Owner Review: Very disappointing after-sales experience - My story with my Mazda CX-5

Every single fresh graduate must have a car to buy in their mind, and their default list would be Axia, Bezza, Myvi, Persona, Vios, Saga, and many more affordable cars. However, all these cars do not tickle my fancy, and you may be asking why. Call myself bragging, but since my parents have my sister and brother sharing the same car while in the college, I wanted something that is next level to the ride I had earlier, and it has to feel effortless when I put down the throttle, agile and can behave like a hooligan if I met some jokers that do not know how to drive, or do not know the driving ethics on the road. The first car that I first got my license and have long term daily with during internship and my college life was the 2012 Perodua Myvi 1.5SE Lagi Best. Back then, there were another three Toyotas on the porch, which two of them have been replaced with newer state-of-the-art Toyota. Come on, not Toyota again?! Yikes. Hence, before I decided to pursue my postgraduate studies in Semenyih, I was already hunting for something uncommon, definitely not a car that normally fresh grads would pick and further for someone who is going to pay the instalment himself/herself without family supporting, and it must be something feels effortless, something that is powerful or even better than the Myvi I have driven, something has good handling, something practical, spacious, handsome looking and has relatively reasonable fuel consumption and all these criteria ticks the dream car I’m pursuing. The planning of the purchase of my current ride has been a year, because simply I wanted to challenge myself and pursue my dream car even though the estimated loan tenure is going to take nine years, 10% downpayment and monthly instalment of approximately more than 50% of my fresh graduate pay (guess your own or Uncle Google the average salary of a fresh graduates for postgrads). Nevertheless, my current ride actually deviated from my original plan, and I'm glad that I didn’t pursue my dream car, as it’s gonna put me into deep trouble, and funny enough, my current ride is, in fact, more expensive than my dream car. So you guys must be wondering, what is my dream car then? And why do I end up in a Mazda CX-5? Look further down into the stories.

Before I start, let me brief through my car.

About My Ride

I bought the Mazda CX-5 2.2D HIGH with IPM upgrades (Bermaz called it IPM) in February 2020, but it was a 2019 last batch manufactured vehicle. I’ll go into details of my experience later. This car was last facelifted in August 2019, Mazda/Bermaz known this as the IPM variant across the CX-5 range. In the current market as of August 2020, the variants are 2.0 MID 2WD, 2.0 HIGH 2WD, 2.5 HIGH 2WD and 2.5T HIGH AWD or commonly known as the 2.5 Turbo. I’m not sure if the 2.2D (2.2 Diesel) still does exist because Mazda sort of removing this variant in their webpage for some reason. The IPM provides a massive upgrade to the previous model, breakdown of upgrades from previous variant as below:

2.0 MID

• Rear-number-plate LED light instead of the previous halogen
• Standard auto-levelling LED headlamp,
• Manual seat adjustment for driver and passenger, reverse camera, rear bulb-type tail-lamp
• G-vectoring control (GVC) Plus replacing GVC
• Android Auto and Apple CarPlay

2.0 HIGH adds

• Two memory seats for driver
• Powered seats for both driver and passenger, 10-way for driver, 6-way for passenger
• Keyless entry with walk-away lock
• Power tailgate
• Adaptive Front-lighting system (AFS)
• Signature Day-time Running Lights (DRL)
• Blind-Spot Monitoring (BLIS)
• Rear-Cross Traffic Alert (RCTA)
• Smart-City Brake Support (SCBS) front
• 360-degree camera or Mazda known as 360 view monitor, replacing a reverse camera

2.5 HIGH adds

• 19-inch wheels instead of 17
• Smart-City Brake Support (SCBS) rear
• Mazda 3 alike 7-inch TFT instrument cluster

2.2 HIGH adds

• Lane Departure Warning System (LDWS) and Lane-keep Assist System (LKAS)
• Adaptive LED Headlamp (ALH) without swivelling instead of Adaptive Front-lighting system (AFS)

2.5 Turbo HIGH adds

• Head-Up Display (HUD) or Mazda known as Active Driving Display.

