Mazda5: My Take

In our quest to offer as many viewpoints about new models as possible, I respectfully offer my thoughts on the Mazda5 mini-minivan Mike Hanley recently reviewed over on the main Cars.com page.

While I agree with Mike that the Mazda5 is a nifty little people-mover, I just don’t understand who would want one. It seems too small for today’s real-life family and too pedestrian for a commute vehicle. Perhaps it would work best as a higher-mileage suburban shuttle for soccer moms, but it would have to stay home on lengthy commutes.

There was no joy in Mazda5-ville on a long drive from Chicago to Detroit. The wedge-shaped minivan was buffeted by wind, and there never seemed to be enough power on hand to produce an authoritative passing maneuver. The sound system was intolerable, and the interior was actually below the level of the Mazda3 compact sedan and hatchback that the Mazda5 is based on. And I say all this as a big fan of Mazda’s recent offerings.

The best use I got out of it was when I went to the furniture store to pick up a new leather chair for my living room. The rather bulky chair easily made it into the Mazda5's rear with all the seats folded flat. I doubt it would have been as easy a maneuver in my wife’s SUV with its higher cargo floor and shorter roof.

Besides moving that chair I was thoroughly disappointed by the Mazda5. It did everything OK but nothing exceptionally. Although — like Mike — I thought it looked pretty sharp, and you can’t beat the price of entry.

Comments

[Reb]

I am student having to pretend to buy a car for $30,000. What do you suggest

[Dave T.]

Reb,
Is this for a class?
Emails us at tips@cars.com about the assignment and we'll see what we can come up with.

[Mazda5 Owner]

I'm a Mazda5 owner for 12 months, now. I have a lot of opinions on this vehicle but my comments below will be confined to the things I feel I know well...

SUMMARY:
Great vehicle for the money if size fits your needs. Lots of utility and fun for scooting around town and the occasional long trip. Not the best choice for long, uneventful commutes. At 14K miles, I am even happier now with mine than when I bought it.

MY MINIVAN BACKGROUND:
I've previously owned a Ford Windstar (143K miles) and Ford Aerostar (226K miles).

OVERVIEW:
Compared to true minivans, the Mazda5 is a dream to drive if you're into the "driving experience" (quick, sharp turns and such). Based on an extended Mazda 3 chassis and sharing the same engine, the 5 actually has pep, responsiveness and a tight turning radius -- definitely not the rolling living room most minivans strive to be. I feel far more in touch with the road in the 5 than in my wife's Mazda 6 Sport sedan.

PROS:
Too many to list in my opinion but then this vehicle perfectly fits my family's needs. For the money the 5 is quite comfortable and comes fairly well-equipped. I bought a loaded 5 "Touring" edition with the optional navigation system and automatic transmission for $21K in 8/2005.

Notable pros are:
- Ultra-easy loading/unloading. Extra-wide side doors and a low loading height.
- Respectable gas mileage for highway driving. At 14K miles I am getting 27mpg fully-loaded with people/cargo.
- Zoom and pep with just 1 or 2 people.
- Engine is same tried-and-true 2.3L used for the past several years in the Mazda 3 and 4-cyl Mazda 6.
- First two rows very comfortable.
- 3rd row quite nice to have (but not to use all the time).
- Good cargo-carrying options through ability to individually fold flat any of the 2nd and 3rd row seats.
- Easy to drive and park.

CONS:
- Road noise can be quite high on some surfaces due to the low-profile sport tires, lack of any serious sound-proofing and the cavernous passenger area.
- Agressive driving drops mpg down to around 19 to 20 mpg (unloaded, driver only).
- Underpowered if carrying more than 2-3 people but still adequate for normal driving.
- Lacks a front-passenger armrest.
- 3rd row not big enough to comfortably seat two adults.
- Seats cannot be removed to free up additional cargo space.
- Scant cargo room with 3rd row seats deployed.
- The 2006 US version does not include roof cargo rails as a standard feature (but can be added as an option).
- The 2006 US version lacks availability of Euro and/or Japanese Mazda 5 options like rear-facing camera, backup sensors, all-wheel drive and powered side doors, to name a few.

OTHER NOTES:
- I relocated my spare tire from the interior spare tire well to the bottom of the vehicle, just under the spare tire well. This gives me a good deal more cargo space.
- The largest item I've carried so far has been a 20 cu foot upright freezer.
- The stock sound system is quite adequate (but still short of "impressive"). I say this as a previous manager of a car stereo installation shop.
- I liked the Mazda 5 more after three months of driving it than I did the first week of ownership. I suppose it took 90+ days of living with it to fully appreciate all of its merits. One year later I still love it.

