New CX-5 Likes/Dislikes

Ive had my 2014 CX-5 GT AWD, Meteor Gray, for a couple of weeks now & thought Id post my experience, likes, dislikes, etc. Im coming from an Infiniti M35X which my wife now drives. I love that car & all its bells, whistles & power but needed something a little more practical for daily use. With that in mind

Picked it up at invoice. Dealer experience was quite good (Towne Mazda, Orchard Park, NY.) It came with weather mats, a cargo tray, rear bumper guard, wheel locks. I installed OEM side window deflectors from Amazon. I researched & drove all of the usual suspects (CR-V, Rav4, Forester, Escape) and found them all lacking in one way or another. CR-V Nice but didnt care for the look, especially the bulbous read end. Not very exciting to drive. Rav4 the 2013 model is better looking than previous ones, but like the Honda, driving was pretty mushy. The interior was weird & my wife crossed it off of the list pretty quick. The Subaru had the power but the bland appearance and poor mileage didnt suit us. Not crazy about the Escapes appearance & all of the recent recalls scared me off.

CX-5 Likes: The 2.5L engine has plenty of juice for around town. If I want to rip it up, Ill take out the Infiniti. Love the exterior look. Rakish but not over the top. Classy interior. Loaded with features. Plenty of cargo room for my needs. Great gas mileage. Decent ride better than Id anticipated actually. Blind spot monitoring. Bluetooth streaming/Pandora.

CX-5 Dislikes: Center console sits too low & too far for me to use as an armrest. Guess Ill have to get some kind of a pad for long trips. Navigation is not well integrated. Dont like the nav lock out safety features. No compass either on dash, on nav screen, or homelink (funny since Mazda offers a Homelink accessory that includes the compass.) LCD screen is smaller than Im used to. Touch screen gets smudged easily. Interior soft surfaces smudge easily as well. Some power outlets remain on when car is off (should be selectable.)

CX-5 Wishlist (if cost wasnt an issue): Interactive cruise control (at least as an option.) More color choices. Hand operated Commander thats not currently available in the U.S. (dash mounted rather than in place of a cup holder.) Power folding mirrors. Heated steering wheel. Cooled seats. Power front passenger seat. A turbo option.

CX-5 Questions: Where are the BSM sensors? Behind the red reflectors under the rear bumper? What do you use to clean the dashboard & other interior surfaces?

Overall Im very happy with the CX-5. Every car has its quirks, as does this one, but none of them are so egregious as to make me wish Id bought something else. Besides, I can always come here to get help with a problem or question.

BSM sensors are behind the rear bumper covers under the quarter panel.

A wrung out microfiber towel for the soft plastic dash. Any new towel that hasn't been rinsed will transfer lint.

Some minor complaints (2014 sport):

Rear doors don't seem to swing closed very smoothly
Slight buzzing sound when pressing the gas pedal - only audible at low speeds
Audio turns off when you turn the engine off (some vehicles wait until you open the door)
Audio controls on steering wheel do not skip between presets, rather they scan for any radio station with a strong signal. It would be much more useful to skip between presets. A mode selection would also be nice e.g. cycling between radio, CD, bluetooth, etc.


none of these out weight the positives, and none of these would've dissuaded me from buying again, but they are slightly annoyances.

gms said:

CX-5 Wishlist (if cost wasnt an issue): Interactive cruise control (at least as an option.)

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I have a 2014 Touring with tech package. I have interactive cruise control (horizontal fuel bar, temp/mileage in the center screen). (FYI, I had a loaner 2013 touring with tech and it had NO interactive cruise control, curved fuel bar, all info on right screen)

babaoriley7 said:

Some minor complaints (2014 sport):
Audio controls on steering wheel do not skip between presets, rather they scan for any radio station with a strong signal. It would be much more useful to skip between presets. A mode selection would also be nice e.g. cycling between radio, CD, bluetooth, etc.

Click to expand...

Wow, that's really weird. I had a 2004 Mazda3i (lowest model) with power package and the steering wheel control switches presets and mode. Can't believe Mazda would overlook that on a 2014 model car.

babaoriley7 said:

Some minor complaints (2014 sport):



Audio controls on steering wheel do not skip between presets, rather they scan for any radio station with a strong signal. It would be much more useful to skip between presets. A mode selection would also be nice e.g. cycling between radio, CD, bluetooth, etc.

Click to expand...

Mine does toggle between presets using the left and right arrow keys on the steering wheel,but I agree a mode selector would be nice.