Hence, my Mazda CX-5 being a 2.2D HIGH variant, I have 7-inch TFT instrument cluster, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, 360-degree camera or Mazda known as 360 view monitor, powered driver and passenger seats, the full suite of i-Active Sense which includes Adaptive LED Headlamp (ALH), Blind-Spot Monitoring (BSM), Rear-Cross Traffic Alert (RCTA), Lane Departure Warning System (LDWS) and Lane-keep Assist System (LKAS), Smart City Brake Support (SCBS) front and rear, Driver Attention Alert (DAA), except the Mazda Radar Cruise Control with Stop-and-Go function (only available overseas, Mazda 3 in Malaysia comes without Stop-and-Go) power tailgate and keyless entry.

To spice up my car further, I topped up another RM3,000 to add premium colour to my car (undesired at point of booking), 3M Crystalline tinted on my car, and ceramic + glass hybrid coating with Paint Protection Film (PPF) package. I opted for 3M tinted instead of other brand as my another Toyota, fairly new was installed with 3M Scotchshield Crystalline tinting as well, having the feature of anti-break (not really anti-break, only that it lengthens the process of breaking the window) and having strong UV rejected and heat rejection, blah blah, and I do not opt for Scotchshield on the CX-5 as the original SkyTint, which is actually tinted film from Konica Minolta has this anti-break feature already. To cut it short, 3M has better heat rejection than the original SkyTint. I placed the tint on top of the original tint to sort of remain the anti-break feature on the SkyTint, which is a premium RM300 upgrade for the Scotchshield that has anti-break feature compared to the normal Crystalline. Downside of the 3M - SmartTag rejection, but luckily the tint shop managed to workaround there. Oh, if you stay in Penang, do drop by or look for “Rich Tint Shop” in Facebook where I did my tinting there. I also did my coating and PPF in G Guard Penang to protect the premium colour on the car, and the expensive headlamp. I placed PPF on my headlamps and side mirrors as a standard package of the hybrid coating package and top up to have PPF on side pillars, as when I removed the original stickers on the pillars, I found a very tiny scratch mark, and this is a wear and tear in my opinion. Do note that when I collected my car, it was only a few days before MCO and I didn’t manage to do any protection on my car from stone chips, dirt and rain as I parked my car outdoors due to space constraints in my house. Before PPF and coating, I found multiple stone chips on the front bumper and the expensive state-of-the-art Adaptive LED headlamp and I’m pretty glad G Guard Penang has done a marvellous job in correcting them. Oh, please do check G Guard Penang out as well as G Guard is renowned in performing coating and PPF in Malaysia.

Reason Why I Bought This Car

This was, in fact, the fourth car which my family have, where all three of them my parents are driving and the Myvi I was driving before I sold and replaced by the Mazda CX-5. As mentioned earlier, this Mazda CX-5 was not originally the first car that I came into thought when I put down the booking. This is because my dream car was actually the BMW F10 5 series. When the F10 was first launched, I fell into it and ever since I grew up, I have always had a sweet spot for her, and the facelift or BMW called it Life Cycle Impulse (LCI) makes it even spiced up, with the Multifunctional Instrument full digital instrument cluster, with M-Sport body-kit slap on. Ever since graduated, I carefully plan my finance and until one day, BMW Premium Selection at Auto Bavaria Kuala Lumpur has one unit of 2016 520i M-Sport with one year warranty and free service remaining running around at RM170k mark, and you may be wondering, fresh grad driving a 5er, all of the people on the streets must be thinking, “you drive your daddy car huh?”. Screw it, and given that time my parents knew that I was hiding something from them and putting a booking fee of around RM1,600, when they knew it, of course, they banned and objected to my thought, and saying why the hell you wanna show off by driving a BMW, some more it is a 5er. Well, it ticks all of my lists earlier, effortless, powerful enough, fuel-efficient, comfort, practical, etc; and back then it was RM340k thereabouts mind you, 50% depreciation after 3.5 years, not a bad deal to me, with 60,000km on the odo, full-service record, piece of mind.

