Six states and 2600+ miles later ...

Strings

Member
:
Mazda CX 5 Touring
We take as many "road" trips as possible every year including the "family circle drive" that includes stops in Florida (home) thru GA, TN, KY, IN and AL. We typically take my '02 Corvette that "kinda holds" our modest wardrobe requirements and a case of wine. But this year our plans were changed by a ... dinner bell! Yep, the dinner bell that used to reside on my grandparents Indiana "farm" was being given by my sister to our TN daughter. Need clothes. Need wine. Now ... a dinner bell. Need more space!

And so, my wife suggests we take her new CX-5.

New world for us. Space! That usual "discussion" my wife and I have over the law of matter re duel occupation of space? Never happened. Even reserving estimated space for a dinner bell I hadn't seen in thirty years, left enough room for almost everything she had in her "hope" line.

So with less that 2000 miles on the clock the tires and fluids checked - iPhones filled with recent music additions, we headed for stop one, Chattanooga. This little Crossover is not a Cadillac, but it's more quiet and rides better than the other, non-bell option Chevy.

The cloth seats were surprisingly non-tiring. My usual squirming was minimal after the first 9 hour run. Road noise thru the downtown streets of Atlanta only required a slight adjustment to the stereo volume.

On the freeways, straight line stability was good despite that extra-case-of-wine weight in the back plus the gifts I didn't know I was delivering. Steering input was a bit tricky once (at about 80mph) when I over reacted to someone who wanted to be where we were, but I improved.

Everything worked well. Average mpg settled at 27.5 for the trip. I'm a big cruise control user and it teamed well with the transmission as we went thru the mid-south hills.

So for us, it's all thumbs up for the CX-5. Of course when it comes to road trips, I wish it was a Cadillac. But for this trip, I was glad it wasn't the Chevy.
 
1st-gen or 2nd-gen? FWD or AWD?

Thanks for sharing your road experience!
 
Good to hear that you enjoyed your trip and more important, you were happy with your ride!!


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Why is "road" in quotes?? Road trips... are a thing. ? ! ? ! ? !

We have family/friends in AZ, SoCal and Hawaii that we also try to visit every year. We have, over the years, driven to the West Coast, but these days we fly.

Hawaiian "road trips" are taken in spirit - and airplanes, only.

But build us a bridge ...
 
My midwest summer road trip with 2017 GT

Strings, I hope you don't mind me adding my personal road trip thoughts to your tread.

I have had my 2017 CX-5 GT with premium package for about 3 months and clocked almost 5k miles on it now. It is my wife's daily driver but I take it often and drove it 2000+ miles over the last 10 days while exploring Utah, Arizona and Colorado. Here are a few pics and my unorganized thoughts of the CX-5 overall:

The CX-5 performed great and I'm very happy I went with GT w/ premium package. HUD, traffic sign recognition, LED lights and radar cruise control have spoiled me so much I don't want to travel without the CX-5. It was easy to get 29 MPG driving 75-80MPH, average for the entire trip was 29MPG. Around Denver my wife averages 25.6 MPG. Enough power to safely pass on 2 lane highways and mountain roads, responsive engine and fast/smooth transmission. AC works great. Seats are comfy and supportive for long periods of time. We use the dual memory seat function a lot, too bad it doesn't adjust the side mirrors as well. Bose sounds pretty good; aux and dual USB inputs are appreciated but primarily stream music via Bluetooth. XM has worked well but I won't pay for it after the trial ends. Heated seats and steering wheel are awesome in winter. The car gets lots of looks and compliments. Interior is easy to clean and keep looking great so far. It handled driving in 110F degree temps in Arizona perfectly, temp gauge stayed normal, inside was cool. I have it driven about 5 hours in total off road, lots of dust, sand, and rocks. I was very impressed with traction and handling. AWD always seemed to kick in before the tires could even slip. While I don't drive it as fast or as recklessly as my lifted Pathfinder, I wouldn't hesitate to take it camping in the backwoods over short 4x4 trails. I wish I took more pictures of the rock gardens and streams I crossed (I have one video in the album linked below towards the end). I will be installing a hitch tonight so I can use the CX-5 for mountain biking trips. I scored lots of points getting this for my wife, no complaints from her.

The only minor annoyance is the infotainment system is sometimes slow to boot up, like 15 seconds when trying to load navigation on startup, but once it is on, I like its functionality and controls. I really only used nav when I didn't have cell service but having the directions on the HUD was convenient.

Two things I would recommend are getting the front side windows tinted, it keeps the car/me a lot cooler, and clear bra the front. The paint seems to chip easily and I got several rock chips over 3 weeks before I could get my XPEL bra installed.

