Awesome 3rd. party summary of why CX5 (way back in 2013/2014)

[vroom]

I have the all weather mats and store them in the garage every spring because I prefer the look and feel of the carpet mats for summer. I've never noticed a single decibel of a difference. Then again, I don't have an instrument to do any measurement, but it tells me the difference must be close to placebo.

 

[hek8560]

The CX-5 has virtually no sound insulation except for 2016, which got a paltry 9 pounds. Some rather myopic people (I say this, because really, the CX-5 is a joke performance-wise, but it does make a nice little commuter) opine than 30-40# of sound deadening would just KILL the car's "performance", but I personally think Mazda handed Honda and Toyota a fair amount of customers for no reason by not including it.

Your transmission issue sounds like a tuning/adjustment of software problem, not necessarily a bad transmission. Dealer should handle up on it in short order though.

Yep, they updated my PCM software and it not shift normal.

 

[Rarebit]

Define " the cabin significantly quieter" and "considerable less road noise". Did you calibrate a decibel meter and measure the difference? Did you have a Mazda engineer in the passenger seat? If anyone else posted that, this would have been you response to their subjectivity lol.

I don't think you'd need a Mazda Engineer . . . unless they have calibrated ears. ;-).

I don't think you'd need a calibrated sound level meter either. A smartphone sound level meter app could detect a noticeable difference. A simple test on the same stretch of road, same traffic conditions, same speed, smart phone held in same position and orientation, would detect any substantial difference. It's raining today so I won't do it, but one of these days I'll do the test. I have the Mazda heavy rubber floor mats front and rear in my 2015.

I'll confess to having poorly calibrated ears and bad judgement. I thought my 2010 Mazda 3 GT was quieter than my CX-5 . . . until I tested them with my iPhone app and found that the CX-5 is 4 to 6 dB quieter at 60 MPH on the same stretch of road, same conditions, same day. Later that day I got my wife to hold the iPhone in the same position in both vehicles, and the differences I noted by propping up the iPhone in each vehicle held at the same levels.

I can only attribute my judgemental error down to a different spectrum of noise in the two vehicles. The CX-5 seems to have more engine noise, but I suspect now that it's only because the road and wind noise from the Mazda 3 is significantly higher and tends to drown out the engine note in the 3. Tricky stuff, acoustics. Last time I bought loudspeakers for my AV system I took my iPhone app to the stores and set the sound level the same for all my tests. Interesting what a difference it made. At a constant 85 dB, some systems were clearly superior to others. But if you listened to one at 82 and one at 86, the 86 invariably sounded more full and better.

Conclusion: unless your ears have been calibrated, don't trust them alone. Not even if you're a Mazda Engineer. ;-)

 

[MikeM.]

Define " the cabin significantly quieter" and "considerable less road noise". Did you calibrate a decibel meter and measure the difference? Did you have a Mazda engineer in the passenger seat? If anyone else posted that, this would have been you response to their subjectivity lol.

All I'm saying is the road noise was subjectively quieter with the mats in place. I couldn't hear the tire noise as much.

I don't need a calibrated decibel meter to determine if the level goes up or down!