Then, when I go through the loan process, the banks categorised me as high risk and rejected my loan, most of the banks, and therefore since I am in an urgent of having my own car to get myself some freedom and of course, weekend driving with friends, chill and chit chat, lepak around mamak, instead of driving my parent’s car, I know I have to go for Plan B, which two cars come into my list, Volkswagen Passat B8 2.0 Highline pre-owned, Passat B8.5 or the Mazda CX-5 2.2D. The reason I ditched out the Passat, both B8 and B8.5, first is because I couldn’t bother to get myself into VW, because of the 2.0 mil from a Golf GTI engine with DSG, you must know how the previous owner whack it, second is B8.5 do not offer with five years free service anymore, but three years instead at that time, and it was fairly new without anyone reviewed it. Even with free service, I must be thinking later on, after five years, if the clutches got barbequed, I need to fork out around RM10k to replace the clutch, nevertheless, this is my only fear as this clutch which is wear and tear, even if five years they do not give way, I still need to replace it say at the seventh or eighth years of ownership. Do not get me wrong, there’s nothing to do with the reliability, maintenance of the VW, and comparatively, I was quite ready for the F10, the Passat should be fine as well, but mentally it says another story. Another thing is the ride height of the Passat is low, making me consider, if Mazda CX-5 has higher ride height which I like as I do not like my undercarriage being scrapped when I go through insanely high speed-bumps, quite powerful and on par on paper with the Passat, five years free service, diesel engine with lower fuel consumption than compared with petrol engine car, why not?

The Proton X70, Honda CR-V, Volkswagen Tiguan all the lot doesn’t even tickle my fancy though, the X70 is heavy first thing, therefore it doesn’t reward effortless driving even with 300Nm, so it’s slow to me. Second is I do not get the perks of having low fuel consumption due to its weight so it was directly eliminated. The Tiguan comes with a 1.4 turbocharged engine, still relatively slow to me and quite an effort to pull the car based on my previous “Supercar of Malaysia” experience. The CR-V by far has the most unpleasant drive, it is rolly polly, even it’s powerful, so it doesn’t handle well enough to my liking and it lacks the confidence of being driver hard, or not suited for enthusiastic drive and therefore all of them were eliminated from my list instantly. The BMW X1 from BMW Premium Selection, nahh it’s not the sort of interior design, space and handling you would expect from a continental car especially BMW and parking side by side with the CX-5, the CX-5 will attract more bugs, if you get what I mean.

The following week after my F10 loan was rejected, I went to Mazda showroom in Juru, Penang to have a test drive. Immediately after the test drive, I said this is it, I’m getting the Mazda CX-5 2.2D. The reason I do not bother to test the 2.0 is because previously when my parents were hunting for another Toyota, we did test the 2.0 and with a full load, it feels underpowered to my liking, doesn’t have the effortless sensation, and my friend who is driving the pre-IPM variant 2.0GLS was saying his fuel consumption was 15.6km/l under light foot, imagine if someone like me occasionally need to push hard, it’s gonna stress the engine and it does not even help in fuel economy. The 2.5 has a slightly higher road tax, not as fuel efficient although it has more power, but still it can’t really beat the 450Nm on the diesel, not even the 2.5 Turbo with only 420Nm of torque, and of course from a 2.5 Turbo petrol engine churning 225hp, you wouldn’t think the fuel consumption must be low, and it doesn’t really work for me because those 225hp is not necessary for a family SUV, it does not even worth to pay 2.5 road tax for 225hp when the BMW needs only 2.0 road tax for 258hp on the G20 330i,  if otherwise you go weekend touge and hard driving a lot, and of course if the cost of fuel and road tax is not an issue to you.

Based on multiple inputs and reviews from all the local journalists, I’m getting the diesel just for the 450Nm torque, lower fuel consumption than petrol, but of course, not BMW diesel engine tier, which I’ll describe later, and it’s my first experience with a diesel engine vehicle. Of course, I’m pretty excited. Well, why would I go for a diesel engine instead of a petrol engine and why is the fuel consumption of the CX-5 2.2D is poorer than the BMWs? This is because Mazda’s SkyActiv-D engine is having a lower compression ratio of 14:1 instead of the BMW’s 22.5:1, making it extremely comfortable and pleasant to be cruised in due to having lesser engine vibration, but have to trade off a bit on fuel economy, hence higher fuel consumption than the Beemer.

