The 2021 Mazda CX-5 Signature is an Enticing Turbocharged Compact SUV

That'S right right behind me is the 2021 cx 5 compact crossover. Now, as you guys know, this current generation has been out since 2017. Mazda finally gave it turbocharged power back in 2019 and for 2021 they've made some small changes to it, especially on the interior, so that's, probably where i'll focus on primarily, but with around 150 000 units sold every year. This is a very important vehicle for mazda, so at the end of this video we're going to take a look and see if you guys are looking for a compact crossover as your family car, should you still be looking at a mazda, cx 5 stay tuned to Find out now, of course, the second generation cx 5 debuted back in 2017 and mazda really hasn't made any stylistic changes to it over the years, and that includes 2021. This is still the same attractively styled compact crossover that we know and like this is, of course part of the mazda kodo design language, and, as you can see this one here that i'm, showing you is the top tier signature trim. It includes all wheel, drive and includes the turbocharged engine painted in this beautiful shade of snowflake white pearl. I think it's a really fantastic, color combination. I especially like how mazda's styling continues to look good. You have, of course, the five point. Mazda signature girl with that chrome that also kind of underlies the front headlights. These are full led headlights, the signature trim includes led daytime running lights, led uh, low and high beams, and you also have these skinny little led fog lights down here.

These headlights are adaptive. Swiveling and they also include automatic high beams, one thing that is missing is led turn signals um. The cx 9, i believe, is the one that gives you the led turn signals. I think overall, this is still a very attractive car. There are certain angles about the cx 5. I do think that make it look more like a hatchback as opposed to an suv. It doesn't sit quite up as high as a lot of the competition such as like the toyota rav4 or the subaru forester. Now i do kind of wish mazda would conti would spice up the design of this car a little bit. I would like to see some kind of a sport package or a black package. There is a new carbon edition trim that includes black finish wheels and black mirrors. However, if you want the signature with all the features you can't get that with the black package, so i think mazda should just include like a black package to go with the styling. Now you can see the signature includes. These unique gray finished wheels they're 19 inches in diameter. They'Re wrapped in two 25 55 series tires a lot of the competitors offer 10 millimeter wider tires. So i am surprised that mazda hasn't put fatter tires on this thing. You can see above me, i would like to see mazda offer some kind of two tone combination with like a black roof, or maybe a panel roof.

You can see the signature includes. This is standard size. Sunroof. A lot of competitors are going to a panel roof option nowadays now at the rear. You can see this cx 5 continues to be a very sleek crossover that again reminds you more like a hatchback. Instead of an suv, you have. These led combination, rear taillights, the reverse lights are leds. The turn signals, however, are just incandescent. I also wish that they had some kind of like a spoiler back here or something to make it look a little bit more aggressive. The one thing they did add in 2021 is that silly turbo badge just like on the mazda 3, a turbo badge kind of looks like an afterthought there's. Also a signature. All wheel drive badge at the back there's, just a little bit too much badging going on over here, and then you still got the dual exhaust system, which continues to look good along with some of that requisite black cladding. My tester has a nice rear bumper protector, which is nice, and then, if you open up the lift gate, you can see power liftgate is included. The cx 5 is on the smaller end of the segment. You get around 31 cubic feet of space with the second row up. Remember: there's, no third row on this vehicle. If you fold down all the seats which mazda makes it actually pretty easy, just pull on this little lever right here and that pushes the seat forward.

You get around 59 cubic feet of space with the second row. Seats folded, so it's, pretty obvious that mazda didn't make any changes to the cx 5 for 2021 on the outside. But what about the interior? This is where i said. Mazda did make one crucial change that i think a lot of buyers are probably going to love and they may even consider trading in your 2019 and 2020 model. Now, looking at the interior at a glance, this is the signature trim that i'm, showing you and it's supposed to have a brown interior. Looking at this video here, looking at the seats in person, does this look brown to you? This is called katura brown it's. A very, very, very dark brown interior that looks more black to me. I do like the premium napa seats. It includes an eight way power for the driver, six way for the passenger. These are heated and cooled seats. The leather itself also feels pretty expensive it's. A very nice premium, napa leather, that really adds to the impression of quality. When i shut the door, it has a very nice solid funk. It actually reminds me a lot of a european car, and this interior design is still very gorgeous. It'S highlighted, of course, by that new 10.25 inch screen there that's positive part of the mazda connect head unit. Now you can see here's the newer mazda key fob. This key is a little bit larger than their old key.

