Paging Mazda5 owners...and Bobzilla

In the market for a new DD for my wife. She has recently taken over duty of hauling our 3 kids too/from school. Her current DD is an '08 Fit. We want to find something a bit bigger, both for a little extra room and a little extra child safety. Not going full size minivan, we've already got one. Not using it for daily use because her commute is 30 miles each way and the van gets 18mpg (and it's already at 80k miles). We're looking for something roomy, relatively fuel efficient and dead nuts reliable. My wife likes the bells and whistles, but they're not a must. We're going used, roughly $17k max budget.

Right now, our two leading choices are a '11 Forte SX wagon (hatch) and an '09 or '10 Mazda5 GT. They've both got the bells and whistles she wants and are good cars. The '09 Kia Rondo EX is also in the mix, but not a leading candidate.

Looking for a bit of input from owner experience. What fuel mileage are you getting? Anything annoy you about the car? Any known trouble spots? Is driving the 5 a lot like driving a full size minivan or more like driving a Mazda3?

Not an owner, but convinced Sis-in-law to buy one. My only complaints: Driver seat doesn't go back far enough, and leather feels really really cheap. She LOVES the car though.

The 5 is not at all like driving a full-size Minivan. It's pretty fun to fling around, and feels much more like a small hatchback when driving through tight areas. I really enjoy it, much more than the driving experience of the Honda Element I traded up from. For kid hauling duty it's great.

I've been getting about 25-28 mpg in probably a 50/50 city highway mix. I have not been tracking it religiously.

Known trouble spots seem confined to rear suspension bits that squeak and wear out prematurely, after about 60k miles. I am also annoyed that my rear sliding doors do not always unlock reliably even though they sound unlocked after hitting the button a few times. The sunroof is tiny, but nice to have.

I've put some good time behind the wheel of the 2009 mazda5 that Chrissy's parents have. It really is like driving a big 3. They don't track mileage but I know it is much better than the Nissan quest they had before. They really like it, it does everything well. The only problem in 60k miles is a rear shock went bad. If you want to drive it sometime, let me know.

I don't believe the 5-speed was available in GT trim in 09+ models; possibly in the pre-facelift models but I'd consider it a unicorn. Much more common is the 5-speed Sport (base) model, which I have (2009). It's a 3400+ lb car with a 2.3L engine, so the automatic is about what you'd expect. Sluggish.

It drives more like a Mazda3, which is why I bought it. Story was I went to drive a 6-speed 2010 Fusion and hated the way it drove, and the dealer surprised me with the Mazda.

The seating position is high and upright, and the seat cushion is short. Not the best road trip car, but it's comfortable enough around town.

The A/C struggles to keep up in the summer because of all the glass and interior volume. Mine freezes up from time to time and stops working.

The chassis is floppy, and you can hear the sliding door seals squeak over bumps. There's also TSBs for squeaking coming from the cowl area, but I haven't had that problem. The interior is cheap, and there aren't a lot of storage compartments.

People complain online about the rear shocks not lasting more than 30k miles. Mine are up to 55k and so far so good, but I've got a spare set waiting in my garage.

I also have 3 kids, but we use our Sedona for long trips. With 5 seats occupied there's absolutely no room for cargo. It's a fantastic runabout, but it gets tight on long trips. According to Fuelly, I've averaged 23.7 MPG in genuinely mixed driving.

Those are my complaints. It's all worth it to have a 3-pedal car that seats 6 and drives like a compact.

I was in the same position, but wound up buying the used Rondo. I liked Kia so much I bought my wife a Soul. (that sounds funny) Both have been very reliable.

Money was a big factor for me, and used Rondos were cheaper than the 5. They are also a bit bigger inside: the Kia is a 5 passenger with a cargo area while the Mazda is a 4 passenger+cargo. That means that with a car seat in the middle position, I can still get one kid on either side and two adults in the front.

All Mazdas are 6-passenger vehicles: you can give up the cargo area for another 2 seats. This was an option on the Rondo...not all have the third row and 7-passenger seating.

The wider Rondo has also been pretty good at hauling big things with the seats down like a dishwaher or new cabinets. With the seats up, I can still fit a HUGE stroller in the back along with groceries, diaper bags, etc. This is where the Rondo beats smaller wagons and hatchbacks. They don't offer the room behind the rear seat that the Rondo does. More like a CR-V in that respect.