True enough, after owning it for few months and visiting my friend with a new BMW G02 X4 xDrive30i right before MCO, I noticed the engine clutter on the 2.2 SkyActiv-D is even more pleasant than the one in the X4, and even when you give a heavy throttle, the engine node is noticeably lighter than the ones in the CX-5 2.0 and the X4, believe it or not. Also, travelling around 70km daily makes the diesel even more worth the money as these long distance drives daily will ensure that I have sufficient range left in the tank when I travel to work every day without the need of refuel in the middle of the week even if occasionally I “tekan” harder I do not need to worry too much on the fuel left in the tank, another piece of mind. The way the power delivers, the smoothness is worth every single cent, the extra RM200 road tax that I paid yearly, the RM30,000 extra that I pay for the diesel variant over the 2.0 HIGH, is worth every penny the moment you step on the throttle pedal.

Next thing is the safety features on the 2.2D HIGH, including full-suite of the i-Active Sense, except for MRCC. These features clearly win my heart over the F10 and the Passat, which the Passat only has steering assist for the 2.0 Highline, and the B8.5 eliminates steering assist, and the F10 only has Adaptive matrix LED. I knew that in the next few months after my purchase, I’m going to work till late at night due to busy schedules and the i-Active Sense will have the safety features to keep me awake and assist me to keep myself on lane when I’m sleepy after work. Therefore, I’m clear that the CX-5 2.2D is my option and is not as scary as what the Malaysian public thinks about diesel car.

Buying Process

After paying the booking fee of RM1,000, the next thing I did is to tender my registration plate, which is to be kept classified. Initially, the buying of my registration number doesn’t cross into my mind as I have a mindset of buying used or pre-owned as for the same amount of money, I can get a better car, but maintenance let’s not go into that, and normally, the car has already been registered which I do not need to further purchase or tender my plate, nonetheless not for the Mazda CX-5. The reason I go for tender first is because I’m waiting for the running alphabets to be very identical to the F10 I booked earlier, and secondly, I do not need to take the fuss and head to JPJ and buy number plates, but instead what I do is proceed with the tender process online via an app, JPJeBid, because the SA I deal with is a mess.

However, that time when I was waiting for the registration number to be tendered, I kept my own sweet time and waited until the alphabet was running through, since the SA told me I still need to wait for a month at most although the car is ready. That time I wasn’t rushing to get the car as my heart was still pounding for the F10. One month, in fact, is a lengthy process and having to carpool with my dad, and meeting both our work schedule and time is pretty stressful, with the SA was not following up with me even after a month I placed my booking, I am pretty much losing my cool because at that time I was also speaking to a nice sales lady in Glenmarie, and she told me that the colour I placed booking earlier which is Sonic Silver was already not in their inventory, earliest that they gonna spray this colour in their facilities for this particular colour is in May. She even told me that Sonic Silver was already not part of the plan in January. I was wondering why at the time when I placed my booking with the Juru SA, he didn’t even mention it. Therefore, I called up and he only told me that I have to go for another colour, either it was blue, the Snowflake White Pearl, Soul Red Crystal and Machine Gray which I need to pay a RM3,000 premium. That was pretty frustrating, given that time was only a week before my designated delivery date.

I immediately called my Glenmarie SA and ask for the new quote then, and she’s nice enough that either I opted for 2019 manufactured car with all the bells and whistles as the same as the 2020 manufactured car, at a rebate of RM3,000, but still if I opted for the premium colour, Snowflake White Pearl, Soul Red Crystal and Machine Gray, I still need to top back up RM3,000 after the rebate, or wait for the 2020 manufactured car, together with she absorbing the delivery fee of the truck that delivers the car to my doorstep on flatbed, OTR without insurance price of around RM172k at that time (with SST exemption, I believe OTR price without insurance is still this value, with SST I think is running about at RM175k). That deal was pretty hard to resist right, with delivery of your newly bought vehicle up to your doorstep, how cool is that? I even decided to cancel the booking at Juru back then, however, I gave them the last opportunity to deal with me, and got away with the deal in Juru.

