Share your thoughts on Mazda5

Dillipop

Well-known member
We got a Mazda5 as our secondary vehicle in December. It replaced an 05 Hyundai Elantra which we scraped knuckles to get seats into. We have 3 kids- 10, 6, and 2. I love it! We currently have my 10 year old in a Clek Olli backless booster and 6 year old harnessed in a frontier 85 in the second row. My 2.5 year old is rearfacing in a classic Britax in the third row. I keep the second seat in the third row down and dd just climbs in through the hatch and I buckle her. I sometimes have my BJCM bungied to the cargo anchors on the laid down seat but I mainly keep a volo along the back of the third row. I keep that bungied as well. I usually only have dd with me most days so I can use the second row for cargo if needed.

We also have an 8 passenger Sienna as our primary family vehicle. We use that for big trips and when we need more space. I think the 5 is for sure an awesome secondary car. Not sure how I'd feel if I had to have the kids in it all the time but with a carrier on top, I could see it as totally doable.
 
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AZmamaof2

New member
Thanks Dillipop!

We're getting to the point where it's a bit crazy to get the family of 4 into my civic for weekend trips, like you say with the Elantra. I'd like to get a minivan sometime in the future, but it may be 5 or more years from now until we can consider one.

Another consideration I have about the mazda5 and the 3rd row....do all models have rear A/C control and fan in the back row, or just newer models?

We live in AZ, and it's getting to point where temps have broken 100 degrees. It's a killer going anywhere in car seats, and my kiddos tell me when it's too hot and they get sweaty. I start the car and A/C before loading them in, but my RF daughter gets far more sweaty, and I would not want my child to overheat while RF in the 3rd row. So I'm more hesitant to put a RF in the 3rd row unless there is a really good air system back there.

PS what are BJCM and volo?
 

blueindigo

New member
Thanks Dillipop!


PS what are BJCM and volo?

BJCM is Baby Jogger City Mini stroller and Volo I believe is the Maclaren Volo stroller.

ETA: I own a 2009 Mazda and there is an AC vent for the back. There is only one area with two vents where the AC comes out pointed at the second row and nothing in the third row. I don't know what the newer models are like.
 
What year Sienna did you decide on? And what swayed you to the Sienna over the Odyssey?

We ended up with a '07 Sienna. We were shopping in the $10k or less range which meant higher mileage vans or a Mazda5. The Odyssey problems with transmissions, torque converters, and expensive motor mounts were enough to tip the scale for me. The Sienna isn't perfect, but I like the odds better for a high mileage Sienna over the Odyssey.
 

Dillipop

Well-known member
I have a 2012 and the rear ac comes from between the 2 front seats at the back of the console. I don't think there are vents for the third row. The original 5- pre 2009ish- only had the front vents.
 

Mags462

New member
Do Sienna/Odyssey have A/C vents for their 3rd rows?

Don't know about Oddy's - but my 2005 Sienna XLE has independently operated (or you can synch it) vents for the rear..... there are 4 total on the ceiling and i find them invaluable in this OK heat..... the kids can adjust them to point directly on them :)

And FWIW i would LOVE a 5 just to save gas money but with 3 kids i just couldn't do it. We are regularly hauling massive amounts of baseball gear plus an extra kiddo and there was no way i could make the 5 work for us. DH has to have a truck for work, so buying the 5 would have been very pocketbook friendly, but we went with the Sienna.
 

bkcwzy

CPS Technician
I researched for 3 months for a vehicle with just a little more passenger room than our '06 Accord, but comparable gas mileage to our '04 CR-V. It also had to have good ratings in safety & reliability. Mazda 5 is what I narrowed it down to.

We *just* bought a used 2012 so I've been playing with seat arrangements. I have 2 FF Radians and a bubblebum. Storage isn't an issue since we kept the CR-V for big trips. My boostered child gets car sick so she has to be in the 2nd row for air flow & view.

Debating on putting both RXTs in the rear and folding the 2nd row seat. Or putting one behind the other and just sliding the seat all the way up to let the 3rd passenger in & out. Or RXT behind booster and just taking the seat belt out of the belt clip every time to allow the passenger to use the release handle on the rear of the 2nd row seat for it to slide out of the way for access.

I haven't had an issue with a good FF install with the radian in the 3rd row - maybe it's an issue with a specific year? Though the rear headrests must be fully up for a car seat install. You do lose a lot of visibility in your back window, but that's what mirrors are for. =]
 

AZmamaof2

New member
I researched for 3 months for a vehicle with just a little more passenger room than our '06 Accord, but comparable gas mileage to our '04 CR-V. It also had to have good ratings in safety & reliability. Mazda 5 is what I narrowed it down to.

Do you still have any links to your research? For the safety stats? I read some were saying they weren't testing the mazda5 in the same tests so it was harder to compare.

It's funny, what I feel that I'm generally hearing is that the mazda5 makes a great second car....I guess if we can get a mazda5 for now, and then a minivan in 5-8 yrs it will be a good second car then :D

Right now we're limited to a corolla and civic. So I'm a master at car hauling tetris...I have a double sit n stand that just BARELY fits across my civic's trunk.

I wonder if one of the 2nd row seats was folded down, would a large size stroller fit in it's place?
 

threeundertwo

New member
What helped you decide on the Odyssey over other minivans? And what year did you get?

