Mazda CX-5 Forums

General Category => Consumer Reviews => Topic started by: DC77 on September 16, 2016, 12:05:11 pm

Title: My personal opinion......
Post by: DC77 on September 16, 2016, 12:05:11 pm
Just thought I will give my personal honest opinion of my new petrol CX5 after just driving over 600 miles around the Yorkshire moors area.
Overall I really like it, comfy seats though my neck was starting to ache after a long journey, though I reckon that was more me than the car and the various adjustments available.
In total I have covered 1700 miles in it now and the petrol is fine where I live (the fens where it is totally flat) but it is a bit anaemic and did struggle a bit on a few of those slopes in the moors and had to use the gears a lot, which is what I was expecting, a more powerful petrol and 4x4 would be nice! (I don't do diesel) according to the trip computer I am averaging 40.7 mpg which I am happy with.
I roughly knew the route there anyway, but the sat nav kept trying to send on weird routes through the middle of nowhere and there was a couple of small towns in Yorkshire that didn't even exist according to it!
Personally I don't really like electronic handbrakes....too much faffing, likewise the keyless entry...I cant even walk away from the car and leave it unlocked.....just my opinion but these are gadgets for the sake of it. Only other slight bugbear is the lack of auto locking when driving off, but apart from those issues, lovely to drive, comfortable and seems well built.
I know other people will think differently, but as I said this is just my own personal and honest opinion.
Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: Bert321 on September 16, 2016, 07:46:20 pm
the keyless entry...I cant even walk away from the car and leave it unlocked

You can switch off the 'lock when I walk away a few feet' feature using the settngs menu.
Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: DC77 on September 16, 2016, 08:21:33 pm
the keyless entry...I cant even walk away from the car and leave it unlocked

You can switch off the 'lock when I walk away a few feet' feature using the settngs menu.

Didn't realise that, thank you....teach me for not reading the manual thoroughly!
Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: Bert321 on September 16, 2016, 10:09:48 pm
You're welcome mate, 'tis what forums are all about :)
Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: shino on September 29, 2016, 04:05:46 pm
Ive had My Mazda CX-5 for some six months now bought new a Sports Nav (275PS). Overall its a fine car but just a few quirks! Here they are for what my opinion is worth in respect of this car..
1/ Why doesn't it lock automatically when reaching a certain speed.....all my other cars including an Old Nissan Pathfinder did
2/Why dont the mirrors fold away when parking.??
3/ Why do you have to set the coming home lights when it knows when its Dark.....seems strange?
4/Why does the engine rev a little higher when starting...Ive had other diesel cars and this has never been the case
...As I say overall a fine car just seems to me one or two strange (and to be honest annoying) quirks

Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: twabrigs on September 30, 2016, 09:48:28 am
Welcome shino.

I assume yours is 175PS or you're going to be surprising all kinds of supercars at the traffic lights..!

A couple of answers to your questions:

2/ there's an accessory kit you can buy for something like £60-80 to make this happen, several of us on this forum have had this fitted

4/ it'll tell you in the manual somewhere but it does this sometimes to warm up from cold. It is a bit annoying and passers by give you funny looks like you're going to burn your clutch out but you do get used to it. You can either sit there and after 20 seconds the revs drop to normal, or just drive away.
Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: shino on September 30, 2016, 01:20:14 pm
thanks will look at the suggestion when the car is serviced...... and yes its the 175PS. Like I say a fine car just the one or two little quirks I cant understand but hey! they are no big deal!
Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: BigAl on September 30, 2016, 01:22:30 pm
For point 1/

This feature is not available on UK models, despite in being in the UK model handbook! Europe models have it, I believe.

Alan
Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: FireDiamondUK on January 18, 2017, 03:00:07 pm
For point 1/

This feature is not available on UK models, despite in being in the UK model handbook! Europe models have it, I believe.

Alan

Thats disappointing... I have been skimming through the handbook in preparation for picking up my CX-5 in the next week and had read in there it could be activated in the "personalisation menu" which was definitely something i would activate if possible...
Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: Willpower on January 18, 2017, 03:08:38 pm
Looking at the potential "Post crash/collision"  situation, I'd definitely be a bit disturbed if I found the doors were locked.   Bit of a Marmite option I think.
Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: Deeps on January 18, 2017, 03:25:47 pm
All models of cars that I am aware of, Will, utilising this feature are set to automatically unlock all doors upon a vehicle crash situation.
Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: Willpower on January 18, 2017, 04:24:17 pm
All models of cars that I am aware of, Will, utilising this feature are set to automatically unlock all doors upon a vehicle crash situation.

