Prospective CX-5 owner. Which model year/trim do I want?

[Kaps]

ROFL! No, rental cars are not slow or less responsible. Mine absolutely destroys half the cars on this forum if you listen to the wheedling about "mine won't go, I don't understand, I wish I had sport mode", and I've clocked it at 7.8 seconds 0-60, just like the auto mags are getting. Who told you that/how did you come to that conclusion/can I race you for money in my former rental CX-5? You can even use Sport-mode, and I'll drive to Dallas to do it (it's literally right on my way to San Antonio from where I live)

As to 30k miles proving anything about an engine, how? Nothing dies in 30k miles except legit factory defects.

If $1000 is the difference in year models of similar condition...DUDE! SPEND THE GRAND!

PS. My 2015 has BSM, and the NAV system is better than the 2016's from everything I've read. If I choose to install it, I will have live traffic, etc.

The safety package as far as I know is just idiot material. It keeps you from rear-ending someone at 15mph if you're dicking with your cell-phone in a traffic jam. So be smart and don't.

So much fail in one post i can't even?
Just cause my uncle once threw a stone at a bear and he ran away -- conclusion all bears are afraid of stones. ggwelplayed420yolonoscope.

 

[Unobtanium]

So much fail in one post i can't even?
Just cause my uncle once threw a stone at a bear and he ran away -- conclusion all bears are afraid of stones. ggwelplayed420yolonoscope.

I just don't think it's right to misinform people about a vehicle they are considering to the level of which was done, claiming that rental cars are somehow "de-tuned". It's absolute BS, at least in the case of CX-5's and HEMI powered Jeep's, I can attest!

It's the same kind of BS that floats around about cop cars "being souped up". Maybe back in the 70's when some cop did his own work on a car or two...but not today.

 

[BambooBen]

Just throwing this in,
I held out for the 2016 for the updated sound deadening. I helped my mom buy a 2014 CX-5, and the road noise was the only thing I didn't like about it. Mazda added a lot of sound deadening to the 2016.

Also, for whoever balked at $1,500 for LED lights, there is more than just that, but I would have paid that and probably more for them. Absolutely awesome lights. I have to drive home in the dark after work about half the time, and the roadside is lined up with deer and other critters. And this is a 50 mile drive with a 55 to 70 mph speed limit. Most of it is narrow 2 lane with farm fields on both sides, and the last bit is about 20 miles of 4 lane divided with woods and fields on both sides. Wildlife galore. With these lights, even on low beam, I can see so much better than other cars I've driven, including my wife's Mazda 3. I thought it had great headlights till I drove the CX-5 home the first night. I can see the reflection from deer's eyes way off in the distance and have time to slow down before I get to them.

Once on a section of 4 lane I could see there was a critter ahead, so started slowing down, while the car next to me kept at 70. He saw what turned out to be a possum at the last sec. and went full break locks. Just missed the possum, but I'm sure the driver needed to change his boxers after that. Some here will be rolling there eyes, saying he should have just hit the possum, but I have seen 3 black bears hit in the one year I have been doing this commute. Your not going to just roll over that.

I also thought the lights being able to turn into a curve was a gimmick, but I have an extremely curvy start to my drive, about a mile long, and it is awesome to see the lights moving to illuminate around the curve. I have a deer run across the road through this section of road at least 2 nights a week, and they are usually doing the slip and slid on their hooves so even at 35mph I want ever sec. I can get to see them ahead of time.

The only downside is the lights can be too bright when reflecting off certain highway signs.

Short story, money well spent.

 

[Kedis82ZE8]

Looks like it was only 9 lbs of sound deadening material. I haven't taken a newer model out on highway but personally don't find current noise that bad. It has more to do with the road surface and tires in my experience.

AFS is available on the previous year models with HIDs. HIDs are plenty bright too.

Here is the often cited visual comparison...

https://www.hidplanet.com/forums/fo...05-2013-cx-5-oem-hid-vs-2016-cx-5-oem-led-rhd

 

[Kaps]

Looks like it was only 9 lbs of sound deadening material. I haven't taken a newer model out on highway but personally don't find current noise that bad. It has more to do with the road surface and tires in my experience.

AFS is available on the previous year models with HIDs. HIDs are plenty bright too.

