CX 5 in Serbia

Greetings from Belgrade, Serbia. We just sold our 2007 Chevrolet Captiva 2.0 diesel, and are in the market for a new SUV. Absolutely love the new CX 5. I 've been following the forum and find it most helpful. I don't see anyone from Europe yet, so I hope I can make some contribution to discussions (excuse my English though).

In Serbia CX5s just started coming in in April, and our dealers virtually have about 20 cars reserved until September (!) Guess most of them have been shipped to you guys in US, Can, Aus and NZ.

In terms of options, we will have both petrol and diesel, MT and AT, and 4 trim levels.

Before going into more details in different threads, I just have one, MAIN QUESTION for us, in deciding which option to select. We will go for a MT and AWD, but our main dilemma is PETROL or DIESEL Not so much in terms of economy or mileage, but the TORQUE. Read may reviews and they all claim the petrol engine lacks pulling power in mid revs. But most of the reviews were for AT. So I would really appreciate if you guys with PETROL MANUAL AWDs could share some of your experiences and impressions.

I would also like to hear if anyone pushed their CX5s to 150-160 kmh (100 mph)? How does the car feel? What is your MPG at that speed, especially for petrol models. Not that I drive like a maniac every day, but I travel to Germany and Italy relatively often, and as you know in Ger there are sections with no speed limit. So, just wondering what is you fuel consumption at higher speeds.

Many thanks to everyone.

tabasko said:

Before going into more details in different threads, I just have one, MAIN QUESTION for us, in deciding which option to select. We will go for a MT and AWD, but our main dilemma is PETROL or DIESEL Not so much in terms of economy or mileage, but the TORQUE. Read may reviews and they all claim the petrol engine lacks pulling power in mid revs. But most of the reviews were for AT. So I would really appreciate if you guys with PETROL MANUAL AWDs could share some of your experiences and impressions.

Click to expand...

I have come from a Mazda 3 SP23 Manual to the CX-5 Diesel Auto. I am not disappointed at all.
The auto transmission is one of the better autos I've driven with a very smooth take off, but extremely quick gear changes up high.

In terms of fuel economy, I am slowly getting to a comparable fuel economy with the petrol but government testing in Australia between both models shows there is a significant fuel economy bonus with the diesel; just hoping to prove it.

In terms of performance, there is absolutely no comparison whatsoever. I drove both petrol and diesel back to back, and it's night and day. The amount of torque available to the petrol at 4000rpm, is on tap for the diesel at 1000rpm (i.e. immediate), and it more than doubles that for its max torque at 2000rpm.

The diesel runs extremely quietly for a diesel and the running rpm are low. But at idle it would probably sit somewhere between a petrol CX-5 and a Diesel Tiguan for idle noise. Really surprising.

What I did originally was put an order down for the diesel before one had even been produced. I'd never driven it. The petrols came first, and it was the drive of the CX-5 that convinced me I'd chosen the right vehicle. It was then when the diesel had finally arrived that I knew my choice of the engine was right too.

Get the order in now. You won't regret the choice.

Regarding speeds.... Australian highway speeds are max 120km/h in my state. Which means I get up to about 130km/h.
I can't speak for Petrol at these speeds, but I know they loved to be rev'd. The Diesel on the other hand did do 130km/h comfortably for me. The rpm are not uncomfortably high, and the fuel economy isn't terrible at these speeds (albeit not being as good as 80km/h).
I think 150-160km/h would be quite easy.

Thanks inodes.

The problem here is stupid government car tax reg where we pay some 300 EUR annual tax for up to 2.0, but 600 eur for 2.2. With initial price difference of some 2,000 eur more for diesel, over 5 years it makes it over 3,500 eur more for the diesel. We make about 25,000 km/year, about 50% city, 40% highway, and some 5-10% light off-road. Based on that mileage, and looking just on the numbers on paper, it's almost not worth it to invest in a diesel. That said, I read that petrols are quite lazy, I also like the diesel engine low-rev torque, so this is a real dilemma for us.