Faults:

The clutch slave cylinder failed at 60000 miles and again at 120000 miles, and that is it.

General Comments:

I rated this car on this site in 2015, after 2 years and 21000 miles, now, after 10 years and 120000 miles, I am rating it again. In these days of ever higher fuel costs, I refer to my CX5 as my “little econo box”. The thing gets a solid 35 MPG. Besides it needing a clutch slave replacement at 21000 and 120000 miles, this car has needed only routine maintenance.

The car was originally purchased for my wife as a daily driver for her commute back and forth to work. 10 years and 120000 miles later, now both retired, she has moved to a “grandchild transporter” and I have inherited the CX5. After 10 years and all those miles, it is still under powered; 2013 was the first year that this model was introduced, and in 2014, Mazda went to a 2.5L engine to rectify that issue with a notable decrease in mpg.

The biggest and only complaint about this faithful little CUV is that the “road noise” is very noticeable. Only my passengers notice this which I seldom have. I would very much like to find a later model CX5 with the manual transmission when this one finally “fails”.

Faults:

No problems whatsoever. Recall issued by manufacturer to update engine computer software due to possible engine damage issues.

General Comments:

Nice riding car, very easy on gas, easy to get in and out of. Very limited cargo space in rear unless rear seat is folded down. All 4 seating positions are heated. Engine is somewhat noisy on a cold start. All wheel drive system works seamlessly, vehicle is very stable and sure footed in our worst Ontario weather.

Faults:

Very rare hiccup with the infotainment system that just needed a restart of the car.

General Comments:

The driver's seat bottom is small/narrow/hard, especially the left bottom side bolster (to reduce entry/exit wear?). The right bottom side bolster is soft and no discomfort.

Side mirrors - no auto dimming, no turn-down mirrors in reverse, & NO side mirror memory driver 1&2 (should be standard to match the memory seats). Automatic fold needs an easy cancel/lockout to keep from freezing up closed due to ice (leave them open).

360° camera view is a nice feature, but resolution quality on all views is very poor (I think the view while in reverse is the biggest letdown of the car, but it does pick up and alert you to walking pedestrians in your path while backing up. Can you swap out the rear camera for a higher quality one or is the low resolution screen the issue?). The front camera view has predictive lines that move-angle with the steering in birdseye-360° view, but while in reverse it does not, only straight lines.

Seat memory setting buttons are not lit and are difficult to see at night at the side of seat position.

No individual tire pressure (TPMS) readout on display.

EMERGENCY BRAKING & blind spot notification tone is weak (easy to mistake tone for something not important), lane keep assist (centering) doesn't work (well I did feel it slightly nudge 1 or 2 times), user sensitivity-intervention select should be standard. The notification of being out of lane or touching the painted lane markings works well. Having Lane Centering that works as our Honda Pilot (Lane keeping assist system: LKAS) is a great feature with a steering wheel button to turn on/off works great. Automatic braking works as well as the Pilot (I didn't think it worked at all my first month driving). Adaptive Cruise Control works great, it seemed to brake aggressively at first - not sure if it adjusts to driving habits or me trusting the system. Emergency braking flashes BRAKE in the heads-up (can wash out in sun or at night if the car in front is white or light colored). I think it should flash also in the digital center display/instrument cluster.

The infotainment system can be laggy and is complicated (too many steps) for simple functions. The Bose system is good, but I expected it to play louder with more bass.

Remote engine start from factory fob should be standard with the Signature turning on heated/cooled seats steering wheel.

I rarely use the manual gear shifter, but I don't like that to shift up to a higher gear, ex. 3rd to 4th, you pull back. I'd rather push forward/up to go up to a higher gear. The shifter wrap & boot should be real leather to match the seats.

Screen brightness should have a more gradual - incremental adjustment (it's either BRIGHT or dim and can also be erratic-on/off at times/overcast) and be independent from dashboard gauge brightness, and the little old school fragile adjustment stick is in an awkward location to make adjustments (a dash turn-scroll button would work better).

Heated steering wheel gets nice and warm, but no heat on the top and bottom of the wheel makes you feel cheated.

Rear passenger room is tight.

Needs better City gas mileage and a larger fuel tank. Best MPG 35 mile drive: 32.4 MPG using cruise control as much as possible with 66 MPH max and little traffic.

Auto high beam headlights can be erratic driving down some residential blocks (cars parked on both sides) which is very annoying. It keeps flickering on and off.