5 vs Forester vs Outback and cargo capacity??

Hi all,

I posted on this board a few years ago specifically looking for feedback on the 5s cargo capacity, long story short we ended up buying a Sienna (boring!) since a cant pass this up deal was available then on a slightly used model.

Anyways, our 2 daughters are now older (4 & 6) and were looking for a new replacement for our main vehicle and once again I am gravitating towards a new 5. I miss rowing my own gears and all 3 vehicles that were looking at have that option.

I do put a priority on cargo capacity and both the Outback and Forester appear good on paper although I have never experienced it in real-life. One thing that still remains a confusion to me is the spec sheet and the amount of cargo capacity in the 5.

In Canada (where I live) they list cargo at:

Behind 3rd row: 4 cu. ft
Behind 2nd row: 15 cu. ft
Behind 3rd row:30.3. cu. ft.

In the US.

They only list it behind 2nd row and its 44 cu. ft.

So whos right? Since we have 2 kids my main concern is cargo behind the 2nd row and if its in fact 44 cu. ft. than thats great, it makes it bigger than both the Outback and the Forester.

Can anyone here enlighten me on this?

Also, if anyone owned or currently owns a Forester or an Outback I would love to hear your thoughts on cargo capacity and how it differs from the 5. Lastly I wouldnt also mind hearing from folks who went from a full-size van (Sienna, Odyssey, Caravan) to the 5 and how the adjustment was.

My apologies for such a long post but I would appreciate all feedback.
(hi)

Adjusting from Sienna to 5

simonsez said:

Lastly I wouldnt also mind hearing from folks who went from a full-size van (Sienna, Odyssey, Caravan) to the 5 and how the adjustment was.
(hi)

Click to expand...

I traded in a 2008 Sienna for a 2010 Mazda 5, and the adjustment has been pretty smooth. There is noticeably less cargo room in a 5 than in a Sienna, but our boys are 4 years old now, so we were intentionally downsizing a bit. The third row is really tight in terms of seating and really only usable for either short distances or kids. We usually keep the third row folded down to use the cargo space. The cargo space has been sufficient, although we do fill it up for three-day weekend trips to the grandparents.

The 5 definitely handles better than the Sienna without question. You can zip around in a 5 in a way that is just not possible in a Sienna. We do kind of miss the power doors that we had in the Sienna, but it's not a big deal. IMO, the seats in the 5 are less comfortable than the Sienna, and there are fewer places to stash stuff in the front row. The MPG in the 5 is better--we get 26 or 27 on trips and 22-23 around town. I'm keeping an eye on my OEM tires after reading all about them on this forum. I'm kind of looking forward to replacing them, as I think that they are poor to fair in the snow. The stability control helps, but the Toyo tires don't have much grip on the road in snowy or icy conditions, so I'm thinking about snow tires (which I didn't have to think about with the Sienna). So far, the tires seem to be wearing fine at 5600 miles.

Overall, we are happy with the 5. My wife likes driving it better than the Sienna. We will probably eventually get a bigger car (or maybe even an Outback or Forester, as we've looked at those, too) once we are through with our other vehicle, which is a Ford Focus.

My guess would be that because of the ceiling height on the 5, you will gain some room in volume. When I was looking (which was just within the last few weeks/month), I had the exact same cars on my list. I was looking used, but still, the same cars.

The only reason I went with the 5 is looks and feel. I just didn't care for the way the Subarus drove. Their steering is heavy and they just feel sluggish. Plus, road noise was pretty bad in both. Again, I was looking at somewhat higher mileage cars, but drove a few with around 20-30k miles on them. I loved the way the 5 drove, it felt sporty compared to the others. And, truth be told, I just love the look of them.

Hope my .02 helps a little.

It seems in Canada, they list the cargo room available BELOW the window line, where as in the US of A they include the entire interior volume. It's weird as in Canada it puts the 5 at a disadvantage compared to a lot of competitors, there really is more space than the brochure says.

My wife and I recently transported a 3 seater sofa in the interior (hatch producing about 16" out at the bottom) and carried an arm chair on the roof to boot. I also transported three teammates and four hockey bags, one of them being a goalie bag, and eight hockey sticks, absolutely no problems. It's such a versatile, small yet big vehicle. And the best part is the manual transmission. IF you wanted to wait a few months, the 2012 Chevy Orlando should arrive by then, it'll be a 7 seater, powered by the same 2.4 that's in the Equinox, and will have a six speed manual transmission in all three trims, the base LS, mid range LT, and top of the line LTZ featuring leather seating, 18" wheels, and dual zone automatic climate control.

This is from our very own site:



Subaru Forester in comparison...