It has buttons on the side. The key itself could feel more sturdy. It feels very plasticky and large, so i hope mazda continues to improve their their keys. Make them feel a little bit more special. The start stop button is over here and then, of course, when you start the vehicle up, you guys are familiar with that noise. It has a head up display, that's included with this trim, there's a seven inch digital display here and the tachometer or it's basically digital. Although it kind of looks like analog gauges, although the left and the right ones are traditional analog, dials well, the center one is a digital display. Now, looking at this screen check this out, this is a huge improvement over the old, seven and eight inch screens. Now this 10.25 inch screen replaces both of those screens, so every model, including the base sport, comes with this larger screen, and i have to admit it looks good in this in the dash here. The dash itself, the rest of it, is built uh made with high quality materials. Let'S start with the door panels. You can see the door panels have that soft touch injection molded plastic with some stitching this wood grain trim, apparently, is genuine. You find on the signature, trim there's more stitching here. This is a little bit softer leather, the same one that's on the seats, the window switches feel pretty tactile and high quality as well. You do have power folding mirrors, which is nice wasn't, expecting a feature like that aluminum accented door handles, and then you also have two person memory seats which mazda puts over here on the actual seat, there's a few more buttons over here.

There'S soft touch panels over here, more of that stitching on the uh driver's side and then there's, more stitching and soft touch materials all over the dashboard. Here that looks really good again. The wood grain apparently mazda says, is real there's, also some genuine metal trim from what they say and then the steering wheel. You can see hasn't really changed, it's the newer mazda steering wheel. It does include a heated wheel option if you push this button here. Only the side bolsters actually get hot, the top and the bottom part of the wheel, doesn't actually get hot. The paddles are a little bit plasticky, the wheel itself is tilt and telescoping and its design. It does offer a good amount of adjustability and the horn sounds pretty good. It doesn't sound quite as dinky as some of the other competitors that i've driven you can see here. The vents look pretty nice and classy you've got dual zone climate control over here. A lot more dedicated hard buttons. This controls your six speed automatic, which, when you put the vehicle in reverse, look at this backup camera mazda has really upgraded this, especially when you get the newer system, so highly recommend waiting for the 2021 or getting the 2021 model. If you guys were looking at a 2020 version, that's a huge improvement over the old system and this top down 360 view with parking, sensors and rear cross traffic braking only comes on the signature trim, so that's another reason to go for the top trim down.

Here. You can see there's a little storage area where i could put my iphone 12 pro max, although there's no wireless phone charger here, there's a 120 volt power outlet over here there's a sport button here that can basically put it into sport or normal mode. It'S. Pretty simple and straightforward: this is, of course, the dial here to control the mazda connect head unit, because this frustratingly is not a touch screen, even though it's close enough, where i can touch the screen, mazda does not believe in touch screens. Instead, i have to use this this wheel here to scroll around through the actual infotainment system, and i really wish that mazda would just give us a touch screen there. They continue to say that touch screens are distracting, but i honestly think this is more annoying versus just touching it with my hands. A lot of people still prefer touch screens, so i will continue to tell moz that they should. They should really go with a touch screen. You can see there's the garmin based gps system in this car. It has been upgraded over the years it's. Definitely not the quickest system, but the graphics have been improved over the years. Most of you probably won't, even get the embedded gps instead, you'll go to the home system here and then you'll go to apple carplay and just pull up the apple carplay or or your android auto. Of course, if you guys are running android, the system itself is relatively easy to use.

If you go to settings here, you can adjust all the different settings and mazda has really upgraded the graphics in this car with the new system. So this is a huge improvement. It just needs a touchscreen to be perfect for me, so mazda, please consider offering that uh. 12 12 speaker bose stereo system in this car is also really nice. It sounds better than some of the other systems in its competitors, like the honda crv. I also like it a little bit better versus the one in the toyota rav4, which is a jbl system. The hyundai and kia products have their harman kardon, which i think sound a little bit nicer. The seats, as i said earlier, are very comfortable and supportive they're made of this very high quality premium leather. Over here you can see this does not slide forward, but it does offer a nice storage area there's two usb ports in there there's just usb a ports, not usbc's, and then over here. The glove box you can see is damped but lined uh and lined with felt, but it is a little bit on the smaller side, so some competitors offer far more interior storage space. Now above me, you can see. The signature also includes led lighting in the center console, which is nice. You also have a sunglass holder here. You also get this frameless, auto dimming rear view mirror, which does look a lot more classy and elegant. Sadly, however, if you're looking for a pano sunroof, this is the only size sunroof you can get it's included on the grand touring trims and up, and i really hope that mazda eventually offers a pano roof.

