Prospective CX-5 owner, first-time with a Mazda too

[Ant]

What about the exclusivity factor? There's a million Qashquais on the road - sometimes it seems every other car is a Qashquai. I've only ever seen one facelift CX-5 on the road and a handful of pre-facelift models. That and the fact that I'm a big Mazda fan since owning a 6 Sport a few years back made it an easy choice for me. The Qashquai is fine but too common and just didn't do it for me when I sat in one.

[rmvf]

Or get a mazda 3 or cx 3 and get 2 digital speedos, lol

[Hippogriff]

Guys,

All good points. The exclusivity is factor, true. There's a lot to like about the Qashqai actually, but exclusivity isn't it. If I may drag us back to the digital speedometer... I found this URL - http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2014/12/2015-mazda-cx-5-consumer-review.html - that says, I quote, "She also wasn’t a fan of the gauge cluster’s menu setup. Although it may seem like a small detail, the digital speedometer and clock both can’t be shown in the gauge cluster at the same time." from the What She Didn't Like section... now, is this the same car, or what, 'cos I couldn't give a toss about the time? If I have get a digital speedo over the time, I'll take it - but everyone's adamant it isn't there at all!

Anyway, going in to see a Q3 (which is probably going to be very like my A4) on Friday... just to maybe get it out of my system, but maybe to choose it (better the devil you know?).

[Hippogriff]

CX-3 is a lovely vehicle... and comes with the HUD too... but the stupid 90s handbrake is really off-putting.

[Caldean]

It is indeed lovely BUT there's no chance anyone would want to be in the back, especially if they are over 6ft.

[Hippogriff]

Fair comment. CX-3 caught my eye but CX-5 is where the serious intent is. Regarding this digital speedo. is it a pipe-dream or is there something that can be 'twiddled' to get it, as the article I linked to seems to describe?

Think I may head back down to the Dealer.

[Hippogriff]

I went back to the Dealer.

Re-confirmed that there's no digital speedo. available in the right-hand dial. Strangely enough you can flick through various figures including one that is reporting an average speed!!! Great. No use for that.

I created a scene and ended up lying on the floor blubbing.

This is probably the end of the road for the Mazda CX-5. The designers have even rubbed salt into the wounds because some of the other Mazda cars have 2 digital speedometers!

I educated the Dealer anyway, as he didn't know there was a £100 fix available for the door mirror folding FUBAR. He does now.

[twabrigs]

I guess a digital speedo option would be helpful, esp on roads like the A9 which runs from Perth to Inverness and has l-o-n-g stretches of average speed cameras. In that situation though I just use the sat nav view map thang which gives your an actual digital speed anyway, and I set the cruise control accordingly.

Sad to see you reject the CX5 just for this, it is really a great car.

[Hippogriff]

I'll be completely frank... it seems like penny-pinching to me.

It's like the rear air vents that reviewers have been on about. Save a smidgeon here and there to the detriment of the vehicle. I am not too concerned about that but I use the digital speedo all the time; I do not look at the dials at all. I actually think dials are a bit of an anachronism, just like the silly massive handbrakes.

That said, it's not out of the running completely... because of 2 things... 1 is that I'm going to have a look at the Q3 later today but that'll come in over £35,000 and that's not something you just forget about, 2 is that I'm going to have a look and see whether any kind of digital speedo. can be purchased and installed in cars to give accurate readouts... if it was small and unobtrusive and battery powered, then maybe I could stick it somewhere? I would be happy with that.

The road you mention, I'm not aware of - but there are roads like that around here as well, and the M1 has had sections of 50mph average speed checks for years, and will do for years I bet.

Please tell me more about the sat. nav. view map thing that gives you an actual digital speed??? Are you saying there is a screen somewhere in the car where a digital speed readout is present???

[twabrigs]

absolutely there is (albeit a small readout). If you have the nav version you just select the nav screen instead of audio or whatever and it shows you a map of where you are, with your actual GPS speed (more accurate than any analogue or digital speedo) and the speed limit for the road. As does any aftermarket satnav device I've ever seen.

[Hippogriff]

Thank you!

Can you take a snap with your phone?

I often drive with the map showing, regardless of whether I've got a destination set or not, so this could work a treat. Why has no-one mentioned this before, including the Dealer?

And why-oh-why does the right-hand dial allow you to show average speed, but not current speed? It's just crazy (in my mind). It should just be another option you cycle through. If it can show average speed, then it's obviously measuring speed and a minor firmware update to the car would remedy this.

[twabrigs]

Voila!

[Hippogriff]

Well, well, well...

I need to go back to the Dealer.

Thank you!

[BigAl]

Just be careful there, as that's the display from the earlier model. The MZD connect on the newer ones has a bigger screen with no buttons and it's Navteq rather than TomTom mapping. Upshot is that - as far as I've managed to find out in the one week I've had it - there's no true speed indication on the newer version. It does show the speed limit relevant at the time, which changes to a yellow background if you exceed the limit.

If anyone has found a way to display this on the MZD, please shout up!

Alan.

[twabrigs]

That's annoying, thought we'd made a breakthrough there...seems odd the new system doesn't do that, every standalone satnav unit I've ever used gives you the GPS speed.

Hey ho.