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more pics here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qxtCpyBgjXbsvDlB2
 
⋯ I have had my 2017 CX-5 GT with premium package for about 3 months and clocked almost 5k miles on it now. It is my wife's daily driver but I take it often and drove it 2000+ miles over the last 10 days while exploring Utah, Arizona and Colorado. Here are a few pics and my unorganized thoughts of the CX-5 overall:

The CX-5 performed great and I'm very happy I went with GT w/ premium package. HUD, traffic sign recognition, LED lights and radar cruise control have spoiled me so much I don't want to travel without the CX-5. It was easy to get 29 MPG driving 75-80MPH, average for the entire trip was 29MPG. Around Denver my wife averages 25.6 MPG.
Getting 29 MPG while driving 75~80 MPH on the highway for a CX-5 AWD is excellent! Thanks for sharing nice photos from your road trip!
 
g170gst - No worries, I'm enjoying your pics. Your mpg is much better than what we saw - 27.5, no complaints but more wouldn't hurt. You mentioned window tint and a front bra. We added side window tint and the windshield stripe. Looked at the clear bra option but chose the vinyl (?) mask and hood cover. It was very effective and cleaned up well once home.

Re the infotainment system, ours is responsive if not a bit limited with voice commands but syncs well with our phones though the audible for Nav. is missed.

Like you, this is officially my wife's care but going to her hairdresser once every few weeks won't prevent me using it for daily chores.
 
Strings, I hope you don't mind me adding my personal road trip thoughts to your tread.

I have had my 2017 CX-5 GT with premium package for about 3 months and clocked almost 5k miles on it now. It is my wife's daily driver but I take it often and drove it 2000+ miles over the last 10 days while exploring Utah, Arizona and Colorado. Here are a few pics and my unorganized thoughts of the CX-5 overall:

The CX-5 performed great and I'm very happy I went with GT w/ premium package. HUD, traffic sign recognition, LED lights and radar cruise control have spoiled me so much I don't want to travel without the CX-5. It was easy to get 29 MPG driving 75-80MPH, average for the entire trip was 29MPG. Around Denver my wife averages 25.6 MPG. Enough power to safely pass on 2 lane highways and mountain roads, responsive engine and fast/smooth transmission. AC works great. Seats are comfy and supportive for long periods of time. We use the dual memory seat function a lot, too bad it doesn't adjust the side mirrors as well. Bose sounds pretty good; aux and dual USB inputs are appreciated but primarily stream music via Bluetooth. XM has worked well but I won't pay for it after the trial ends. Heated seats and steering wheel are awesome in winter. The car gets lots of looks and compliments. Interior is easy to clean and keep looking great so far. It handled driving in 110F degree temps in Arizona perfectly, temp gauge stayed normal, inside was cool. I have it driven about 5 hours in total off road, lots of dust, sand, and rocks. I was very impressed with traction and handling. AWD always seemed to kick in before the tires could even slip. While I don't drive it as fast or as recklessly as my lifted Pathfinder, I wouldn't hesitate to take it camping in the backwoods over short 4x4 trails. I wish I took more pictures of the rock gardens and streams I crossed (I have one video in the album linked below towards the end). I will be installing a hitch tonight so I can use the CX-5 for mountain biking trips. I scored lots of points getting this for my wife, no complaints from her.

The only minor annoyance is the infotainment system is sometimes slow to boot up, like 15 seconds when trying to load navigation on startup, but once it is on, I like its functionality and controls. I really only used nav when I didn't have cell service but having the directions on the HUD was convenient.

Two things I would recommend are getting the front side windows tinted, it keeps the car/me a lot cooler, and clear bra the front. The paint seems to chip easily and I got several rock chips over 3 weeks before I could get my XPEL bra installed.

Very much enjoyed this post. Well written :)

With regards to your minor annoyance, try and boot up without having your phone's bluetooth on from the get go. After it boots up, then connect. Should help with the boot speed.

:D
 
Re: XM. I wasn't going to renew mine either. But towards the of the try trial they sent me a "special deal": 6 months for $30. So I renewed with a check (so it can't Auto Renew at full price).

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
 
Re: XM. I wasn't going to renew mine either. But towards the of the try trial they sent me a "special deal": 6 months for $30. So I renewed with a check (so it can't Auto Renew at full price).

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

I played that game with XM for years, but got tired of having to constantly negotiate to get the rate. They'd always give it, but it wasn't worth the hassle and they wouldn't commit to a good rate for a longer term.
 
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