New CX5 Owner - Questions

[windsorshane]

My wife and I just picked up a new 2019 GT Turbo.
So far we are enjoying the car - my wife says she loves it... I'm happy to hear.

So far I've not had any issues with it, but I have a few questions.

1. Seats - The seats seem a bit stiff and particularly the left side bolster in the drivers seat is bothering me and I can't quite seem to get comfortable.
I'm starting to worry about our yearly 2000km trip to Tampa... Do these leather seats start to give at all? What is everyone's honest opinion about how comfortable they are in their seats? I'm 5'-9", 230lbs.... not a small guy, but not a giant by any means.

2. Back up Camera - Well it's s***... I can't believe how bad it really is... a little glare on wet asphalt, rainy night... thing is useless. I wasn't expecting such a downgrade from my 2019 Mazda 3 which I bought this summer, especially since this is a higher trim level. Now I get that it's older framework. My question is... has anyone attempted a camera swap? If you take a look at the camera on the rear of the 2019 Mazda 3 and that on the CX-9, they look to have the same plastic mounting piece. Could a swap be possible or would the infotainment system reject the higher resolution camera?

3. Brakes - A little soft.. Not bad for everyday driving but I'm worried about towing my pop-up camper. I've coming from a 2013 Ford Escape 1.6L Ecoboost. Both the Escape and CX-5 have a same towing capacity of 2000lbs and my Escape pulled and stopped well with my camper behind... I'm wondering who else tows with their CX-5 and have the brakes been an issue for you? I am thinking i might need to add some electric brakes to my camper to compensate for the CX-5's soft brakes.

Thanks all. Looking forward to many adventures in our new car.

 

[Avoidin Deer]

Congrats on the purchase.

I bought a Reserve last March and still love it for the most part.

Many of us loathe these seats, myself included. I found marginal relief by following the manual's detailed instructions on how to adjust the seat (starts on Page 2-5). I have about 7,000 miles on my car, and my right leg continues to ache from my knee all the way up to my butt from driving it. I'm 170#. We had a thread on this and got into great depth on our morphologies, discovering there is no common cause. What a stupid thing to worry about, huh?

I'd like to hear responses to your backup camera question. I looked on the web a while ago and could find no upgrades available, just complete aftermarket systems. I wonder if there are limitations inherent in the system that preclude seeing an improvement with a higher resolution lens...that seemed to be the consensus for most vehicles when I found this topic being discussed on other forums.

There are a couple of threads on towing. I just searched to see if I could provide links, but I cannot find them. Others with better search skills than I will likely be along.

Welcome to the forum. Tons of information to be had here.

 

[windsorshane]

Congrats on the purchase.

I bought a Reserve last March and still love it for the most part.

Many of us loathe these seats, myself included. I found marginal relief by following the manual's detailed instructions on how to adjust the seat (starts on Page 2-5). I have about 7,000 miles on my car, and my right leg continues to ache from my knee all the way up to my butt from driving it. I'm 170#. We had a thread on this and got into great depth on our morphologies, discovering there is no common cause. What a stupid thing to worry about, huh?

I'd like to hear responses to your backup camera question. I looked on the web a while ago and could find no upgrades available, just complete aftermarket systems. I wonder if there are limitations inherent in the system that preclude seeing an improvement with a higher resolution lens...that seemed to be the consensus for most vehicles when I found this topic being discussed on other forums.

There are a couple of threads on towing. I just searched to see if I could provide links, but I cannot find them. Others with better search skills than I will likely be along.

Welcome to the forum. Toms of information to he had here.

Thanks... I'm thinking I could put a little pad on the seat to raise the centre portion but I'm really hoping the seats soften over time and "break in". My wife hasn't mentioned anything yet and actually told me she finds the seats farm more comfortable than her Escape... Perhaps I'll get used to them....

 

[Avoidin Deer]

Thanks... I'm thinking I could put a little pad on the seat to raise the centre portion but I'm really hoping the seats soften over time and "break in". My wife hasn't mentioned anything yet and actually told me she finds the seats farm more comfortable than her Escape... Perhaps I'll get used to them....