A: Cargo door width at bottom of door opening 39"
B: Cargo floor length to back of rear seat 35.5"
C: Cargo floor length to back of center console 70"
D: Cargo door height in middle of door 34.5"
E: Cargo floor width between wheel wells 42.2"
F: Cargo floor maximum length from rear to front console (stereo) 102"
G: Rear seat maximum width, seats folded flat from door to door 55.5"
60/40 split rear seat width: Rear Passenger width 24", Rear driver width 15.5"
H: Cargo door width at middle of door 44"
I: Cargo height, floor to roof, with sunroof: 32"
J: Cargo door width at top of door 39"

Cargo volume on the 5 might be bigger but it narrower due to wheel well extension to the back. I could fit a folded 12x12 instant shelter on my Forester behind the wheel well and could not on the 5.

The 5 would hands down out handle the Forester and Outback in stock form. Subaru are famous for mushy / sloppy handling.

Rowing manual transmission on Subaru Sucks. All the soft bushing they put to isolate vibration add a lot of slop to the drivetrain. The newer outback have cable shifter that are a lot smoother but still miles behind compared to stock 5 manual shifter. Clutch on Subaru are a lot heavier than the 5. Something need to be considered if your wife would drive it too.

The AWD on Subarus are great on snow but if you are not careful it could exhibit some RWD handling characteristic with excessive oversteer on snow. The stock tires are terrible on snow even with AWD. Mazda5 are decent on light snow with proper tire.

I have 2010 Mazda 5 sport MT and 07 Forester Sport Turbo MT. Newer Forester have even slopplier handling than 03-08 model.

We have an 08 Mazda5 and an 05 Outack 2.5i. I can confirm that there is more room in the 5 in every area except the width at the hatch. The way the hatch conforms on the sides of the 5 makes the opening narrow. Once you get past that though its much roomier. I can carry(with some seat adjustment) an 8 foot table in my 5. The seat backs are also higher/floor is lower, so you can stack more in the 5. There have been about 6 times or so in my 3 years of ownership when I wished for a bigger van. 99 percent of the time its the perfect size. The 5 also does better on gas than the Outback, although the new Outbacks with CVT's are rated more fuel efficent and have an 18 gallon tank.

One more thing that is probably obvious. You can't beat the sliding doors, especially with kids.

I bought my first mazda5 in 2005 and then I bought my 2nd Mazda5 in 2007. For the 2nd one I cross shopped with other "tall" wagons like the Subarus and there was no way they could match the Mazda5 in practicality and usable space.

Mazda5 usable cargo space > Subarus
Mazda5 flexibility > Subarus
Mazda5 overall space for car seats / booster seats (2nd row and 1st row space left for the driver) > Subarus

Mazda5 ride: awesome for this type of car
Subarus ride: like SUVs (if they would have kept the Legacy wagon then that may not have applied though)

The only thing that comes to mind is the Mazda5 driver's legroom, many people have complained is not enough, so test drive it.

And by the way, I swapped one of my Mazda5s for an Odyssey, but the only reason is because a 3rd little one was on the way, otherwise, with 2 kids, no way in hell I would have done it.. My only relief is that I still own one and is my daily driver

By the way, if you find one of this, get it instead, screw all the things I said on my past post (evil)

<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/o_WO9wxdj5g" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

There quite a few people already doing Forester STI conversion in US. Quite a few STI crashes already so used parts are readily available. Not something you want to do as a family car though.

09-11 Forester XT are not available with MT. They only available with ancient 4 speed auto. 05-09 Legacy, 08-11 Impreza and 08-11 Forester share same platform so a lot of parts are interchangeable between them. Owning a turbo Subaru could be as expensive as a Jeep. There are so many upgrade parts available for it.

I am a lot more satisfied with my Mazda5 than my Forester. I do not have any complain with my 2010 sport MT. While I have a ton of complain with my Forester XT. It rattles, stock stereo are really bad, Drivetrain noise, Hard to shift MT, Sloppy brake pedal, Hard clutch, Sloppy suspension and my OEM rear tire wore out really fast on the inside (just like early mazda5 problem). Its all well now but it took me almost 2 years of fine tuning to get everything right the way I want it to be.

Thanks all for the great feedback and keep it coming if there's more. It sounds like the 5 is superior in many ways (minus the AWD) to the Subarus.

Nice to hear from actual/previous owners too.

It appears that Mazda Canada did shoot themselves in the foot regarding their advertised cargo capacity, you'd think that they would be on the same page as their U.S. counterparts.

The really nice thing about the Mazda5 is the sixth seat.

I have two sons (10 & 13). It's nice to be able to take both along with two of their friends (one for each), and then one of the friend's fathers or my wife to whatever event (to the zoo, sporting event, etc). It's not as good as a full-size van in the hauling possibilities, but the sixth seat really does get used on a pretty regular basis in my household and the Mazda5 is just a better all-around vehicle than a full-size van (much cheaper, better gas milage, better handling, manual transmission, etc).