I thought i'd give a 1 month update on my 2015 upgrade.
So far it's been very smooth sailing. The interior is a much welcome change and upgrade. Other people i've had in the car have commented on how well it appears and feels.
A 20 month old toddler plus the white leather is a nightmare, but a baby seat protector and being cautious with food in the car has minimised any potential staining.
The MZD Connect system is working well. I finally managed to get it to connect to the hotspot generated by my phone. Local search, weather etc... work well but i've yet to see any traffic information although i've not connected during rush hour. To be honest this bit is a bit of a faf, and one area where the TomTom was ahead (when Live services worked).
I've got a 32Gb SanDisk Cruzer with about 1000 Mp3s on it plugged into one of the USB ports. No issues with playback so far, and menu navigation is much smoother and easier than the NB-1.
Bluetooth works well for calls and music streaming.
The SatNav is a mixed bag. The screen is much clearer and easier to read, reviewing alternative routes is much easier/better. The voice navigation is a bit of a mis-mash though, seems part American english (highway) part true english. The bad news is that the SatNav apparently crashed twice while i was in an area of poor GPS coverage. The SatNav screen went blank, and i have to select Music then back to Nav for it to resume. To be fair the NB-1 crashed once or twice on me as well.
The driving bit of the car, the important bit, is interesting. I spend 80% of my time in urban traffic, with the remainder on A roads and motorways. MPG at the moment, after the cars first long distance run, is 35.8mpg. This i'm really pleased with, as it's 76% of the Mazda quoted MPG. I was getting 45 with the diesel SE-L (73% of Mazdas far fetched claims).
The other positives are the handling and noise with the petrol are vastly superior compared to the diesel. However the big downside is the total lack of power on big hills, and here i can see why the Americans kicked off so much about the initial launch option of a 2 litre petrol engine only.
With a fully loaded diesel i had no issues with overtaking anywhere, especially hills. With the petrol it's a struggle even on the level on occasions. Once up to speed it's fine, but it's getting there that takes forever. A 2.5 litre option would be preferable, until it came to renewing the RFL
i-Stop seems more attentive in the new car, but i don't know whether thats the petrol engine or software improvements. It cuts in 99% of the time when i'm stopped, whereas with the diesel it was 75% max, but i was doing shortish journeys.
Cruise control is better than the old model, but only marginally. With Fords/vauxhalls the car would keep to the set speed with a combination of engine, fuel and brake management. In the CX-5 it appears limited to engine and fuel management which is fine up hill, but the cruise control is lacking any kind of control downhill. As i've observed this in 2 separate Mazdas i can only assume it's a generic Mazda failing.
The only other downside is that the tracking appears to be off. Same roads as with the old car with no tracking issue, and after a month with the new car the wheel alignment is out.