Sorry Deeps, I understand where you are coming from, but I hold my reservations.  You are relying upon a Electro/Mechanical action, which could be interrupted by any number of circumstances incurred during the incident. I would just not trust that the automatic unlock would work.  Not being able to exit a car after an accident where there is the possibility of submergence or ignition at any moment, is enough to make this a No Go area for me.  If it were an option on my car, I would not be activating it.

As the thread title says... My personal opinion :)
Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: Deeps on January 18, 2017, 04:53:49 pm
And of course I respect your personal opinion, Will.  ;D Have you considered the possibility that your seat belt might not activate correctly or, if it does, that the release buckle will not jam in a crash? How about the air bags not inflating? I'm in the camp that believes the glass is half full although I have heard that there are those who believe it's always half empty.  ;D All said in light-hearted frivolity of course.
Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: Willpower on January 18, 2017, 05:22:50 pm
:)   Of course.  I have a tool in my centre console which is a combined webbing cutter and glass hammer. Just in case.  :)

Something that still concerns me though and that is in the event that the doors are still locked, how do you get to the child who is secured in a childseat in the rear of the car ??   Glass half empty maybe. But are you willing to take the chance for the life of your child ??

And lastly, I maybe somewhat old fashioned, but please somebody tell me, what is the reasoning behind locking the doors whilst you are travelling ?  I just don't get it. Why ?

Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: Deeps on January 19, 2017, 12:11:48 pm
OK, Will, taking your point regarding the reasoning behind locking the doors whilst travelling first. For many, and I include my wife in this, this facility offers/adds to the feeling of overall security. Several years ago whilst returning home late at night, there was an attempt by several hooded youths to enter my wife's car whilst she was stationary at some traffic lights. Fortunately, with the doors set to automatically lock (VW Touran) upon reaching a set speed, the attempted break-in was unsuccessful and she was able to quickly accelerate away albeit quite shocked of course. This type of incident is not isolated by the way and whilst it's not repeated at each and every traffic light etc it does occur on a daily basis.

Regarding the hammer and webbing cutter - I must admit to raising an eyebrow here. In an earlier life I was a serving Fire Officer for over 23 years with a good percentage of that time spent on operational duties. One station that I served at covered a lengthy section of the M25 and M23 in addition to some very fast and heavily used 'A' roads. In short, I couldn't begin to tell you how many RTA's that I have attended - some slight of course whilst others I wouldn't care to describe on an open forum. Being able to reach a child secured in a back seat assumes of course that (a) you and/or your front seat passenger are uninjured and in a fit state to execute a rescue, (b) that the impact of the accident has not jammed either of the front doors - a frequent scenario and with the additional safety features in today's cars e.g. seat belt tensioners located in the 'B' posts and floor sills - the 'creation of space' as it is termed in the service is an art in itself.

Of course, like many things in life, we are free to make a choice and so I am not attempting to convince you or even convert you to the idea of travelling with locked doors. The choice is yours to make, Will, and whilst I am convinced that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages you might think differently.
Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: Willpower on January 19, 2017, 03:14:44 pm
Thank you Deeps for your in depth and lucid reply. I appreciate and respect all of the points that you have made especially the incident with your wife.

I suppose the truth of it is, that I still live in a time where this type of incident just didn't happen. That's not to say that the doors could not be locked manually as a conscious effort if you ever felt unsafe for the reasons you describe.  However having that free choice taken away from you by automation seems to do more than is necessary, possibly due to a certain amount of over-enthusiasm on the part of the manufacturers to sell the safety aspect of their cars. Although I suspect that there is little to no evidence available to prove the efficacy of this.

Moving on to the other point. I applaud your service carrying out an extremely harrowing job. I spent a good many years doing air crash investigation in the field and am still haunted by some of the "discoveries" made carrying out this task.
But I think you might have scored an own goal with your point b). Following on from my previous comments, let us assume that the front doors were unaffected by the collision (such as a rear end shunt or side swipe) but were still locked "automatically".  I take your point about the front seat passengers being in a fit state to effect a rear seat rescue.  But if you are fit and able, but can't open the doors, how would you feel ? ? ?  Especially if that child were injured.