[Kelsey M]

Mazda5 Owner,

This is quite thorough. Have you considered posting it as a consumer review?

http://research.cars.com/go/crp/consrevwidget.jsp

[Dave]

Can't figure out why? Uhh... $3+ a gal for gas is why... We also have a Honda Odyssey. For taking the 3 kids to school and commuting to work the '5' is the PERFECT car. Plus the added fact that it was $18K.

Oh yeah, did I forget FUN TO DRIVE?

[Mitch from Montana]

People that don't like the Mazda5 are either
used to driving exotic cars or have not spent much time in one. My Mazda5 is small on the out-side and big on the inside. Holds just as much people and gear as a chevy tahoe and gets 30 mpg. Mine has a 5 speed and is the fastest cruising car on the market. If you don't like it show me a better vehicle for $19,600.

[riverrage]

You "don't understand" who would buy one? Let me tell you that many people I know would buy one, and the dealer can't keep ehough of them in stock. They are primarily people who are between the age of 30-100, who are conscious of good gas mileage, space, safety, looks, and affordability. That's alot of people in my opinion. Having owned one for over a year, the reliability and quality are above most. You seem to be in the minority in your evaluation of this veihcle, even among your peers in the industry. We find this vehicle relatively comfortable on long trips as well.

[rackensack]

Who would want one? Me, for one. We have three kids under the age of 10. We already have a minivan (a Mazda MPV) that's my wife's primary vehicle. When my 10-year-old Honda Civic finally gave up the ghost late last year, I started looking around for a replacement. My criteria were:

* enough seating for all five of us, and potentially one grandparent or other adult;
* decent gas mileage;
* automatic transmission (my wife never was comfortable driving the Civic since it had a manual transmission);
* priced at or below about $20K.

I didn't want another full-on minivan, and ideally wanted something that would be at least a bit fun to drive.

The Mazda5 was the only vehicle on the market that really fit the bill. We've had ours for about six months, just under 10K miles, and haven't regretted it for a second. Yes, it's noisier on the highway than a full-sized minivan, and no, you're not going win any drag races, but for what we need it's just about perfect. It's more fun to drive than anything else that's comparable (and I've driven a lot of different rental cars, as I used to travel nearly every week for work), has enough room for all of us (albeit with not a lot to spare), gets better gas mileage than our MPV or almost anything else that'll seat six. I've spent plenty of time on the highway in it (driving 260 miles round trip each week to a client site most of the time I've had it) as well as in Atlanta traffic. On the freeway, I've pegged the cruise control at 80 and never noticed any unnecessary downshifting or seeking to maintain that, though admittedly there aren't any steep inclines on my route. We've even loaded everybody up for a weekend trip to Asheville (about 3 hours away) -- responded better than the MPV to climbing hills fully loaded, and was a heck of a lot more stable on curves at speed. We don't try to use it for extended road trips where we need to pack more stuff, but we have the MPV for that, or for in-town trips where we need more people or stuff.

The sound system is admittedly not as good as the one in the MPV or in other vehicles I've driven, but it's adequate, and it's a vast improvement over the stock AM/FM/cassette in my old Civic.

I can see where people who like more luxury in their primary ride wouldn't think much of the 5 -- and I hate that the only interior color option was black (not a good thing in Georgia), and that the carpeting seems to trap every scrap of dirt or leaves that gets near it, but then I'm not obsessive about having an immaculate interior -- I have three small kids, remember? There are a lot of people out there who don't need or want this car, but there's plenty of us out here who do.

[Hieronymous]

When Mazda puts out a Mazdaspeed5, I will be first in line. Other than a turbo motor, I assume such a vehicle would include traction control.

Power and traction are holding me back. Mainstream minivans are too big for my needs, and Japan refuses to export its REALLY good vans, a la the MPV, the Japan-market Odyssey, and the Mazda5/Rondo killer, the Honda Latitude (d.b.a. the Stream, in Japan).

[SmithLopez]

I like this car, easy to load and can be bought with manual transmission. And at least nobody has one.

[Andrew]

I am interested in the Mazda 5, and have done some web research recently. Everything has been quite positive, except for the following note of concern.

A few comments indicate a major problem with the tires wearing out prematurely, arount 10K to 17K miles.

During a recent visit to the dealer, a salesperson indicated that all 3 versions of the Mazda 5 share the same drive train, suspension, etc, so I figure this potential problem would apply to all 3 models.

