Mazda CX-5 Review & Prices

If the family SUV market is a big family, the Mazda CX-5 is the cool uncle who’s not bothered what the rest of the family think about him. You can get it with a range of engines including a 184hp diesel that comes with four-wheel drive.

The Mazda CX-5’s smart exterior is mirrored by its well-equipped cabin. You get supportive seats with lumbar support as standard, plenty of soft materials and a tall centre console that makes you feel cocooned, like you’re sitting in a sports car on stilts. Its heavily recessed dials look more like something you’d find in the MX-5 sports car and its smart air vents have a cold-to-the-touch metal finish, too.

You get an updated 10.25-inch infotainment display with satellite-navigation as standard. It’s not the slickest out there but it’s reasonably clear and you control it using either the touchscreen or an intuitive scroll wheel behind the gear lever – just like in an Audi or BMW. It also caters for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone mirroring.

Passengers in the back aren’t treated to quite as many high-tech features, but they’ll have plenty of room to stretch out. There’s more leg room than you’ll find in a Nissan Qashqai and enough headroom for your six-foot-tall friends to get comfy. A Skoda Kodiaq is much better for carrying three abreast, however.

It’s a similar story with the CX-5’s boot. Its 506-litre capacity trails the capacious Skoda by some 214 litres, but it’ll still happily carry some large suitcases, a baby stroller or a set of golf clubs.

Need to carry even more? Fold the rear seats down in a three-way (40:20:40) split and two passengers can jump in along with some long luggage in the boot. With all the back seats folded you’ll have 1,620 litres of space to fill and the Mazda’s flat floor makes it easy to slide in heavy boxes.

You can get the Mazda CX-5 with two petrol and two diesel engines. The 2.0-litre petrol isn’t particularly powerful but it’s quieter and smoother than both diesels around town. Mazda claims it’ll return 44.1mpg but expect to see around 40mpg in real-world driving.

Spend more time on the motorway? One of the two 2.2-litre diesels will be a better bet. The 150hp model has more than enough power to overtake slow-moving traffic and it’ll return around 50mpg in normal driving. The perkier 184hp version is a little thirstier but is a better bet if you regularly carry lots of luggage or tow a trailer and it’s also available with four-wheel drive. The 184hp 2.5-litre petrol is reserved for the range-topping GT Sport trim and comes standard with four-wheel drive and an automatic transmission; it's quick and smooth, but doesn’t quite deliver the slug of torque you get from the diesels.

Aside from the base trim, every model gets 19-inch alloy wheels. They look great but also highlight bumps in the road, especially around town. The CX-5’s suspension is a little stiffer than most large SUVs so it isn’t quite as comfortable – but it feels much sportier to drive as a result.

Euro NCAP hasn’t crash tested the new Mazda CX-5 yet but it comes with plenty of safety kit as standard, including automatic emergency braking that’ll apply the brakes if it detects an obstacle in the road ahead.

The CX-5 is a stylish SUV that’s well worth considering if you’re looking for a large, stylish family car that’s both well-equipped and surprisingly sporty to drive. Check out some great deals on a new Mazda CX-5 at carwow. Used Mazda CX-5s are also available here too. You can also get used deals on other used Mazda models, and if you want to change your car altogether, you can sell your car to get the best price from our trusted dealers.

The Mazda CX-5 is available in five unique trim levels and four engine options, this means that in base trim it stacks up against the likes of the Hyundai Tucson and SEAT Ateca, but prices can quickly escalate until a fully loaded CX-5 can cost as much as an entry-level Land Rover Discovery Sport or Jaguar E-Pace.

That said, you see a similar spread of pricing with other cars in the CX-5’s class, and since the lower spec models already offer plenty of kit, there’s no need to splash out on too many options.

This family SUV offers a sporty and engaging drive, this does mean it has a firmer ride than some more laid-back alternatives 

In town

Most mid-sized SUVs are well-suited to city driving, and the Mazda CX-5 is no different. The high driving position, large window area, slim windscreen pillars and responsive controls make it easy to thread through traffic, and it comes standard with parking sensors front and rear. 

The suspension is a bit firm over bumps, and the 19-inch wheels you get on all but the base trim don’t help matters. It’s not overtly uncomfortable, but something like a Volkswagen Tiguan or Honda CR-V can cope better over rough road surfaces.

On the motorway

The CX-5 performs well on the motorway, aside from some tyre roar, the cabin is well insulated and the comfortable seats won’t leave you with an aching back after a long trip. The diesels are a good choice here, they offer strong overtaking performance and their slightly coarser sound compared to the petrol engines is less noticeable at highway speeds.

On a twisty road

Thanks to its sporty suspension settings, the Mazda CX-5 is quite a bit of fun to drive along a challenging stretch of backroad. It hardly leans in the corners and the sharp controls make this one of the more engaging SUVs in its class. 

It’s not particularly powerful in any guise, but the petrol engines are smooth and refined and the diesels offer a decent amount of shove out of slower corners. We would opt for the six-speed auto as it responds quickly to throttle inputs and takes the strain out of your commute.

