Finally, my first Mazda ever!

[manualist]

Thanks to the wealth of information and encouragement in this forum, yesterday I went ahead and scored a Mazda5 Sport 6MT in Metropolitan gray. I bought it from Fremont Mazda in the bay area. The price on it is low - $17,700 + tax & lic, but I think they'll make money back on my trade. My 07 Odyssey with almost 90k miles got me about $500 under Blue Book, not too bad IMO. For those considering buying - I got the quote from TrueCar.com. I only found out about that site when looking up dealer reviews on Yelp.
Enough about the dealing and wheeling already! I'm very excited about this new Mazda5. The gray shade is just gorgeous, and the red tail lamps contrast nicely with the dark metallic gray.
On the road it feels a lot like a BMW 328, but with a bit softer suspension. I'm just in love with the way it rides and corners. Clutch is easy to get used to. Gear shifter is precise enough. Clutch and shifter feel a lot like those on the 06 Audi A3 I had.
Fit and finish are great - I'm pretty amazed by how small the door gaps are. Doors and hatch open easily and close solidly. That Mazda Touch video clip on youtube about the 5's doors set my expectation really high, and these doors - all of them, not just the sliding ones - do not disappoint. Turn signal stalk has a nice hefty feel and is pleasant to use. Locks, window controls, and climate controls are logically laid out - the best I've seen from my experience owning Ford, Nissan, VW, Audi, Toyota and Honda. Seats are very comfortable. Looking at the interior pictures, I was a bit worried that the front head rests could be tilted too far forward, but they are not. They're never in my way at all.
There are only a few small flies in my Mazda Koolaid soup First, the tan cloth interior, which is the only choice with the gray color Sport, is going to be horrible to maintain. It stains easily, and proudly shows every little stains it got. The black plastic trim panels on the doors are the same way - they'll clearly show scuff marks and even rain water marks. The mouse fur roof liner is just cheap, but I don't look at it very often. But the sun visors are a joke. Very cheap and completely out of line with the thoughtful design flow of the entire car.
Then this morning while driving on the highway, I noticed a strange thing that I didn't catch on the test drive - in the rear view mirror, I saw the empty middle row seats shaking wildly like a couple angry clowns The car felt fine from my driver seat. The shaking was worst at about 60mph, and died down at close to 70. Hopefully it's nothing more than the back wheels out of balance. I'll drive it for a week or so for the tires to settle in, and then get them balanced if the shaking doesn't go away.
But overall, I'm floored by the quality I got for the money. Today at work I came out to my car several times just to play with the doors You can feel the effort Mazda people put into this car. Just awesome.
Here are a few pics I took today. Thanks again for all your help in this.

 

[Nurburgringer]

Congrats! The darker color really shows off the body lines.
Are you planning on Scotch-guard or similar for the tan cloth?
I agree with most of your comments, but funny I haven't noticed the cheapness of the headliner even though it's mentioned here quite often...

I know what you mean about the sand interior - I would have liked a red ext with black int, the sand just seemed too light. In a perfect world we'd get to have any color combo, and the 6MT with bluetooth, leather, sunroof etc, and power sliding doors but Mazda won't sell enough to make it worth the trouble to make more permutations available I suppose.

No noticeable 2nd row seat vibrations on ours, must be a wheel/tire thing.

Any mods planned?

That is a GREAT price BTW - congrats again!
Plenty of money saved to upgrade the shift knob

 

[Orangutan]

My rear seats shake like the dickens, too, but there's no noticeable balance problem with the tires/wheels. I agree with you on the visors and the interior color. In other parts of the world (like Canada) you can get the Metro Gray with a black interior. I really wanted the gray but I refuse to ever buy a car again with a tan interior, which is why I ended up with a Brilliant Black 5. I wish I had gone for the 6sp man. instead of the auto but overall I'm pretty pleased with the 5. Congrats!

 

[vinisterz]

Congrats!! Nice color too

 

[manualist]

Are you planning on Scotch-guard or similar for the tan cloth?

Thanks for mentioning this. I never had Scotch guard before. Can I apply it myself or it's a professional thing?

I agree with most of your comments, but funny I haven't noticed the cheapness of the headliner even though it's mentioned here quite often...

A piece of cloth would be more in line with the rest of the interior than this mouse fur stuff, but that's just nitpicking on my part.

Any mods planned?

I'll get my back windows tinted - probably just clear film in front as I can't afford tickets in California. When I got caught talking on cell phone the first day the law went into effect, the cop told me it'd be about $30. Well, the bill came and I gotta shell out almost 4 times that amount for all kinds of fees.
I was looking at CorkSport short ram intake - I believe Orangutan has it on his 5. It looks pretty solid and not too expensive. Orangutan, can you feel the difference in power? I'd love to squeeze a bit more power out of this engine.

