2017 Mazda CX-5 vs 2018

What's the difference?

The new CX-5 has certainly picked up where the old one left off, and is better in every way. The new diesel is a cracker and the safety package belongs on a much more expensive car. 

Mazda has lead the way for so long and the CX-5 was such an accomplished car, a face-lift barely seemed necessary. While it's not all-new from the ground up, this is the kind of thing Mazda has taken to doing really well - every time we drive a freshened-up machine, it's those little details that add up to the feeling a lot of work has gone on to build on a solid base.

And with this diesel engine, the big wheels and those sharp looks, the CX-5 has something for pretty much everyone.

The CX-5 GT is a triumph of style and substance. The range is generally a tremendous value-for-money line-up and this upper-echelon offering is no different because a GT buyer will want for nothing – except perhaps Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and if we can live without those, you can too. More of a city-friendly SUV than a rough-and-ready off-roader, the GT is still capable of getting you to where you want to go, as long as you have a realistic notion of AWD-suitable terrain: think formed trails, well-maintained National Parks tracks and perhaps even, at a stretch, very firm sand.

Is the CX-5 a legitimate Adventure vehicle, or should it stay in the suburbs? Tell us what you think the comments below.

If the first CX-5 impressed with its understated good looks, the new one goes further by being a very pretty car. Mazda's 'Kodo' design language looks good at just about any size, but this latest evolution puts the CX-5 in genuinely beautiful territory.

The slimmer headlights work well with a longer-looking nose and a body that looks more pulled down over the wheels. Despite bearing more than a passing resemblance to the old car, all the panels are new and that's partly because a shift of the A-pillars of just 35mm was enough to make everything move.

The cabin has come in for a much bigger change. There wasn't a great deal wrong with the old one, but it was feeling a bit old, and some of the materials weren't quite there. As ever, the CX-5's first generation launched into a completely different, rather more sparse segment. With competition from all sides, the new interior had to deliver a more premium feel.

With improved plastics and fittings, a more cohesive design (something simple like consistent fonts go a long, long way to giving that impression) and the sort of detail improvements I've come to expect from Mazda, the new interior is lighter, feels better, and looks better. Job done.

Having said all of that, I can't really recommend the white leather. It looked pretty good with the red exterior and well-judged interior materials, but it's unlikely kids will be kind to it.

People who know me, know that I put more stock in what’s under the bonnet than appearance but, having said that, I am still capable of appreciating attractive things. The previous version of the CX-5 looked good; this new one looks damn good. Everything is simply neater, sleeker and more streamlined than before, inside and outside.

Fit and finish is tighter and all materials and designs complement, rather than clash with, each other. That bright white leather – adding a real overall touch of class – doesn’t hurt either.

This CX-5 looks and feels like it sits more comfortably in the realm of sports cars than that of family-friendly SUVs – but I spend zero time in sport cars, so what do I know?

Never a class-leader in the spaciousness department, this CX-5 is still at the rear of the pack, but it hardly seems to matter. Boot space is up by 39 litres to 442 (VDA) with the seats up, tripling to 1342 litres with the seats down. The seatback is split 40/20/40 and you can drop each section individually, which is unusually generous.

The CX-5 has four cupholders (a pair up front and a pair in the rear centre armrest), a tray for your phone, bottle holders in each door and vents for the rear seat. Courtesy of a new higher centre console, the storage bin is deeper and also hides two USB ports.

The new car isn't any bigger, so the rear door aperture is still on the tight side compared to, say, Volkswagen's Tiguan or Hyundai's Tucson. It doesn't seem to bother owners I've spoken to, but it's worth noting. 

Once you're in, there is plenty of leg and headroom for rear passengers, providing the driver or front passenger isn't a Canadian Redwood.

From the front to the back everything is pretty well suited for day-to-day life.

There is ample room for driver and passenger up front with electric adjustment for those forward pews.

Second-row travellers also get stacks of leg and headroom and the driver seat goes nowhere near encroaching on space behind. When it comes time to collapse those second-row seats, it is a 40/20/40 split.

Storage solutions include a space for phones and loose change in front of the shifter, four cupholders (two up front and a pair in the second-row centre arm-rest), and a bottle-recess in each door. Annoyingly, there are two USB ports in the glovebox, which is deep enough for a dog to sit in (only joking!), so it is difficult for the driver to readily access those as a charging point.

There are air vents for both rows.

Down the back, cargo space is 442 litres with the second row up; and 1342 litres with that row flat.

Our review vehicle – an upper-spec Mazda CX-5 GT AWD diesel – had a manufacturer listed price of $47,390 at standard spec, but ours also had Soul Red paint ($300) and optional front and rear floor mats at a cost of $187.02. There is a stack of gear for the price as standard including keyless entry and start, a 7.0-inch touchscreen (with Mazda’s MZD Connect multimedia system but no Apple CarPlay and Android Auto), satnav, reversing camera,  front and rear parking sensors, head-up display, cruise control, a 10-speaker Bose stereo, dual-zone climate control, electric front seats, white leather trim, auto wipers, powered and heated folding mirrors, power windows, a sunroof, electric tailgate, 19-inch alloy wheels and a space-saver spare tyre (tucked under the cargo floor). There’s also active automatic LED headlights, LED foglight and plenty of active and passive driver aids.

