Mazda’s stock jumped 6 percent today in Tokyo on news that the Mazda CX-5 crossover SUV is available at Mazda dealers in Japan. Mazda plans for 1,000 units per month to be sold in Japan, and Mazda President Takashi Yamanouchi told The Nikkei [sub] that he expects annual global sales to reach approximately 200,000 units.
The CX-5 is the first model to adopt the full complement of Mazda’s SKYACTIV TECHNOLOGY including gasoline and diesel engines, transmissions, body and chassis.
Buyers in Japan have a choice of two new-generation engines. The model equipped with Mazda’s SKYACTIV-D 2.2 clean diesel engine delivers a class-leading fuel economy of 18.6km/L (JC08 mode), and what Mazda calls the “powerful dynamic performance equivalent to a 4.0L, V8 gasoline engine.” The SKYACTIV-G 2.0L gasoline model is rated at 16.0km/L (FWD model, JC08 mode).
I hope this vehicle does tremendously well for them, if only to provide operating capital for a new Miata and RX-7.
It would be great to see something similar to Mazda’s 1990’s renaissance. Unfortunately, the currency situation is not looking to improve.
The CS5 is on my short list for my next daily driver, a few years from now, along with the Ford Escape and Fusion. I am very interested to see how the new engines in all those vehicels do in practice, both in power and mileage.
I love the interior.
It has:
1) Few buttons, controls and other clutter that’s become a bad trend in modern vehicles.
2) Almost no faux metal (silver painted plastic) trim that is one of the worst trends in recent automotive history (automakers, I beg of you, just kill off the silver plastic interior bits; if you must use silver, make it real metal, even if you use cost saving thin slices, and use it sparingly).
3) What looks to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, back seat in its class.
4) The choice of a manual transmission for those of us who think of it as inherently (incredibly so) more reliable and durable than slushboxes, and who believe a stick is an essential link to the feeling that we are connected to a piece of machinery and in a relationship, rather than a stoic passenger.
5) Choice of gasoline or diesel engines (hopefully) with class leading fuel economy.
*Again, please keep the interior as is, and limit or eliminate silver plastic wannabe poseur metal trim.
I am with you on all 5!
200,000 per year seems like a lofty target. I hope the CX-5 is a good the expectations. Mazda makes great cars; they deserve some success.
I’m still of the belief that the 2.0 is just too underpowered for American tastes in this application. As for me, I can’t wait for the day that the Mazda5 is available with a 2.5 Skyactiv-G or the 2.2 Skyactiv-D. However, I think either of those happening are a long shot.
I can’t possibly know if you’ll be more right or wrong (time will tell), but if a 0 to 60mph time of around 8 seconds is to be believed, which is what Mazda is claiming (actually 8 seconds flat for the stick and 8.2 seconds for the slushbox), how doesn’t this meet or beat its competitors, and with better fuel economy as a bonus?
3,300 pounds used to be consider a porker in a galaxy far away, but in today’s world of chubby, hefty vehicles, Mazda’s skyactive system seems to have allowed it to save roughly 250 to 300 pounds vs competing vehicles (approximately) and offer a bigger back seat. Hence, the 15 to 20 horsepower advantage some competitors have is negated.
With only the driver, I agree. But with 4 adults & cargo, the gas engine will struggle.
Of course that won’t happen a lot, but it’s all the more reason for Mazda to offer the diesel.
If fuel prices keep climbing then I disagree. People will be willing to overlook differences in power if they are paying over 4 dollars a gallon.
That diesel will be seriously quick! I’d expect a 0-60 well under 5 seconds out of an AWD CX-5 with a 4.0L V8.
They didn’t say which 4 liter V8. Maybe they’re benchmarking the ‘4.0’ V8 used in the 2003 Land Rover Discovery.
Yeah, I don’t actually expect it to be competitive performance-wise with a typical modern gasoline engine design of anywhere near that size! They likely just mean that it has a comparable peak torque value.
Wait a second… You mean that a diesel car is sold in Japan? that’s the most surprising part of your story, isn’t it? I thought this was forbidden by some kind of emissions rules…
That’s what I thought too- for the longest time diesel cars were banned from the city of Tokyo.
Wait, what? A diesel? In Japan?
Looks sharp, and if the MazdaUSA site is to be believed, available with a manual transmission that gets 35mpg.
The diesel does sound like a great engine, and this may be one more indication of just how promising that engine might really be.
Good looking car. The new design language can’t trickle down to the 6 and the 3 fast enough.
On the interior – where is the radio? Mazda’s website has what looks like a standard double-DIN nav in that hole in the dash. Is there a radio delete option, or they couldn’t wait for a fully assembled interior to take these pictures?
Nah – it’s just ready for them to Photoshop in whatever gadget they want: Stereo, Nav, DVD, toaster-oven…
Looks better than the Macan!
This looks quite nice indeed. I like this front end much better than that maw they have now on most of their cars.
That said, it is much more car than I need so will be interesting to see what they do with the 2 and the 3 in their next iteration.
Right now, I’ll continue to like my little Protege5 thankyouverymuch.
But at 200K worldwide, I wonder if that’s a bit a lofty goal for this model.
The P5 is one of their best cars ever. If they still sold it, I’d still buy it. (But I’d expect one of the new engines, though.)
Redav,
As to the P5, I have to agree, it’s a mighty fine little car. It may be 171″ in length, but it looks much smaller than it is, but get in and it feels MUCH larger than its size aludes.
The thing is you don’t just get in, you kind of fall into the seat as they sit rather low, but that’s how the car rides so flat and handles corners so well.
It’s just a fun car, but I will agree, zing the tach beyond 5Krpm, you will feel the power drop off a bit but between 3K-5K or so, that motor just pulls along very nicely and it had decent acceleration from a dead stop too and that’s with the sport stick automatic and I drive it in manual mode.
I hate to admit it, but this is the first car to make me believe I could happily own a crossover. 3,300 lbs, 2.0-liter Four, manual transmission, AWD, and Mazda chassis tuning suggest a real winner.
Why isn’t the Mazda3 this good-looking?
Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the stick shift is only available with FWD
That’s how I read the specs as well, only FWD if you want the stick.
Not all bad news though. Most people that buy this car are probably better off skipping the AWD anyway. The FWD with a manual is actually as light as 3208 lbs.
If you want AWD, that forces the automatic and the weight balloons up to 3426 lbs. At that point I think the gas engine is going to have to work pretty hard, so let’s hope Mazda makes the diesel available in the US for the AWD crowd.
FWD with a good set of all season (with snow/ice capable bias) tires should make the distinction between AWD and FWD nearly meaningless for 98% of buyers.
The CX-5 is very much similar to the CX-7, but it’s sad to hear that Mazda discontinues CX-7 crossover in U.S. due to poor selling of the unit. But with CX-5 going on sale in Japan, it sure will give Mazda a sure sell.