So, overall, the interior is still a very nice place to spend time. It'S full of tech, including mazda's latest driver assistance, tech features, but until they offer a panel roof and they give me a touch screen. The interior is not perfect for me, and it also feels a little bit on the smaller side. Now, looking at the back seat, mazda again hasn't made any changes this year. It actually offers a pretty good amount of legroom by the numbers. Masa says you got '.6 inches back here which getting back here you can see at five foot seven. I do have plenty of space back here, there's a lot of room for me to stretch out my head also doesn't touch the ceiling there's plenty of headroom here and in terms of legroom. You know with the company saying you have '.6 inches of legroom. That does make it pretty much on par with competitors, although it feels much more cramped to me if mazda again offered a pano sunroof that would be nice. When i shut the door, the door is actually still covered with the same high quality. Soft touch materials with real wood trim as its competitors, so again that's an upgrade over a lot of the competition. You have rear seat air vents back here. There is a hump that intrudes a little bit here, but you know this is where i have the seat to drive. This definitely doesn't feel as spacious if you guys are looking to fit a car seat back here.

This is not going to be as roomy as something like the crv or the volkswagen tiguan. Now, when i pull this armrest down here, you can see there is three level heated rear seats and you also have two usb charging ports in here, along with your cup holders, so that's nice. That mazda at least includes those features, and then the seat back here itself does offer the ability to recline slightly or you can also fold it flat. The leather back here is also the same high quality leather that you find in the front seats. Now, of course, taking a look underneath. The hood of the 2021 cx 5. Nothing here has changed. Mazda continues to offer a choice between two different engines. There was a diesel available in 2019 mazda quietly phased it out, because it was so expensive. Didn'T really offer that much more horsepower or torque over the 2.5 liter turbo and didn't get that great at gas mileage. So, as you can see, most of you will probably be interested in this motor right here. This is the 2.5 liter turbocharged gasoline direct injection four cylinder part of their skyactiv g engine family. We all know this engine. It makes 227 horsepower and 310 pound feet of torque that's. If you feed it regular, if you guys give it premium, it'll make 250 horsepower and 320 pound feet of torque. It all goes out through a six speed. Automatic transmission front wheel drive is actually standard.

The signature trim comes standard with all wheel drive. Now, of course, there is a non turbo version of this engine. It makes 187 horsepower i've, driven that before it's a little bit sluggish and underpowered. I would definitely go with the turbo because it's rated to get 22 in the city 27 on the highway, which is only a couple mpg less versus the non turbo engine, but you get significantly more power now, as i said earlier, it uses a six speed, automatic And towing capacity is a maximum of 2000 pounds as this one sits. It weighs around 3 856 pounds and masa says you should get to 60 in the mid. 6 second range, so i'm pretty familiar with this generation. Cx 5. There are no changes to the powertrain for 2021, so it's, essentially going to drive the same by the way that stop sign. I don't have to stop when i'm. Taking a right turn on here. Just wanted to clarify that, because everybody wanted to comment in my rav4 prime video about me running that stop sign but anyways back to the mazda cx 5. This is the signature trim, which means it comes standard with the 2.5 liter turbocharged four cylinder engine. We know this engine very well. Mazda has been using it for quite some time now. It first made its appearance in the cx 9 back in 2016., now it's in the cx 5 in a much smaller vehicle it's, also in the cx 30 and the mazda 3.

. I really liked it in the mazda 3 haven't driven it yet in the cx 30, but it's still paired with a six speed automatic transmission, which does continue to hold it back in terms of performance that allows it to compete with luxury brands. So, of course, here we are at a stop. I have it in sport. Mode impressive, mid range torque continues to be one of the most powerful entries in the segment 0 60 in around 6.2 seconds. The 6 speed auto is smooth enough, but it just doesn't shift fast enough. It'S. Also down to you, know three four gears compared to some of the competition, so mazda needs to work on a new transmission for this vehicle. The power trade is fine, it's, a little bit of a noisy or rough sounding four cylinder, i'm, not entirely sure if mazda is kind of amplifying the noise, but you do kind of feel it. The vibration that comes in and has also kind of like a Music, a very deep undertone for the noise. The engine doesn't like to rev, it short shifts at 5500. Rpm continues to do so. It does have these paddles, which work pretty well it's, downshift rev! Matching there Music and you can let it rev out to six if you'd like, but you, as you heard, if i let it pat rev past 55, the transmission doesn't want to shift all the time it doesn't like being pushed that hard.

