The 2026 Mazda CX-5, driven: It got bigger; plus, radical tech upgrade

Starting at $29,990, there's a lot to like about the all-new Mazda, but it's not perfect.

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[sbradford26]

Probably unpopular here, but good riddance to the rotary knob. We have a 2025 CX-90 PHEV and if it didn't have the touch screen and wireless AA/Carplay we wouldn't have bought it. The built in infotainment is hot garbage, it is laggy, convoluted, and whoever came up with the rotary keyboard to enter an address into the nav was nuts.

But the capacitive buttons on the steering wheel is a step in the wrong direction.

 

[PermanentDonut]

The multifunction controls are now touch-sensitive rather than discrete buttons, but there’s some haptic feedback when you use them.

Just ew

 

[poink]

Judging by the photo of the rear hatch space, could it be possible that there's finally a new "affordable" car that will match the cargo space of the venerable Matrix/Vibe?

 

[theOGpetergregory]

The "bring your own tethering device" is interesting, and I'm glad it's an option for people who don't want to have a subscription to their car. What does "access to most other connected services" leave off the list though?

 

[Snark218]

Probably unpopular here, but good riddance to the rotary knob. We have a 2025 CX-90 PHEV and if it didn't have the touch screen and wireless AA/Carplay we wouldn't have bought it. The built in infotainment is hot garbage, it is laggy, convoluted, and whoever came up with the rotary keyboard to enter an address into the nav was nuts.

But the capacitive buttons on the steering wheel is a step in the wrong direction.

Having test driven a couple of Mazdas with the rotary knob, good riddance indeed. That was bad UI even if touchscreens aren't great either.

 

[Snark218]

Judging by the photo of the rear hatch space, could it be possible that there's finally a new "affordable" car that will match the cargo space of the venerable Matrix/Vibe?

Having owned a Vibe and a couple of modern crossovers, the Toyotiac twins weren't really a standout for cargo space, they were just cheaper and reliable. My Forester and Rav4 both had much more total cargo space. I do miss the hard plastic surface, though.

 

[fargofallout]

The article says:

The multifunction controls are now touch-sensitive rather than discrete buttons, but there’s some haptic feedback when you use them.

Isn't that the same thing Volkswagen got a bunch of grief for and eventually had to change?

 

[Snark218]

I always have a soft spot for Mazda, but uncompetitive fuel economy is simply not acceptable in a segment where 26mpg combined, 30-35 highway is table stakes for the ICE-only options, and where hybrids are available or standard. It's a nice car with a great interior and upmarket vibes, but for not much more, your modal family crossover buyer is cross-shopping this with a similarly loaded Rav4 that gets 40mpg, and that is a hard proposition to say no to. Most won't, even if Soul Red is the best color on any car that doesn't cost $100k. Mazda has to get a hybrid option under this hood at least.

 

[lanthos]

When they told you
"Mazda told us that the infotainment system will get upgrades over the lifetime of the vehicle,"

Any idea how long "lifetime of the vehicle" is? Is that 6 months? 3 years?

 

[KingKrayola]

How many cars coming through don't have Android Automotive onboard? Seems like Google are getting their data collecting claws into anything that needs an embedded OS?

How long before it becomes an anti-competition issue if QNX etc get squeezed out by having to charge for their infotainment OSes?

I get that Android might be convenient, and better done than many OEM front ends, but unless there is a jailbreaking/reflashing option for infotainment systems, I'm not sure I like where this is headed.

(FWIW I'm driving a BMW i4, with iDrive 8.5 which I believe is QNX?)

 

[miken32]

Probably unpopular here, but good riddance to the rotary knob. We have a 2025 CX-90 PHEV and if it didn't have the touch screen and wireless AA/Carplay we wouldn't have bought it. The built in infotainment is hot garbage, it is laggy, convoluted, and whoever came up with the rotary keyboard to enter an address into the nav was nuts.

I've never used the built-in system aside from occasionally listening to the radio so I can't say anything about it, but with CarPlay I'd hate not having the knob. What's the alternative? Reaching over to use a touchscreen?

It's not mentioned in the article but I assume the new models still have CarPlay, so you're not forced into the Android system.

