2020 Mazda CX-5 vs 2019

What's the difference?

I think it's fair to say the Mazda CX-5 has done about as much a single model line could have done for the population explosion of SUVs. The car is still selling like crazy when the economy isn't crippled by a global pandemic and that's despite the second-generation shuffling itself into more upmarket territory.

The CX-5 Akera is not the car people tend to go into Mazda dealers to buy without first doing their homework. Despite hardly anyone (relatively speaking) buying the Akera, you have a choice of three engines, the naturally aspirated petrol, the turbo-petrol and the turbo-diesel (in ascending price order).

The latter two both start at over $50,000. You can't spend that much on a Tucson or a Sportage, or even a RAV4. So you're going to want to know what you're getting yourself into, right?

Never judge an engineering book by its marketing jargon cover. Take Mazda's 'Skyactiv' program, for example. Talk about head in the clouds, and seriously, where's the e?

But over the better part of this decade Mazda has focused its engine and aero efficiency developments, as well as weight reduction and chassis improvements under the Skyactiv umbrella, with spectacular results.

The Japanese brand has been wringing everything it can from the internal combustion engine, conspicuously avoiding turbocharging its mainstream petrol units until long after key competitors had gone down the forced-induction route.

And it's a tribute to Mazda's determination that when it finally dropped the 2.5-litre turbo-petrol 'Skyactiv-G' engine into the CX-9 and Mazda 6, you knew it was going to be a thoroughly developed response to ever-tightening emissions restrictions rather than a quick-fix.

Now that engine has found its way under the bonnet of the country's best-selling SUV, the CX-5, and we've driven the top-spec Akera to see how the new drivetrain matches the mid-size five-seater.