So, just something to keep in mind if you guys plan to you, know, drive this vehicle in a sporty manner. Just for the most part leave it in drive. Let it do its thing in regular um. You know drive mode now. The cx 5 has always been an excellent handling vehicle that continues. That'S always been the mazda way. It has very direct, communicative steering, it's very responsive. This one here has 19 inch wheels and the suspension is also on the firmer side i'm noticing the mazda's ride quality. The cx 5 ride continues to be on the firmer side, it's, not overly harsh. However, those of you who prefer a softer riding crossover, you may prefer one of its competition that just rides a little bit softer. The noise levels in here also are pretty good i'm noticing that mazda has been working on addressing their road noise. However, you do hear a lot of that engine. Noise, creeping in it's, not a very pleasant sounding noise, at least mazda did make all their driver assistance as standard, so we've got the mazda. You know smart city brake support, full speed range adaptive cruise control. Lane keep assist this one here as the rear cross traffic. Braking which does make this car again start to approach level two in terms of fully autonomous driving let's attack some of these corners over here you can see this thing still handles like a taller, mazda 3., very excellent response, suspension stays mostly flat steering provides a lot Of feedback, this is still a fun to drive, crossover and it's it's.

One of the reasons why enthusiasts go for this vehicle it's still a great car to daily drive, but it also put a smile on your face. It has plenty of power now, so i have no complaints with the way this car drives. Aside from the fact that the transmission is behind a couple gears it's a little slow to shift, it slows down the rest of the car in terms of fuel economy. I was averaging 19 mpg in my week's worth of testing on the highway. I did get it up to around 25 mpg, so it's, pretty good gas mileage uh, and this one remember is the all wheel, drive version. The all wheel. Drive system comes standard with the signature trim, their eye active sense. All wheel drive will spin out the front tires, because this does have plenty of torque. It allows it to do that so kind of keep that in mind uh. I probably would wouldn't recommend the turbo engine with the front wheel, drive system it just wouldn't, be able to put the power drive down. I think so. The all wheel drive system with this turbo sweet spot in the lineup, still a great driving car, but um it's, probably no longer the car that feels the most avant garde, because you know now that electrification is coming. Uh there's the rav4 prime, of course, to consider uh, the rav4 hybrid, which gets significantly better gas mileage there's a crv hybrid i'm curious to see where mazda is going to take the cx 5 for the next generation.

So i know there are probably some audi, bmw and mercedes drivers watching this video right now and saying. Maz is a little ambitious about claiming that their cx 5 can compete head to head with luxury offerings like the x3, the q5 and, of course, the glc. Now, after spending a week with the latest 2021 cx, 5 i'm happy to report that the cx 5 continues to be a very appealing, compact crossover that offers a very enticing blend of luxury technology, performance, comfort and style at a price that will significantly undercut luxury brands. Now, how about comparing this car to some mainstream offerings, of course, like the toyota rav4 and the honda crv? Well, the latest mazda cx 5 still offers a really nice blend of driving enthusiasm with comfort and luxury and technology. I love the turbocharged engine. Don'T always love the transmission it's paired with the ride. Quality is on the firmer side, the all wheel, drive system, pretty much is up to par uh with most of its competitors. Although you're not going to be taking this car off roading because it only offers like seven inches of ground clearance, you will be enjoying your favorite back roads, because the car's chassis still feels incredibly stiff. The suspension is well tuned. The interior is on the smaller side compared to competitors, but if you guys don't need the backseat space or the trunk space, this is still a very enticing option that continues to stand out.

However, until mazda makes the interior a little bit more spacious updates the transmission. They really are kind of limiting buyers in this segment, because a lot of people in america want biggest the biggest back seats and the most trunk space now, speaking of which, if you guys, are looking to buy a cx 5. This car starts at around 25. 200. Add 1400 for all wheel, drive that's for the base. Sport trim level this one here being the fully loaded signature tops out at around ' thousand dollars, and really the only option is that 400 paint job which looks good. That pricing makes the cx 5 one of the more expensive offerings at the top end, but with that turbocharged engine i'd argue that it's probably worth that there are rumors of the next generation cx 5 saying that mazda will upgrade this thing to be larger, built it On a rear drive platform at an inline six and make this thing more like a bmw, x5 competitor, which is very interesting to me, but only time will tell i'll believe it when i see it because mazda has those similar plans, of course, for the next generation. Six, but with all that said, i hope you guys have enjoyed my full overview on this 2021 mazda cx 5 signature. If you're also looking to see the latest cars, i'm testing be sure to follow me on instagram redline underscore reviews like us on facebook and as always guys, please keep subscribing to the redline reviews youtube channel for all the latest reviews.

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