Here is the often cited visual comparison...

https://www.hidplanet.com/forums/fo...05-2013-cx-5-oem-hid-vs-2016-cx-5-oem-led-rhd

My wife is doing a longer commute in the heart of DFW and what she tells me scares me... People overtaking from the last safety lane that is meant for broken down cars, Tires on commercial vehicles blowing off and hitting her windshield , women drivers in big SUVs trucks just waving between lanes and not using indicators and on the phone.
So what is your opinion on the Touring std. headlights? Should I absolutely change it to to HID or LED? This would be for winter where it gets dark sooner.

Mind you this might be a first DIY or a local mechanic job since I dont have any prior experience. So something that goes straight out of the box and into the Car is preferred. I used to solder a lot in college, not used it much in real life.
Ty.

 

[BraveUlysses]

Just throwing this in,
I held out for the 2016 for the updated sound deadening. I helped my mom buy a 2014 CX-5, and the road noise was the only thing I didn't like about it. Mazda added a lot of sound deadening to the 2016.

Also, for whoever balked at $1,500 for LED lights, there is more than just that, but I would have paid that and probably more for them. Absolutely awesome lights. I have to drive home in the dark after work about half the time, and the roadside is lined up with deer and other critters. And this is a 50 mile drive with a 55 to 70 mph speed limit. Most of it is narrow 2 lane with farm fields on both sides, and the last bit is about 20 miles of 4 lane divided with woods and fields on both sides. Wildlife galore. With these lights, even on low beam, I can see so much better than other cars I've driven, including my wife's Mazda 3. I thought it had great headlights till I drove the CX-5 home the first night. I can see the reflection from deer's eyes way off in the distance and have time to slow down before I get to them.

Once on a section of 4 lane I could see there was a critter ahead, so started slowing down, while the car next to me kept at 70. He saw what turned out to be a possum at the last sec. and went full break locks. Just missed the possum, but I'm sure the driver needed to change his boxers after that. Some here will be rolling there eyes, saying he should have just hit the possum, but I have seen 3 black bears hit in the one year I have been doing this commute. Your not going to just roll over that.

I also thought the lights being able to turn into a curve was a gimmick, but I have an extremely curvy start to my drive, about a mile long, and it is awesome to see the lights moving to illuminate around the curve. I have a deer run across the road through this section of road at least 2 nights a week, and they are usually doing the slip and slid on their hooves so even at 35mph I want ever sec. I can get to see them ahead of time.

The only downside is the lights can be too bright when reflecting off certain highway signs.

Short story, money well spent.

is the extra deadening on the 16 or 16.5?

 

[Chris_Top_Her]

Best money will probably be in the form of a 14 2.5 awd. Best power and best handling and mod potential.

 

[Unobtanium]

I haven't driven a CX-5 with halogens so I can't really comment. The last vehicle I bought with halogens was my old '96 Ford Explorer. Everything came with HIDs since. It is my opinion they do offer superior illumination over halogens. My '07 G35x has bi-xenon HIDs as well with AFS. That car is now almost 10 years old and no problems with stock HID bulbs and AFS works same as new. They bulbs will go out someday but cheap to replace these days. The HIDs in my '02 Maxima would last about 4-5 years but again nothing to break the bank over on fixing.

My CX-5 has halogens, my Z06 and 370Z had HID's, my Grand Jeep Cherokee had halogens.

All-in-all, I prefer HID, but it's not a big deal to me. If I bought it new, I'd opt for HID, but used? It's whatever.

 

[Unobtanium]

My wife is doing a longer commute in the heart of DFW and what she tells me scares me... People overtaking from the last safety lane that is meant for broken down cars, Tires on commercial vehicles blowing off and hitting her windshield , women drivers in big SUVs trucks just waving between lanes and not using indicators and on the phone.
So what is your opinion on the Touring std. headlights? Should I absolutely change it to to HID or LED? This would be for winter where it gets dark sooner.

Mind you this might be a first DIY or a local mechanic job since I dont have any prior experience. So something that goes straight out of the box and into the Car is preferred. I used to solder a lot in college, not used it much in real life.
Ty.

I wouldn't mess with it. I drive through DFW, San Antonio, and H Town often enough, always at night, and I have been just fine in my CX5. Also, she is right. People there don't mosy around at 60mph. 70-90 is the typical speed, and you better have enough balls to get into that, or you're going to be a hazard to yourself. Oh, they are speeding, they are breaking the law, you are in the right...cool tombstone bro!

This is why I kindof draw the 2.5L CX-5 as being one of the slowest vehicles I feel relatively safe driving.