That is a GREAT price BTW - congrats again!
Plenty of money saved to upgrade the shift knob

Thanks! And yes, I saw the Miata shift knob on your thread - it looks great. The other 6MT at the dealership (they have 2 out of 3 6MTs I can find in 200 mile radius) had the shift knob stolen. So it seems there's a market for Mazda5 knob too - you can probably make up some of the cost

 

[Orangutan]

I don't really feel a difference, but I certainly hear one. It sounds much better with the intake than before. That said, I do wish it had more of a growl to it than it does.

 

[Richard_rsp]

Congrats! That is the same combo we got! (6MT, Metro Grey)

 

[dieseldriver]

Funny you mentioned BMW 328i, that's exactly how I felt. Also, I traded in a 2007 Odyssey Touring with 60K miles that was falling apart as well. But that trade was for the CX-9 GT. I traded in my '06 Beetle TDI for the M5GT. Congratulations on your new M5S, I know you will enjoy it more with the stick shift!

 

[manualist]

Thanks Pete. This car fits me perfectly. Sliding doors and stick shift alone would've been enough to win me over. But then there are superb suspension, great steering, simple but thoughtful interior, and a low price - I'm overwhelmed I gotta count exterior design in that list too - I think it's artistic and detailed for such a utility car. Curves and lines on the hood are very nice. Even the lowly 16" alloy wheels have a curvy design that fits nicely in the Nagare theme.
Talking about coincidence, my wife still drives a 2001 Beetle GLX. It's under 60k miles at the moment, and we didn't have any big problems with it yet. The sunroof leaked badly a couple years ago, but that was more my fault for not keeping the drain pipe free of leaves and dirt. And I'm telling her she should have a Mazda too

 

[Nurburgringer]

Thanks Pete. This car fits me perfectly. Sliding doors and stick shift alone would've been enough to win me over. But then there are superb suspension, great steering, simple but thoughtful interior, and a low price - I'm overwhelmed I gotta count exterior design in that list too - I think it's artistic and detailed for such a utility car. Curves and lines on the hood are very nice. Even the lowly 16" alloy wheels have a curvy design that fits nicely in the Nagare theme.

ditto, well said!

BTW - as you can see in my avatar pics I've spent some time behind the wheel of a New Beetle.
On one of my trips to the Nurburgring the rental counter gave me a choice between a Hyundai SUV or a diesel Beetle cab. Ok, let's go topless!
This was the same weekend as when Top Gear was there filming the episode where Jeremy tries to break the 10 minute barrier in a diesel Jag.
I never met him on the course, but my local friends in hot VW Golfs did. They saw him go out so took off in chase, passing him about 1/4 of the way through. One of them then pulled off at the mid-way exit (Breidsheid Bridge), waited about 30 seconds, went back out and passed him again.
After the lap they approached him in the parking lots and while shooting the sh!t about the track mentioned that he was in a red VW Golf.
Jeremy asked "Which one, I saw two on the last lap?". He wasn't very happy to be told that it was the same one

The beetle cab was a ton of fun. Not fast or very sticky of course but I must have taken a dozen people out for some very amusing laps, overtaking some properly fast cars along the way (more a function of my track knowledge than the car's ability....)

 

[dieseldriver]

I love VW too, my Beetle especially. I could even peel out no problem on the Beetle TDI. Stick shift, in a word, awesome. One of the more better manual car, even better than the BMW Z3, 328i, and 318i's that I used to own. But, had lots of electrical problems, a laundry list of them. Painful to own the car, fun to drive. My Beetle would out dust, and out class in terms of handling, most sedans on the road. Of course when someone have more power, I mean way more power, then I would go into cunning mode, LOL.

I did the cross country on the Beetle two years ago. From my house in Northern NJ through I-40, to Los Angeles. Then we went up San Fran then to Mt. Hood Oregon. Then drove back alone through Utah then Colorado. Utah was the prettiest I think, I would do it again... maybe on the M5?

If you want to watch something fun, watch these videos --- it's a VW T1 transporter that was outfitted with Porsche 911 Turbo engine and suspension. It would dust a lot of $100K+ cars on the track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=powVngJ-Ljc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jjZfISWfu0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK0v--XPNxU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MLCuaPdPew&feature=related

 

[manualist]

After the lap they approached him in the parking lots and while shooting the sh!t about the track mentioned that he was in a red VW Golf.
Jeremy asked "Which one, I saw two on the last lap?". He wasn't very happy to be told that it was the same one

LOL that's just awesome. So are the pictures. I like the Beetle a lot too - managed to convince a coworker to buy a blue turbo one with stick shift. It was so fun I almost got one for myself.