The Rondo drives like a car and is pretty easy to park, my wife has not had any issues with it. We even tow a jetski and an ATV with it with no issues.

My wife has had a '10 Mazda5 for 18k miles now (in nearly 2 years.) We bought it new as a left-over with the then new '12 models already in the showroom (there is no '11 model.)
It is a base model with only one option which is Auto. I tried to talk her into the manual but it is her DD, not mine and auto was the order of the day. At $17.5k for a fully new car, we could not go wrong.
We like it, but...
I am not sure what the mpg numbers really are since I do not drive it enough and my wife drives it so few miles. There is not an on-board mpg calculator either (at least at our level of trim.) I do know that I thought it would be more.
Agreed on the front seat not going back far enough. I have found this on a few of the new style, high roof, compacts. Also notice that the function that lifts the seat higher also oddly forces the seat to move closer. In our example, I am 6'1" and my wife is 5'4". I keep the seat at it's lowest function and my wife keeps it at it's highest setting (done my the manual lever on the side.) Ironically, we both keep the fore/aft adjustment to the rearmost setting. That is because, as you lift the seat higher the mechanism also moves the seat closer (a lot closer.) As a result, I could not use the height function if I even wanted to.

Rear seats: We have found the car to be amazingly comfortable at hauling four adults. I refer to the rear-most seats as jump seats. Good in a time of need but if you plan regular use, the occupant better be pretty small and pretty agile to get back there. We have no kids of our own but we have used all 6 seats once to travel and hour to a hockey game with another couple. Two guys up front, the wives in the middle row and a 13 yr old and 9 yr old in the rear-most. Everyone was comfortable but there was hardly room for the ipod and psp player that kept the kids entertained. If you would need luggage in this situation, the roof rack and cargo box would be required.

As noted, we do not have kids but we do have two dogs. One is 50lbs and 16yrs old, the other 16lbs and just less than 1 yr. To our surprise, the seats have not been that good for the old/big dog. She is not agile and one bucket is too small for her. We try to encourage her to go to the rear-most seat but she tends to try to stay forward. She much preferred the full bench of my Volvo wagon where she could take up a lot of space and the little dog would take up whatever space was left. If we travel and try to keep the big dog to the rear-most then we have sacrificed trunk space leaving only the space of one bucket seat for storage.

At 18k miles, the factory tires are shot leaving too little tread to be safe for winter. I find that disappointing.

Not all dislikes...
I really like the package size for city driving. My wife has learned what I already knew and that is the love of sliding side doors. Engine oomph from our 2.3l is adequate and gearing feels peppy.
My favorite feature is the temperature setting climate control which is standard even on our base model and takes away the need to constantly fiddle with the controls to adjust for too hot or too cold.

For a tall car, it has surprisingly little ground clearance. This is a testament to its interior volume but if you look at one, even at factory ride height, it is really low to the ground. No offroading.
Spiritually, the Mazda5 has been the replacement for my old Volvo 850 wagon. The overall mpg is about the same and the functionality is similar with just some slight differences.

I've always been a fan of the Mazda5 and as soon as we decided to make a switch, it was the first thing I thought of. But Mrs. Klayfish isn't a fan of it's looks. I like it, but it's not going to be my car. We're looking at automatics in Grand Touring trim. Her Fit is a base 5spd, so she'd like to get an auto with some goodies. She's only test driven the Forte so far and really liked it. Hoping to test drive the 5 today or tomorrow.

steronz, Same exact boat as me. Our full size minivan is an '06 Sedona. Very happy with it we use it when all 5 of us go out. But she doesn't want it for daily use.

pinchvalve, I really like the Rondo as well. They're a bargain...it's several grand less than the Forte or 5. But haven't found one with all the bells/whistles. Her current Fit is a base model, so they're not "must have" things, but I know she wants them. Yeah, the Rondo has more seating flexibility since it has a center bench. But the captains chairs aren't all bad...keeps the kids father apart...less fighting...

