Mazda CX-5 Turbo becomes fun to drive again for 2024

2024 Mazda CX-5 Turbo AWD vs. 2024 Hyundai Tucson Limited Hybrid AWD: Two different approaches to small SUVs.

This week: Mazda CX-5 Turbo AWD

Price: $38,575 as tested. Navigation added $450.

Conventional wisdom: Car and Driver calls it “pretty cool for a crossover, refreshingly good to drive,” and notes that it’s the “most luxurious in a mostly basic segment.” The magazine complains that it’s “tight on legroom, competitors have more towing capacity, sacrifices space for style.”

Marketer’s pitch: “Transcend the ordinary.”

Reality: Transcend the last incarnation of the CX-5, that is.

What’s new: The CX-5 remains much like it did for the 2022 model year, when it received “significant enhancements” including 256 horses from the turbo model and design tweaks to the exterior.

I recall not liking the CX-5 much last time around — much to my own surprise and many readers’ disdain. But it’s been several years, so how is the latest version?

Competition: In addition to the Tucson, there’s the Honda CR-V, Kia Sportage, Nissan Rogue, Toyota RAV4, Subaru Forester, and many more.

Up to speed: The CX-5 Turbo definitely gets drivers rolling in a hurry. The 2.5-liter four-cylinder with the added boost creates 227 horsepower (256 with premium fuel) and reaches 60 mph in 6.2 seconds, according to Car and Driver.

There’s delightfully little turbo lag this time around, so drivers will feel the pep over hill and dale, without feeling like “Boo, it’s just a four-cyl- … (neck jerks) aha! There’s the turbo!” That’s how it felt last time around.

Shifty: That power comes without a lot of gear changes. The 6-speed shiftable automatic provides decent response for a such a dinosaur of a gearbox. (Other makes offer 8-, 9-, even 10-speeds.)

Shifting the gears yourself is smooth and easy with the joystick or the paddles.

It does hold lower gears longer than necessary in Sport mode, but it seemed better than last time I drove it. At least it’s fun and easy to shift if that bothers you.

On the road: I confess I did not have a chance to put a great many miles on the CX-5, maybe 50 miles or so close to home. But it includes town, suburban, country, and highway driving, and the vehicle made clear its responsiveness early, so I can’t see my opinion changing with additional driving. (That does happen sometimes, though, generally softening my initial complaints.)

Handling on the slaloms is smooth and sure without feeling jerky or squirrelly, and highways are smooth and comfortable as well. The all-wheel drive certainly helps make the vehicle feel steady and surefooted.

Driver’s Seat: I often use Mazda seats as the standard for firm-to-uncomfortable, but this year the CX-5 is changing my opinion. The leather-trimmed front bucket seats feel almost as supple as Lexus seats, and I never experienced any discomfort. Again, not a long, long drive, so maybe they wouldn’t wear as well.

The dashboard layout remains pretty much as always, with unique graphics and easy-to-find information through the steering wheel buttons.

Play some tunes: One place user-friendliness fell flat was in the infotainment system. The 10.25-inch screen is not a touchscreen, and the dial and buttons are difficult through all the many adjustments. It’s especially difficult to navigate CarPlay, as the dial has to bump through all the available choices across the screen, then return to the left, then across again. I felt like I was in typing class in ninth grade; I kept waiting for the bell.

But the playback will more than make up for the struggle to get to your favorite song. The Bose stereo provides excellent sound — so excellent that one wonders why I had to fish so long through the console dial to turn it on; at first I thought the playback way just pitiful. I’d call this an A-, trending toward an A.

Keeping warm and cool: The five-sided HVAC blowers continue to provide very little directional control, so Mr. Driver’s eyes were drying out with every trip.

Adjustments otherwise are not difficult, with dials for the temperature and buttons for the source and fan speed. The HVAC LED screen does aim a little low and can take a moment to adjust to.

Friend and stuff: The back seat provides almost the same level of comfort as the front; it’s nicely angled and well-padded, and legroom, headroom, and foot room are all spacious. The center seat has just a bit of a floor hump and a bit of a seat hump, but the front console intrudes deeply.

Cargo space is 59.3 cubic feet with the seat folded and 30.8 with the seat in place.

Fuel economy: The vehicle averaged 20.5 mpg since it arrived on this planet just 450 miles earlier, and most of the driving wasn’t mine.

Where it’s built: Hiroshima, Japan

How it’s built: Consumer Reports says the CX-5′s reliability should be a 4 out of 5.

Next week: 2024 Hyundai Tucson Hybrid