Open questions before I can buy the CX-5

I hope you all can help me with these please.

I am considering the Signature to get the 360 camera and the added safety features for reverse.

  • Does the new 2021 cameras give you the guidelines on the screen? I seem to be getting mixed answers.
  • I am a little concerned about not having the touch screen. I want the radio to be easy to use. I currently have a car with the old 6 individual station buttons. Call me old school but I still think this is the best. With the radio do you just have 30 presets that you can put in order they way you want it? Can you also mix XM with FM and AM or are they on separate positions you have to jump between?
  • I see there is a favorite button. Can that be programed to possibly shut the center screen off?
  • Lastly with the turbo there is that fake Bose sound that comes thru the speakers to enhance the engine sound. I am not 10 years old attaching baseball card to my bike spokes or 16 cruising the boulevard. Is there a way to turn this nonsense off? I want a quiet cabin.
Thanks again for the help
 
#1 Not sure, go to the dealer and check it out.
#2 The radio is easy to use, the commander button is easier to use than the touch screen. I never use the touch screen, I can do just about everything by feel.
#3 You can program all you favorites, there's probably an upper limit but its probably in the 100's.
Yes you can mix XM, FM, AM.
#4 Don't think you can turn the screen off but you can dim it. If you're not looking at it you probably won't notice it.
#5 Not sure about the sound but it's probably only noticeable when you put your foot into it.
 
I have driven a 2020 for about 15 minutes. I always feel rushed when i am at the dealer. I did think the engine noise was louder then expected. Then after on the forums i found out about that Bose sound enhancer. Not a fan. So the more i learn prior to another test drive the more i can focus when i am there. I have learned so many things to look at now when i sit in the car. Maybe that is good or maybe overthinking this.
 
Certain dealers let you take the car home overnight. So you can do your daily drive to decide. It is not always easy to get this and you need to sign some forms. I was also not sold on CX5 in 2016 then a dealer tossed me the keys and I drove home and was sold.
 
I think the dealers in my area are all "used car salesman" this alone could be the reason i don't buy a Mazda. All the dealers are owned primarily by one auto group.
 
  • Does the new 2021 cameras give you the guidelines on the screen? I seem to be getting mixed answers.
    • Yes, distance and width guidelines front and rear including what I call projected vehicle path that changes as you move the steering wheel. I feel this is very useful and extremely accurate.
  • I am a little concerned about not having the touch screen. I want the radio to be easy to use. I currently have a car with the old 6 individual station buttons. Call me old school but I still think this is the best. With the radio do you just have 30 presets that you can put in order they way you want it? Can you also mix XM with FM and AM or are they on separate positions you have to jump between?
    • Someone else needs to weigh in here. You need to go to the dealer and play with the system. I have had limited time with the system since it is my wife's car.
    • You should also read the online owners manual
    • Confirmed no touchscreen.
    • There are dedicated buttons around the Commander dial for Home Screen menu, Music menu, Favorites, Back Button and Navigation. These buttons change function depending on whether you are in the Mazda head unit, Apple Car Play or Android Auto.
      • Home Screen brings you to text menu to allow you access different functions (which gives you favorites, and allows you to change sources (AM, FM, Sirius, etc) It also has a list for available stations in the area, including all the HD 1, HD2, etc variations, depending on your source. If you are in Sirius, you get a list of available Sirius stations 000 to 999; FM 87.x to 107.x and all HD variations, etc. All these lists have the descriptive text that helps you identify. I have not looked at AM because I never listen to AM, but I imagine there is text there too. It also allows you access to the Apple Car Play and Android Auto
      • Music/Entertainment button drops you into your last used source (AM/FM/Sirius/Apple Car Play/Android Auto
      • Favorites drops you into your favorites menu for the selected source. It also allows you to choose a favorite (like holding down one of the six buttons to set memory) There may also be a way of customizing menu choices as hinted to in the Owners manual, but I have not played with that.
      • Back Button is just that.
      • Navigation button drops you into Mazda Navigation, or, if you are in Apple Car Play, your map display of the app you are using (Apple Maps, Google Maps, Waze) don't have an Android, but I imagine it works similarly.
  • I see there is a favorite button. Can that be programed to possibly shut the center screen off?
    • I am not aware of the ability to reprogram buttons, but the Owners manual hints that you can do that. ("Press and hold to register any highlighted menu items to create easily accessible shortcuts.")
    • The way I used the Favorites, aside from registering channels, is to get the list of favorites you have set. In the FM source, get the list of stations you set as your favorites, the digital equivalent of your six buttons, after you assign the favorites. You can reassign the positions of your favorites within your custom list moving entries up or down in the list.
  • Lastly with the turbo there is that fake Bose sound that comes thru the speakers to enhance the engine sound. I am not 10 years old attaching baseball card to my bike spokes or 16 cruising the boulevard. Is there a way to turn this nonsense off? I want a quiet cabin.
    • I am totally unaware of the engine sound enhancement through the stereo. That is for a higher end car.
    • To my knowledge, Mazda uses the Bose CenterPoint, Audiopilot and Soundstage, but not the Active Sound Management System. A car I had in the past used the first Active Sound Management system to tune out certain sounds such as tire rumble and ambient road noise. It did not amplify engine or exhaust sounds.
    • The Bose system is quite useful to have sounds placed in space for different warnings giving you aural cues like front right or rear left, etc.
    • The Soundstage is also used for music to give you an obvious surround sound music effect through digital delay, right, left, center, rear musical sounds.. The CenterPoint allows you place your self at the center of the sound field even if you are the driver, as if you selected the max separation sweet spot for stereo sound in the old days. The Bose system also automatically raises and lowers music volume based on ambient noise (road, wind, tire) but no enhancement of engine sounds to my knowledge.
    • The CX5 cabin is very quiet in comparison to our 2014 CX5. including the use of sound deadening glass, and a lot more insulation. All the quibbles we had with the 2014 have been addressed in spades with the 2021 Signature....but the lack of touchscreen is a philosophical thing with Mazda. Even the 2014 touchscreen had limitations placed on it to prevent driver distraction. Until I develop the muscle memory, the new system is harder to use. But it is much better than the old Gen 6 system I had in my 2016 Mazda 6.
 
