Bought a 2014 CX-5 in June of 2013. It has been fantastic. It treated us well on our drive across the country when we moved, and on a number of smaller road trips before and since. Still absolutely love it.
First-time Mazda owner here. Needed a 3rd car when my daughter needed to start driving to school and practice. Found a used 2010 Mazda3 manual, hatchback with less than 30K miles on it, and about $15K. I have not owned a “fun” car before, at least not one you could accelerate thru corners like this one. Great car so far and no complaints (the electronics interface take some getting used-to, but is workable). Drove it up Hwy 33 from Ojai, CA and it was a great time!
How long ago did you buy it? If it was recent, I think you significantly overpaid for it. My brand new off the lot 2016 one only cost 18K. I sold my 2013 one in perfect shape, and CarMax offered 9 grand on it, so it would probably have been resold for 11 or 12K.
Yes, it was last summer, and the price was in the middle of Truecar and KBB ranges. It’s the Grand Touring model so has all tech gizmos. I probably could have paid a little less, but I don’t think it was significantly overpriced.
We’ve had two Mazdas, and have had excellent experiences with both of them.
I bought a 1991 Protege sedan new in early '91. Three years later, I hit a deer with it, at around 50mph. Despite some serious cosmetic damage, the body of the car itself fared exceptionally well – I was able to drive it the rest of the way home (about 100 miles), and, after it was repaired, the car served without any further major maintenance issues until I traded it in, in 2002. It got great mileage, and while it was never a performance car, it was just super-reliable.
In 2008, we bought a 2007 CX-7 crossover for my wife. (It was still new, but had been sitting on the lot for nine months.) In eight years, it’s only required regular maintenance, and one minor repair (to re-fasten a loose heat shield on the exhaust system).
I had an early Miata for nearly ten years. Lots of fun to drive.
And it was a terrific babe magnet, at least if I had Bubba the Cavalier K.C. spaniel riding shotgun with me.
I hear they’re really nice cars, but my only direct experience with them is during my brief mechanical career the only two cars I had to have a shorter co-worker pull into the bay for me because I couldn’t fit my legs in were both Mazdas: a first gen Miata and an 80’s standard cab Hardbody truck. I’m only a bit over 6 feet, so it’s not like I’m some hulking Goliath.
(Although I hear there’s easy seat mods that can be done for tall drivers with Miatas. And I think the issue with the truck is that with most old Japanese pickups I could drive them just fine with my knees up by my elbows, but the dash on that one got in the way.)
The first car that I bought in my life was a brand new 2005 Titanium Grey Mazda 3s with a manual transmission. I loved that car like a child. Then some asshole hit it in my apartment’s parking lot.
Anyway, I ended up selling it for a faster and douchier car. But I wish I had my Mazda back. Sometimes I’m tempted to look it up on Carfax to see what happened to it.
This is good to hear. The CX-5 is on my short list. Right now, it’s between the Mazda, a Subaru Outback, and a Hyundai of similar size (Tucson?).
My first car was an 86 RX-7. Got it used when I was 17 with about 40k on it. Got a lot of stupid speeding tickets with it. But loved every mile I put on it until it lost all compression at 98k. Of course, I was doing 90 (right at redline) in 3rd gear getting on the freeway while it was cold. That was the only problem I ever had with it, which sadly was fatal. I’d buy another one again tho.
I have a 2008 Mazda 3. It’s got a lot of pep for a boring car, especially now that I’ve put in (at 135000k) a new CV joint, transaxle, and rear stabilizer bar.
So far, both headlight sockets have melted (I’m told that’s normal, but I’ve never heard of this happening), the glue that holds the little disc with the picture of the gearing on it to the gearshift melted on a hot summer day, the cable connecting the trunk release lever to the trunk release has slipped/broken/whatever, and the stereo has good sound, but skips on cheap blank CD’s every time I hit a bump. Pre-recorded CDs or better quality blanks seem okay. I find all those little things to be strange. Still, I feel I got my $7500 worth.
I had problems with my Protege headlights. One or another bulb would burn out every few months, it seemed.
Let me put it to you this way: we didn’t actually go shopping for an SUV/Crossover. We were looking at sedans, and we test-drove the CX-5 as an afterthought—I had been convinced for months that the Mazda6 was my dream car, but I wasn’t impressed after test-driving it, and as we were about to trade in our Jeep Liberty, we decided to hop in the pretty CX-5 almost for nostalgia, and we fell in love.
We ended up test driving 17 different cars and SUVs at nine different dealerships, including the CX-5 three different times (and one pit-stop at the dealership with a CD of mine just to test the sound system). While there were some other contenders in our final four, I don’t think either of us has ever regretted the purchase. We really and truly love the CX-5, and if you’re thinking about it, I’d highly recommend it. We weren’t impressed with the Tucson (although that was now almost three model years ago), and I don’t think we drove an Outback, so I can’t offer you much there.
Its a nice looking car. People here love them, so I’ll take their word. I had a bad salesmen try to rip me off when pricing one once. One bad dealership does not mean its a bad car.
It still looks like it could use headlight machineguns & an ejector seat though…
Which car couldn’t?
In my household, the machine guns would get daily use. The ejector seat would only have been used during the 2,600 mile drive with the two cats.
I know at least 4 sets of parents whose kids basically destroyed their cars by never changing or topping off the oil.
C’mon. I wasn’t that bad.
My sister destroyed a volvo that way. A VOLVO for chissakes! It woulda ran forever otherwise.