A note about cleaning the dash. I was using a microfiber window towel from AutoZone (the really silky feeling one) to clean the dash and the plastic cover for the gages. All I ended up doing was creating static electricity and causing more dust to get stuck on them right after. Should I get a chamois towel instead?

Try wetting, then wringing out the micofiber towel. I belive that's what @SayNoToPistons meant.



Jeff

Dislikes, My CX-7 gave you 30 seconds to close the power windows after you turned off the car. The CX-7 told you what gear you were in, miss those.

Latitude Adj. said:

Dislikes, My CX-7 gave you 30 seconds to close the power windows after you turned off the car.

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And the CX-5 does the same, at least on the driver's window.

After 3 weeks, my dislikes (it's my wife's car, so I haven't driven it that much):

Memory seat would be nice.
If you change to audio while in R, the back up screen disappears, and there's no way to get it back except to shift out of, and back into, R.
The "cruise on" indicator is too tiny and the difference between "on" and "engaged" is an almost imperceptible change from yellow to orange.
Voice recognition is inferior to that in my '05 Acura.
I liked the auto locking, but my wife didn't, so I turned it off.

This may be a weird one,but I find that the brake pedal is too close to the throttle. With my work boots on,its sometimes hard to come off the throttle and get to the brake. I may end up modifying mine.

Only complaint is the hood jumping around where the hinges are attached when going over fairly rough roads. Never saw that on my other vehicles....but then I couldn't see the hood on my other vehicles...

Madar, there's a bulletin for that. Yours might be included.



Jeff

gms said:

CX-5 Wishlist (if cost wasn’t an issue): Interactive cruise control (at least as an option.) More color choices. Hand operated “Commander” that’s not currently available in the U.S. (dash mounted rather than in place of a cup holder.) Power folding mirrors. Heated steering wheel. Cooled seats. Power front passenger seat. A turbo option.

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I second that Commander knob, but I remember reading somewhere the US market wanted a second cup holder so hence no knob. I would love to meet the dummies who decided on that.

nXt said:

I have a 2014 Touring with tech package. I have interactive cruise control (horizontal fuel bar, temp/mileage in the center screen). (FYI, I had a loaner 2013 touring with tech and it had NO interactive cruise control, curved fuel bar, all info on right screen)

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What is this interactive cruise control you speak of? My parents have the same vehicle but I don't remember seeing this in the manual or mentioned on the Monroney. TIA

gezundheit said:

What is this interactive cruise control you speak of? My parents have the same vehicle but I don't remember seeing this in the manual or mentioned on the Monroney. TIA

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On my 2014 Touring with Tech, when you press Cruise on then Set, there is a Cruise Control MPH display on the screen telling you what MPH you set it, then when you press up or down to change how fast/slow you want.

Glad to see all the complaints are minor! Other than some interrior rattles, I really like my CX-5.

gezundheit said:

What is this interactive cruise control you speak of? My parents have the same vehicle but I don't remember seeing this in the manual or mentioned on the Monroney. TIA

Click to expand...

I should have said adaptive cruise control where the car maintains a set distance between you & the car in front of you, automatically speeding up & slowing down as necessary. I wonder if the Mazda engineers could adapt the GT's auto braking system to do the same thing.

Also, +1 on the power seat memory.

My main dislikes:

• iPod not resuming issue
• The rear window mist function, which is more of a sluggish 2 stream flow than a useful window mist
• No little drawers or compartments in front for coins and other little things like my work ID badge
• The sun visors look horrible from the outside when they are in the down position, especially with the large safety stickers on the drivers side. A darker color visor and/or more upper windshield tint would have been a good thing
• The black seats show every little hair and random spec of dust/dirt/debris
• Shiny black dash trim, which I am in the process of remedying - details to follow when it is complete

These are all relatively minor to me, except for the iPod issue which I hope will be resolved someday. Also, the mirror and hood vibrations are so minor on mine that they are really a non-issue for me.

The things I do like are:

• Awesome MPGs for a CUV/AWD
• Fun to drive
• Plenty of power
• Sexy exterior
• Smoked headlights and taillights are standard
• Moonroof
• Plenty of rear storage/room
• Large backup camera screen
• Voice commands for the stereo, which help to minimize the iPod issue to a degree

I also wish heated side mirrors were standard, but I have ordered a set and will be posting a how to thread once I have received and installed them.

Overall I have no regrets and I'm loving my CX-5.