If you want the Mazda CX-5 to be as quiet, comfortable, and capable with school runs, as it is easy to look at, then you’re in luck. Turns out luxury and value can co-exist, at least in a medium SUV.

It’s easy to be drawn in by the Mazda CX-5’s gorgeous exterior - there isn’t a bad angle on any Mazda right now.

But you have to snap out of it and put your serious face on, because you’re about to spend 40-50 grand on a mid-size SUV and the CX-5 is not perfect. No matter how tempting that rear end is.

Having said that, give yourself a pat on the back because you’re potentially about to buy one of the best SUVs your money can buy. I say your money because plenty of people will tell you a premium German brand is better. But that’s not their money they’re talking about. This is yours, you have a family, and every dollar you don’t spend on a ‘premium’ brand can go toward them.

Looking at a CX-5 is about deciding which features you need and the ones you can live without. Unless you're on an open-ended budget, in which case, buy the Akari.

Firstly, Mazda engines are excellent these days (we’ll getto that). But, their interiors are better, which is important because that’s the bit you engage with every day.

There’s little in the top-tier Akera at $48k which won’t convince normal mums and dads they’re sitting in their first Mercedes. Not only are the leatherbound seats seriously nice to sit in, particularly when they’re heated on a cold Melbourne day, but each button and switch feels robust and delicate at the same time.

Does this mean CX-5 isn’t kid proof? Is the first errant leg or projectile Arnott’s Teddy gonna see forever-scuffed seats and crumb-infused switch-gear? Quiet possibly.

Which is why i’m gonna recommend you don’t get the full-fat Akera and see if you can live with the Touring if you have kids at preschool or below. I make the same recommendation with the Mazda CX-9, because the Touring in both models presents the ideal balance between that need versus want problem you might find with the Mazda range. This issue occurs primarily because it is a bit pricey, and obviously, you want the best SUV you can get for your budget. Having said that, you might also want to look at the Hyundai Tuscon because it’s set to be replaced in the next year or so, and it has quite a lot of standard equipment as well.

Having said that, if you are a growing family and they’re well into their teens, you might wanna consider the bigger CX-9. And certainly don’t bother with the significantly smaller CX-3 at $38,000. It’s just too small.

The CX-5’s 2700mm wheelbase is pretty good for leg room for grown-ups pushing six-foot tall, you get tyre pressure monitoring standard across the range, a moderate 1.8 tonne braked towing capacity is pretty good if you have a light trailer for tip runs or long-haul touring/camping, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are also standard, the CX-5 gets a good 11m turning circle, comes with a five-star ANCAP safety rating and a decent boot space at 442 litres. Although the Subaru Forester is far superior for outright boot space thanks to 498 cubic litres and an extra wide aperture (perfect for big trips) which means less stuff in your rear-view (and gets a full-size spare).

These are some of the preliminary benefits of the CX-5, but let’s talk about how genuinely practical it is for doing what you need it to do: family + stuff.

I drove the CX-5 for a week earlier in the year, right before the country was slapped with the pandemic, so I did manage to get some significant use of it during a seven-day press loan (thanks to Mazda Australia).

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to take it onto the wide open road for a serious camping trip, but I can tell you, it took all the usual items we would have packed for a weekend away. The 20kg four-person Black Wolf tent - which in its own right is a long, heavy, cumbersome bastard - fits pretty well with the second-row seat back folded down (it’s about 2m long). But here’s where you need to be careful with most SUVs; depending on your child’s seating requirements, while trying to incorporate everything you might want to use it for, like camping, most back seats only fold in a 60:40 split. This means you lose an outboard ISOFIX point if you have to fold the rear seats down - which sucks if you have two kids requiring child seats in order to travel.

(Just quickly, the top tether clipping points are mounted high on the seat-backs, so they’re really easy to reach.)

One solution is roof racks, in which case the tent would obviously go up top. But in the CX-5, you don’t necessarily have this problem because the centre seat back in the second row folds independently of the outboard seats. So you can feed the long tent through the centre, thereby also creating a formidable obstacle to keep the kids from bickering during the trip.

Happily, everything fits, sufficient for an easy camping trip away. However, with no much room to spare, it has to be said. It’s going to be a bit cramped - some people like that, makes them feel like it’s more special somehow - but it’s a tight pack. And rear visibility is seriously compromised out the back window.

