Could you please tell me what the handling is like in rain (you haven’t taken it in snow yet, right?). The only thing holding me back is the lack of traction/stabilizing control. I am an excellent swerver with fast reflexes. Can the 5 handle highway speed swerves in the rain or snow?
We’re trying to decide between the 5 and the Odyssey. Costs twice as much, tons of bells & whistles, but has both traction & stability control.
Be careful buying a Mazda5 if you are concerned about rain. I had my brand new Mazda 5 for 731 miles when I drove through a large puddle in Tampa during rain. The car died and now I have to buy a new engine ($6000). And no, it’s not that I am an idiot and don’t know to avoid driving through bodies of water such as ponds, lakes, etc. It really was just a large puddle on a major road (other cars ahead of us drove through it without a hitch). Furthermore, my husband spoke with 6 other people at the dealership that also flooded out too easily. They were also stupefied and irate. We all think it’s a major design flaw.
Interesting. I have not heard anything about this, nor do I see anything about it on any forums or some google searching. Obviously any internal combustion engine ingesting water is bad. I haven’t actually looked at the air intake, so I am not sure where it pulls air from, but I do know that it is very similar to the Mazda3 and they have sold a lot of those, seemingly without major issues.
Good luck with yours, sorry to hear about you troubles!
Dumb question, but how do you fit the floor mats in the back? That one that is shaped like an elongated “E” makes no sense to me, and I own the darn van! I’ve tried to put it in the 3rd row, but the sides don’t seem to fit under the passenger seats. What am I doing wrong?
the rear mat… the E one.. the middle of the E goes in between the second row seats… does that make sense? so it goes under the second row passengers feet and the long middle part on the path to the 3rd row…
there are 2 factory rear mats, they are both the same shape. one is the carpeted one and the other is the all weather one. if you have 2 small ones for the back seat they are not the factory ones. that is to say you can’t use them, they just aren’t the factory ones.
Hi, just wanted you to know that your review and comments about the Mazda 5 sealed the deal for me. I bought a 2008 in July and absolutely love it! We traded our Honda Odyssey for it and I am thrilled to be able to park without trouble. I definitely prefer it to the Odyssey even though it’s not as tricked out.
trust me, I am allowed to mod my own cars, she just doesn’t want her car modded my way. If it were my car, I would think about suspension mods done, exhaust, and perhaps intake. Maybe.
Just happened upon this site and while reading was like wow, This guy knows where i’m comming from. I am an audi guy. I sold my b5 avant for the mazda5 since I can grow with it and its not a minivan I hate minivans. You won’t catch me driving one. My friends now give me crap about buying this car. Saying why not buy the routon or the toureg or something german. Well I am now getting older and spoiled by what Audi has given me, even older audi’s like my 200 20v avant or the b5’s with auto climate controls heated seats, full power everything.
I was about to buy a BMW but the prices were all over the place on those and on the e46 325i i was not impressed with the power, seems like the transmission ate up to much torque. the mazda had more get up and go.
I just picked up my mazda5 this weekend. handles nice compared to anything else in its class and even better then some cars too. It has many options I like. Many companies don’t put stering wheel controls on the wheel or have limited control. Not the 5, volume even a mute which is really nice, cruise control and the speed control is very responsive IMO I can easily just use the +/- on the highway. I would have liked a mutifunction display like mpg and so on but hey i got auto climate controls. These are not easy to come by for some odd reason.
Audi spoiled me here. I hate always adjusting the temp. in winter you crank the heat next thing you know your roasting then you turn it down then your freezing. The mazda has rear a/c on/off great add on.
I wish I jad HID’s but hey non of my audi’s had them prior to me having the car, they do now. I am also looking for add ons like blue tooth i know where the plug is but can i just add it? same with auto head lamps maybe i’m getting to lazy here. The noise in the car is a little more then expected. I can hear everything. I am wondering if maybe an undercoating will help, i was thinking of doing this just for rust reasons.
Brian I would love more feed back on your mazda experience especially since your an audi guy like me. I’m trying to find out more about known issues, and more ownership knwoledge. Its a minivan I don’t see many people joining the forums for one of these like the owner of an URquattro. codeyell0@yahoo.com definitly would love to hear from you some time
Mike
Could you please tell me what the handling is like in rain (you haven’t taken it in snow yet, right?). The only thing holding me back is the lack of traction/stabilizing control. I am an excellent swerver with fast reflexes. Can the 5 handle highway speed swerves in the rain or snow?
