Sorry, I don't actually have 20K on the tires yet (more between 15-16K) and have NEVER had OEM tires wear out that fast (nor are these tires in fact worn out at all, they have plenty of tread on them). The tires simply aren't very good and while that may be true of most OEM tires, these are pretty poor in terms of traction compared to most OEM tires I've had in the last 20 years).
I thought I did a enough research--I never imagined a mainstream Japanese car for $2000 to $4000 more than most of the other cars I was looking at would be inferior to them. I thought there was a fault in the car when the side mirrors wouldn't return to their memory positions, until I discovered the car does NOT store the mirror positions.
This is something I would never have bothered to check, because every single car I've owned which had seat memory (including cars for under $30,000) always had mirror memory as well--it's just something that everybody expects! Without it, the seat memory isn't much of feature, since you still need to waste time adjusting all the mirrors every time someone else has driven the car.
Then there's the AWD "lock" function. Every AWD car I've owned let me manually lock the car in AWD when I knew traction conditions were poor, instead of waiting for the system to determine the wheels were slipping and, hey, maybe AWD should engage. These systems would automatically disengage when the car was traveling at higher speeds (under the reasonable assumption traction must be good if I'm driving that fast), then would re-engage when my speed dropped low enough--perfect for NEPA weather were some roads can be snow-covered and others not. While the CX-5 does have a form of AWD lock, they tell you to make sure you *manually* turn it off when driving at higher speeds or on dry roads.
Don't worry, I am planning on buying something else, as the CX-5 really has been the least satisfying car I've owned in the last 20 years. I realize some of those cars were even more "premium" than the CX-5, but they were nonetheless cheaper and many others of those cars weren't premium either... I suggest Mazda stop wasting time and money on gimmick features like a heads-up display or a built-in cellular hotspot (really, my cell phone can do a hotspot if I need it to) and concentrate on useful features people really want and can already get on cheaper cars.
Oh, and since you got me started--I never would have guessed or bothered to "research" that the driver's seat on the CX-5 is offset to the right, instead of being centered on the steering wheel. No big deal...except the heads-up display can only be adjusted up and down, not left and right, so all I need to do is lean slightly to the right and the side of the HUD gets cut off (also, the brightness of the HUD is unreliable, as it has gone dim on me in bright sunlight and the only way to restore proper operation is to turn the car off and restart it).
No, $40K is not the low end of cars these days. There are plenty of cars under $40K, many of which are superior to the CX-5 in my opinion...
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