And, you need to be aware there’s only a space-saver spare wheel under the boot floor, which is limited to 80km/h. Oh, and that boot floor, when you’re packing…don’t kneel on it with all your weight. I’m not exactly a big dude and I heard a tiny crack when I knelt on the thin fibreglass floor cover, but this observation is fairly common on most cars these days, so it’s not make-or-break. Point is, don’t be an oaf like me.

Last thing you need to be okay about with the Touring CX-5 is that you get synthetic suede seat coverings, not leather.

This is probably the most obvious compromise you’re going to have to make. Because it’s $5000 more to step up to the GT model, which also adds a premium Bose stereo and speakers, sunroof and powered tailgate, as well as heated leather backside holders.

Depending on what you can afford, if $5000 is a lot, which you could use on more important things, like increasing mankind’s chances of survival as a species, do that. If 5k isn’t an issue, definitely get the leather, banging beats and one-touch boot. But keep in mind, only the front seats are heated, not the kids. Will they even notice?

OTHER DIMENSIONS

It’s so rare to actually see car brands and other car reviews actually discuss the dimensions of the boot on a car destined for families to actually use, and yet, after the driver’s seat, it’s arguably the most frequently used area of the car.

If you’re planning to put your family in the CX-5, you need to know how much room you have to play with. In a Subaru Forester, you don’t have to think twice about having enough space horizontally, but you do longitudinally. With the CX-5, both directions are adequate, but not awesome.

Between the wheelarches, you’ve got exactly 104.9cm of room to work with. A twin baby pram weighing over 12kg is about 60cm wide, so you’re going to have room for it to fold and go into the boot cavity relatively easy, provided there’s nothing beside it wider than about 40cm. The CX-5’s boot lift-over height of 82cm is reasonable and not too low or high, and it does have a small lip edge to stop items rolling or sliding out the boot if you open it on a slope.

Consider your personal situation, such as driveways you visit regularly, your shopping centre underground carpark, your local streets, the footy oval or venues you visit, whether you intend to go camping. CX-5’s ground clearance (laden) is 185mm or (unladen) 193mm, it’s 1.67m high, 4.55m long (will it fit in your carport/garage?), it’s 1.84m wide (do you need to trim back the driveway hedge?), and has front/rear overhangs 950mm/900mm long. The wheelbase, again, is 2.7m - if you’re a tall family, consider a seven-seater like Kia Sorento or Mazda CX-9.

One aspect you might find annoying is on a rainy day with the boot open, water can splash on the rear tail light and wet your dry things inside the boot. It’s a very minor observation, but one that might grow old quickly if you’re a crepe paper salesperson, or something.

Does your mob take up space like you’re raising future NBA All-Stars? Consider the Kia Carnival_

DRIVING IT HOME

The Touring offers two engine choices.

A 2.5-litre petrol 4-cylinder (240kW @ 4000rpm & 252Nm @ 4000rpm) with a six-speed epicyclic auto transmission (regular auto), or;

A 2.2-litre twin-turbo 4-cylinder diesel (140kW @ 4500rpm & 450Nm @ 2000rpm), also with a six-speed.

Both powertrains come with 17-inch alloys, and a maximum towball download limit of 150kg, and a 58 litre fuel tank.

When you’re on the freeway you’ll benefit from cylinder deactivation which temporarily shuts down two cylinders in the engine to save fuel under low load at cruising speeds. Should you ever find yourself in slow traffic and need to make a swift overtake on a major highway, or perhaps you need to quickly pass a slow vehicle on a twisty road where such opportunities rarely present, if you squeeze the throttle to the floor you’ll push a transmission kickdown switch, which orders the gearbox to change down and offer a burst of power to get it done.

That’s one option if you prefer not to use the steering-wheel mounted paddle-shifters for the same job.

The electric park brake comes with an auto hill-hold if you deal with steep driveways a lot, and parking sensors front and rear, a reversing camera with dynamic guidelines also make the very-real danger of driveway manoeuvring much safer. However, if you go for the top-spec Akera with a 360-degree camera system, you need to be careful with the reversing camera graphic display on the screen, as is the case with the CX-9. The graphic shows black boxes on each corner of the vehicle when you look at it from a bird’s-eye view. So, if you’re not careful you can misconstrue where obstacles are in relation to the car. Make sure you test this and decide if you can live with it - this is purely my perspective and you should judge for yourself.