 

[barich]

After Mazda's insistence for a decade-plus that touchscreens were unsafe and their rotary control setup was superior, I'm incredibly disappointed to see them do as much of an about-face as is possible. I can understand why people didn't like the previous infotainment system, Android Auto and CarPlay in particular are terrible without touch input, but choosing to completely eliminate physical climate controls and use capacitive "buttons" on the steering wheel is just baffling. You can have a touchscreen-based infotainment system without taking it too far.

 

[fluctuationEM]

Probably unpopular here, but good riddance to the rotary knob. We have a 2025 CX-90 PHEV and if it didn't have the touch screen and wireless AA/Carplay we wouldn't have bought it. The built in infotainment is hot garbage, it is laggy, convoluted, and whoever came up with the rotary keyboard to enter an address into the nav was nuts.

But the capacitive buttons on the steering wheel is a step in the wrong direction.

My only experience with it was when we rented a CX-5 during my NYC-Philly-DC road trip last year. It was absolutely a hot steam pile. Physical buttons are necessary on a lot of things, but so is a main touch screen with well-designed UI.

 

[Selethorme]

Looking at that interior, it looks like they've reduced (but not eliminated) the piano black gloss trim, which is a step in the right direction as it looks premium for about 500 miles and then forever looks like trash. Is the shifter info panel/driver side window switch section piano black or just a different color?

 

[Fatesrider]

Officially, the EPA rates the CX-5 at 24 mpg (9.8 L/100km) city, 30 mpg (7.8 L/100km) highway, for a combined 26 mpg (9 L/100km).

I remember looking at Mazda's back in the late 1970's. Then I bought a Honda.

50 years later, I HAVE a 23 year old Honda that gets better mileage than this does. Seems like a lot of money to spend on a working sound system with worse mileage.

So, yeah, just looking again...

 

[TheJBW]

I'm in the market for a new car for the first time since 2004, and the Mazdas are relatively high on my list... but... god, I hate the idea of a giant 13 (or 16) inch computer monitor right in my face. The older CX50 looks slightly less atrocious in that regard, but what options are there for cars that aren't infotainment centers that try to steal your focus off the road continuously?

 

[Person_Man]

I always have a soft spot for Mazda, but uncompetitive fuel economy is simply not acceptable in a segment where 26mpg combined, 30-35 highway is table stakes for the ICE-only options, and where hybrids are available or standard. It's a nice car with a great interior and upmarket vibes, but for not much more, your modal family crossover buyer is cross-shopping this with a similarly loaded Rav4 that gets 40mpg, and that is a hard proposition to say no to. Most won't, even if Soul Red is the best color on any car that doesn't cost $100k. Mazda has to get a hybrid option under this hood at least.

Back in 2013 when I was looking at vehicles, the cx-5 was rated for 27 32 IIRC. So it's dropped down since then. We ended up getting a Rav 4 which was 27 31. I actually exceed that in the summer and am usually in the middle in the winter. Getting close to 300K miles on it too.
Maybe in the US people don't care about MPG, but I do.

 

[Tech-Space-Cars]

Why did it need to get bigger? You want bigger? Go to the CX-50, 70 or 90. No reason to ruin another product with size creep.

 

[Tech-Space-Cars]

When they told you
"Mazda told us that the infotainment system will get upgrades over the lifetime of the vehicle,"

Any idea how long "lifetime of the vehicle" is? Is that 6 months? 3 years?

These days, Big Mega Corporation says about 2 weeks. It at least feels like it, doesn't it?

 

[Snark218]

Back in 2013 when I was looking at vehicles, the cx-5 was rated for 27 32 IIRC. So it's dropped down since then. We ended up getting a Rav 4 which was 27 31. I actually exceed that in the summer and am usually in the middle in the winter. Getting close to 300K miles on it too.
Maybe in the US people don't care about MPG, but I do.

Unless we're the delusionals who buy fullsize pickups for cosplay purposes, most of us care about MPG.

Why did it need to get bigger? You want bigger? Go to the CX-50, 70 or 90. No reason to ruin another product with size creep.

The -50 isn't much bigger and whether you like it or not, cargo volume is a major selling point for these things. When I was buying our Rav4, I literally brought my camping loadout with me to test whether it fit. If Mazda can't match the utility of the big players, they're dead in the water.

