Manhattan in the Mazda 5
As I mentioned the other day, I'm in New York, but not for a car launch -- I'm here for an About.com media event, talking to journalists from other publications about what we do and how we do it. (I'm also a little tired and jet-lagged, so if my writing makes any less sense than usual, well, that's my excuse.) Naturally I wanted to use a car as a prop, so I chose the Mazda 5. Now, this is the first time I've spent any serious amount of time behind the 5's wheel -- our Mazda 5 review and photo gallery were authored by Guide Emeritus Philip Powell, and I have to say that I'm inclined to agree with what he wrote -- the packaging of this car really is brilliant. I also disagree with the critics who said the 5 doesn't have enough power. The car I'm driving is an automatic; once you get three adults inside it's clear the four-cylinder engine has its work cut out for it, and while it's no speed demon, it still has the guts to merge onto the freeway safely. And having to thread this baby through Manhattan sold me on its size. The car is parked in a single-car garage in a townhouse; you can imagine how small the space is. I can't think of another 6-seater that would fit and still leave room to walk around it.
The 5 is clearly the family car to have considering gas prices -- but with prices continuing to fall, I wonder if the 5's popularity will wane. Last week we discussed what the buying public would do if gas prices dropped to $2/gallon. I'm inclined to agree with the readers who pointed out that the prices are falling just in time for mid-year elections. (You wait and see if they don't go back up to $3/gallon in December -- "Increased processing costs," they'll tell us, everyone always buys that one.) Will sales of the Mazda 5 and other sensibly-sized cars suffer from temporary gas-price euphoria? Or will people remember that not long ago we were complaining about $2/gallon being too high? Click the "comments" link and share your thoughts. -- Aaron Gold
Photo © Philip Powell
I own a 5 and IMHO it is one sweet little car. It doesn’t have the b@lls out aceleration of my ‘vette, but it zoom-zooms pretty nice. I have the 5 speed model and it get’s scratch in 1,2,and 3 if you really lean on it. It gets 24 MPG in the city, 30 on the road, and has room for 4 adults and 3 dogs NO PROBLEM(BTW that is while getting the 30 mpg on the road)!
My biggest grip is that there is no holdown net included for the groceries. Gotta get one of those…..
There’s an optional net – our on-lot 5-speed car came with it. (Along with the nav system with flip-up screen, which is absolutely fantastic!)
We’re very happy with the 5 but I don’t think that it’s hit any level of popularity. To see another one on the road is a very rare thing. (In the several months since we’ve bought ours, I can count the number of times I’ve seen another one on the road on one hand, and have fingers left over!) I don’t know if Mazda is doing any kind of marketing of this thing, but it’s one of those cars that easily sells itself – IF you know that it exists. I think that most people are completely unaware of it. I consider myself fairly current on car stuff and I was completely unaware of it until seeing a review on Motorweek.
I would love to see them do something about the taillights, too – IMHO they are really ugly while the rest of the car ranges from handsome to at least “OK”.
We have a 5 Touring w/automatic, and it’s been a great car for us and the 4 kids. The storage is unbelievable and it’s really peppy and can slice through curves like a Miata (MX5…whatever they’re choosing to call it these days) when the kids aren’t around! Here in Indianapolis, I see another one every couple of days, so I think they are starting to catch on. The fact that in city only driving we get 24MPG is fantastic, and despite lower gas prices, I think vehicles like this one will become more popular. Now if we had only waited until the ‘07 5 Grand Touring model with heated leather seats and all auto power windows…