Rear cross-traffic alert will let you know of approaching vehicles when reversing, which is great for exiting blind streets or busy roads. But be aware that by the time you’ve heard the beeping, and you’ve turned to see where the vehicle is (about one second), depending on the incoming’s speed, they can be right on you. Always lock eyes with approaching vehicles first - I try to see them before the car does. 

Mazda’s ‘i-stop’ engine shutdown-restart system is one of the more refined versions of this kind of feature. I personally don’t like these systems, especially their default-on programming.

You get a Tyre Pressure Monitoring System as standard which is excellent and I encourage the regular checking of if you do get the CX-5, and to keep your tyre pressures at their required levels at all times for safety and fuel economy reasons.

I didn’t get to use the ‘Off-Road Traction Assist’ feature which just uses computer programs to offer a range of traction control settings and engine mapping in low-traction driving conditions - strictly not to be used for off-road or rugged driving situations at the risk of doing cosmetic or driveline damage. It’s a soft-roading aid at best, say, if you encounter some soggy dirt roads, the grassy carpark gets rained on, or if you head to a snowy area and encounter icy conditions - but again, use extreme caution, and if in doubt or lacking experience in adverse conditions, turn around and go back.

The ‘Driver Attention Alert’ is an example of when Big Brother watching is a good thing, because my wife and I have certainly been there - sleep deprivation is an evil condition to be in - and of course, don’t drive if you are sleep deprived, however, for some people it isn’t an option, and having a warning aid there could save yours (and your most precious’) lives.

Overall, while I haven’t tested Mazda’s ‘Forward Obstruction Warning’, lane departure warning and lane-keeping systems, nor the brand’s, auto emergency braking features (called ‘Smart Brake Support (SBS) and Smart City Brake Support (SCBS) - forward & reverse ) you can see them in action at ANCAP’s CX-5 rating report on the right. I am working on testing some of these systems in a safe environment, but generally they do work pretty well as a safety net. Keep in mind, this testing shows the emergency braking system hits the test dummy at 16km/h after travelling at 45km/h and a pedestrian steps out from behind parked cars. They’re a last resort and can’t replace paying attention.

Mazda’s radar cruise control I have tested in a variety of highway traffic settings, including afternoon peak congestion and open free-flowing lanes, and it’s very good. It comes with a ‘Stop & Go’ ability to bring the car to a complete halt and take off again as traffic builds up and opens up again.

Something you need to asses for yourself is the left-hand-side convex (wide angle) exterior/door mirror. The curved surface is used to increase your field of view, but personally I hated it. For me, it completely skews my perspective about time and space relative to me and an object. If you have your mirrors adjusted CORRECTLY - where you turn them outwards so you cannot see your own vehicle in it - then you won;t have a blind spot to compensate for by distorting the mirror’s projection of the world around you. It’s easy to think I’m being picky here, but this aspect of driving is so critical to avoiding what could be horrible mistakes on the road. Try it for yourself - you might be okay with it and can compromise; you might even find it beneficial - in which case, well done for having a better handle on your OCD than I.

Overall, the CX-5 is a really, really nice vehicle to drive. It’s punchier than its bigger sister the CX-9, it’s far more practical than the too-small CX-3, and it (should) make you think twice about spending up with the premium/luxury brands. You’re getting a car which will accept the cheapest petrol, goes like stink when you tell it to, will take you on modest holidays and trips away, while handling school bags, prams and can endure the sneer of Club Elite when you have the boss over for Sunday lunch.

For a typical family of five living in suburban Australia - Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and the others - CX-5 proves you can have value and enjoy driving a 1.8-tonne SUV with the feel of something Lexus or BMW might call an ‘entry level’ model.

I recommend taking a test drive of the CX-5 in Touring variant first and ask yourself, ‘Will this do us?’ before going for the Akera with all the mod-cons. And if you can, which I urge you to do, also test drive the Kia Sportage (awesome value in low and midgle-spec versions), the Hyundai Tuscon (you’ll get some great deals in the next six months with a new version coming), and try the Mitsubishi Outlander if you need seven-seats on a tight budget. If you live in rural Australia, consider the all-wheel drive Subaru Forester.

CX-5 does so many things really well. It has plenty of power, it handles beautifully on our shonky sun-beaten roads, and it isn’t too big that it becomes ridiculous to use in a practical way. I personally quite enjoyed driving it completely empty without anything to do but simply drive it, which is rare for a vehicle category focused on other things like practicality, tech or value.

Let’s talk more about the Mazda CX-5 and any other mid-size SUVs you might be shopping for. Let’s help you make the right choice - email me.