Re-reading, I see that you have a $17k budget for used. I also see that Mazda is still calling the current MZ5 a '12 model. My guess is the '13's will be here soon since in less than two months the actual year is '13. Searching the website, new w/ automatic starts at $20.6k, middle model at $21.6k, GT at $24.0k. I also see that they are offering 0.0% for 60 months.

At the time we bought, Mazda Competition (MazdaSpeed) was offering S-Plan to the friends and families of members. Through this board, I got a S-plan number. Shop one Mazda dealership with S-plan to quickly find out where the pricing can go and shop another without S-plan but that knowledge, see where you can do better.
Our sticker was $19.9k if I remember correctly and we bought at $17.5k. My point being that if you skip a few options, you may be able to get new.

Wow... I got called out specifically. This may be a first! lol

OK, on the SX, the 2.4L is a great engine. The problem is, if you're not careful with the fun pedal it will suck gas hard core. With that said, our worst tank to date was 29.9, and our best was 36.x. For a car rated at 32 highway, I'm pretty pleased. The interior is great, the stereo is good, the stock tires are complete garbage though. I replaced these right after purchase with a set of 225/45/17 Kumho Ecsta 4X and it was a night and day difference. The ride is a bit on the firm side, and rough expansion joints on a curve WILL cause the ass to hop a little, but nothing more than my H&R spring equipped Elantra did. Brakes are phenom for a car of this size (12" frt, 10.7" rr discs), the handling is good in stock form, the seats are comfy, the storage is great....

I'd have to put it at the top of the list AS LONG AS you can control the right foot. If not, look at the new Elantra GT.

06 Mazda5 Sport here (first year, lowest trim) with the manual. I track my mileage and the worst tank was 22, with a few highway ones in the 30+ range. In 50/50 mixed driving I'm averaging a solid 26-27. It drives like a bigger Mazda3. It's great in the 2-lane backroads and really rides nicely. I'm 5'10" and find the seats (cloth) very comfortable, Mrs. J is 5'5" and doesn't like them as much. We have a kid and the sliding doors alone would cause me to get one, they really have been life-saving (I have a neck injury and have a hard time lifting). We bought ours almost 2 years and 20K miles ago, it's up to almost 90K now. The original shocks are just starting to get weak. I put four new winter tires on it last year and have had no wear issues with a proper alignment. I also rotate. So far the only maintenance has been a synthetic oil & filter change every 5K and wiper blades every fall, plus the tires (we bought it with Toyo Proxes T1-R's that I loathed), and a headlight bulb. We bought used for a little over $9K out the door from a dealer. You should be able to get a pre-facelifted (06-10) 5 with the auto for under $15K with low miles.

We bought our '09 Mazda 5 new in November 2009. Fully loaded GT. ( I think our trim levels are different in Canada?). Leather, nav, power closing side doors, sunroof, heated seats,5 spd automatic etc. We've put 90,000 kms on it so far. My wife's work requires her to carry lots of stuff around, and we have two kids so the sliding doors are a plus. What don't I like? -it's a bit underpowered, but it revs smoothly and eagerly, and the auto has a manual mode that I use more than I thought I would -the OEM tires are CRAAAAAP. I got 55,000 km on them and they were noisy and down to the wear bars. The Generals on it now are doing much better -there's no way to turn on all the inside lights from one switch...silly and petty, but I guess when overall the car is so good you tend to nitpick eh?

Problems we've had? -had rear suspension bushings and sway bar bushings replaced under warranty, a well known issue.

IMO the '09's were the last decent looking ones. The '10's and newer have some butt-ugly styling features like the stupid smiley face and wavy side lines that make me throw up in my mouth a little bit.

doc_speeder wrote: Problems we've had? -had rear suspension bushings and sway bar bushings replaced under warranty, a well known issue.

Can you tell me more about this?
Is this a factor to why my tires are crap at 18k miles.
The dealership told me it was caused by not rotating every 5k miles.

In the US, '10 was the last year w/o side wavy lines. The new look was called the '12 and has waves.

'10 Mazda5 Sport with the 5-speed auto here.