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Certain dealers let you take the car home overnight. So you can do your daily drive to decide. It is not always easy to get this and you need to sign some forms. I was also not sold on CX5 in 2016 then a dealer tossed me the keys and I drove home and was sold.
I actually did this with a Civic back in 2010. Drove it home and during normal work commute. Decided I wanted the Accord instead. Bad decision as the Accord sucked at the time (LX model) but I liked the option to decide on my own not on the spot.
 
Big fan of the 360 camera, more than just a novel extra, I use it practically everyday. As far as the touch screen, i have the 2020 and can't remember the last time I used it. As clunky as it is reported to be, I find the scroll/joystick controller very intuitive and easy to use
 
I bought a 2020 CX-5 non-turbo (Touring, Preferred package). It has the Bose sound system and there are no "engine enhanced sounds" whatsoever artificially generated thru the stereo system. It's actually a pretty decent sounding stereo, and the speed sensing volume works pretty good. It's got more bass and generally cleaner sound than the Bose system in my older Audi A4 Quattro.

I opted for the cheaper lesser trim level, non-turbo FWD only CX-5 because I just wanted a small/mid SUV to haul more stuff and get better gas mileage on cross country trips. The Audi is there to "sew my wild oats" in and burn a lot of gas, lol!

The CX-5 is every bit as comfortable and perhaps even a little quieter out on the road than my Audi, and the interior fit and finish quality is just about every bit as good. Around town the non-turbo CX-5 will actually beat the Audi accelerating away from stoplights, and if you put your foot in it, does make a pretty good 4-banger "growl" that's kinda loud.... and yeah, it'll even spin the front tires. But if you drive normal it's surprisingly quiet. Of course, out on the highway the Quattro will run off and leave it at speeds above 75mph.... at about 10-15mpg higher fuel burn rate. But then the Audi is an autobahn cruising machine that tempts my fate with the highway patrol too, and in the CX-5, I can blend into the traffic and disappear like a suburban soccer mom.

The only thing I don't really like about the CX-5 is the lane keeping/alert system is less than worthless, all it does is annoy you. If you've ever driven a Hyundai with lane centering, you'll feel the same way. Even the cheap Hyundai rental cars' lane keeping/centering feature is a million times better and blows away what the Mazda provides.
 
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Congrats on your new ride. Sounds like you hit the sweet spot for your application and one of the best relative values in the CX-5 lineup.

I, too, enjoy the Bose system. It’s not quite as good as the Dynaudio in my last car (07 VW Eos), but the bass is more than adequate.

Gotta agree on the “lame keeping” feature. It was one of the major reasons I didn’t upgrade to a 20 GTR last spring.
 
On the 2021's, if you press and hold the volume knob, it turns off the screen
Sadly, on the 2020 you have to go into the settings menu, then select "Display Off". A bit cumbersome on the user interface there.

We need an open source vehicle firmware so that the user interface and all vehicle features the vehicle's hardware is capable of can be fully customized.
 
On the 2021 if you hold down the volume will this just turn the screen off or the whole system? I just don't want the light from the screen on when i drive at night when it is not needed. It is vary distracting.

On the Bose engine enhancer sound I think it is only on the Turbo versions. Can that be shut off too?
 
The Bose engine enhancer is part of the Bose Active Sound Management feature. According to the Bose site, no Mazda has this feature. There certainly does not appear to be one in the turbo CX5 that I can detect, nor is the feature mentioned in the Owners Manual as are Centerpoint and AudioPilot and Soundstage.

In fact very few cars include the Active Sound Management feature of all the brands/models listed on the Bose site:
Cadillac CT5
Chevy Camaro
Inifiniti, most models
Nissan 370Z, GT-R, Maxima

Within Active Sound Management, one of the features is engine harmonic enhancement. There is not to much to enhance in the turbo. The Mazda is not that kind of a high horsepower performance oriented turbo.
 
On the 2021 if you hold down the volume will this just turn the screen off or the whole system? I just don't want the light from the screen on when i drive at night when it is not needed. It is vary distracting.

On the Bose engine enhancer sound I think it is only on the Turbo versions. Can that be shut off too?
The entire system.
 
The 2021 SG has ambiant mode. It is very nice when dark. Also are pictures of the cameras.
 

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