Considering selling my CX-9 and getting a CX-5, but which one???

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IgoZoom

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2012 Mazda CX-9 GT FWD, Crystal White Pearl, Bose/Moonroof
Even though I love my CX-9 GT and its only nine months old, I have someone very interested in buying it. I got an amazing deal ($38,385 sticker, I paid $29,207 with all the incentives and discounts) and when he initially asked me what Id take for it, I said $27k and he agreed. Ive known the guy my entire life and know hes serious, so Im giving it serious consideration.

If I decide to sell it, Im 99% sure that Ill buy a 2014 CX-5 to replace it. Ive been comparing the Touring FWD and Grand Touring FWD feature availability and it appears that the only major features exclusive to the Grand Touring are-

Heated, leather seats
19 wheels
Advanced Keyless Entry System

Not so major differences-
SiriusXM
Dual Zone Automatic Climate Control
and various items like power lumbar support and heated side mirrors

The price difference between the Touring with Moonroof/Bose & Tech Pkg and the Grand Touring with Tech Pkg is just over $2000. The only feature on the GT that I would like to have is the Advanced Keyless Entry, but I couldnt care less about leather seats. I was surprised that the CX-5 looks just as good with 17 wheels as it does with 19. The 20 wheels and chrome door handles were the main reason I got a CX-9 GT (the 18 wheels looks odd on the lower CX-9 trim levels, IMO).

Did anyone else have the Touring vs. Grand Touring internal debate before making a purchase decision???
 
Yeah, I was picking between Touring w/ Bose + Moonroof and GT w/o any packages. I don't leather seats and didn't want the 19" wheels. However, the thing that I miss/wanted was the Automatic Climate Control, just because I've been driving cars with auto climate control and it's comfy. From the Tech Package, I only wanted the HID headlights, didn't care about the advanced keyless entry, navigation, or smart city braking.

In the end, I ended up getting Touring w/ Bose + Moonroof, roughly $1.5k-$2k different from GT model.
 
i have 2 kids, so the GT was really never a factor b/c of the leather seats. I tend to agree with you though. There wasn't enough add-ons with the GT for me to overlook the added money and the leather seats. I have been very happy with my Touring thus far.
 
mjh84 said:
i have 2 kids, so the GT was really never a factor b/c of the leather seats. I tend to agree with you though. There wasn't enough add-ons with the GT for me to overlook the added money and the leather seats. I have been very happy with my Touring thus far.
Click to expand...

Most people have the opposite opinion. Your kids barf on leather seats, you wipe it off. Your kid barfs on cloth seats and it soaks in immediately.
 
I like to verify the door is locked manually (not possible / defeats the purpose with adv. locking). The key never leaves my pocket and pressing the button to lock/unlock is no trouble at all. I definitely was not willing to pay extra to get it.
I feel 17" wheels are better (weigh less, smooth to drive on), it also cost significantly less to replace the tires on them. I don't like the smell of leather and thinking about the poor animal remains that are in my car. It would be nice to have a good integrated Nav, but Tomtom is not it and not at this cost. The sound system on the Touring is pretty decent.

I realize the many people like to feel pampered a little and for each their own. For me, getting pampered is having better engine, better composure in turns, better transmission. I bought the Touring mostly for the larger engine, but also a little for the Bluetooth/Pandora. If the 6 came with AWD, I'd be getting it instead.
 
The availability of interior/exterior color combinations definitey has me leaning toward the Touring. My CX-9 is Crystal White Pearl with Sand Leather, but I picked it because it was the one I disliked the least, not because I liked it. I live in the Atlanta area and I made the idiotic (and painful, esp. in shorts) mistake of buying a car with Black Leather- NEVER AGAIN!!! So I picked the Sand interior, which ruled out Brilliant Silver which was the exterior color I liked most for the CX-9. It ultimately came down to Dolphin Gray or Crystal White Pearl and I planned to get the Dolphin Gray....until I saw how 'green' it looked, especially in direct sunlight. Of course, for 2013 they added Meteor Gray with Sand or Black Leather, just my luck.....

Anyway, I love the CX-5 in SOUL RED! In the GT, it only comes with Black Leather. But in the Sport and Touring, Soul Red is available with Black or Sand Cloth. While Black Leather is unbearable in the Georgia heat, Black Cloth is much more tolerable. The Sand Cloth would be a nightmare to keep clean....picture a baby sneezing Fudge-sicle juice all over the place and that will give you an idea of how a light colored cloth would look after a few months with me! =) I also think Black is the sportier-looking choice....just not in leather.

It's odd that on all three trim levels, Jet Black and Crystal White Pearl are available with Black or Sand interior and Stormy Blue comes with mandatory Sand interior. The only exception is Soul Red- Sand or Black Cloth on the Sport and Touring (“Premium Cloth” on the Touring, to be exact) but only with Black Leather on the Grand Touring….

I actually read a very interesting article several months ago about the SOUL RED METALLIC paint, specifically. Either a 'major automaker' or a 'premium/luxury automaker' (I can't recall which) had purchased several SOUL RED Mazdas and done extensive analysis of the actual paint and how it was applied to the vehicles. They determined that the paint was of such a high quality that, at minimum, Mazda was spending more than double the $300 upgrade they charge for the color! I thought that I bookmarked it but I can't find it at the moment....it'll drive me crazy until I do. But that made me want SOUL RED even more....