And the raised eyebrows ?  Well my trusty implement ; tried and tested ; will smash the window and release a trapped passenger from a locked seatbelt.

I am heartened by the intelligent exchange we are having regarding this and wish that others would join in the conversation in order to broaden opinions. And whilst I accept that this is a free choice situation, whether the checks and balances weigh up or not, I personally will not be locking my doors whilst travelling.   
Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: Deeps on January 19, 2017, 04:07:44 pm
But if you are fit and able, but can't open the doors, how would you feel ? ? ?  Especially if that child were injured.

   

Oh I understand all too clearly the point(s) that you are putting across, Will, but not having an actuary in the family I have to access risks or, to put it another way, the chances of certain events  happening, all for myself.
I have yet to hear/read of a case where the automatic door unlock function failed to operate following an accident. That's not to say there aren't instances of this happening of course but rather that I haven't heard of any cases whereas perhaps you have. Events of unrequested entry into the vehicle, an example of which I made earlier, are a common occurrence and so in my book the odds are tilted more in this direction.
Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: Willpower on January 19, 2017, 05:23:58 pm
Just as a matter of interest. Is there any way of manually unlocking the doors of the CX-5 (or in fact any other car that you know of) should there be any electrical failure after an accident which prevents the doors from unlocking automatically.

I have been doing a bit of research and have come across several examples where there was loss of life due to the inability to open the locked doors. Surely if the manufacturers are making this a common facility, then they should be supplying some form of manual override in the event of lost electrical power. 

Any thoughts ?
Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: BigAl on January 19, 2017, 07:12:07 pm
Some interesting points there. I do know that, on some cars, pulling the door handle as you would normally will unlock and open a door. The CX5 doesn't do that. Whether that mentod is electrical or mechanical, I don't know. Also some cars with sun roofs have a manual crank which allows it to be open or closed in the event of power failure, but it's hidden and needs tools, usually.

Alan
Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: Willpower on January 19, 2017, 08:18:31 pm
Thank you Alan.  During my research I found that there are certain cars (mainly American) where the doors are able to be opened after being automatically locked, but it is not a simple sequence, as in operating the handle just once as you would do in normal circumstances.
In the reports I have read, it sometimes requires operating the handbrake and then the door handle TWICE. All this whilst you are possibly in a state of shock and panic following a collision, or as in one case I read of, where the car drove into a lake and was filling with water. The occupants of that incident drowned because they couldn't get out. 

Whilst I can understand that some people would, for whatever reason feel safer with the doors locked, I still feel that as a competent human being, I can make that conscious decision and not have a corporate designer make it for me.
Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: Deeps on January 20, 2017, 10:44:49 am
Just as a matter of interest. Is there any way of manually unlocking the doors of the CX-5 (or in fact any other car that you know of) should there be any electrical failure after an accident which prevents the doors from unlocking automatically.



Um, my CX-5 model doesn't come with the automatic door locking feature sadly and one has to do this manually.
My previous VW Touran, in common with all VW models that I am aware of,  has this feature which is accessible via the OBC  allowing for both locking and unlocking of the doors to be programmed separately. Once set to lock automatically, all doors will lock when a speed of 5mph is attained and will remained locked until the ignition is turned off and the key removed. However, these are not deadlocks which means that the automatic feature can be overridden by a double pull on the door release handle.
It would appear that the automatic door lock mechanism is programmed into the airbag module at some stage because the doors automatically unlock upon any airbag being activated.
Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: Willpower on January 20, 2017, 12:28:28 pm
.......... which means that the automatic feature can be overridden by a double pull on the door release handle.
It would appear that the automatic door lock mechanism is programmed into the airbag module at some stage because the doors automatically unlock upon any airbag being activated.

This falls in with my research which indicates that if there is a manual override then it is reliant upon multiple operations of the door handle and then possibly the input from another vehicle system i.e handbrake and /or airbag.  Quite how that works if the airbag has not been activated, I'm not sure. In the case I mentioned above relating to the submergence, there was no indication that the airbags operated. This would also be true if the car were engulfed following an engine fire. 
Sorry to be dramatic but as you say you have to do a risk assessment each time you drive. What actions you take to mitigate those risks, are personal and individual.