I'm in my mid 60s. I've owned everything from an Austin Healey to a '63 Lincoln and a whole bunch of stuff in between, and I've rented a lot of vehicles through work as well. Never in my wildest dreams was "seat comfort" on my radar screen when test driving cars.

Some folks say it gets better. Being retired, I'm not driving daily so perhaps my seat break-in period is extended.

 

[Mazdiod2]

I think you re supppsed to brake gently during the break in period. I wouldn t tow at first. You might be right about elec trailrr brakes. I don t have a trailer but I have read they are safer.

Your cx5 has disc brakes on all 4 wheels. Thats about as good as you can get.

 

[Sacandagadan]

See my post,#85 in the thread-2019 Signature seat discomfort.Yes I agree camera resolution is poor,camera lens collects crud in any kind of inclement weather.Enjoy your new ride,we love ours..

 

[windsorshane]

I think you re supppsed to brake gently during the break in period. I wouldn t tow at first. You might be right about elec trailrr brakes. I don t have a trailer but I have read they are safer.

Your cx5 has disc brakes on all 4 wheels. Thats about as good as you can get.

thanks, and no I’ve not towed my trailer yet... probably won’t until the spring, will give the car plenty of time to break in. Just curious what others experiences were.

 

[ruthrj]

There’s got to be a way to upgrade that camera. It’s pitiful on my mother in laws 2018 GT. Seats are pretty stiff on here too with ~13k miles and 18 months. My ‘13 with cloth is more comfortable. I just installed a 720p camera on my ‘13 CX-5 but it has a very different infotainment system. If the newer CX-5s have a similar way of working (simple plug and play on the rear of the headunit, 6V power supplied by the head unit) I’m sure the camera could be upgraded.

After some more driving try bedding in your pads/rotors. Works well for me: https://www.carbibles.com/how-to-bed-in-brakes/

I replaced the pads and rotors on my ‘13 and flushed the brake fluid. Performance was pretty soft for the first hundred miles. I did the bedding procedure and the car stops extremely well now, better than new. I think there was some air in my brake lines and I didn’t bed the rotors and pads when I first bought the car though. Quite a few air bubbles came out when bleeding/flushing the brake fluid for the first time. No air escaped the second time I bled/flushed at next interval.

 

[DwightFrye]

I have had ny GT Reserve since the end of May, For the first couple of months I had some discomfort from the hardness of the lower seat cushion pressing against the back of my thigh above the knee. The seats seem to have broken in some, I no longer notice it. I am retired like Avoidin Deer so I only have about 4000 miles on the car so far, but a 3 hour drive in horrible holiday traffic last weekend didn't cause any discomfort at all.

Regarding the brakes; they seem to work just fine but I think the amount of boost or pedal assist is just on the lighter side. I have driven cars that had too much boost and the first few times driving them I almost locked up the brakes until I got used to them and applied a lighter foot on the pedal.

This is my first car with a backup camera. I haven't really noticed the lack of resolution being a problem. Perhaps 49 years of driving habits has caused me to always scan the area behind the car for obstacles before I get in it and start to back out, plus using all three of my mirrors and still turning my head and looking out the rear window while backing up and using the camera as an additional tool rather than the primary one has made the camera resolution a non-issue.

 

[mazdadude]

I can not comment on the other things...and have only towed motorcycle trailers with our 2016.5.

As for the poor backup camera, I upgraded the reverse light bulbs to an aftermarket LED lightbulb. BIG IMPROVEMENT!

 

[ColoradoDriver]

1. Seats

3. Brakes

1. No idea if they get better as my experience with them was with a loaner 2019 GT until I got my 2014 back and honestly I thought the seats were very uncomfortable and worse than my cloth seats in my 2014! The bolstering you mentioned is a common complaint I've seen posted and one I wholeheartedly agree with.

2. Can't speak to the backup camera.

3. The brakes are fine and competent, they'll just feel "softer" or whatever if you are used to cars where you barely press the brake and the whole thing lurches to a hard stop. You just have to get used to that. Personally I much prefer this style on the CX-5.

