The IT Nerd

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. Thus I suspect that this new CX-5 will be stealing sales from that group shortly.

My final fuel economy was 9.6 L/100KM’s which is pretty good. I did drive in a mix of city roads and highways, not to mention rush hour traffic. Thus the Skyactiv magic clearly works in the CX-5.

Now the CX-5 GT that I had this weeks goes for $38,495 (freight included). But you can get a CX-5 for $24,900 which is right in the range of it’s main competitors. On a side note, this has been the most read review that I have ever done based on the number of page views that it got over the week. That’s suggests to me that a lot of people are interested in what the CX-5 has to offer, and that Mazda clearly has a winner on its hands. And I suspect that will show in Mazda’s sales numbers shortly.

If you’re looking for technology in the Mazda CX-5, there’s a lot of it. 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.
• 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.
• Mazda Active Driving Display: 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.
• 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.

The best piece of technology that is in the Mazda CX-5 is the inclusion of 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 this iteration seems to be a bit faster than I have found it to be in the past. Another note is that the screen looks extremely sharp and vibrant. Clearly they’ve upgraded it.

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. Phone calls were clear on both ends of the conversation as well. I should note that there is no CD player in the CX-5, but I don’t think you’ll miss it. Speaking of missing, my wife pointed out that there are no backup sensors which give you audio cues of how close you are to an object when you are backing up. I have to admit that she might have a bit of a point there as many of the vehicles that the CX-5 competes against includes this feature.

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 Mazda CX-5 is quite simply a class above. Let’s get started with the drivers seat to illustrate why:

The drivers seat is 10 way adjustable with two memory settings. My wife found it to be perfect for her. I found that there wasn’t enough thigh support for my very long legs but otherwise comfortable. Thus your mileage may vary. Both this seat and the front passenger seat are heated and leather covered.

The doors have a mix of leather and soft touch materials. It also has something called metal wood. If you look to the left of the door handle, you’ll see something that looks like wood, but is really metal.

Here’s a closer look at the metal wood that I spoke of earlier. It truly adds a touch of class to the CX-5.

Audio in the CX-5 is provided by Bose. And it sounds great. More on that tomorrow.

To the left of the steering wheel are the controls for the rear hatch, electronic overseers and the hood and gas flap. You’ll also note the dead pedal which is handy on long drives.

The gauges are nice and clear in all lighting conditions. The one on the right is actually a TFT screen which you can customize to display the info that is important to you.

The steering wheel is on the chunky side, but feels nice your hands and includes all the buttons to control the infotainment system, as well as the radar based cruise control. The steering wheel is heated and leather covered.

Projected in front of you onto the windscreen is the Mazda Active Driving Display. You get speed, navigation, blind spot, street signs and other info placed right in the line of sight. I’ll have more on that tomorrow.

There’s a 7″ display on the dash and you also some cool looking air vents with the hazard lights switch placed in between them.

Here’s a closer look at the 7″ screen which is much sharper than previous iterations that I have seen in Mazda vehicles.

Below the screen and air vents are the dual zone HVAC controls along with the controls for the heated seats and steering wheel.

There’s is a storage area with a 12V outlet that was big enough to hold my iPhone 7 Plus.

Here you can see the center console which includes the shifter, the electronic parking brake, the auto hold switch which keeps you from rolling backwards, and the HMI Commander switch that help you to control the infotainment system.

The cupholders easily hold my Starbucks Venti sized drink with ease.

There is a storage area under the armrest that has lots of storage as well as two USB ports and a 12V outlet.

The glove box was mostly occupied with the user manuals. Having said that, it is decently sized.

Also decently sized is the power moonroof.

There’s a lot of room in the back seats as I was able to “sit behind myself” with plenty of room to spare. Two adults or three kids should have no problem sitting back here. I should also note that the rear seats are heated (!).

If you don’t need to seat three people, you can flip this panel down to get access to the cupholders, rear seat heating controls, and two 2.1 Amp USB ports to keep your devices fully charged (!).

Rear seat passengers also get their own ventilation.

There’s 875L of cargo seats with the seats up. But if you flip them down…..

You get 1687 L of space. I was able to get my wife’s bike back here when I took her to one of her cycling clinics with no issues.

You can flip the rear seats down easily using this handle. There are two of them that are located on either side of the cargo area.

Or you can use one of these handles to flip the seats down. One thing that I should note is the fact that the seats fold flat and you can flip them back up with minimal effort. Kudos to Mazda for that.

To give you an idea of how much cargo you can carry, here’s our grocery haul from a trip to our local grocery store and from a trip to St Jacob’s Farmers market.

There’s a handle on the hatch that allows you to close it without getting dirt on your hands. But chances are you’ll press the button on the left seeing as the hatch 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.

This is the Mazda Skyactiv 2.5l four cylinder engine. It puts out 184 horsepower and 185 pound feet of torque and is mated to a six speed automatic that you can shift yourself (Top tip: don’t bother as it does fine when left alone) which puts the power to the road via all four wheels. Now that’s not new as the previous generation CX-5 had this engine transmission combo. And its ability to motivate the CX-5 with authority (more so when you flip the sport switch on the center console) hasn’t changed either. But what is new is what is around the engine. Which is a much stiffer body and a heavily reworked suspension. All of this conspires to make what was already an outstanding crossover from a handling perspective even better. 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.