Can anyone help me out with these questions?
1) Has anyone had this problem with premature tire wear?
2) If so, does anything fix it, like replacing the tires with a different brand than what comes from the dealer?
3) If you have had problems with premature tire wear-out, did you routinely rotate the tires, and keep them to the specified 32 pounds psi? (the dealer indicated these two things are important to maintaining the tires).

[Brent]

We have a 2006 Mazda 5 with 36,000-odd miles on it, and we're just now really coming due for new tires, and largely due to my own mistake. I thought our 5 had a tire pressure monitoring system, so I assumed our tire pressure was fine. It wasn't until they were visibly lacking that I took note, they were down to around 15 psi, and the front tires were showing a lousy wear pattern. I had rotated them myself some time earlier, so the lousy wear was fairly rapid. I think properly taken care of the Toyo Proxes tires ours came with should be good for for 40,000 or more.
Only other problem was a bad rear strut, replaced under warranty. It did die on my wife once while driving, but started right up again and hasn't done it again since. Recently the auto transmission did a really bizzare lurch under moderate acceleration, but that too has not repeated itself.
My only complaints are either obvious or negligible. The rear storage with the third row up is lousy, as previously noted, but we rarely have them up. I have about 1/2" of wiggle room to either side around the gas pedal, driving with boots on can be dicey. And I hate the electronic climate control, you must take your eyes off the road too long to make any adjustment to anything other than temperature or fan speed.

[GeoFied]

I have a Mazda5 with around 23K on it. I love the car, but I need to replace the tires due to uneven wear, despite the fact that I've had them rotated regularly. The road noise is considerable since the tires have gotten worse. The other issue I have is that the tires are pretty expensive to replace, possibly due to the Sport Tire size, 205/50R17. Most of the tires I see at the wholesale clubs and retail stores are approaching or over $200. That's a lot for tires for a not-quite two year old car.

My View is exactly what that writing was. What an idot. With rising fuel costs, size issues, and insurance premiums, who wouldn't consider the Mazda 5. This car fit into a niche that Dumb Americans (like the author) need to start realizing. You don't need to have a V8 or even a V6 to get around. The 4 cycyinder in this car is pretty zippy. The space is great as well as the versatility. Mazda makes a good product for cheap. All said, this is a fantastic option for many, many people. America just needs to get over it obsession with gas guzzling SUV's. Period. Whatever happened to the wagon anyway? Can barely buy one these days. The Mazda five is ahead of its time. They (along with similar types of cars) sell extremely well in Europe and other contries. You want your gigantic SUV, your V8 fine. But don't bad mouth smart progressive people and their dicesions to buy a good car at an afordable price. Why don't you go drive through a McDonalds or something, then you can justify your fat ass that needs to fit in your gigantic SUV!

You suck as a reviewer.

I've had my Mazda5 for 2 years and it's been amazing. We have a 2 year old that has been riding in this car since he was born. He, along with all the junk associated with having a baby, fit just fine in this car.

I can't count how many times we had to fit grandparents, friends, and other relatives on trips that would definitely take another car if it wasn't for the 3rd row seats.

All of that with an excellent gas mileage. I don't know what you're looking for in a car, Maybe you like Hummers. I can picture you driving down the street with your gigantic Hummer doing a whopping 7 MPG and smiling.

What a douchebag.

[Alex]

I have a 2007 Mazda 5 and it is a perfect car for my wife and 2 young kids under 4. The price was $18,500 out the door with tax. The gas mileage has been around 24 mpg and it is extremely easy to drive and maneuver. The vehicle height and sliding side doors make it a cinch for loading kids in and out and will save your back. We also own a suburban and my wife refuses to drive it now. The 3rd row seats are small but you can certainly put 2 more kids or samll adults back there if need be. If not, there is plenty of room to store stuff with them down.

The car is definitely not a luxury vehicle by any stretch. The interior materials are marginal at best and it is missing standard roof racks for a cargo box. The interior noise coming through the low profile tires which do wear out too quickly ( 30K ) is at times a nuisance. It is not a sports car, but I dont understand why I would need to dart around with my chldren in the back. Plenty of power for every day driving.

Overall I believe we made the right choice based on the available cars in this price range.

Good Luck

[Kim]

I like my Mazda 5 more than I like most people.

What more can I say?

[Wendy]

Love my Mazda5, but the Toyo tires it came with wear unevenly--from the inside out. A lot of people need to replace them at around 30K miles. They report no problems with non-Toyo replacements. I bought my 2006 for a song, but will need to spend $800 soon for a new set of tires.