My brother-in-law is the Body Shop Manager at a large Honda dealership in the Atlanta area (it serves two Honda and one Acura dealership). He's been in the business for 23 years and, after seeing a SOUL RED Mazda6, he said it was definitely one of the highest quality finishes he has ever seen on any vehicle, premium/luxury brand or not! He also had to mention how much more difficult it would be to properly blend onto adjoining panels after a body panel(s) were replaced. Pearl White is also more difficult than most other colors/finishes...which he failed to mention before I bought my CX-9 in Crystal White Pearl...not that I really care, it would be his hassle if I had an accident, not mine! =) But most body shops managers don't have the (borderline freakish) quality standards that he does and the repainted area never looks quite the same again. Before Carfax and AutoCheck, he repainted the entire left side of one car after replacing a front fender and both door skins and did a total repaint on another one and even seasonsed used car managers couldn't tell at trade-in.

I'm thinking a 2014 CX-5 Touring FWD, SOUL RED with Black 'Premium' Cloth, Moonroof/Bose Package is calling my name! I also want SiriusXM (and Rear Parking Sensors) but I will add those myself unless I can get a good deal on them at the time of purchase. But I don't think the Touring Tech Package adds anything that I really care about- NAV (new Garmin works fine), Rain-sensing wipers (windshield gets wet, I turn them on, I think I can handle it), Smart City Brake Support System (or just look out the windshield, apply brake manually if something is in your way), Bi-Xenon HID headlights with auto-leveling (the high-end halogen bulbs work quite well and manually leveling them is one less thing that can break in the long run), Auto on/off headlights (it's dark, switch to ON, it's not dark or I'm home, switch to OFF, I can endure the hassle), Adaptive Front Lighting System (something else to break in the long-term), Auto-dimming Mirror with Homelink (available as an OEM Accessory also).

That puts the sticker right at $27k (w/o SiriusXM and Parking Sensors) and the price thru TrueCar is $24,766. If I sell my CX-9 instead of trading it, I'll have to pay the Georgia Title Ad Valorem Tax (TAVT) on the full amount (we no longer pay Sales Tax on vehicles, just TAVT which is currently 6.5%) so that's about $1600. All totaled, I could get one OTD for around $26,500. I paid cash for the CX-9, so if I get $27k for it, it will essentially be an even trade....I'm liking this more and more!
 
Nodnerb said:
Most people have the opposite opinion. Your kids barf on leather seats, you wipe it off. Your kid barfs on cloth seats and it soaks in immediately.
Click to expand...

They should just make a roof rack attachment to put kids in so they don't actually go inside the vehicle. But the second it hit the market, people would start tossing around big words that don't really mean anything like "child endangerment" or "safety risk" and kill the whole thing.....

Obviously I'm kidding (mostly)....but leather is definitely more chilld-proof than most types of fabric IF (and that's the key word, IF) you clean up the vomit, snot, poop, or anything else that comes out of the little ankle biters IMMEDIATELY! My nephew could spew toxic waste from either end as a toddler and my sister didn't respond with the appropriate HAZMAT protocol....it actuallly ate thru the leather under his car seat!!! I worked for Dupont (Flooring) at the time and I just realized what an opportunity I missed....Kevlar seat covers could have made me millions.....
 
Nodnerb said:
Most people have the opposite opinion. Your kids barf on leather seats, you wipe it off. Your kid barfs on cloth seats and it soaks in immediately.
Click to expand...

Exactly, since modern leather's plasticized coating gives the durability, stain-resistance, water-repellancy of vinyl.
 
Vomit, may it be from crotch droppings or your inebriated friends (at that state it is hard to tell the difference between the two) , will be a putrid combination of partially digested food/beverage and stomach acid. Unless treated immediately, leather or cloth will be subjected to an unpleasant refinishing and scent impregnation.
 
The higher the quality of leather, the more succeptible to damage from acidic liquids (whatever the source). But cloth and leather are virtually bulletproof compared to Suede....it can get VERY ugly, very quickly...and no amount of Febreeze, 20-Mule-Team Borax or Pine-Sol can get certain smells out of it.....

My '06 Mazda3 s 'sport cloth' interior is one of the most durable fabrics that I've ever seen. It's almost like a cross between Nylon and Neoprene but it's amazingly stain-resistant, you can use a wet cloth and a little bit of Resolve (or even Windex in a pinch) and scrub anything off of it and nothing soaks in. Even though it's the antithesis of "plush" it's very comfortable and breathes very well even in the Georgia humidity. After 8yrs of use, it still looks brand new! I'd gladly buy another vehicle with a similar type of upholstery, even one of a larger class and higher price.
 
Nodnerb said:
Most people have the opposite opinion. Your kids barf on leather seats, you wipe it off. Your kid barfs on cloth seats and it soaks in immediately.
Click to expand...

your kids scratch and tear leather more often than they do the cloth. You'd be one of the few people i've talked to about it that disagrees.
 
Perhaps I am mingling with the right (wrong?) crowd, but the only single time I needed to clean a seat was when my son barfed on it during a trip. It was a rental ... we got some powder which soaked the foulness and that was it. Many trips and miles later, this never happened again. The only seat cleaning I did since then is vacuum.

I don't live in freezing weather, but do leather seats pretty much require butt warmers as well in these areas?
 
ALafya said:
I don't live in freezing weather, but do leather seats pretty much require butt warmers as well in these areas?
Click to expand...

Yes, butt warmers are required in cold areas with leather seats.

Before butt warmers were available we had to park all the cars with leather seats all winter.

And before that, one horse open sleighs had leather padded seats. Unfortunately, no one could run them in the winter because they didn't have butt warmers. And they couldn't be used in the summer either because there was no snow.

How did we ever survive without butt warmers?
 
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