We’re trying to decide between the 5 and the Odyssey. Costs twice as much, tons of bells & whistles, but has both traction & stability control.
Thanks from a fellow Chicagoan.
[…] ride in it and it got me thinking I should answer the few questions from the comments here and here and make another […]
Be careful buying a Mazda5 if you are concerned about rain. I had my brand new Mazda 5 for 731 miles when I drove through a large puddle in Tampa during rain. The car died and now I have to buy a new engine ($6000). And no, it’s not that I am an idiot and don’t know to avoid driving through bodies of water such as ponds, lakes, etc. It really was just a large puddle on a major road (other cars ahead of us drove through it without a hitch). Furthermore, my husband spoke with 6 other people at the dealership that also flooded out too easily. They were also stupefied and irate. We all think it’s a major design flaw.
Interesting. I have not heard anything about this, nor do I see anything about it on any forums or some google searching. Obviously any internal combustion engine ingesting water is bad. I haven’t actually looked at the air intake, so I am not sure where it pulls air from, but I do know that it is very similar to the Mazda3 and they have sold a lot of those, seemingly without major issues.
Good luck with yours, sorry to hear about you troubles!
Dumb question, but how do you fit the floor mats in the back? That one that is shaped like an elongated “E” makes no sense to me, and I own the darn van! I’ve tried to put it in the 3rd row, but the sides don’t seem to fit under the passenger seats. What am I doing wrong?
the rear mat… the E one.. the middle of the E goes in between the second row seats… does that make sense? so it goes under the second row passengers feet and the long middle part on the path to the 3rd row…
OK, so it’s an “either or” thing? I also have two stand alone mats for each rear passenger seat. It just seemed redundant to me.
there are 2 factory rear mats, they are both the same shape. one is the carpeted one and the other is the all weather one. if you have 2 small ones for the back seat they are not the factory ones. that is to say you can’t use them, they just aren’t the factory ones.
Hi, just wanted you to know that your review and comments about the Mazda 5 sealed the deal for me. I bought a 2008 in July and absolutely love it! We traded our Honda Odyssey for it and I am thrilled to be able to park without trouble. I definitely prefer it to the Odyssey even though it’s not as tricked out.
did he really say his wife wouldnt allow him to make modifications? i better stop
trust me, I am allowed to mod my own cars, she just doesn’t want her car modded my way. If it were my car, I would think about suspension mods done, exhaust, and perhaps intake. Maybe.
HI Bryan,
we are looking at buying this same mini minivan and was wondering if you can tell me any glitches that you have run into?
Thanks
Brian,
Just happened upon this site and while reading was like wow, This guy knows where i’m comming from. I am an audi guy. I sold my b5 avant for the mazda5 since I can grow with it and its not a minivan I hate minivans. You won’t catch me driving one. My friends now give me crap about buying this car. Saying why not buy the routon or the toureg or something german. Well I am now getting older and spoiled by what Audi has given me, even older audi’s like my 200 20v avant or the b5’s with auto climate controls heated seats, full power everything.
I was about to buy a BMW but the prices were all over the place on those and on the e46 325i i was not impressed with the power, seems like the transmission ate up to much torque. the mazda had more get up and go.
I just picked up my mazda5 this weekend. handles nice compared to anything else in its class and even better then some cars too. It has many options I like. Many companies don’t put stering wheel controls on the wheel or have limited control. Not the 5, volume even a mute which is really nice, cruise control and the speed control is very responsive IMO I can easily just use the +/- on the highway. I would have liked a mutifunction display like mpg and so on but hey i got auto climate controls. These are not easy to come by for some odd reason.
Audi spoiled me here. I hate always adjusting the temp. in winter you crank the heat next thing you know your roasting then you turn it down then your freezing. The mazda has rear a/c on/off great add on.
I wish I jad HID’s but hey non of my audi’s had them prior to me having the car, they do now. I am also looking for add ons like blue tooth i know where the plug is but can i just add it? same with auto head lamps maybe i’m getting to lazy here. The noise in the car is a little more then expected. I can hear everything. I am wondering if maybe an undercoating will help, i was thinking of doing this just for rust reasons.
Brian I would love more feed back on your mazda experience especially since your an audi guy like me. I’m trying to find out more about known issues, and more ownership knwoledge. Its a minivan I don’t see many people joining the forums for one of these like the owner of an URquattro.
codeyell0@yahoo.com definitly would love to hear from you some time
Mike
How does the Mazda5 do on long road trips, over 500 miles?
We have had no problems on longer trips. seats are comfortable and we had no problems.