Payne: Mazda CX-5 gives zoom-zoom to ute-ute
We're back in the appliance aisle this week.
Looking for a reliable machine that will move family, haul groceries, get us to work, won't pillage the pocketbook. The automobile equivalent of a washing machine. Used to be the aisle was dominated by midsize sedans, but the options have expanded as taller, five-door utes have come to market.
The brand names are familiar. Honda (CR-V), Toyota (RAV4), Chevy (Equinox). Durable. Bulletproof. Functional. What else do you need in a washing machine? Quite a bit, I'm happy to say. Midsize sedan appliances have suddenly gained attitude — like your fridge sprouted an exposed carbon-fiber handle or your washer spin cycle plays The Stones Greatest Hits. The Ford Fusion looks like an Aston Martin, the Chrysler 200 is a polished piece of rolling furniture, even Camry has grown a goatee. I like where this is going. Cars are more than appliances, after all — they're public avatars for us.
Compact utes have also shed their toaster square image to stand out from the crowd. Ogle Jeep's bullet-nosed Cherokee or Ford's raked Escape. Or salute the GMC Terrain pickup-design swagger.
But what if you're the athletic type? Got running shoes and compression pants in your locker? Break into a sweat at least once a day? Then you might like to try on the Mazda CX-5.
Mazda, of course, has made athleticism — they call it "zoom-zoom" — their calling card. The Miata sports car is the most outgoing example of a lineup of vehicles that invites you to have fun on your way to the ATM appliance. "There's a little bit of Miata in every Mazda," company spokesman Tom McDonald likes to say. Mazda goes so far as the put its name on race tracks like Mazda Raceway in Laguna Seca, California where it provides a school of Miatas to train new disciples in zoom-zoom.
But ask any Miata school attendee for weekend highlights and they will mention the van tour of the fearsome, roller-coaster-like Laguna, one of America's most daunting tracks. After one door-handle-leaning, tire squalling, pro-instructor-piloted lap, you will never look at a four-row, commercial van the same way again.
The all-wheel-drive Mazda CX-5 is like that.
Make sure the eggs are out of the backseat and have a ball. The Mazda DNA is there. The crisp steering. Predictable chassis. Athletic good looks. That big Mazda grille is grinning for a reason.
Introduced in 2014, the 2016 CX-5 showed up for spring training this year looking fitter (tweaked face, LED tail-lights) and with more options than ever. It could be a contender for best all-around ute. Could be. Readers of this column know that I'm a fan of the Ford Escape. Its total package is the benchmark for the segment – a delicious confection of style, high-tech, innovation, and options.
The Escape doesn't match the CX-5's handsome face (where's that signature Aston grille, Ford?) but, like the Mazda, its body is surprisingly toned for a ute. Aggressive stance, strong shoulders, car-like style. That panache continues inside with the class's most sculpted interior. Dash instruments are artfully packaged in chrome and matte-black surfaces. The Mazda is sooo Honda CR-V-like. Practical but lacking in the unique appeal that attracted you in the first place. The interior is roomy in front and back for sequoias like me. Empty-nesters tempted by the growing subcompact ute class may reconsider once they have tried a wider, compact ute. Ample center storage space awaits and you aren't wedged in so tightly with your seatmate that you can smell what kind of omelet they had for breakfast.
Mazda matches the Ford standard for fold-flat rear seats (others class entries are content with seats that ALMOST fold all the way down) and even introduces remote buttons so you can flatten the seats from the back hatch. But that assumes you weren't already miffed that the Mazda doesn't have the Escape's nifty "kick to open" rear hatch feature — a must for egg crate-carrying grocery shoppers. Even the luxe Audi A8 has copied this Ford innovation.
But the engine bay is where the Mazda is curiously zoomless-zoomless.
Where the Escape offers a trifecta of engine choices — 1.6-liter turbo, 2.5-liter, and a punchy, 240-horsepower 2.0-liter turbo, the Mazda offers but two normally-aspirated mills: A 155 horsepower, 2.0-liter base engine and the 2.5-liter, 184-horsepower gas-burner found in the Mazda 6 sedan. Nail it and you'll pine for a turbo's quiet torque. The CX-5's 2.5 is a buzz-saw — invading an otherwise quiet cabin. Rumored is a diesel option down the road ...
The narrow power plant options are especially curious coming from one of the world's most innovative engine makers. My ears are still buzzing from Mazda's historic 1991 24 Hours of LeMans win in which a non-piston-powered sports car won for the first time in history. Mazda's unmuffled rotary engine created such a racket off the front straight grandstands that a generation of Frenchmen now wear hearing aids.
A more civilized rotary powered Mazda's sensational RX for years (more sports car DNA), but Mazda's recent green push — dubbed SKYACTIVE — has been largely one-dimensional. SKYACTIVE technology is green and sexy — but like Ford's signature "Ecoboost" play to the green elites, it could co-exist with more horses.
Perhaps I protest too much. That buzzy four only temporarily distracts from a startlingly good value that starts a grand below the Escape.
The CX-5's embarrassment of standard riches — cross-traffic alert, blind spot monitoring, collision-brake support, 7-inch touchscreen, full-body massage (just kidding about that last one) — can't be found on a Porsche Macan crossover at more than twice its cost. My "Blue Reflex Mica" tester had a standard features list as long as a CVS Pharmacy receipt — plus moonroof — yet stickered for less than 29-grand. Its 22-grand base bests Honda and Toyota even as its Consumer Reports score is neck-and-neck with its better known Japanese rivals.
I'm grateful for the CX-5. The appliance aisle needs its special sauce. Not everyone wants Honda-Toyota-Chevy mayonnaise. The CX-5 won't challenge Big Appliance for best sales numbers but it forces them — witness Honda's lovely new CR-V — to add some nuts and fudge to its recipe.
Now if we can just entice Mazda into commercial vans. Zoom-zoom.
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.
2016 Mazda CX-5
Vehicle type: Front-engine, front and all-wheel drive, five-passenger sport utility vehicle
Price: $22,465 base ($28,835 AWD as tested)
Power plant: 2.0-liter, inline-4 cylinder; 2.5-liter, inline-4
Power: 155 horsepower, 150 pound-feet of torque (2.0L); 184 horsepower, 185 pound-feet of torque (2.5L)
Transmission: 6-speed automatic transmission
Performance: 0-60 mph, 8.3 seconds (Car & Driver est. 2.5-liter); towing capacity as tested: 2,000 pounds
Weight: 3,550 pounds (AWD as tested)
Fuel economy: EPA 26 mpg city/35 mpg highway/29 mpg combined (2.0L); EPA 24 mpg city/30 mpg highway/26 mpg combined (AWD 2.5L tested)
Report card
Highs: Playful for a ute; standard is loaded with extras
Lows: Uninspired dash; sporty engine to match sporty chassis, please
Overall: ★★★
Grading scale
Excellent ★★★★
Good ★★★
Fair ★★
Poor ★