What I think is interesting is that they say Mazda is for people who care about driving, however I think that EVERYBODY can appreciate a nicer driving car. People who could care less about steering feel can tell the difference when a car steers better than another. I think it's a very nice surprise for people who don't know that you can get this type of driving dynamics outside of higher end luxury cars.
I don't think that EVERYBODY can appreciate a nicer driving car. I think a lot of people don't actually know what a nice driving car really is. What they want is ubber quite with light steering and a ride where you can't feel bumps in the road. That's why so many accords and camerys are sold. The masses don't by BMW, Audi, or MB sedans because of the price but those that do buy those car come to appreciate what a car should drive like. Of course all of those brands have had their duds and misses at times but generally have a good driving experience.
I like what they said about Mazda trying to position it's self as middle ground between the mass market vehicles (ford, chevy, honda, toyota) and the higher end cars the likes of which are mostly German. When we first started looking at cars it was for my wife to replace her A4, a very nice driving car. We looked at the Q5, X3 and XC60. Of the bunch we liked the X3 the best. The Q5 felt old, the XC60 to minivan-ish. After much thought and learning that baby number two is on the way we changed our focus towards replacing my protege5 since I'm the stay at home parent and will be carting the kids around more often. We looked at the CX-5 and were instantly reminded of the X3. The drive and suspension, handling, steering feel all was very similar. My wife actually said the same thing and she's not a car person at all. Truth be told my wife can be a bit of a car snob every since she got he Audi. She doesn't want to go back to "standard" brands, only "luxury" brands from now on. So I was a bit shocked to her say she would consider a CX-5 for herself! I know in the end she would go for the BWM. Why? It's quieter. The Audi is very quiet as well so she likes that a lot. I can tell you that the CX-5 was loader then the A4 but i thought is was quieter then my protege5. I actually like a little road and wind noise, it lets you know your moving. Some cars I've driven are so bland and sterile, they just remove all elements that let you know there is road underneath you and that you're hurtling through time and space at 70mph.
I am resigned to admit that the era of the manual transmission in america is all but over. Unless you go with a small hot hatch or something around those lines, the manual transmission is just gone. No one buys them so the dealers don't order them so the manufacturer stops making them. It's a shame because there is such joy to be found in shifting thru gears. I actually hope to one day find a manual car for my kids when they get to that age. I think the added task of shifting could actually help them stop from other tasks like texting and whatnot. you need to spend more time actually driving and not doing other things. Anyhow, since manual is on it's death bed I sure hope that the driving experience doesn't fallow it to the grave. I could see a possible future where cars are basically privately owned mass transportation. You get in and it auto drives you to where you need to go with no input from the passengers what so ever. The highways would be come one giant train, where everyone has there own "train car" to ride in instead of sitting next to each other. I sure hope Mazda continues the ZOOM-ZOOM for years to come. As for know, I'm eagerly awaiting the day I pull the trigger on the CX-5
