squeaks, or other annoyances were noted during my week with the CX-9.

Tomorrow I will talk about the technology in the CX-9, including one major addition. Stay tuned for that.

About two years ago I reviewed the Mazda CX-9 which is Mazda’s entry into the three row SUV space. It impressed me in terms of the quality of the interior, the stunning exterior looks, and the fuel economy which was amazing for such a big vehicle.

Now I’m back with the 2019 version in the Signature trim:

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The looks are stated earlier are simply stunning. It’s easily the best looking vehicle that Mazda has made. This despite the fact that this is a two year old design. Clearly it is a design that is going to age well. But Mazda did make a change on the outside. The mirrors are power folding mirrors which is a feature that did not exist in the one that I drove 2 years ago. They unfold when you unlock the CX-9 and fold up when you lock the CX-9. That’s a nice touch. But beyond that, any changes that Mazda has made to the CX-9 are going to be elsewhere and I will do my best to highlight them as I go through this review.

My review of the CX-9 is made up of five parts:

• Exterior
• Engine, transmission, handling, fuel economy, and driving comfort
• Interior
• Technology in the vehicle
• Wrap up

Tomorrow, I’ll be covering the fact that this seven passenger SUV comes with a 2.5l turbocharged 4 cylinder engine as opposed to a V6. That impressed me the last time I drove this vehicle, and I was even more impressed this time around. Tune in tomorrow to find out why.

So I’ve come to the end of my week long review of the Mazda CX-5. Now, what does it compete against? I’ll start with the usual suspects which are the Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, Nissan Rogue. Hyundai Tucson which I reviewed a couple of years ago, Ford Escape and Kia Sportage. But the interior of the CX-5 is above and beyond what’s in all of these vehicles and so are the driving dynamics. Not to mention the exterior looks. But the big news is the inclusion of cylinder deactivation technology which saves you gas and by extension cash. All of that in my mind pushes the CX-5 to the front of the pack.

Speaking of fuel economy, my final fuel economy was 8.9 L/100KM’s. Seeing as I recorded 9.9 L/100 KM’s in last years model, that’s a 1 L/100KM’s difference. That’s a marginal gain. But that marginal gain adds up over a week, a month or a year as you’re going further on less gas with no change in performance. That in my mind makes this marginal gain a significant gain.

Now the CX-5 GT that I had this weeks goes for $38,495 (freight included). But you can get a CX-5 for $25,900 which is right in the range of it’s main competitors. Given the level of content that comes with the CX-5 GT, and the fuel economy that this SUV is capable of, that’s good value for money. And it’s another reason why the it will continue to be one of the top sellers in the highly competitive compact SUV space.

If you’re looking for technology in the Mazda CX-5, there’s a lot of it to be found. Some of it which is really different. Let’s start 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 works well as the area of detection was large enough to keep me safe, but not so large that it created false positives.
• Lane Departure Warning With Lane Keep Assist: 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. You can also set it to vibrate the steering wheel. However, it has one extra trick, the system will proactively guide the CX-5 back onto its intended path if the system thinks you’re getting out of shape. For what its worth, it was never overly intrusive when it did intervene.
• 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.
• Adaptive Front Lighting System and High Beam Control: I wrote about this previously and I have to admit that on some of the back roads that I drive at night, this feature came in handy. I was always able to see what was in front of me clearly. One thing that I really appreciated was the fact that the LED headlights were very bright.
• Distance Recognition Support System: This feature measures the distance between your vehicle and the vehicle ahead and recommends a comfortable following distance on the Active Driving Display as long as you are above 30 km/h.
• Radar Based Cruise Control: I really liked this feature as you can set the speed you want and the distance that you want to have between yourself and the car in front of you, and you can pretty much let it slow down and speed up depending on the conditions. It’s very handy on long highway drives. One trick that it has is that it will slow the car down to a dead stop. Though you’ll have to get the CX-5 moving again once traffic starts to move.
• 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 on it’s own, or slowing down enough to make the impact less severe. You can get more details on this system here. I should note that this is a standard feature regardless of the trim level
• Rear Backup Camera: The camera is a fisheye camera that has an impressive degree of clarity. You can see anything and everything that is behind you when you’re backing up. One thing to note is that the camera is exposed, so it may become a dirt magnet that will affect what you can see.
• You get anti-lock brakes, traction control, stability control, and electronic brake force distribution. Plus you get hill launch assist which keeps you from rolling backwards when you’re on a hill.
• Finally, you get dual front air bags, dual front side air bags and dual side air curtains.

There’s one other piece of technology that I should point out:

This is the Mazda Active Driving Display, and this feature projects vehicle speed, chosen cruise-control speed, information from the navigation system (including turn-by-turn directions, distance and lane guidance) as well as notifications for the blind spot monitoring system, lane departure warning system, and road signs onto the windscreen. All of this information is within the line of sight of the driver, which means you never have to look away from the road. That’s why I consider it to be a piece of safety tech. Once I tweaked the position of the display, I found it to be extremely useful. The only thing that I should mention is that my Oakely Prizim Road driving sunglasses filters the display out. Thus choose your sunglasses carefully.

Is there anything missing from the safety tech? There are no backup sensors which give you audio cues of how close you are to an object when you are backing up. That could be a problem as many of the vehicles that the CX-5 competes against includes this feature.

Now how about actually driving the Mazda CX-5? 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.

Then there is Mazda Connect. The combination of the 7″ touchscreen  and the HMI (Human Machine Interface) Commander Switch gives the driver a easy to learn, easy to use infotainment system. I wrote about it in detail here. And before anyone asks, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay isn’t currently available, but it’s on the way.

The Mazda CX-5 has a 10 speaker Bose sound system that I have to admit that regardless where in the CX-5 I happened to be sitting, the sound was excellent as the highs and lows were perfect and the audio was well balanced when I tested it with 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. I should note that there is no CD player in the CX-5, but I don’t think you’ll miss it.

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 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:

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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.