Excellent!

What further helps this is the inclusion of G-Vectoring Control technology that 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. Here’s a video that shows it in action:

Net result: It’s the best handling compact crossover that’s not named Porsche. 

A word about the all wheel drive system in the CX-5. As I type this, Toronto is receiving massive amounts of rain. As in more we got a months worth of rain in a week. As in homes are being flooded and Lake Ontario is at it’s highest point since 1973. Conditions like these can show the best, or worst, when it comes to an all wheel drive system. I never noticed when the system had to do something and I always felt that the CX-5 was sure footed, which is the way it should be.

Now if you do want more engine than this, I have news for you. The word is that later this year a diesel version of the CX-5 is coming. I don’t have pricing or specs yet. But it’s sure to shake up the marketplace if it does hit Canadian soil. I say if because Mazda has promised a diesel version of the Mazda6 mid sized sedan in the past and it never showed up. So it will be interesting to see if a diesel CX-5 does materialize. If it does, expect to see a review on it.

One thing that you will notice if you’ve driven the previous CX-5 is that noise, harshness and vibration levels are way down. Now to be fair, the previous CX-5 was pretty good on this front, but the 2017 model is way better. Fuel economy at the moment is 9.9 L per 100/KM in mixed city and highway driving, some of it in rush hour. That’s pretty good and I expect it to improve over the course of this week.

In part three, I will be taking a look at the interior which I can describe in two words: Class Above. Stay tuned!

Mazda has had a winner in the compact SUV space with the CX-5. It’s fun to drive, agile, and great on gas with some good looks tossed in. So when Mazda rolled out the new CX-5 at the Canadian International Auto Show media day this past February, I was convinced that Mazda had another winner on its hands. Let me show you why starting with the exterior:

No matter what angle you look at it from, it is gorgeous. It reminds me of the CX-9 that I tested last year as it shares the same iteration of the Kodo design language that the CX-9 brought to the table. If you want a sharp looking compact SUV, this is the one to get.

My review of the Mazda CX-5 GT is made up of five parts:

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

The next part of this review will cover the engine, transmission and driving comfort. I’ll give you a hint that it’s all typical Mazda, which is to say it is great. Stay tuned!

So I’ve come to the end of the review of the Mazda3 Sport GT. First, let me tie up some loose ends. At the end of my week with it, I registered an impressive 7.2 L/100KM in mixed city and highway driving, a lot of which was in rush hour and stop and go traffic. But it also included an overnight trip to Algonquin Park. Clearly Mazda’s SkyActiv technology works to save you gas. But you still get a car that is excellent on the highway and handles even better than previous iterations thanks to G-Vectoring Control.

The Mazda3 Sport starts at $24,695 and as tested goes for $27,900. Speaking of which, you’ll want to cross shop it with the Ford Focus, the VW Golf, the Toyota Corolla IM, the Chevy Cruze Hatchback, and Hyundai Elantra GT to name a few contenders in a crowded field. 

Here’s why you need to consider the Mazda3. You’re getting a hatchback that is sporty, frugal on gas, roomy, loaded with technology, and very luxurious in the GT trim level. All at a price that won’t break the bank. If you’re in the market for a compact hatchback, the Mazda3 Sport has to be on your list.

If you’re looking for technology in the 2017 Mazda3 Sport GT, there’s a lot of it. 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 Mazda3 Sport GT back onto its intended path if the system thinks you’re getting out of shape. I found it to work very well during my week with the Mazda3 Sport GT. 
• 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 comes 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 Bi-Xenon headlights were very bright.
• 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.
• 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 Mazda3 Sport is capable of coming to a stop on it’s own, or slowing down to make the impact less severe. You can get more details on this system here.
• 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 I have to wonder how clear it will be when it is dirty. Another thing to note, there are no backup sensors that warn you of objects that you might hit when backing up. 
• Mazda Active Driving Display: This is a green piece of plastic that flips up from the dash when you start the car that put various pieces of info in the drivers line of sight. This iteration 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 my seat position as well as the position of the display, I found it to be extremely useful.
• You get anti-lock brakes, traction control, stability control, and electronic brake force distribution. 
• Finally, you get dual front air bags, dual front side air bags and dual side air curtains.

The GT trim level gives you 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 as well as pop the trunk, plus it has the ever useful panic button. As an added bonus, it has a backup key inside the key fob should you need it.

The best piece of technology that is in the Mazda3 Sport is the inclusion of 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. Because I was testing the ZTE Axon 7 Android smartphone, I was able to try out the Mazda Connect’s abiltiy to receive text messages (and have them read to you) and respond with pre-canned responses. Now, while I did find that this was cool, I can see how this might also be distracting. I would only use this once I was fully comfortable with how it worked. Another point to note that this is a feature that works only on the Android OS. If Mazda could get this to work on iOS, that would be really cool. 