And the -70/90 is much bigger, much more expensive, considerably less efficient in I6 form, and I've heard very mixed reports about the behavior of the PHEV system.

 

[Tom Terrific]

Looks like Mazda ditched the turbo option on the 2026 CX-5. The non turbo was always underpowered and the turbo fairly peppy. Also, the base model doesn’t give you wireless CarPlay/Android Auto.

 

[A_Very_Tired_Geek]

When they told you
"Mazda told us that the infotainment system will get upgrades over the lifetime of the vehicle,"

Any idea how long "lifetime of the vehicle" is? Is that 6 months? 3 years?

A legitimate question since the corporation's idea of a vehicle's lifetime is usually not in line with people that keep their vehicles long after the loan is paid off. Presumably only for as long as the average lease, I'd imagine. About 2 years.

Another good question that the automotive and sometimes the tech press have been ignoring or softballing, how much is Mazda and their partners collecting from vehicle owners via remote telemetry and what do they do with it - in detail, not just vague corpo- legalese that tosses a bunch of word salad that ultimately means "we get to do anything we want with your driving history".

Like with Microsoft when the EU finally forced them to cough up just who they're "sharing" data with, people might find that vehicle OEMs are just as leaky with their data as the 1700+ entities Microsoft is in bed with, beyond the insurance companies that are already siphoning all this information up often in direct relationship with the OEMs.

 

[itchx]

I love the knob controls in my CX-30. Very easy to use, and the controls are right there with your arm on the arm rest. I'm sad to see it go.

 

[TheGnome]

Sigh.

I've been a Mazda fan since I bought the first generation of the Mazda 3 hatchback, and have had two CX-5s over the ensuing decades. But this will be the end of my relationship with the brand; I don't want Google in my life and if I can't get your car without it, I'll buy a different car. We've had a few Volvo's over the years as well, but now they've got Google integrated, so my family is out. The milage and the iPad glued to the dash don't help either.

Very disappointing.

{edit: typo}

 

[HoneyMustard]

Probably unpopular here, but good riddance to the rotary knob. We have a 2025 CX-90 PHEV and if it didn't have the touch screen and wireless AA/Carplay we wouldn't have bought it. The built in infotainment is hot garbage, it is laggy, convoluted, and whoever came up with the rotary keyboard to enter an address into the nav was nuts.

But the capacitive buttons on the steering wheel is a step in the wrong direction.

As a former CX-5 owner who thought I liked the knob at the time I actually agree with you. I drove Mazda's my whole life up until a couple years ago and three of those Mazda's had the knob. It's true that once one gets used to it, it's really fine. However, using something like CarPlay with the knob is not ideal. It takes a lot of clicks to get where you want and some functions are not intuitive. I've rented a few Mazda's in the past couple years and found myself disliking the knob.

What changed my mind? I bought a Model Y. It's the antithesis of the (now old) Mazda way. Just a touch screen in the center. It was one of the parts of the car that had me questioning the purchase because I was firmly in the camp of physical buttons/controls. Almost 3 years later though I can say that when the screen is DONE RIGHT it is actually a great experience.

When I say done right, I mean the UI is designed with the driver in mind. Frequently used functions aren't buried in layers of menus. Everything is super snappy and responsive. I have never experienced even a hint of lag or even a momentary glitch that I can recall. Hate on Tesla all you want but there's no denying that they are by far the best in the software/UI category and no legacy auto maker is in the same ballpark.

So it's interesting to see Mazda go in the same direction. If they can nail the UI and things don't lag and glitch out then I have no problem with the move. That's a statement I would not have typed a few years ago. If there was an EV version of this car I would likely consider it becaause there's no way I'm ever going back to an ICE vehicle.

 

[NorthGuy]

But the capacitive buttons on the steering wheel is a step in the wrong direction.

I brushed my palm against the SET ACC on the highway yesterday and the car lurched. Boy oh boy do I love the future. It's sooooo coool.

 

[Oregano]

The CX-50 seriously lacks headroom compared with the CX-5, or I might have considered it when I bought my CX-5. I’m hoping they bring back the physical buttons for HVAC before I need another car.

The rotary dial is great for some things but not great for CarPlay. I wonder if they’ll bring back the turbo option in future?

