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All-new Mazda CX-5 crossover remains sporty, adds surprising luxury, Cars

All-new Mazda CX-5 crossover remains sporty, adds surprising luxury

The Mazda CX-5 gets a fresh design for 2017, including a fresh look for its bod. The fresh version is fifteen percent stiffer for better treating and refinement, Mazda claims.

Abundant use of soft-touch materials makes the CX-5 Grand Touring stand out. Its look and feel mimic more expensive luxury cars.

Driving on the country roads that zigzag around plots of farmland in rural East Texas, one thing is clear about the fresh Mazda CX-5.

It still carries some sports-car DNA.

That’s long been the chief selling point for the CX-5, a family-friendly vehicle that has reasonable space for baby seats in back yet still feels light, nimble and pleasurable when you flick the steering wheel and zoom by cow pastures. It’s flawless for drivers who need practicality but also want a hint of the MX-5 Miata’s smile-making personality.

For people who know Mazda, that’s no surprise. This brand has built its reputation around sparkling treating and Japanese reliability, sort of like a BMW of the Far East but without the luxury price tag.

To me, tho’, the surprising thing about the fresh CX-5 isn’t that it has the best treating in its class.

It’s that it has the nicest cabin, too.

I’ve never driven a reasonably priced crossover that was fitted with as much rich, supple, soft-touch material as this one. The leather feels fantastic. All the touch points are padded and sleek. Everything is stitched together and neatly styled like a fine Italian handbag.

To be fair, my tester was a loaded Grand Touring model that rang up at $32,765. The base model’s cabin comes across as Bulgarian, not Italian, but still a nice-try knockoff of the Lexus, Audi and Mercedes interiors that instruction big bucks.

It’s a cabin that’s attempting stiffer, and reaching further, than the CX-5 has attempted before. That’s significant if Mazda will ever be able to expand its core buyers beyond a niche that cares religiously about brake feel and bod roll.

(Both those are spectacular, by the way, so car geeks like me can rejoice.)

From a styling standpoint, the CX-5 seems to go after the same formula as many refreshed CUV competitors: a fatter grille, more bod creases and a higher belt line. Almost every crossover today is following that pattern, so this one finishes up looking contemporary but not particularly wild.

It also recently joined the rest of the Mazda lineup in being named a “Top Safety Pick+” by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Its driver assistance package, called i-ACTIVSENSE, includes all kinds of sensors and warnings to help you monitor blind catches sight of and keep you securely in your lane.

It also comes with Clever City Brake Support, which can automatically prime and then apply the brakes if a radar sensor predicts a collision when you’re driving under twenty mph.

I particularly liked the heads-up display on my tester that recognizes traffic signs and projects that information up near the windshield. It’s got a space-age feel to it, sure, but it’s also remarkably useful for those times you’re driving along and can’t reminisce the current speed limit. The CX-5 can read the signs and let you know.

Power comes from a Two.5-liter, four-cylinder engine that makes one hundred eighty seven horsepower. It’s tuned for a very swift throttle response that makes it seem more powerful than it indeed is, something that’s become a Mazda hallmark in latest years. It’s rated for thirty one mpg on the highway even tho’ it drives and sounds like something that ought to be more of a gas-guzzler.

Other additions for two thousand seventeen include G-Vectoring Control to enhance the treating, available radar cruise control, a reclining rear seat and rear A/C vents with two rear USB ports. That brings the total USB count to four — an significant number for digital-dependent families.

Pricing starts at $24,045 for the base Sport trim, $25,915 for the more well-equipped Touring, and $29,395 for the luxury-oriented Grand Touring.

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