Infotainment a big part of the complete quality evaluation of a car these days.

I find it ironic that most smart phones, are not very good at being telephones.
Cars should be judged by how well they are at being cars.
Infotainment is a small part of the vehicle, and a car would work fine without one.
 
I find it ironic that most smart phones, are not very good at being telephones.
Cars should be judged by how well they are at being cars.
Infotainment is a small part of the vehicle, and a car would work fine without one.

What do you mean they don't work as telephones? Calls have never been clearer, unless you have a terrible phone. Infotainment is as important to me when I drive to the store as the smooth 6 speed transmission, safety features, AWD, handling, braking, etc. It is a cog on the gear...

BTW, I prefer a phone that works, which is why I ditched those terrible iPhones and went with Nokia Windows Phones... superior build and call quality... but that's just me.
 
If you go for the extras, they should work. You pay for them, its not like they are free. The NB-1 is not worth it. I'll forego all the tech next time and get a GS, if I get a Mazda again.
 
Cars should be judged by how well they are at being cars.
Infotainment is a small part of the vehicle, and a car would work fine without one.

If Mazda wasn't charging us an arm and a leg for the infotainment unit, I'd agree. But since it is an extra that I am paying for, I expect it to provide functionality commensurate with what they charge.

And in this case they don't deliver.
 
Infotainment system lacks but it in no way compromises the reliability of the CX-5. I've had mine since June 2012, infotainment issues are not a big deal, still listen to music through my iPhone 5, Navigation works great, don't care about voice control, reading texts etc... To me it is simple and useful. Can it be better? of course but I'm not driving a spaceship I'm in a car and watch the road 99.9% of the time anyway :)
 
In my opinion, none of the systems are perfect, every manufacturer has it's own issues.
 
I'm in a car and watch the road 99.9% of the time anyway :)

And this is where the problem lies.
Instead of concentrating on driving the vehicle you are most likely adjusting your audio because it doesn't resume play from last song played.
Almost consider this a safety issue.
 
In my opinion, none of the systems are perfect, every manufacturer has it's own issues.

I agree, having the BT portion of the infotainment system match every phone is tough. However, the Nexus line of phones is common and should work (the cx5 has forgotten my Nexus 4 again today, I give up) The single USB port in the cx5 is also broken (memory loss, slow and no random music.) For me, I refuse to pay another fee for satellite radio which is not that great anyway. That leaves the radio and CD player. Hooray.
 
You guys make excuses for Mazda's lousy infotainment system.
Regardless of how the CX looks,handles etc,the infotainment system should work well.It's a 2015 vehicle.
My phone works well and does receive texts but the NAV is so-so and the IPod set up blows.
 
I find it ironic that most smart phones, are not very good at being telephones.
Cars should be judged by how well they are at being cars.
Infotainment is a small part of the vehicle, and a car would work fine without one.

Right. The audio system used to be something that was upgraded if it didn't meet the owner's needs. The problem with integrating consumer tech is that most of it is flakey and not that reliable itself. How many stand in lines when a new device is introduced because they HAVE to have the "latest"? Being in IT (high-availability) for decades, we have a saying about avoiding the bleeding edge (being settlers rather than pioneers, as they get scalped). As the OP's referenced article indicates, Toyota has maintained their ratings by keeping a simpler, conservative approach.
 
Right. The audio system used to be something that was upgraded if it didn't meet the owner's needs. The problem with integrating consumer tech is that most of it is flakey and not that reliable itself. How many stand in lines when a new device is introduced because they HAVE to have the "latest"? Being in IT (high-availability) for decades, we have a saying about avoiding the bleeding edge (being settlers rather than pioneers, as they get scalped). As the OP's referenced article indicates, Toyota has maintained their ratings by keeping a simpler, conservative approach.

There is nothing special about the NB-1. Its a radio, CD player, an extended USB port, BT and a nav unit with poor resolution and bad mapping. My $250 Nexus 7 tablet has much more tech than that. The NB-1 is a good result of lowest bidder wins.
 
You guys make excuses for Mazda's lousy infotainment system.
Regardless of how the CX looks,handles etc,the infotainment system should work well.It's a 2015 vehicle.
My phone works well and does receive texts but the NAV is so-so and the IPod set up blows.

I don't understand these comments, either. My vehicle cost 30 grand. One member suggested that since it cost 30k and not 40k, I should be satisfied. Car companies must love fanboys. They make it easier for them to foist crap on the rest of us.
 
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A car easily lasts 10 years Phones, personal devices, music storage ETC are updated continuously. Therefor I think the best approach would be for Mazda to supply a good sized touch screen, a good sound system, and a OS such as Linux. Then add there software to control everything including phone, blue tooth, PDA interface, and car control such as locks, lights, doors and windows.

Most importantly, make it open source. Invite vendors to release Mazda compatible software. Imagine if you had your choice of 3 different vendors for GPS or if your new smart phone came with a update for your Mazda. That would put them way out in front of the competition and leave them to do what they do well. Build good handling cars.
 
A car easily lasts 10 years Phones, personal devices, music storage ETC are updated continuously. Therefor I think the best approach would be for Mazda to supply a good sized touch screen, a good sound system, and a OS such as Linux. Then add there software to control everything including phone, blue tooth, PDA interface, and car control such as locks, lights, doors and windows.

Most importantly, make it open source. Invite vendors to release Mazda compatible software. Imagine if you had your choice of 3 different vendors for GPS or if your new smart phone came with a update for your Mazda. That would put them way out in front of the competition and leave them to do what they do well. Build good handling cars.

That's Android right there. It's open source, has an excellent Play Store and great community support. I imagine a few devs might buy a CX-5 would be interested in making custom ROMs. Either way, a good stock Android OS would be far more advanced than any proprietary OS. All you'd have to do is drive up to your home, connect to WiFi, update and/or download what you need and you are set. Put that in a 7" to 9" screen and nothing on the market could touch it.

add: Mazda and others should make it easy on themselves. Leave a opening on the dash to slide in a tablet of your choice that can plug into the power of the car and head phone jack into a pre-installed amp and away you go. Also, make in secure so theft is deterred.
 
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I don't understand these comments, either. My vehicle cost 30 grand. One member suggested that since it cost 30k and not 40k, I should be satisfied. Car companies must love fanboys. They make it easier for them to foist crap on the rest of us.

Oh my....
That's funny and sad.
 
BTW, I prefer a phone that works, which is why I ditched those terrible iPhones and went with Nokia Windows Phones... superior build and call quality... but that's just me.

Actually, I agree. I still can't believe how the Windows phone OS went from the worst out there (almost unusable) to a mature platform in just a few years. I've been using a Nokia Lumia Icon and the hardware/build quality/sound quality is unbeatable. First smartphone I've had where everything just works without hiccups. Plays nice with the CX-5 too. I could never give it up for Android or iOS now that I've experienced it.
 
That's Android right there. It's open source, has an excellent Play Store and great community support. I imagine a few devs might buy a CX-5 would be interested in making custom ROMs. Either way, a good stock Android OS would be far more advanced than any proprietary OS. All you'd have to do is drive up to your home, connect to WiFi, update and/or download what you need and you are set. Put that in a 7" to 9" screen and nothing on the market could touch it.

GMs next-gen infotainment system to run Androidnot Android Autoin 2016

"Harman International, the car infotainment manufacturer, recently spilled the beans on a "next-gen" infotainment system it is building for General Motors. Automotive News has quotes from the company's CEO, Dinesh Paliwal, who describes an Android-based system with an app store and "instant" boot up. The report says that Harman is "working closely" with Google to make the system a reality."
 
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