We get 21-27mpg in ours, average is probably 24 with mostly in-town driving.
The manual shifter on the auto is actually set up the right way (towards you to upshift).
With the cloth seats in certain weather conditions it will shock the holy E36 M3 out of you unless you shut the door very specifically by the handle (and even then I've taken an arc from the lock).
The suspension is a hair bit soft for my liking, but it still handles very well
MAZDA, Y U NO MAKE MAZDASPEED5?!?
As said above, the 5th and 6th seats are jump seats and when up you have no cargo room. The 3rd and 4th seats are buckets and can slide (verrry niiice).
Stereo is pretty good, at least for this old man, and it has a aux in. No built in iDevice controls, at least not at this trim level.
I'm a little concerned about the longevity of the plastic in the doors. When you shut the door, it flexes in a way I don't like.
If it's an option, spring for the leather steering wheel.
There are two different oil filter setups, a spin-on and a replaceable filter element; check which you have before buying a filter for the first time.

That's all I can think of right now.

2012 Mazda5 sport 6spd here, love it. One year birthday today and 34000 miles. No issues, rotated tires from beginning and no wear. Interior is cheap, stereo sucks but I got it for 17.2 brand spanking new so I'm not complaining. Drives like a car but carries stuff like a wagon/mini van.

We also have dodge GC so we don't use it as a family hauler, i have had six adults in it but no way for more than just cruising around.

Oh yeah, I've averaged 28 mpg over its life.

Somebody else mentioned it; I was checking them out this morning, and they're doing 0% interest and $500 cash back.

<---considering trading in the Fit this weekend. There's a pimpin white GT with white leather available. Hate the lack of a stick but it'll technically be mama's car anyway, and might not be so bad for long hauls (when I'll be driving.)

ReverendDexter wrote: MAZDA, Y U NO MAKE MAZDASPEED5?!?

QFT!

Our '08 Mazda5 is a Sport with the rockers, rear diffuser, and auto trans. I think the added body stuff makes it look less homely.

My wife averages 24-25mpg in mixed driving and the best was 31mpg driving 75mph on a road trip.

The seat cloth is very tough but I dislike the plastic steering wheel and shifter on the sport.

The fold flat interior is really nice for carrying your junk. On a few road trips I have folded down the center seat and sat in the back seat so I could stretch out for a snooze which worked awesome.

As far as problems we have 112K on ours. I've replaced the driver's and passenger's side motor mounts, the passenger's side goes bad on all of them around 70K. You'll see black fluid leaked out on the frame rail.

I've also done the struts and shocks. Koni FSDs if you've got the cash and in my case Monroe OEM replacements. Apparently the shaking from the rear suspension can be solved with some Energy Suspension bushings in the trailing arms, they are sold as parts for a Focus.

No problems other than that. Oh there is a solution for the driver's seat but I've never pursued it. Apparently in Europe you can buy adapters that move the seat back an inch or two.

Apparently in Europe you can buy adapters that move the seat back an inch or two.

Excellent. Any idea if it's the same setup on the new ones?

I find it odd that so many of you have issues with the seat not going back far enough. I'm 5'11" and have no issue with where the seat is. I would love for the tilt wheel to come down another inch or so.

Might depend on how you're built, posture, etc. I'm 6', have long legs and bad posture. I'm a wheel hugger (most folks my height move the seat back if they get in my car to drive,) and it's still too close for me. Not to the point where it's unbearable, but it would bug the E36 M3 out of me on a long drive.

oh, as for seat legroom, I am 6' with a 32"inseam and if I put the seat all the way back I cannot start the car because I can't get the clutch down far enough.

I've only driven a 2012 auto. I promise I'm not making it up. YMMV.

I'm 5'11" and I'm not maxing out the seat slide adjust to the rear.

Someone brought up oil filters. My 06 has the cartridge, which I thought all of these came with. It was honestly the biggest PITA oil change I've ever done - take out 7 screws to drop the plastic tray, I had to buy a special adapter to remove the cartridge filter cover, and then it was pretty messy once I dropped it.

On top of all of that, the car is a serious pain to get up in the air using your garden-variety floor jack. The jacking point is in the middle of the car on a crossmember behind the motor. Using a hydraulic floor jack on the side jacking points deforms them. The car is low enough so that once your floor jack is actually positioned under the center of the car, you really can't pump the handle.

Poopy, et all: The leather seats are physically different than the cloth seats in the Sport (base) model. I fit great in the cloth and poorly in the leather (back-to-back, the dealer I bought from had 2 in stock, both 06's).