Yeah, we just bought a CX-5 and this was very true of us -- as was the unexpected surprise of not being able to get a huge discount off MSRP! It seems Mazda occupies this very tiny, odd space in the market right now between excellent mainline brands like Honda/Toyota/Nissan and entry-level luxury brands like Lexus and Volvo. Maybe that's intentional, but it sure seems to confuse the general buying public.
Our case is a good illustration of this, I think. We'd driven a 2006 RAV4 for 12 years and loved it, but as we've moved up a bit in the world we started longing for some bells and whistles. We test drove a mid-trim 2018 RAV4 in our price range thinking we'd love it since we'd had a very bare-bones Base model all these years, but the one we tested felt so bland: lackluster performance, lots of interior plastic, and huge upcharges for packages that add features we wanted. We went home, estimated what we'd probably pay for that RAV4, then set that as our price point for the search. After reading some reviews and tossing things like the Rogue and Outlander, that left us to decide among the RAV4, a Touring level CX-5, a CRV, or a 2-3 year old used luxury SUV (we drove the Lexus RX350 and NXt, Audi Q5, BMW X1, and Mercedes GLA 250 and GLK 350). We ultimately decided on the CX-5 because it felt EXACTLY like one of the used luxury cars in terms of interior quality/comfort, tech, and driving experience, but it was brand new. I'm not sure how to quantify this, but it just felt much nicer than the CRV or RAV4. Having decided on the CX-5, we thought we were in great luck since it was in our price range AND we'd likely be able to negotiate a great price since it's a mainline brand. We've had great success with our previous cars (Toyota and Nissan) haggling with multiple dealers online. Imagine my surprise when after a brutal 3 day negotiation with 20+ dealers over 3 rounds of bidding, the absolute best we could do was a 9% discount off MSRP. So again, Mazda just seems to occupy a weird niche right now...only time will tell where they end up and what it means.
