First car purchase in over 15 years!

PatrickGSR94

PatrickGSR94

:
2014 CX-5 Touring
What's up everyone, my wife and I just picked up a 2014 CX-5 Touring this week from a local Mazda dealer, 53K miles on the clock, and just about everything looks to be in great condition. We replaced my wife's old clunker 1996 Corolla with 282K miles on it. I had put in tons of time, money and work over the years to keep it running, but it blew its head gasket about 3 weeks ago, which I fixed along with a bunch of other leaking gaskets and seals. But it had a random problem of not starting while hot, or not staying running unless the throttle was held open. I was tired of messing with it, so we got rid of it.

The Corolla had been in my wife's (and now our) family since she was in high school in the 90's! The last time I myself bought a car (the only time, actually) was when I bought my Integra GSR from a neighbor back in 2001. It had 89K miles at the time, and now has 355K miles, original engine and gearbox. I replaced the head gasket on it, also, about 3 years ago, and have put 25K on it since then. I have always done all work on both cars, except tire alignments and bodywork.

Looking forward to having a much newer, nicer vehicle to take care of. Hopefully it will be more problem-free than the Corolla was. I don't really have any major mods planned for it, maybe just a few minor things. I'd love to throw some HID's into the projector headlights. Normally I'm a fan of HID projector retrofits, as I run Hella bi-xenon projectors (a.k.a. Mercedes E55 projectors) on my Integra. But I'm not sure if I want to mess with cracking open headlights on this car. Hopefully an H11 HID kit works okay. Might do some LED replacement bulbs, unless it messes too much with the lighting system in the vehicle.

Don't have any decent pics yet. I'm planning to do some detailing on the car this weekend. I have many years of Honda and Toyota repair and maintenance experience, so I hope I can contribute to these forums as well, and learn more about our new Mazda as I go along.

Last pic of old clunker:
13882696_10154340860973363_2646303311783705006_n.jpg


New ride!
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Congrats! Looks just like mine! Nobody surely knows if the CX-5's will last long, but my local dealer has had a few in with over 100k and they are in fantastic shape, even though a lot of owners abuse them and skip out on maintenance sometimes. Good luck with your CX-5!
 
buyingconstant7 said:
Congrats! Looks just like mine! Nobody surely knows if the CX-5's will last long, but my local dealer has had a few in with over 100k and they are in fantastic shape, even though a lot of owners abuse them and skip out on maintenance sometimes. Good luck with your CX-5!
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Haha not here. I follow strict maintenance and keep all records on the Road Trip app on my phone, on which I keep various maintenance reminders for both of our cars. I have complete fuel, maintenance and repair stats for the old Corolla and the Integra going all the way back to 2008.
 
Don't replace the trunk light with a led until you really check it out - some have blown the rear control unit...
 
GAXIBM said:
Don't replace the trunk light with a led until you really check it out - some have blown the rear control unit...
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Not familiar with that, what's the rear control unit? You're saying that putting an LED bulb in that location can cause issues?
 
Honestly I wouldn't expect our CX-5 can be as reliable as your 1996 Toyota Corolla which lasted 282K miles! Even if you get a brand new 2017 Corolla it may not last that long either. As all new cars are getting more complicated, and they're actually more reliable before 100K miles, but many more expensive parts added for emission control and fuel economy may need replacement eventually. At certain point it'd not worth it to keep the car running. 355K miles on your 1994 Acura Integra GSR and 282K miles on your 1996 Toyota Corolla?! I simply can't imagine a 2014 Mazda CX-5 can accumulate that many miles without a major expensive part needing replacement, and the cost of replacement will force you giving up the CX-5!
 
I wouldn't call the Corolla reliable. Many parts kept breaking. I had more problems with it than the Integra. I doubt we will keep this car for as long as these others, but I do hope it holds up for 5-7 years or so at about 10K miles per year.
 
yrwei52 said:
Honestly I wouldn't expect our CX-5 can be as reliable as your 1996 Toyota Corolla which lasted 282K miles! Even if you get a brand new 2017 Corolla it may not last that long either. As all new cars are getting more complicated, and they're actually more reliable before 100K miles, but many more expensive parts added for emission control and fuel economy may need replacement eventually. At certain point it'd not worth it to keep the car running. 355K miles on your 1994 Acura Integra GSR and 282K miles on your 1996 Toyota Corolla?! I simply can't imagine a 2014 Mazda CX-5 can accumulate that many miles without a major expensive part needing replacement, and the cost of replacement will force you giving up the CX-5!
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Why not? My Dad's work van finally died at 438K miles. Chevy V8 and 4L65E transmission, I believe. Standard equipment in their V8 vehicles. If the CX-5 won't make it AT LEAST 200K miles on the OEM engine and transmission, then I've got nothing polite to say about that.
 
