Mazda 5 An MPV With A Style
Mazda 5 An MPV With A Style
The Mazda 5 was launched in 2005 to replace the Mazda Premacy, the latest model was introduced in 2010. The Mazda 5 is more on the practical side but this hasn’t compromised its style thanks to the Mazda badged front grille. It is a fun to drive family car with features like sliding doors, spacious boot and folding seats. It has a van like functionality which hasn’t been exactly followed by any of the Mazda’s rivals, though it has seven seats but due to its compact size, filling it with the seven passengers is not a good idea.
The Mazda 5 was redesigned in 2010, the eye catching following lines on the sides are the most prominent feature giving it a style that makes other MPV’s like Ford’s Grand C-Max look bald. The Mazda 5 comes with a decent amount of kit. 12 volt power socket, auxiliary input and alloy wheels come as standard in all models, while the Sport models get 17 inch alloys, matching side skirts and a spoiler in the roof. The cabin is very smartly laid with easy to access controls. The materials and plastics used are of high quality. The Mazda 5 comes with three engine options, a 120bhp 1.8 litre and a 148bhp 2.0 litre in petrols and one 1.6 litre diesel. There is no automatic version and a six-speed manual gearbox is the only choice.
The drive is rewarding and agile thanks to the responsive,electrically assisted steering, accurate gearbox and excellent road grip. The comfort levels are also great. Mazda has built a strong reputation of reliability over the years, the Mazda engines used for the 5 have already proved themselves trouble free in other models. The new Mazda 5 has not been crash tested by EuroNCAP but the car it has replaced was awarded with five out of five stars. The new body shell is even more strongly built than its predecessor. The standard safety kit includes front, side and curtain airbags, ABS and traction control. The Sports versions have electrically operated sliding doors, there is a handy function to avoid accidental trapping of hands.
The Mazda 5 was one of the pioneers of using sliding doors which make it more practical. Sliding doors make it really easy to access the middle and back seats especially with small children. They become handy in tight parking spaces. The middle seats can be slid independently and the centre seat can be folded to make a walkthrough to the rear seats. The boot space is 426 litres when the rear most seats are folded and increases to 1,566 litres on folding both the middle and rear seats. The running costs is the area where Mazda 5 struggles to beat its rivals. Both the petrol engines have similar economical result of about 40mpg. The 1.6 litre diesel returns the average economy of 54mpg with 138g/km of CO2 emissions. The Mazda 5 enjoys low insurance cost and reasonable residual values.
