I had my new Diesel CX-5 delivered on Friday afternoon. I've done a mix of driving around Sydney and surrounds to the tune of 700km (435 miles).
I think I can give a good summary of the pros and cons so far of the Diesel.
The model I have is the AWD Diesel with the following:
Power: 129kW/173hp @ 4500rpm
Torque: 420Nm/310lbf @ 2000rpm
This compares with the same AWD Petrol:
Power: 113kW/152hp @ 6000rpm
Torque: 198Nm/146lbf @ 4000rpm
That's 14% more power at 25% less rpm and 112% more torque at 50% less rpm.
But the redline and operating revs of the diesel are also lower (rev gauges are obviously a different scale to suit).
The diesel is about 100kg heavier though.
In comparing various vehicles, I had a chance to drive the VW Passat Diesel and Tiguan Diesel. The Tiguan TDI feels like the economical twin of it's petrol sibling. The petrol is the performance model in comparison. But transplanting the engine into the Passat makes for a powerful and comfortable experience. It was fairly comparable when driving only 30 minutes prior, the top of the range CX-7, which has performance in spades.
This is one reason we held off the the CX-5 Diesel. Ideally it had to have CX-7 or better performance, with Passat fuel economy.
Starting up the CX-5 Diesel, I was surprised at how quiet Mazda have made it. VW has been in the Diesel game for a long time, and their engines and tranmissions are quite advanced. But the diesel of the CX-5 in comparison seems not only more quiet (at idle from outside), but revs a heck load more. The engine note is masculine, throaty and the noise is quite addictive at high revs.
As far as dynamics go, the CX-5 Petrol and Diesel feel very similar, so driving along a highway and around corners there is almost no difference (comparing AWD Petrol and AWD Diesel).
It's the engine and change in transmission behaviour where to change is most noticable. There is a variance in the gear ratio which immediately becomes noticible when driving the diesel. Because the revs stay low,
The diesel doesn't mind being revved. Testing by the Australian government for fuel economy rated the running rpm of the CX-5 Diesel to be partway between the low revs of the Tiguan and the screaming revs of the Petrol CX-5. This seems to equate to less diesel thumping while running the vehicle around town. Some diesels almost sound tractor like when driving around at parking speeds, because their revs are slow low and the engines so massive. The CX-5 seems far less so.
But on the highway while the petrol CX-5 loves to be revved high (and most of the useable overtaking manuourveres would require high revs and downshifting), the diesel requires a small tap and no downshift to overtake.
Most of our highways are 110km/h limit (70mph) - some areas up north where the CX-5 is likely to be common are 130km/h (81mph). These are slow limits by European standards, but at these speeds the Diesel is running at around 1800rpm; practically sounding as if it's idle. When battling trucks banking up, it's not uncommon to get up to a max of 150km/h (96mph) (Shhh... don't tell anyone). And for this, there was little effort to go from 100km/h to 130km/h or more. The Diesel did it without breaking a sweat - and comfortably.
Fuel economy....
One of my friends neighbours purchased a new CX-5. Her immediate reaction was to ask the neighbour if it was diesel or petrol, to which the answer was that the $3000 price difference wasn't enough to compensate for variances in fuel economy.
And the neighbour was right.
Customers are typically drawn to diesel first based on fuel economy and in many models, the diesel is so much better than the petrol.
The Petrol CX-5 fuel economy though is quite impressive on paper, and it seems that in practice on this forum (and also in media reports). The difference between it and the diesel on paper is minimal.
I've done a mixture of driving including a lot of stop-start Sydney traffic (where i-stop kicks in), and also highway driving. The fuel economy is best around the 80km/h (50mph) mark, but if you drove that speed on Australian highways you'd be shoved off the road. Any slower in a car like the CX-5 that obviously doesn't seem to have issues, and Police would pull you up for a random breath test to ensure you weren't drinking.
With this mix of driving, my calculations so far appear to be a dismal 8.6L/100km (27mpg US). This is far worse than many of you are reporting with your petrol runs.
This said, the economy appears to be improving. The calculation on the display appears to be fairly close to my calculations.
See:
http://www.fuelly.com/driver/inodes/cx5
I hope that I see an improvement as I continue to drive.