Unobtanium said:
Why not? My Dad's work van finally died at 438K miles. Chevy V8 and 4L65E transmission, I believe. Standard equipment in their V8 vehicles. If the CX-5 won't make it AT LEAST 200K miles on the OEM engine and transmission, then I've got nothing polite to say about that.
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Yeah, work vans and older vehicles are less complicated, hence easier and cheaper to fix. Do you really believe our SkyActiv-Drive automatic transmission can last 200K miles without replacing the ATF which is "recommended" by Madza? There're also too many sensors and computer control modules which may fail for that long period of time, and some of them may mean outrageous price which makes you giving up the repair.
 
yrwei52 said:
Yeah, work vans and older vehicles are less complicated, hence easier and cheaper to fix. Do you really believe our SkyActiv-Drive automatic transmission can last 200K miles without replacing the ATF which is "recommended" by Madza? There're also too many sensors and computer control modules which may fail for that long period of time, and some of them may mean outrageous price which makes you giving up the repair.
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Exactly when do you feel vehicles became too complicated to last that long. Why shouldn't the transmission last? My Dad's lasted 438K without a fluid change, lol
 
Your posting indicates not a 2016 so you are exposed, read the lighting thread...
 
You can pull the fuse but I just disconnected the entire light assembly from harness (pops out really easy), swapped bulb and then plugged everything back in. I didn't try to swap bulb with everything still plugged in. It's fairly obvious on bulb placement in fixture.
 
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Kedis82ZE8 said:
You can pull the fuse but I just disconnected the entire light assembly from harness (pops out really easy), swapped bulb and then plugged everything back in. I didn't try to swap bulb with everything still plugged in. It's fairly obvious on bulb placement in fixture.
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That is what I did and I didn't have a problem.
 
Tech culture shock even between brands!

PatrickGSR94 said:
lol you could say that, and this car doesn't even have the tech package. :D
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You can say that again! I have been purchasing a new car every 3 yrs or so, and the really big technology shock came between a 2013 Subaru Outback and a recently departed 2015 Mazda CX-5 GT w/ THAT years Tech pkg (Subaru was always weak in the tech dept!)!

Now I have just traded "backwards" to a 2013 Lexus RX 350 (yes, I went back 3 model yrs). I loved the CX-5. but my injured back did not...thus I wanted a softer ride. The point being The Lexus dealer assigned a tech to me for a 2-3 hr session explaining the tech features on the 2013 Lexus.....Sheesh I was astonished at stuff like the memory seats, folding power side mirrors and power telescoping steering wheel, the power lift gate, Ventilated front seats (found out about those when my thighs got "cold" during the 95deg heat of day, on one of the test drives ..lol). Finally, HAVING A NAVIGATION SYSTEM THAT ACTUALLY WORKED CORRECTLY! (Sorry, I couldn't resist).

More on trading backwards...This is a Certified Lexus that came with the balance of the factory warantee (3+ years!), brand new tires , All service records from Lexus, free oil changes, tire rotation and maintenance for 2 years or 24k miles PLUS (drum roll) free car washes for life! (idhitit)
 
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Yikes, I could do without washes because dealer "detailing" does nothing but destroy paint. No one washes my cars but me. If you spent several hundred dollars on a full professional detail that included complete paint correction to make the paint 100% perfect, you'd never want anyone (or thing) to touch the paint ever again.

But anyway... I personally wish our 5's driver seat were manual. It's much easier and faster to adjust and get it in the right spot than with the (slow) motorized stuff. I only like motorized seats if there are memory positions available for my wife and me, which this one doesn't have.
 
PatrickGSR94 said:
... I personally wish our 5's driver seat were manual. It's much easier and faster to adjust and get it in the right spot than with the (slow) motorized stuff. I only like motorized seats if there are memory positions available for my wife and me, which this one doesn't have.
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Yeah, power driver seat without memory function is actually becoming a hassle especially for two drivers! Mind you memory seat is offered in other regions on CX-5, even for Canadian 2016.5 CX-5, but not in the US!
 
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