2017 cx-5 snow and ice performance?

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2017 Mazda CX-5 GT
Hey guys

new to the forum here and looking to buy the 2017 cx-5 touring AWD in a month or two. just wondering if anyone has experience with the vehicle in heavy snow/ice/storms situations? I'm from NY and the snow can be a real pain in the city and also difficult to deal with when traveling in the winter time. When it comes to safety in severe weathers, how does the cx-5 touring AWD hold up?

thank you!
 
Only those in extreme northern climates will have experience with the '17 at this point.

Otherwise performance should be very similar to, if not slightly better than the previous generation - depending on how much the GVC comes into play in the slippery stuff. Slap some snows on it and you should be good to go.
 
No issues with my 2016.5 awd,

I live in Canada, pretty rough winters i also use winter tires as well

it has never let me down

im sure the 17 isnt any different.
 
Can't speak for the 2017, but I imagine it can't be much if any different from my 2014 which handles phenominally in winter weather....with proper tires of course.

But even without dedicated snow tires, my all seasons have performed admirably. Just get rid of the crappy OEM tires and you'll be fine.
 
My 2016 awd went through a Colorado winter without worry on the factory Toyoyo's. It seems to be a great system with a variety of winter tires assuming you can see the road. We had a blizzard like snow last winter and a poster from Denver asked if anyone else had problems keeping the windshield clear in hard snow. I was out in the snow that next morning and soon realized her problem: windshield defrosting is questionable in the harshest times. I also experienced the same thing later that winter when we had a rare ice storm/freezing rain-sleet. The defrosters couldn't hang in. If you could run the defrosters in the recirc cabin air setting you might get by. But I couldn't do it and the service rep said the defroster setting in any situation defaults to outside air. Maybe someone else knows the trick...fwiw.
 
My 2016 awd went through a Colorado winter without worry on the factory Toyoyo's. It seems to be a great system with a variety of winter tires assuming you can see the road. We had a blizzard like snow last winter and a poster from Denver asked if anyone else had problems keeping the windshield clear in hard snow. I was out in the snow that next morning and soon realized her problem: windshield defrosting is questionable in the harshest times. I also experienced the same thing later that winter when we had a rare ice storm/freezing rain-sleet. The defrosters couldn't hang in. If you could run the defrosters in the recirc cabin air setting you might get by. But I couldn't do it and the service rep said the defroster setting in any situation defaults to outside air. Maybe someone else knows the trick...fwiw.

That might have been me.

When I first got the CX-5, I hated that the ice would bunch up on the wipers and make them streak water accross the windshield or not clear snow off effectively.

This was fixed by replacing the stock wipers with some beam style blades (Trico Force, now some Bosch Icons). It was never a problem after that.
 
Compared to 2000 Outback with AWD and LSD, 2012 outback and impreza, both with AWD. All three cars had dedicated top-end ice/snow tires.

2016.5 CX-5 AWD with X-ice's was better handling on ice and snow. The Subie's are very front-drive balanced. That's ideal for idiots who don't know how to drive. The CX-5 puts enough power to the rear wheels to allow precision power-on drifting.

I believe the Mazda's have better-optimized vehicle control code than Subaru. You'll have to wade thru the common assumption that Subaru's AWD is the best. I don't believe it is.

I also owned an AWD Eclipse and AWD Audi A4 POS. The eclipse did a lot of winter drifting, boosted to 16.5 psi.
 
I'm in the NY tristate area but live on a mountain....snow tires. I've seen Jeeps, Subaru's and pickups slide off the road, no amount of tech will grip the road like snow tires.
 
So decided to head to Tahoe this weekend, and it so happened this weekend the mountain pass was afflicted with a snow storm. Not too cold as temperatures hung around 32 degrees, but heavy snow on the main mountain road, and icy rain fore and aft of the pass. Driving conditions were pretty bad on the mountain, with only 4wd vehicles with snow tires or cars with snow chains on the drive wheels being allowed (there were checkpoints and cars being turned back). FYI I did not have snow tires or chains, just the stock 19* Toyo A36 tires.

Anyway that*s just the backdrop to tell of the wiper and car performance. Thank God I changed those wipers before going into the snow storm, to Bosch Envision 24OE and 18OE, as they performed excellently in rain and snow (waaay better than the OEM blades). The road was generally plowed (it wasn*t always clean), but snowfall was heavy in the afternoon. We had no grip or tracking issues. The car went steadily and where I wanted it to go. Also I did NOT feel slippage of the front forcing the rear to kick in; this is due to the Mazda predictive AWD programming that sends more power to the rear pre-emptively when it detects certain conditions, in my case: cold, incline, wipers in use. Very reassuring. We didn*t go off the main roads into deep snow so can*t say how it would have behaved in that case. Don*t think I would have trusted these tires or this car in the deep stuff though.
 
So decided to head to Tahoe this weekend, and it so happened this weekend the mountain pass was afflicted with a snow storm. Not too cold as temperatures hung around 32 degrees, but heavy snow on the main mountain road, and icy rain fore and aft of the pass. Driving conditions were pretty bad on the mountain, with only 4wd vehicles with snow tires or cars with snow chains on the drive wheels being allowed (there were checkpoints and cars being turned back). FYI I did not have snow tires or chains, just the stock 19* Toyo A36 tires.

Anyway that*s just the backdrop to tell of the wiper and car performance. Thank God I changed those wipers before going into the snow storm, to Bosch Envision 24OE and 18OE, as they performed excellently in rain and snow (waaay better than the OEM blades). The road was generally plowed (it wasn*t always clean), but snowfall was heavy in the afternoon. We had no grip or tracking issues. The car went steadily and where I wanted it to go. Also I did NOT feel slippage of the front forcing the rear to kick in; this is due to the Mazda predictive AWD programming that sends more power to the rear pre-emptively when it detects certain conditions, in my case: cold, incline, wipers in use. Very reassuring. We didn*t go off the main roads into deep snow so can*t say how it would have behaved in that case. Don*t think I would have trusted these tires or this car in the deep stuff though.

I've found that the stock tires are terrible in fresh unplowed snow.
 
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