Mazda5 review in USA Today

man, i still think the 5 is "cool" Perfect for a little Asian mom with 1 kid and 1 on its way =p
 
Aggravating. The sliding side doors that define the 5 as a van are stiff and too heavy for the kids likely to use them — pinch potential. Power doors aren't available.

did the person reviewing this have terminal wuss cancer or something? I swear, all these power doors things have turned people into walking vaginas. I find the doors to be almost too light. Everyone that has gotten into the car and closed the doors for the first time has closed them too hard, because they are used to vans that ACTUALLY have heavy sliding doors. I remember growing up my parents bought a Ford Aerostar. That door took way more effort than these "one-finger" Mazda5 doors.

Small. The 5 remains a small vehicle and suffers from that. For instance, the driver's seat won't slide back far enough for tall users. And there's limited space behind the rear seat, though enough for some briefcases and duffel bags.

I'm 6'3" and I fit just fine. My knees don't hit anything, I'm comfy, the seating position is great. Is it now commonplace to review cars from an NBA player's perspective?
 
Test vehicle got about 19 mpg in suburban driving. The tester lacked a trip computer (Mazda's dismissive of them), so mileage was figured by filling up and dividing gallons into miles driven — time-honored but less accurate than a trip computer because vapor-recovery systems on fuel pumps and vehicle fuel tanks prevent accurate repeat filling.
Disagree… while I’ll grant him tank-to-tank variation problem with miles/gallons calculation, the manual calculation is ALWAYS the most accurate way to get fuel economy figures. If the computer calculates say 5% off either high or low, it always will... where the law of averages will correct tank-to-tank variations to 100% accuracy. My wife’s Solara computer consistently overestimates by 2 MPG. Not a big deal, but still…

Other than that, pretty accurate review, but nothing I haven’t heard before… played it safe. Thanks for the link.
I find the doors to be almost too light. Everyone that has gotten into the car and closed the doors for the first time has closed them too hard, because they are used to vans that ACTUALLY have heavy sliding doors.
(mswerd)
 
Pretty spot on. I don't know why Mazda isn't doing ANY advertising for the 5...

CX-7, CX-9, Mazda3 and the new Mazda6 keeps them busy, the Mazda5 market experiment sells on its own anyway :D

man, i still think the 5 is "cool" Perfect for a little Asian mom with 1 kid and 1 on its way =p

Hey hey hey, most of the owners here are male (naughty). It is a fun-to-drive car, it is versatile and hauls the family, period (oh and my wife loves it too, so no argument there).

Instead of a soccer mom decal I would put a rugby one, that is the way I would describe the car.

As per the sliding doors not been powered, this is how useless the society is nowadays. If you need them powered you also need somebody to type on your PC keyboard...
 
Disagree while Ill grant him tank-to-tank variation problem with miles/gallons calculation, the manual calculation is ALWAYS the most accurate way to get fuel economy figures. If the computer calculates say 5% off either high or low, it always will... where the law of averages will correct tank-to-tank variations to 100% accuracy. My wifes Solara computer consistently overestimates by 2 MPG. Not a big deal, but still

The computer calculation is based off a formula that uses load, throttle position, gear, speed, injector duty cycle, temperature, etc. It's a pretty cool formula and I have found it "can" be somewhat accurate. But it's never the sort of accuracy you get from calculating the manual method. You are spot-on jandree22.

On my old subbie, I used to log driving on a regular basis with my laptop connected via obd2. I used to love looking at my WOT logs and seeing the computer calculated 1.7MPG during those runs. (cryhard)
 
Decent review. I haven't driven one in a while, but don't remember lean in turns as excessive. Gotta love the implication that vehicles without stability control shouldn't be pushed.
 
did the person reviewing this have terminal wuss cancer or something? I swear, all these power doors things have turned people into walking vaginas. I find the doors to be almost too light.

No kidding, my 3 year old opens and closed them with no problem, he doesn't struggle with them at all.(dunno)
 
I'm 6'2" and have a 34" inseam and DO think the driver's seat is a little tight. I'm used to my 06 CR 3 Hatch. We keep our 2nd row seat down behind the driver's seat in our 08 CWP 5 and I noticed that the seat is limited in rearward travel to allow the 2nd seat room to fold down. Once it warms up here, I'm gonna take a look at maybe finding a way to gain some travel.
 
Hey, I'm always looking for new ways to keep the marketing guys busy! ;)

So it was you huh? :D Getting off-topic but when I got my 08 it was the only one around (next to a Ford truck or something), but they had all trims and colors of Mazda3 and CX-7 all lined up on prime time lot locations. The sales guy (who owns a moded Mazda3) was surprised of my Mazda5 "finding" in the lot. He told me the MZ3s and CX-7s sell like hot cakes! next is the CX-9, and the Mazda6 still sells but kind of slowed down...
 
Two small caveats: You can't get traction control or electronic stability control. Nobody's asking for them, Mazda says. Could be added if there's demand, the automaker says.

Traction control sounds useful but isn't always. Stability control, though, has been anointed by the feds as the best safety feature since belts, and it'll be required within years.



Ummm.... Hello? Nobody's asking for them? Evidently, no one from Mazda reads this forum. Time to write to Mazda, then. I had both traction and stability control on my old Focus ZX3; very helpful when necessary.
 
A couple of points that I agree with...
1. I would like to have another inch or two driver seat rearward travel
2. The brake pedal has become a real issue.. my size 12 E' has to lay flat on the floor and throttle the gas with just my big toe or it will get stuck behind the brake pedal on a fast withdrawal... didn't really notice this at first as I was so impressed with all the great stuff about this vehicle.
( I will try to solve this with a pedal mod)
3. The sliding doors are a definite selling feature, they work flawlessly with little effort as if buttered.
4. I notice little fuel savings as I tend to drive 40 miles out of my way on winding roads to get to the Quicky Mart! Love it!
 
2. The brake pedal has become a real issue.. my size 12 E' has to lay flat on the floor and throttle the gas with just my big toe or it will get stuck behind the brake pedal on a fast withdrawal...
My sneakers are fine, but my slightly wider soled dress shoes barely fit. I will say this was a concern when I first got the car, but I must've adjusted because it's never an issue anymore. Regardless, it's definately a WTF were they thinking thing. The Japanese are generally smaller than us North Americans, so this is probably a consideration in both the pedal (foot size) and seat positioning (height) issues.
 
I don't like this guys review.... its like he is half dead and someone forced him to make a review of the 5
 
The review isn't bad, but the writing is terrible! WTF? Did they publish his rough draft?

Otherwise, I agree that he's whining about stupid crap. If he thinks the 5 leans on exit ramps, he should drive my MPV, or any other mini-van for that matter! Also, I remember the doors being very easy to slide.

I'm guessing he has 10 broken fingers or something, making it incredibly painful to use his hands for such demanding tasks as opening and closing doors and constructing decent paragraphs!
 
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