Car brands have typical traits that are shared among models. Some positive, some negative.
If you were to pick any car writer, and ask for the most obvious positive and negative for Mazda....
The positive would be excellent driving dynamics (which has come to be explained in marketing terms as "Zoom Zoom").
The negative would be NVH - Noise/Vibration/Harshness.
But nearly all reviews I've read have stated that the improvement in the CX-5 is a massive and ups the ante for Mazda in terms of quality.
Wheels Magazine June 2011
"this is one Mazda that feels sophisticated in its ride and NVH suppression. There are no cutting remarks to be made about road noise, or any remarks at all, which is as it should be"
The Motor Report April 2011
"It’s untroubled by rippled tarmac, is quieter than both the Mazda3 and 6 on coarse bitumen (its NVH is surprising good)"
The Global Mail (Canada) March 2011:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/glob...cx-5-reaches-for-the-skyactiv/article2369451/
"As well, the CX-5 is remarkably quiet on the highway, with excellent NVH (noise, vibration, harshness) and minimal wind noise."
Auto Express UK
"The isolation of road noise at speed is the best in the class, while the ride is supple and well judged."
I've owned several Mazda's and can say without a doubt that it is massive difference stepping into the CX-5. I have the 19" tyres, which are known to be the noisiest and harshest ride. But it's extremely quiet.
Mazda had to get NVH right in this model. They've received more complaints about NVH with their vehicles than any.
Cabin measurements show the CX-5 to be the quietest model they have. A characteristic that should carry over to Skyactiv vehicles in future.
For this model, the invested in a lot of noise detection tests. One of the tools they used was a special camera rig that used many directional microphones to convert sound into hotspots on the video footage. They used this over the entire vehicle to reduce the sound to benchmark levels. This was used for example to make the CX-5 Diesel clear the quietest in the class. So much so, a lot of media reports mistake it for a petrol engine.
The microphone camera rig determined where noise suppression could applied specifically in the engine bay. And because it was dictated by noise alone, they didn't need to add extra weight by adding suppression materials to the areas that didn't add to the noise picture in the first place.
This method allowed noises to be reduced by between 30 and 40% but not to add too much to weight.
The Diesel is surprisingly quiet, but it should be. It has the lowest compression of any diesel, and is much smaller and has much higher revs than competing diesels (about 1/2 between tradition petrols and traditional diesels).
Conversely it's a hard job for Mazda to reign in a petrol engine that has compression higher than that of your average Ferrari. The direct fuel injection is at very high pressures, and the engine bay had to have a lot of noise suppression applied to bring noises down.