TheMazda3 Sport GT has an 9 speaker Bose sound system that I have to admit that regardless where I happened to be sitting, the sound was excellent as the highs and lows were perfect and the audio was well balanced. Listening to David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Moby, and U2 was very cool. Phone calls were clear on both ends of the conversation as well. Listening from an iPhone and from the ZTE Axon 7 worked perfectly. Plus, there’s a CD player included for those of you who have lots of CDs in your colleciton. 

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 2017 Mazda3 Sport GT has taken a huge step forward in terms of the Interior quality. Let me show you how big of a step forward this is via photos taken with the ZTE Axon 7.

The door is a great example of this step forward. There’s leather, soft touch material, and very upscale looking metal and plastic which combine to give an upscale feel.

The driver’s seat is heated and six way adjustable. It was easy for me to find a good driving position. The passenger will have to do all their seat adjustments manually.

The driver’s footwell has a dead pedal which is great for ensuring comfort on long drives, and above it are the switches for the various electronic overseers.

The steering wheel is leather wrapped and has redundant controls for the infotainment system as well as controls for the cruise control.

The gauge cluster is unique. The center gauge has a digital speedometer and an analog tachometer. On the left and right are everything from how much gas you have, your current fuel economy, and what gear you’re in. Along the bottom are various information and warning lights. I have to admit that this arrangement works well as it focus you on the info that you need to see.

Then there is the Mazda Active Driving Display which places speed, navigation, speed limit signs, and stop signs right in color and in your line of sight. It works really well once you tweak its position. I will talk more about this tomorrow.

There’s a 7″ touchscreen to allow you to interact with the infotainment system, or in my case, listen to some David Bowie.

Below that, you have the dual zone HVAC controls, the CD player, and a storage area that is big enough to hold a iPhone 6.

Here you see a very upscale looking gear shift, HMI Commander Switch for the infotainment system, electronic parking brake, and sport switch. Behind all of that are the cupholders which holds a Venti Starbucks coffee with ease.

There’s a storage area of decent size which has a 12v outlet and two USB ports for your devices. Plus you get a coin tray.

You get a decent sized glove box as well as…..

….. A decent sized sunroof.

The back seats are comfortable. Two people will fit back here and be comfortable. Three might be a stretch.

If you don’t need to seat three, you can use the cupholders that are built into the rear seats.

Seeing as this is a hatchback, you get 572l of space with the seats up…..

…. And with the seats down, you get 1334l of space.

And that space makes it easy to go grocery shopping.

The hatch has a handle to allow you to close it without getting your hands dirty.

Everyone who has been in the Mazda3 Sport commented on the fact that this hatchback felt way more expensive than it was. No squeaks, rattles, or other annoyances were noted during my week with the Mazda3 Sport.

Tomorrow, I will look at the technology in the Mazda3 Sport, and there’s a lot of it for me to cover. Stay tuned for that!

This is the 2.5l 4 cylinder Skyactiv engine that puts out 184 horsepower and 185 pound feet of torque to the front wheels. It’s mated to a 6 speed automatic transmission that can be manually shifted. In a vehicle this size, this is an extremely potent combo as it is very willing to rocket forward whether it is to pass a transport truck, or beat cars off the line. It sounds great when you put your foot down thanks to engine note that sounds sporty without being over the top. And if you want all of this amped up, simply hit the sport mode switch which changes the throttle response, transmission behaviour and engine note all for the better. Steering is heavy and feels similar to many German performance cars and it doesn’t interfere with your ability to feel what the Mazda3 Sport GT is doing underneath you. 

Combine this with really great handling that is enhanced by the addition of G-Vectoring Control for 2017. This works behind the scenes to achieve a smoother, less fatiguing drive for you and your passengers by subtly adjusting engine torque and intentionally optimizing vehicle weight transfer during everyday commutes and spirited drives alike. The result is steering that is more precise and a ride that is more comfortable for drivers and passengers. 

Here’s a video that shows the difference between a Mazda with and without G-Vectoring Control:

Now G-Vectoring Control does make this car more fun to drive for you and your passengers. But I have a real world example of how G-Vectoring Control can be a safety feature. Shortly after picking up the Mazda3 Sport, I drove down highway 404 from Mazda Canada HQ and then merged onto highway 401. Shortly after doing that, I came behind a transport truck that panic stopped in front of me. Now I have taken a variety of driver training courses over the years, and that training kicked in instantly. I looked right and left and found an escape path to the left. I also noted that I had space behind me as well. That allowed me to quickly change lanes to the left while flooring the accelerator to pass the transport truck safely. The thing that I noticed at the time and when I thought about it afterwards is that the Mazda3 Sport is incredibly composed and there was close to zero oversteer or understeer that I noted. That allowed me to put the Mazda3 Sport exactly where I needed it to be. Quite simply, I am a believer in G-Vectoring Control as it worked without question to get out of this situation safely.

Muted road noise is the only thing that I hear, unless I put my foot down of course which results in a nice sounding engine coming through. Fuel economy is absolutely a strong point with the Mazda3 Sport. I am currently getting 7.4l / 100 KM’s and I expect it to get even better as the week goes on.

Part three of this review will cover the interior of the Mazda3 Sport GT which has been improved for 2017. Stay tuned to see how nice it is.