 

[sork]

RIP CX-5 turbo option, you were a beast of an option and the only reason I bought my 2019 CX-5. I know it’ll be available still in the CX-50 but the CX-5 is still all Japanese built I think and it had really nice fit and finish.

 

[flunk]

I don't like the downgrades in the user interface. Hard buttons to touch sensitive, no dedicated HVAC controls, oversized distracting LCD. Mazda seems really behind the curve when the leaders are bringing back hard buttons.

At least they didn't go full Tesla and get rid of the gauge cluster. A screen is acceptable at this price point but it does still look cheap.

 

[sword_9mm]

I've never had an issue with the rotary knob stuff so whatever there.

Capacitive buttons on the wheel sucks.

I guess I'll keep my 2019. Not that I had plans of getting a replacement.

 

[barich]

I wonder if they’ll bring back the turbo option in future?

I think that the hybrid that the article says is coming next year will probably be replacing the turbo as the upgraded powertrain, but presumably the NA 2.5 in this year's model is staying as the base option. It probably wasn't worth it for them to go through the trouble of packaging, certification, etc. for the turbo when it would be replaced next model year.

 

[Dr Gitlin]

Why did it need to get bigger? You want bigger? Go to the CX-50, 70 or 90. No reason to ruin another product with size creep.

The -50 isn’t bigger it’s the same size, and only sold in NA.

 

[wxfisch]

I will always be disappointed that Mazda ended production of the CX-3. I maintain it was the best car for single drivers or a couple without kids you could find. It was fun to drive, could drive and park just about anywhere, and you could fit a surprising amount of stuff in the back with the seats down. Sure, there wasn't much leg room in the back seat but then I don't usually see more than two people in a car unless the others are kids, and in that case the CX-5 is what you want. I really wish the average American would get past this desire for ever larger cars so that we might have nice things.

I am sad that my 2019 was totaled when I rear ended someone a few years back and my airbags went off (I was going less than 20mph when I hit the other car, and it had literally a scratch on their bumper; the airbag did more damage to me than it saved me from). The need to replace the dash and airbags put it a few bucks over what it was worth and insurance wrote it off. If I had had the capability at the time, I would have paid the difference to have it all fixed. I tough lesson that I remember all the time now.

 

[AndrewSan]

I've owned a Mazda since 2017 with a CX-3. I got a CX-5 GTR in 2021 and I still have both. I love the rotary knob with all my heart. However, software updates to Android Auto, Waze, and other apps have made using the knob worse and worse over time. At first, one could navigate the AA menus quite quickly. Now, navigation through menus requires multiple steps. To make matters worse, apps like AA have changed their behavior over time. From having a map in full-screen to now having two partitions to divide a map and your favorite music app. Other things have grown annoying as well. Waze or AA recently changed some scrolling behaviors. I used be able to twist the rotary knob right on the Waze app and quickly report accidents, cops quite quickly. Today, the rotation does not stop on the last option when rotating and resets back to position 1 causing me to X out of my trip.....UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This new 2026 CX-5 not having a rotary knob is disappointing but given that app developers need to reinvent the wheel every few years was a death sentence to the knob.

 

[FSTargetDrone]

I always have a soft spot for Mazda, but uncompetitive fuel economy is simply not acceptable in a segment where 26mpg combined, 30-35 highway is table stakes for the ICE-only options, and where hybrids are available or standard. It's a nice car with a great interior and upmarket vibes, but for not much more, your modal family crossover buyer is cross-shopping this with a similarly loaded Rav4 that gets 40mpg, and that is a hard proposition to say no to. Most won't, even if Soul Red is the best color on any car that doesn't cost $100k. Mazda has to get a hybrid option under this hood at least.

For me the color is the only attractive feature of this thing.

 

[Deleted member 221201]

@Dr Gitlin

Can you review the CX-90 at some point?
It’s one of the cars we are looking at to replace our older cx5

 

[Deleted member 221201]

Encinitas ?
Wife and I were there over the weekend at Mazda

Hope you had a good time and managed to make it to Las Olas on the beach for some really good Mexican food

 

[MST2.021K]

I continue to be sad when I read the MPG rating. Our 20 year old Scion and Honda are still running 10-15 MPG higher.

Might be time to look again at the Mazda RAV4 chimera I had my eye on.