Mazda CX-5 review

It’s now bigger than ever before, thanks to a wheelbase that’s been extended by 115mm compared to the old CX-5. That means 29mm extra headroom and 64mm extra legroom for backseat passengers, so even the lankiest of teenagers shouldn’t have too much to complain about. You also now get a 40:20:40 folding rear bench, and the rear doors are wider than before too.

Boot space is also up and now measures 583 litres, comparing favourably to nearly all of the CX-5's main rivals. Fold the rear seats down and total capacity rises to 2,019 litres. Cavernous. It also now gets a lower boot lip, which should make getting your Lidl shop home even easier.

Looks pretty smart in there too...

On first impressions, sure. Mazda is clearly going for a premium vibe with big screens, two-tone leathers and ambient lighting, but start poking around and it’s not quite as impressive as it looks. There’s a lot of hard, scratchy plastics about the place - even in top-spec Homura models - and the soft-touch materials are thinly padded. At least it all feels durable, with any “high-contact areas” finished in black to minimise visible wear and tear.

Curiously, the CX-5 also gets a split top dash, with the instrument binnacle finished in hard plastic, and the dash on the passenger side finished in soft touch materials. The centre console has been redesigned too – though it feels like the designers just forgot about the stubby gearlever, which looks dated in here. And it could do with some foam padding on the sides to help cushion your legs/knees from bumps.

Not seeing a whole lot of buttons either...

Nope. We're getting fed up of saying it because so many manufacturers are at it, but where the old CX-5 was button galore, the new CX-5 crams almost everything into a 12.9in or 15.6in central touchscreen depending on spec. The dedicated climate control panel is no more, and it’s the same story for the rotary dial too.

The screen does at least display the climate controls in a permanent strip along the bottom, though the icons are quite small and some of the oft-used functions – such as the steering and heating controls – still require a couple of taps, and it can be be quite laggy too. You can however create up to five shortcuts to other most used functions, so there's that.

Generally the graphics are pretty good, but while Mazda's tech has been in dire need of an overhaul for yonks, we kinda resent the shift away from the tacticle set-up that made its last generation of cars so usable. Other manufacturers have found a better balance between screens and physical switchgear - the CX-5 is too reliant on the former now.

In a first for Mazda it uses the Google built-in system, so you've got the familiar Google Maps, Play Store (so you can download compatible apps), and Google Voice Assistant. This is good news – familiar, easy to operate, and works well.

Anything else I should know?

Yes, actually: the steering wheel now gets capacitive haptic buttons. If, like us, your heart sank at those words – don’t panic, these are far better than you find in some rivals.

Primarily because in addition to touch sensitive slide gestures – for example when adjusting volume – the switches also retain a familiar traditional press operation.

Weirdly, the volume and drive mode sliders are located on the inner left and right spokes and require stretching your hand to operate as a result. Feels wrong to us – pretty much everyone else positions them further out and within better reach.