 

[ceric]

OP, have you tried to adjust the contrast ratio, brightness, etc. on the backup camera? Honestly, the backup camera on my '17 CX5 is way better than the one on my '16 Mazda6 already.... so, I am fine with it. It can always be better.....

 

[RedBaron]

The backup camera resolution seems perfectly useable to me for the purpose. However I do notice that the lens gets rain drops on it, that obscure the view, very easily. Far more so than our 2014. Not sure why, but I assume the design of the tailgate... I really must see if I can fit a rain shield over it somehow.

 

[windsorshane]

OP, have you tried to adjust the contrast ratio, brightness, etc. on the backup camera? Honestly, the backup camera on my '17 CX5 is way better than the one on my '16 Mazda6 already.... so, I am fine with it. It can always be better.....

It’s a resolution issue... little to do with contrast. Compared to most new vehicles It is pretty poor.

 

[theplayer11]

GTR since July, seats are firm, but never give me discomfort. I do think they have softed a bit since new.
Camera..never had one, so nothing to compare to, works fine for what I need.
brakes don't feel soft to me at all, much firmer than my Nissan Xterra.

 

[Mazdiod2]

I had a cushion I bought for my seat. It helped a lot but would end up on the floor or ground because it wasnt fastened.

It made a lot of difference on a long drive but I dont mind the seat for 20 or 20 mins.

 

[40752]

At first I found the seats too firm but after 9 months I think they are fine and I kind of like them. The backup camera is terrible, especially at night in the rain. You can say it’s adequate but so was your 19” tv on rabbit ears.

 

[sm1ke]

Regarding the brakes; they seem to work just fine but I think the amount of boost or pedal assist is just on the lighter side. I have driven cars that had too much boost and the first few times driving them I almost locked up the brakes until I got used to them and applied a lighter foot on the pedal.

My mom's X3 and my sister's 3-series had the same quirk. When I would borrow/move their cars, I could never get them to stop smoothly. Even with the lightest touch, the brakes seemed to bite down aggressively, resulting in jerky stops in traffic. I guess that's the price you pay for a sportier car. In my IS250 (and now in my CX-9) I can easily feather the brakes to a stop and my wife couldn't even tell that I had come to a stop unless she was looking out the window.

This is my first car with a backup camera. I haven't really noticed the lack of resolution being a problem. Perhaps 49 years of driving habits has caused me to always scan the area behind the car for obstacles before I get in it and start to back out, plus using all three of my mirrors and still turning my head and looking out the rear window while backing up and using the camera as an additional tool rather than the primary one has made the camera resolution a non-issue.

I've only got about 18 years of driving experience but I share the same sentiment. When I teach my daughter how to drive, I plan to cover up any camera displays and turn off as many driving aids as I can.

 

[MyFirstMazda]

The left side seat bolster was a pain for me too. From me changing my leg position, and maybe some break in, it no longer bothers me. But over all the seats are not as comfortable as my old car. Side bolsters are not needed on the CX-5, it is not a sports car.

The back up camera does suck, relatively. It is my first car with a back up camera. When I see my friend's back up view in his 2019 Kia, it looks so much better and it has a targeting view too. However, in daylight my back up camera is more than good enough but at night it always looks like it is foggy out. Eventually I will do what the one poster suggested. Upgrade the backup lights.

 

[Avoidin Deer]

This is my first car with a backup camera. I haven't really noticed the lack of resolution being a problem. Perhaps 49 years of driving habits has caused me to always scan the area behind the car for obstacles before I get in it and start to back out, plus using all three of my mirrors and still turning my head and looking out the rear window while backing up and using the camera as an additional tool rather than the primary one has made the camera resolution a non-issue.

Same here.

I find I can back into a parking space easier and faster using the side-view mirrors than I can with the camera...I just pick a line and pull up parallel to it. The camera makes it like a detached video game where I just can't seem to get centered. I do like having the camera for seeing when I'm fully-back in the space...it's a great boost to depth-perception. It's also nice for blind backing out.