Gauges disappoint

erhayes

Contributor
:
2022CX5 PP
My CX7 has a genuine water temperature gauger and it appears that the CX5 doesn't even have that. I prefer at a minimum to have a real oil pressure and water temp gauge. For a company that sells Zoom Zoom vehicles as drivers cars, I expected more.
 
My CX7 has a genuine water temperature gauger and it appears that the CX5 doesn't even have that. I prefer at a minimum to have a real oil pressure and water temp gauge. For a company that sells Zoom Zoom vehicles as drivers cars, I expected more.

In modern cars is it really necessary? Cars are tested for the countries they're destined for. The US is one market a car maker has to get it right because there are examples of extreme cold and extreme hot.

When are they really needed? Mainly when temperatures are at their extreme, and even then just a warning that temperatures are too hot or too cold are required. Operating temperatures are quite expansive.

A lesson Australian car makers found when they started exporting to the Middle East was that temperature gauges had to be completely redesigned. Despite Australia being a hot country in parts, the Middle East was often at close to maximum temperatures.

The engine oil temperature gauge was changed to make what would be red in Australia, to be normal in the Middle East.
Around this, maintenance schedules were altered to compensate for the hot conditions.

Mazda does a LOT of study regarding ergonomics for their vehicles. Everything should be in reach and be user friendly.
Temperature gauges have been considered to be futile now because the temperature extreme warnings are present anyway.

Removing gauge cluster clutter leads to a very easy display for drivers to use.

Going from night club like lit Mazda 3 to the CX-5, it's taken only a couple hours to appreciate the hard work Mazda has put in the display.
It's very easy to understand at a glance.
 
My CX7 has a genuine water temperature gauger and it appears that the CX5 doesn't even have that. I prefer at a minimum to have a real oil pressure and water temp gauge. For a company that sells Zoom Zoom vehicles as drivers cars, I expected more.

I at first missed them when I got my Mazad 3. But I don't now.
 
I expect no gauges for a dull daily driver car but, not a "zoom zoon drivers car. Ed

I expect gauges in anything from a Mazdaspeed 3 through to a Nissan GT-R (which has more gauges than the Starship Enterprise).

MX-5 had two temp gauges. Mazda 6 & 3 had engine temp.

I agree that an engine temp gauge would be useful. But in that respect, the blue warning light does this job (albeit a bit like sticking a wet finger in the air to see if its windy).
 
I expect no gauges for a dull daily driver car but, not a "zoom zoon drivers car. Ed

When I said I don't miss them now, mine is a Mazdaspeed. From what I've seen on modern cars, even if there were a temperature gauge, it would show a constant reading. On other recent cars with them the pointer never deviates.
 
I like to see what is going on and I don't appreciate the manufacture saving 1 dollar by eliminating an oil pressure and water temp gauge.
 
This is a Cross over utility vehicle, im not sure of any other passenger car in this class that has Oil pressure gauge. Temp gauge I can agree that it would be nice to have but I think manufacturers are going away from that now.
 
My CX7 has a genuine water temperature gauger and it appears that the CX5 doesn't even have that. I prefer at a minimum to have a real oil pressure and water temp gauge. For a company that sells Zoom Zoom vehicles as drivers cars, I expected more.

Curious, does your CX7 have a turbo?
 
Non-issue for me. I think Mazda intentionally went the blue light / red light route with temperature instead of the gauge, mainly because the engine is direct injected and a bit slow to warmup like most direct injection engines. In short, you just wait for the blue light to go out before driving the car hard.

I also have another direct-injected car with a normal gauge and it's even slower to warm-up. I have to watch the gauge carefully before driving the car hard.
 
If Mazda is going to cheap out on gauges then they at least need a gauge pack as an option. Oil pressure, water temperature and ?
 
If Mazda is going to cheap out on gauges then they at least need a gauge pack as an option. Oil pressure, water temperature and ?

Mazda's done the opposite of cheaping out with the CX-5.
For the past 30 years, they've gone to part bins, shared with Ford and improved processes slightly only going to a gram by gram review from the MX5 onwards.

The CX-5 is the first vehicle they've thrown every out the window.

The redesigned the processes of design taking everything into a direct design process with all engineering and design teams (the US did a similar thing with their last new nuclear sub - which was a project that couldn't be done without that leaning process). They've designed a completely new chassis, completely new engines (first time Mazda's done this in decades), completely new transmissions (ditto).

I've watched quite a lot of the Japanese documentaries covering this. Wish they would release subtitled versions, because it's very, very impressive stuff and has a lot of car enthusiasts in Japan very impressed.

The total sum just to get to this point is estimated to be well over $2 billion - which is quite long term thinking and has put the company into debt.

They certainly haven't cheaped out. They've just concentrated on everything else that needed work.
 
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What's the big deal about gauges? What do you use them for? I've had gauges for the past 10 years on other vehicles and only once did it show me that my car was overheating, which I assume the light would do anyway.

I guess they're reassuring but I don't see them having a purpose.
 
Agreed, temp gauges tend to get ignored, although they do look pretty/sporty/fancy on the dash.

I really think the blue light (and red light) is meant to keep drivers attention during the critical warmup period. Once the engine is up to proper operating temperature, no need to see anything on the dash. At least Mazda has provided some intelligence with its dummy lights regarding temp.

The fact is the CX-5 Grand Touring has over 90% of the luxury equipment of premium brands at considerably lower price. I don't view the temp gauge vs warning lights as a big cost savings. I have found other cost saving measures that are more significant that truly keep the cost and MSRP down (examples: no rear AC vents, non-power passenger seat, no platform or mat on dead peddle, moonroof doesn't have one-touch closing so it probably doesn't have automatic safety stop)
 
Speaking of the blue/red light ... Do I really have to wait until the blue light turns off? Because in even comfortable temperature... the light is on for like 2 minutes...
 
No you don't have to wait for blue light to go out. Drive it moderately until the light goes out. The best way to warm up the engine is to drive it moderately (not to let it sit on driveway idling waiting for it to warmup which actually takes longer to reach normal temp).

Yes, don't redline and thrash the engine until the blue light is off.
 
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Really are any of us planning on taking our cx-5's to the strip or on some serious off road trails. Unless you are, but i dont think you should these extra gauges are not need. And if it really bothers you that much, give it 6 months and someone will make an a-pillar gauge pod or something else like that for you to attach whatever gauges you need.
 
Lol, some fake forward view-blocking pillar-mounted gauges, just what it needs for full street racer effect...
 
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