The 2.2-litre 'SkyActiv' diesel is the only turbo in the range, for now at least. Developing 129kW and a very decent 420Nm, it has a portly 1744kg to move. Power reaches the road through all four wheels via a traditional six-speed automatic.

The diesel is also fitted with technology to reduce the clatter reaching the cabin, start-stop tech and Mazda's 'G-Vectoring Control'.

Towing capacity is rated at 1800kg for braked trailers and 750kg unbraked.

The GT has a 2.2-litre SkyActiv diesel engine – producing 129kW@4500rpm and a chunky 420Nm@2000rpm – matched to a six-speed automatic transmission. No complaints about this pairing.

The sticker on the windscreen reckons you'll get 6.0L/100km on the combined cycle while exhaling 158g/km of CO2. With a 58-litre tank, that suggests a range just short of 1000km. And you know what? You might be able to do that if you don't spend too much time in traffic.

Mazda's 'i-stop' technology meant that over three weeks, we averaged 7.8L/100km in mostly urban and suburban driving. While that's a bit above the combined figure, it's not far off the urban number, 7.0L/100km.

We recorded 8.3L/100km for about 160km of daily driving (country, suburban, city and freeway) and 8.7L/100km for 150km of AWD-appropriate touring (including a substantial amount of dirt-road driving). The CX-5 has a 58-litre fuel tank

The CX-5 has always been at or near the top of the medium SUV heap when it comes to the drive. The same couldn't be said for overall refinement. The old car suffered quite a bit from a classic (and fading) Mazda fault - cabin noise. The front suspension was the worst offender, with every bump, thunk and pop reaching your ears, along with tyre roar. 

It wasn't insurmountable - you could just turn up the stereo - but around town you got used to a cacophony of noise.

The new CX-5 - as with most major updates - has changed all that. While the underbits have barely changed (testament to the popularity of the car and the quality of its fundamentals), every spare gap has been filled with noise deadening materials, there's more carpet and just more stuff to reduce the racket. While it's not exactly silent, it's not far off the Tiguan, which is arguably the class benchmark.

As before, it's a lovely thing to drive. Easy-going but accurate steering, a firm but compliant ride (this car is not intended for off-roading) and a responsive transmission all combine to make life very relaxed behind the wheel.

The star of this car is the 2.2 diesel. Quiet, smooth and distinctly un-diesel in its aural character (inside at least), it makes the CX-5 a proper all-rounder. It cruises at speed in sixth, overtakes with just a little bit of toe pressure and is quite frugal, coming reasonably close to matching its claimed figures. Around town there is little lag to deal with and the power comes on nice and smooth.

The only complaint we had was that the blind spot monitor is perhaps a little over-enthusiastic, seemingly beeping every time we used the indicator to change lanes.

This CX-5 is 4550mm long, 1840mm wide, 1675mm high has a claimed kerb weight of 1744kg and an 11.2m turning circle. It feels low and long – even though it’s not really – and is rock-steady to drive, at any speed.

This CX-5 never feels like anything but a supremely well put-together unit and that makes for a smooth driving experience. Steering is light at the right time and takes on a real weight when you need it to; the 2.2-litre engine is eager and works well off changes in the six-speed auto.

It’s better suited to open-road cruising, than stop-start city driving as it tends to lag off the mark when you actually need it to swiftly budge.

Mazda reckons its staff have worked hard to make the current CX-5’s NVH (noise, vibration, harshness) levels much better than those in the previous model, but we’d never noticed anything in that earlier thing, and nothing in this latest model, so we have to take their word for it.

The GT is on 19-inch alloys, shod with Toyo Proxes R46 rubber.

The CX-5 has a five-star ANCAP safety rating, as a result of testing conducted in September 2017. It has six airbags, ABS, reversing camera, blind-spot monitoring, reverse cross-traffic alert, front and rear auto emergency braking and more. It has two ISOFIX and three top-tether points.

Mazda's three-year/unlimited kilometre warranty is part of the CX-5 package, along with capped price servicing. Roadside assist is offered at $68.10 per year.

Your dealer will expect to see you every six months or 10,000km and will charge you between $317 on three of the five scheduled services, $387 for the second and $359 for the fourth. Extra items include $69 for the cabin air filter (every 40,000km) and $64 for brake fluid every 40,000km or two years.

Mazda offers a three-year/unlimited kilometre warranty on the CX-5; capped price servicing is included. The servicing schedule is set at six months/10,000km and will cost from $317 to $387.