We got a 2011 Odyssey EX. I chose that particular van because I wanted to be able to do 3 across FF or RF in the 2nd row (it has 3 sets of LATCH in the 2nd row and 2 sets in the 3rd with an additional top-tether) and have the back free for cargo space for long trips. I read a lot of reviews and it seems to be the highest rated of the late model vans. We'd originally looked at 07-10 8-passenger Siennas but were steered towards the Odyssey by our mechanic. The pre-2011 Odysseys are 8 passenger but there's no top tether for the middle seat in the 2nd row. We were looking at those but found a great deal on a used 2011. Our family only has one vehicle. I think if we had more than one we might have kept the Mazda5 for a while, but we would have eventually traded up for a true minivan. I thought the amount of stuff we took on the road with us for long trips would lessen as the kids got out of pack n plays, but it actually seems like more because now we do more fun stuff. If you're thinking of having more kids, I would definitely go for a larger van.

When we had three kids in the 5, we put two RF in Radians with AAs in the 3rd row and one RF in a MA70 in the 2nd row. That way we had the empty seat for an adult. I felt funny about the potential for cargo to move around when we had it in the 2nd row or if we had half the 3rd row down and 2 in the 2nd row, but not enough to try to figure out what to do about it.

Every car has its issues but a couple of things I wish I had known about the Mazda5 (at least the 2010 model) is that one, it's known to eat tires. Not sure if the newer models do this but ours did and we had a to buy an after-market camber kit to fix the problem and the tires on the 5 are low profile so they're more expensive than standard tires. It's also not rated to tow anything so if you put a trailer hitch on it, you void your warranty. We had looked at putting a hitch on ours in addition to the cargo box and the dealer told us not to. Other than those two issues we had no problems with ours and if we had only two kids we'd still be driving it now.
 

AZmamaof2

New member
I was just reading today on Kelley Blue Book reviews that the pre 2012 models go through tires like crazy and have alignment problems. Does that happen on a regular schedule, like 5k miles or do they just go flat and shred all over. That would constitute a safety flaw in my opinion if they just shred with little warning.

Is there any difference in owners of 2012 vs 2010 or earlier models?
 

amyd

New member
I was just reading today on Kelley Blue Book reviews that the pre 2012 models go through tires like crazy and have alignment problems. Does that happen on a regular schedule, like 5k miles or do they just go flat and shred all over. That would constitute a safety flaw in my opinion if they just shred with little warning.

Is there any difference in owners of 2012 vs 2010 or earlier models?

I'm still on my original all seasons and I'm at approx 38k km (sorry no clue what that is in miles). Granted, I have snow tires on at least 6 months of the year. I've owned mine since Nov 2010.
 

threeundertwo

New member
I was just reading today on Kelley Blue Book reviews that the pre 2012 models go through tires like crazy and have alignment problems. Does that happen on a regular schedule, like 5k miles or do they just go flat and shred all over. That would constitute a safety flaw in my opinion if they just shred with little warning.

Is there any difference in owners of 2012 vs 2010 or earlier models?

Our 2010 Mazda 5 developed rear camber issues at under 25,000 miles, which caused the tires to cup and wear unevenly. Two mechanics told us they could not align the tires without installing a rear camber kit and it was clear we needed new tires (again at under 25,000 miles!). Once we had the camber kit and new tires the car rode great. From what I understand it's not really a safety issue. Tires just to tend to wear out more quickly and I guess this could eventually cause them to puncture. The camber kit was $200 online and we paid a local mechanic to install it and align our new tires.
 

AZmamaof2

New member
Good to know! I will have to keep that in my cost analysis and bargaining piece. I wonder if a used car around 40k-50k would already have that remedied.

So, all terrain tires sound better than the sporty performance ones that come on some models. And purchasing a camber kit if not already installed.

Do any models have the A/C vents beyond the second row? Or is that purely overlooked and only present on full minivans? Obviously, my civic only has the four front a/c vents, but it is a lot smaller space to chill.

Which ones have the keyless entry with engine starter?
 

threeundertwo

New member
Good to know! I will have to keep that in my cost analysis and bargaining piece. I wonder if a used car around 40k-50k would already have that remedied.

So, all terrain tires sound better than the sporty performance ones that come on some models. And purchasing a camber kit if not already installed.

Do any models have the A/C vents beyond the second row? Or is that purely overlooked and only present on full minivans? Obviously, my civic only has the four front a/c vents, but it is a lot smaller space to chill.

Which ones have the keyless entry with engine starter?

I'm pretty sure all Mazda5s do NOT have any vents in the 3rd row.

I also wouldn't be certain that the camber problem had been solved on a used 5 after it had reached certain mileage but it would be easy to check since the camber kit is easily visible to a mechanic and then can also check the alignment to see if the camber is off.

The only tires that fit on a Mazda5 are low profile tires so it's not really a matter of getting all terrain vs sporty tires. Low profile tires are just more expensive in general (but probably about the same as tires for a full size minivan). We just had standard 3 season tires on ours since we don't need snow tires where we live.

Not sure if an engine starter is available on any of the 5 models. Ours was the lowest trim level so I can't help you there sorry.
 

amyd

New member
I have the highest trim level that was available on a 2010 and don't have an engine starter. Mine's a manual transmission though so maybe it was available on the automatics. And yes, the PP is correct...no air vents for the third row.
 

jasminegrl

New member
i have a 2012 a remote start was an option but for where we live its not really necessary but we could always have it added on later. There are only 2 AC vents in the middle row, and in winter they DO NOT produce heat, its ac only. No vents in the 3rd row, i have trouble keeping my 2 RFers cool with the way the vents are set up, I end up freezing in the front in order to keep them from sweating.
 

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