Mazda's flagship CX-5 is set to maintain its position
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LIME green may not be everyone’s favourite colour but as a paint-job on a car it certainly stands out.
Thankfully Mazda have been more discreet when deciding to use it from their paint palette in the latest version of their family SUV, the CX-5.
Along with a splash of bright red, the lime green is a highlighter on the grille of one of the new trims in the refreshed CX-5 line-up.
The Newground is designed to have a more rugged look with front and rear silver underguards and lower body side skirts, black door mirrors and standout 19-inch black alloy wheels. The lime green is repeated inside round the air vents and piping on the black half-leatherette seats.
The Sport Black version is another to get the distinctive treatment with black detailing on the wheel arches, side mouldings, door mirrors and instead of lime green, there’s bright red accents on the grille, along with red stitching on the black leather seats, door trim, centre console and steering wheel. Following their tradition in recent years of favouring our great driving roads, Mazda chose a route round Argyll to show off the new models, but they were almost caught out by the major storms which had left some flattened forested areas looking like war zones.
Setting out from the normally bonny banks of Loch Lomond in one of the updated models, I wondered what challenges the six-hour route would put before the car, especially as we headed first for the heavily-wooded Trossachs, north of Glasgow.
There had been a few victims of the storms, but beyond some strewn branches, most of the large tree blockages had been dealt with by chainsaws and the roads were pretty clear. Round the dramatic route through Glencoe, the only real issue was torrential rain and buffeting winds, followed by long delays at the massive mountainside strengthening works at the notorious Rest and Be Thankful.
Since its introduction a decade ago, more than 70,000 CX-5s have been sold in the UK, accounting for around 25 per cent of the brand’s sales here, so any change to that successful formula is an important one. I drove several versions but the featured model was the-top-of-the-range GT Sport with a 2.2 litre diesel Skyactiv engine and four-wheel-drive which proved lively in its performance and stable and secure in the demanding conditions.
Wisely Mazda have decided not to go for any dramatic changes on the basis that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” so the general profile of the car is familiar but with a sharper look.
Across the five new trim levels, the front and rear bumper designs have been revised and there are new head and tail-light clusters. The front grille is more three-dimensional along with the coloured accents which are designed to give exterior visual clues to the different trims so that each version has its own character and personality. It’s very subtle so I’m not sure that it’s enough for other than Mazda aficionados to notice.
The featured car is the flagship model which focusses on a high-quality interior with Nappa leather seats and genuine wood-grain trim to project the feel of a premium SUV. That’s highlighted by the 10.25 inch central touch-screen along with a 4.6 inch multi-information LCD display on the right-hand side of the driver’s instrument binnacle.
The petrol automatic models come with a new one-touch Intelligent Drive Select which allows a range of drive modes to be called up, including Off-road. That’s designed to iron-out unmade rough surfaces through adaptations to the bodyshell, suspension and seats to reduce fatigue and road noise when driving on the likes of gravel, while also providing better traction when the going gets slippery.
The CX-5 is a bedrock of the Mazda range and while the brand is extending into other full electric and hybrid models, their SUV sticks with conventional, although sophisticated and highly-efficient, petrol and diesel engines.
CAR: Mazda CX-5 GT Sport 2.2 AWD auto diesel
- PRICE: £39,385 (£39,965 as tested)
- ENGINE: 2191cc Skyactiv-D 4 cyl inline diesel
- POWER: 184 PS
- TORQUE: 445 Nm
- TOP SPEED: 129 mph
- 0-62 MPH: 9.6 secs
- ECONOMY: 43 mpg combined
- CO2 EMISSIONS: 173 g/km