 

[Nurburgringer]

LOL that's just awesome. So are the pictures. I like the Beetle a lot too - managed to convince a coworker to buy a blue turbo one with stick shift. It was so fun I almost got one for myself.

Not expecting much, I was impressed with the Beetle. Made no pretensions to be anything it wasn't, but at the limits the chassis was predictable and easy to control. It wouldn't win many drag races but decent enough thrust from the turbodiesel. Luckily on the 'Ring momentum conservation and corner speed are more important than raw power (except in a few places); when we overtook a 911RS exiting Aremburg with 4 people in the Beetle the look on the (new to the 'Ring) Porsche driver's face was especially priceless
Here's a short vid I put together from that trip:
<embed id=VideoPlayback src=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=6780306496756382446&hl=en&fs=true style=width:400px;height:326px allowFullScreen=true allowScriptAccess=always type=application/x-shockwave-flash> </embed>

And one from a previous trip in something a bit racier

<embed id=VideoPlayback src=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-2221257423351405110&hl=en&fs=true style=width:400px;height:326px allowFullScreen=true allowScriptAccess=always type=application/x-shockwave-flash> </embed>

Thanks for mentioning this. I never had Scotch guard before. Can I apply it myself or it's a professional thing?

Forgot about this question - I've never scotch-guarded a car interior, but there are lots of opinions online via google on products, method of application/re-application etc. Consensus seems to be that whatever you chose, first try a small, inconspicuous area to make sure it doesn't stain the fabric, then spray away!

 

[dieseldriver]

Beetle's chassis is based off of the Golf, and also Jetta. It handles like no other. Mine had sports suspension, stiffer than gasoline version. More in line with S trim Beetle. With the TDI, it was extremely fast. But of course, no car's perfect and the Beetle's no exception. Biggest gripe I had with the Beetle is the darn headlamps. You know the design isn't a good one when it takes you hours to change the light bulbs. Then have to push the whole cluster in every so many hundred miles because it starts to flicker then goes out because it's not making a solid contact with the bracket's female plug. Then the low ground clearance and the bracket that holds the engine to the unibody breaks off if you hit protruding pothole then eventually the engine will rock back and forth until it rips apart the coolant hose. And finally, all those electrical problems; biggest problem of all; the window regulator that thinks something's in the way of window closing and then comes back down. Not cool when it's pouring rain or snow.

Anyway, that was my experience with the Beetle, which is the reason now I own a Mazda.

 

[vinisterz]

Beetle's chassis is based off of the Golf, and also Jetta. It handles like no other. Mine had sports suspension, stiffer than gasoline version. More in line with S trim Beetle. With the TDI, it was extremely fast. But of course, no car's perfect and the Beetle's no exception. Biggest gripe I had with the Beetle is the darn headlamps. You know the design isn't a good one when it takes you hours to change the light bulbs. Then have to push the whole cluster in every so many hundred miles because it starts to flicker then goes out because it's not making a solid contact with the bracket's female plug. Then the low ground clearance and the bracket that holds the engine to the unibody breaks off if you hit protruding pothole then eventually the engine will rock back and forth until it rips apart the coolant hose. And finally, all those electrical problems; biggest problem of all; the window regulator that thinks something's in the way of window closing and then comes back down. Not cool when it's pouring rain or snow.

Anyway, that was my experience with the Beetle, which is the reason now I own a Mazda.

I loved my GTI, I had the full body oettinger kit on with the oettinger muffler, side mirrors lowered with racing hart wheels.
My gti never had the window regulator problem but it did had a coolant hose come apart when i was driving down the beach.
The temp gauge suddenly was stating overheat. I pulled over, opened the hood and I had green coolant fluid all over.
Then I had the power sterring hose leaking another $$, then the catalytic converter problem warranty covers , then the airbag wire harness was bad this I left alone, then the radiator and condenser malfunction. Wow glad I switched to a reliable honda, hopefully mazda will.

 

[dieseldriver]

Oh yeah and another not so smart design, the wheel lugs with bolt on them. Takes unnecessary labor and time just to put wheels back on after you take them off. I don't know if that's better "German engineering" but they sure heck wants you to sweat like crazy when rotaing your tires.

I loved my GTI, I had the full body oettinger kit on with the oettinger muffler, side mirrors lowered with racing hart wheels.
My gti never had the window regulator problem but it did had a coolant hose come apart when i was driving down the beach.
The temp gauge suddenly was stating overheat. I pulled over, opened the hood and I had green coolant fluid all over.
Then I had the power sterring hose leaking another $$, then the catalytic converter problem warranty covers , then the airbag wire harness was bad this I left alone, then the radiator and condenser malfunction. Wow glad I switched to a reliable honda, hopefully mazda will.