 

[Chris_Top_Her]

That's why I was glad to get rid of my 2.p0op. I don't have any issues with high speed traffic now. Power available throughout 3rd gear, up to redline is good enough for paying 70 mph traffic fairly quickly, and 4th will get you past 80mph traffic fast enough to make it a quick pass ( not one of these slow lane blocking passes). Even before the tune and mods. Actually during a very large car cruise the other day, I was going 124 just fine and was still getting passed.

 

[Werechull]

I did the Avis 2 hour test drive of a 2016 Touring. I liked the car quite a bit, though it did have some frustrations. It's annoying that the touch screen gets deactivated when the car is moving. The seat knows when there's a passenger in the car. Let the passenger use the dang screen! It also won't allow you to sync a new device when in motion and as far as we could tell there's no way to navigate the tabbed menus without the touch screen.

I thought the control knob interface was generally pretty good.

What's the narrow display above the a/c knobs for?

 

[mazdadude]

I did the Avis 2 hour test drive of a 2016 Touring. I liked the car quite a bit, though it did have some frustrations. It's annoying that the touch screen gets deactivated when the car is moving. The seat knows when there's a passenger in the car. Let the passenger use the dang screen! It also won't allow you to sync a new device when in motion and as far as we could tell there's no way to navigate the tabbed menus without the touch screen.

I thought the control knob interface was generally pretty good.

What's the narrow display above the a/c knobs for?

Everything can be done with the Center Control Knob once the touch screen is deactivated for safety, or just use the voice command and tell the car what you want to do.

The advanced setup like pairing phones, vehicle setup, can only be done stationary for safety reasons.

The Display above the knobs is for some AIRBAG DEACTIVATED warnings if passenger seat weight is too low.

 

[BambooBen]

It's annoying that the touch screen gets deactivated when the car is moving. The seat knows when there's a passenger in the car. Let the passenger use the dang screen! It also won't allow you to sync a new device when in motion and as far as we could tell there's no way to navigate the tabbed menus without the touch screen.
?

I'm surprised no one mentioned that there are easy to use hacks out that let you turn off the touch screen lockout. It lets you do other stuff like change the display wallpaper as well. There are threads in this forum about it.
Also here:
http://mazda3revolution.com/forums/...ronics/104730-index-infotainment-project.html

 

[boandlkramer]

The adaptive headlights, which are LED headlights on the 2016 are a pretty awesome option. Some manufacturers don't even offer the option of adaptive headlights and you have to spend a lot to get this option in a luxury car. It lights up the road when you turn and generally just helps you spot things better, like bikes on the road, animals, kids, etc... Everytime I go back to driving a car without adaptive headlights at night, I always miss the feature. Now I'm not saying it is a must have for everyone, but after driving a car for years with one (the Mazdaspeed3 also has this), it has become almost a must have option for me. You also get the Smart City Brake Support system, which is a safety feature I want, plus the auto-dimming mirror which is nice. You also get NAV, which I don't use, but I assume other people will want to use it. Lastly, I love the headlights, tail-lights and DLRs on the 2016. They are one of the reasons I chose a 2016 GT with Tech Package over a 2015 GT with Tech Package. I think Mazda's Tech Package for the 2016 CX-5 is worth $1,500.

Headlights: For me, Adaptive headlights are a must. I won't get another vehicle without adaptive headlights, and currently both of my cars have LED headlights, I like the color and light cutoff of them.

Nav: I have a US spec'd CX-5 in Germany with no inexpensive option for NAV functionality. I use google maps for all my Navi needs in the Mazda. My only compliant is the silly mount in the windshield. I think it looks tacky.

 

[BraveUlysses]

is there any way to determine visually if a car is equipped with the HID headlights?

 

[GP 2004]

I have a 2015 GT and I am happy with the lights, much better than the wife's Honda!
The 2016 CX-5 lost the Emergency brake! If you use the E-brake very much on your old car you might want to get a 2015.

 

[mazdadude]

I have a 2015 GT and I am happy with the lights, much better than the wife's Honda!
The 2016 CX-5 lost the Emergency brake! If you use the E-brake very much on your old car you might want to get a 2015.

The Brake is still there, just electronic, and yes, you can pull it up while moving....

 

[yrwei52]

The 2016 CX-5 lost the Emergency brake! If you use the E-brake very much on your old car you might want to get a 2015.

Electrical parking brake equipped in 2016 CX-5 is more convenient to use, as long as you don't lose your battery power.

 

[Chris_Top_Her]

So I'm assuming this electric e brake is either deployed or not?

 

[yrwei52]

So I'm assuming this electric e brake is either deployed or not?

Yep, either on or off, like digital.