True story: I was driving north on Highway 27 one day this week in our Mazda CX-5 tester when something remarkable happened.
I glanced down at the speedometer, and, to my surprise, Mazda’s compact SUV was traveling fully 20 mph faster than my eyes and ears were registering. I’ve had this happen before, but only in a luxury sedan like a Mercedes S-class. I immediately throttled down and activated the cruise control.
Three things have to happen to cause this result. The car has to be much quieter, significantly more powerful and a lot more stable than my senses are trained to detect. This was is an almost unbelievable measure of refinement in a small SUV costing less than $40,000.
Bravo, Mazda!
It pains me that more Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV-4 buyers don’t at least test the Mazda CX-5 before pulling the trigger. Both of those mass-market SUVs are excellent vehicles, but the Mazda feels like a class above.