The CX-5 offers generous if not class-leading levels of interior space, practicality levels are decent, too, although three adults won’t find it the comfiest 

Even though the wide centre console gives a feeling of being cocooned into the car, the driver and front passenger get plenty of head and legroom, and there’s tons of storage spots for their wallets, phones, coffee mugs and other bits and bobs. The doors have large pockets and cut outs for water bottles, there’s a space ahead of the gear lever for a phone and the glovebox can hold much more than just a pair of gloves.

The driver’s seat offers adjustable lumbar support and electric driver seat adjustment is standard on the Newground trim and up. The steering wheel also offers a range of adjustment so getting comfy shouldn’t be an issue.

Space in the back seats

Two tall adults will fit comfortably in the rear, but the centre rear seat is not as wide or comfortable as the outer two so is best reserved for smaller passengers. The rear seatbacks can be reclined a bit, making it more comfortable for longer journeys.

If you regularly need to seat three adults abreast, then the large Skoda Kodiaq and SEAT Ateca are a better bet. Two door pockets are provided for item storage and the folding central armrest provides space for two more cups/drinks. Hauling smaller children into their baby seats is made a little easier thanks to rear doors that open wide and enough headroom so that you don’t have to bend down too much once inside.

Boot space

The Mazda CX-5 offers slightly less boot space than most other alternatives in this class. It offers 506 litres of space with the rear seats up, which is slightly less than the 561 litres the Honda CR-V has and well below the overachieving Hyundai Tucson which offers 620 litres. It does eke ahead of the Nissan Qashqai which has just 503 litres.

The CX-5 will still fit plenty of luggage and the low load lip and square boot shape will help when loading bulky items. Two levers in the boot allow you to flip the rear seats forward, availing you of 1,620 litres of boot space – comparable to the Honda and more than you get in the Hyundai Tucson or Nissan Qashqai. 

A pair of storage trays on either side of the boot and some handy hooks help prevent smaller items from rolling around the boot.

The Mazda CX-5 has a pleasingly upmarket look and feel, although its cabin is not especially eye-catching

Soft touch materials, and good quality fabrics make the Mazda CX-5’s cabin feel like it’s been put together with care. The common touch points all feel solid with pleasing metal finishes on the door handles and high-quality plastics used on the switchgear. Cloth seats are standard, but you can work your way up to soft brown Nappa leather with heating and ventilation by the time you get to the top GT Sport trim. 

The once optional 10.25-inch infotainment screen has now been made standard across the range, it can be controlled via the touchscreen or centre console-mounted rotary knob. Standard features include DAB radio, Bluetooth connectivity and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Sat nav is standard too, with five-years of free map updates. The system works well but there are slicker interfaces out there.  The standard six-speaker sound system is upgraded to a 10-speaker BOSE unit on the top trim.

A colour head-up display is offered on the top three trims, complementing the recessed analogue dials in the driver’s binnacle. While all the main functions are clear to read, there’s no configurable digital driver display here, something that most alternatives offer.

There are two petrol and two diesel engines on offer here. The 165hp 2.0-litre petrol requires a fair prod from your right foot to get the best out of it, although it manages an official 41.5mpg in mixed driving. This is slightly behind most alternatives which offer smaller turbocharged petrol engines which not only deliver better fuel economy but feel punchier when on the go.  

The 150hp 2.2-litre turbodiesel motor delivers a more solid performance and in front-wheel drive trim with the six-speed manual, it also delivers the best official fuel economy of the lot, with a 50.4mpg average and CO2 emissions of 147g/km. That said, the more powerful 184hp diesel engine has the same claimed fuel economy figures so we would pick that engine for its added oomph when fully laden.

All the engines can be paired with either a manual or automatic transmission, aside from the 194hp 2.5-litre petrol engine which is available solely with an auto ‘box and four-wheel drive in GT Sport trim. This makes it the thirstiest combination, averaging 35.3mpg with C02 emissions of 182g/km. 

Four-wheel drive is also available on the Sport Edition and GT Sport trim when picking the 184hp turbodiesel engine and automatic transmission.  Bear in mind though, that this combination drops the diesels economy figures from 50.4mpg to 42.8mpg. 

There are no hybrid or electric drivetrains on offer here (the Mazda CX-60 Plug-in Hybrid and smaller Mazda MX-30 electric vehicle tick those boxes), so you won’t escape road tax or benefit from lower Benefit In Kind (BIK) tax rates.

The Mazda CX-5 scored a full five-star rating in the Euro NCAP ratings back in 2017 when it was first released. The stellar 95% result for adult occupancy safety is particularly noteworthy. 

Blind-spot monitoring, lane departure and forward collision warning as well as adaptive cruise control are standard across the range. 

All CX-5s also come standard with front and rear parking sensors, the Sport Edition trim adds a reversing camera, while the GT Sport trim includes a 360-view monitor which utilises two additional side cameras, as well as adaptive LED headlights in place of the standard adaptive units.

This generation of CX-5 has been around for a while now and customer surveys have shown it to be a very reliable SUV. Most owner’s are pleased with the level of tech on offer and how the car feels to drive.

There have been a few recalls, most for potential issues related to the fuel system, but overall the CX-5 has proven to be a solid vehicle. The three-year/60,000-mile warranty is pretty standard, it can be extended if the car has not exceeded 100,000-miles.