Review of the new Mazda CX-5 2022

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Overall, the upgrade Mazda CX-5 It’s still an all-round family SUV. The brand’s chassis changes have made it more comfortable for everyday living, styling tweaks have added a little more appeal, and when viewed alongside its rivals, the real price the seem disproportionate to the level of equipment and quality. you are getting. Our only complaint is the engine’s lack of torque, but that just gives you an excuse to use the car’s excellent manual transmission.

The CX-5 one of MazdaThe best selling cars in the UK. It accounts for about 25% of the company’s total volume and plays a key role in driving the brand’s sales to nearly 14% from 2020 to 2021, during the post-season stagnation. worst of the coronavirus pandemic.

However, the market it occupies is extremely crowded – and it is growing day by day. There are many other lovely family SUVs for you to choose from, such as the flagship SEAT Atecathe Skoda Karoq and the recent replacement for Nissan qashqai.

In addition to maintaining Mazda’s record sales record throughout 2022, the upgraded CX-5 also has to beat newer competition from the brand that truly invented the family SUV segment. So what does it have that its rivals lack?

To begin, CX-5 is said to be a more comfortable place than its rivals. The cabin is very well screwed together and all the materials inside your wingspan feel solid and premium. Press a button on the control panel and the panel will not move a millimeter. It certainly doesn’t feel cheap, but more so later on.

What’s more important to us now is that for this updated model, Mazda’s engineers have spent a lot of time making the CX-5 perform better than the old model and, therefore, making the CX-5 perform better. the cabin becomes a much more pleasant place. sit.

There’s new dampers, slightly softer springs, and a redesigned seat that offers a bit more support – and for the most part, we’d say MazdaYour efforts have been worthwhile. It makes for a good highway cruiser. Suspension changes filter out even more road noise.

There’s a trade-off to the CX-5’s new-found comfort, though, as softer springs mean a bit more body roll over corners. We even managed to miss the rear of the car on a few occasions at surprisingly medium speeds on rough patches of runway. We’re talking just 40mph on the A-line, around a pretty comfortable angle.

The engine also leaves a bit to be desired. Our test car was powered by Mazda’s naturally aspirated 2.0-liter Skyactiv-G engine, the same base engine you’ll find in the smaller CX-30 crossover. You get more power in the CX-5 – 163bhp compared to the CX-30’s 120bhp – but it’s still not enough for the CX-5 to go out of its way.

Once you’re up to speed and flying, that’s awesome. Very quiet, smooth and reasonably economical without the turbocharger. We saw around 40mpg on the trip computer when kept at a steady 60mph.

However, it’s not exactly quick, especially if you demand a lot from the engine in high gear. Torque remains the same as the lighter CX-30, at 213Nm, and very little of that is available from the low end down the rev range, meaning you always have to shift at least two gears to get it through. trucks and passenger cars.

If you’re prepared to push the engine, it can knock the CX-5 out well enough – just expect your fuel economy to drop below the 30mpg threshold as punishment. The engine really doesn’t deliver its best performance up to 5,000 rpm, well beyond the engine’s ideal economic range.

But the CX-5 is all about give and take. So while the entry-level 2.0-liter engine may be a bit lackluster, the manual transmission it’s equipped with is a cracker. The throw is superb, the clutch travel is perfectly quick, and there’s a satisfying mechanical hum as you drive each one home. This is great, as you’ll be constantly gliding through the box to keep the engine in its sweet spot, especially on windy roads.

Suspension changes aside, Mazda’s tweaks to the revised CX-5 are fairly routine as far as upgrades are concerned. There are some new front and rear bumpers, slightly more safety tech, and an expanded range of trim levels featuring three new specs called Newground, Sport Black and GT Sport.

Mazda expects the sporty midsize variant to be the best-selling in the UK, so that’s the car we spent the most time with. Prices start at £30,765, which is several hundred pounds more than you’ll pay for mid-range versions of the Nissan qashqai and SEAT Ateca.

You get plenty of equipment, with 19-inch alloy wheels, a reversing camera, a power sunroof, power front seats and a power tailgate, all standard on the Sport model. The equivalent SEAT Ateca FR doesn’t have any of these features as standard – the power tailgate only touches the spec sheet on the top-spec Xperience Lux model, for example.

You also don’t have to compromise on practicality with the CX-5. There’s plenty of headroom and legroom in the back, and the boot can swallow 522 liters of luggage with the rear seats in place. So that makes the Mazda’s trunk 18 liters larger than the Qashqai and 12 liters larger than the Ateca.

The Mazda CX-5 is a bit mixed then, but the real result is definitely a positive one. If you can live with the rotary-like torque curve, you’ll get a comfortable, refined, and reasonably economical family SUV that’s far ahead of its rivals in terms of equipment. very little cash. And what’s not to like about that?