I'm still to be convinced that being automatically locked into a steel structure travelling at speed, without documented evidence of the benefits to this, is a good idea. 
Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: ColinX-5 on January 20, 2017, 12:54:00 pm
[quote author=Willpower

I'm still to be convinced that being automatically locked into a steel structure travelling at speed, without documented evidence of the benefits to this, is a good idea. 
[/quote]
Yes I agree, to manually lock all doors with the pres of one button while stoped  could be very good, but for doors to be locked while moving ! WHY ?
Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: Deeps on January 20, 2017, 01:09:07 pm
However, these are not deadlocks which means that the automatic feature can be overridden by a double pull on the door release handle.
It would appear that the automatic door lock mechanism is programmed into the airbag module at some stage because the doors automatically unlock upon any airbag being activated.

To be precise I should have added that additionally the VW range of vehicles also have a manual door switch (rocker type marked with a lock clasp to indicate locked/unlocked) which functions pretty much the same as the manual door switch on the CX-5 - or at least on mine anyway.

When the doors are set to lock automatically via the OBC this activates the switch and in reality it is this switch that fails to the unlock mode when (a) any airbag is activated (b) the ignition is switched off and key removed (c) door handle pulled twice and (d) rocker switch set to the unlock position (unlocked clasp).

In the real world I would perhaps suggest that along with pulling the door release grip to exit a vehicle under normal conditions unless one drives with the doors open of course lol, it would be a normal reaction to pull on it repeatedly in an emergency or if the door was simply stiff etc. I know from personal experience that in summer when the rubber door seals are softer the doors tend to stick slightly and a couple of pushes is sometimes required. Just for clarity - we live in a modernised but old building with entrance doors that were constructed in the days before straightedges and spirit levels etc. In summer one pull on the door is enough to open it, in winter when the door swells somewhat it tends to be more of a tight fit and sometimes a couple of good pulls are required to open the door. This is an action that is done subconsciously and it would be my submission that in an emergency and perhaps panicking a little bit, one wouldn't simply give up should the door fail to open on the first shove and it would be a natural sequence of events to pull on the release handle several times. Therefore the requirement to pull the door release handle twice as is the case with VW's would be more or less a normal reaction anyway in an emergency.
Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: Deeps on January 20, 2017, 01:14:00 pm

Yes I agree, to manually lock all doors with the pres of one button while stoped  could be very good, but for doors to be locked while moving ! WHY ?

I'd tend to agree with the first part of that statement, Colin, and have you considered submitting the idea to say one of your best selling motoring magazines for a future article/discussion?
Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: Willpower on January 20, 2017, 02:17:43 pm
Yes I agree, to manually lock all doors with the pres of one button while stoped  could be very good, but for doors to be locked while moving ! WHY ?

I also have a Mazda3 which has the option to centrally lock all doors from a press on the fob button at any time, even whilst on the move if needs be.   However and very importantly there is an accessible lock button  (which is a mechanical link, not electrical,  directly to the door lock)   next to the handle on the door which releases that door if required.



(http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j124/willpower128/Mazda/Graham%20011_2_zpskt3wx4ma.jpg)
Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: ColinX-5 on January 20, 2017, 02:45:38 pm
On the 2015 CX5 sport that is the button i can use to close/open all doors.  8)
Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: Deeps on January 20, 2017, 03:33:51 pm
Are you 100% sure that the mechanical lock button that you have highlighted, Will, isn't in fact electrically operated by a relay? The only sure-fire way of establishing this is to lock all the doors with the fob as earlier described which, if it's the same as the VW, operates that mechanical door lock, switch off the engine and then see can you open the door(s) both from the inside and the outside.

If operation of the fob isn't in fact acting on the mechanical lock button, but is independent of it, then I'd be very interested to hear how exactly the system works because my first thought would lead me to believe that there must be two totally independent locking systems available both of which should of course be visible by inspection of the relevant door face.
Title: Re: My personal opinion......
Post by: Willpower on January 20, 2017, 03:59:54 pm
Deeps,   You are correct, there are two independent systems.  The operation of that button will lock or unlock the door either by operation of an electrical circuit i.e the fob. Or mechanically by a drop link situated in the door void. It is effective even without electrical power.

Unlike Colin's, from what he says,   the button on the my 3 will only manually operate that particular individual door, not all four. There are similar buttons on all the other doors.

But then my Mazda3 does not have automatic lock in.  Thank goodness.