I ended up getting the Machine Gray with RM3,000 premium as the Soul Red and Snowflake White Pearl were not agreed by my family, but still of all, I’ll pick the red if my family allows because it’s very appealing, but I’m already pretty frustrated picked the Gray, and I’m glad I picked the Gray due to having much better contrast, as you can see in the picture, and it only works with the 19-inch rim, if you put this colour in the 2.0 17-inch rim, it doesn’t work for me. The reason I gave them a chance is because still, I’ll still need to service there and not to make things worse. To the SA in Glenmarie who saw this article, I highly appreciate the kind assistance that you provided that time and I’ll assure you, the next Mazda I’m going to purchase is with you in Glenmarie, and I’m pretty sorry that I didn’t close the deal with you.

User Experience

It’s a bitter and sweet experience because one week after I collected my Mazda CX-5 it was Movement Control Order (MCO), and the car only sits inside the porch (before I did PPF and coating, after that, I parked outdoors). To protect the battery and engine, I started the car daily for 15-20minutes to let the engine run, and ensure the battery has enough charge. Two weeks later, due to business-critical job, and the industry I worked for was allowed to operate, I got excited, of course not because of work, because the monkey that was hiding in the house was finally able to see the outside world again, and I got to drive to work. Hooray!

Since I was in breaking-in mode, I only cruise my car at most 90km/h with cruise control with steering assist activated, and during that MCO period, I do not have the mind of driving fast. Therefore, you must be wondering what is my fuel consumption, given that I was behaving. Well, I managed to clock 20km/l on the dash, or 5l/100km. Man! That’s very economical. You must be saying ya, I cheated that time, pure highway driving, no jam etc. Well, the most practical fuel consumption was around 16.5km/l, somewhere around 6l/100km in mixed driving condition, urban and highway, and the worst consumption that I have encountered was 15km/l, around 6.8l/100km due to I went to touge on weekend during RMCO, about that later in the storyline. On average, I’m getting comfortably 750km of range per full tank, and to protect my fuel tank and fuel pump, I’ll always keep a quarter tank left in my car, still on average I travelled somewhere around 700km per tank. I have even clocked less than 1000km per week once during my daily run due to work nature, but I refuelled RM10 in the middle of the week and the total cost of the Euro 5 diesel per week was RM88, for 880km, perform the math if you are calculative about fuel cost, etc. To me, a car this size, that’s extremely fuel efficient, even if occasionally I pushed hard.

Moving on to the weekend drive aka Penang One Better Drive, I did push this car a bit hard in a fairly cool early morning to Teluk Bahang and Balik Pulau. Of course there’s one Passat B8 2.0 Highline, in the bend there’s no way I can keep up with him, but still the CX-5 handles exceptionally well, the only downside during hard driving on the CX-5 is the weight and aerodynamic penalty on the SUV design. The Passat is more planted when we were thundering down the corners, and the front of the Mazda CX-5 is heavy compared with the Passat, which in return not a very agile car in narrow sweeping bents. When we reach Teluk Kumbar, there’s a fast sweeping chicane, that’s where the Mazda CX-5 2.2D started to slaughter the Celica, Mazda 2, Passat and 86s. The 450Nm started to pull away when we rolled up towards the four-lane hill road, and that’s CX-5 started to behave mischievously.

Then, onwards to the Penang second bridge, perhaps the Toyo Proxes R46s measuring 225/55/R19 all round are not suited for high-speed 200km/h driving, I started to hear rolling resistance noise and started to back off and cruise at 100km/h to cool down my engine, that’s when everyone is overtaking, but hey we are pretty much doing it in the safe manner and there are completely no cars that time, of course, we are not racing, we are driving at our own pace and enjoy the driving sensation. However, when I decided to pass them, I just give some gas, the effortless pull from the engine, will start from 100km/h to 180km/h just within seconds. That’s the effortless sensation I’m looking for, because in my previous Myvi, I can do this sprint all day fairly easy, but guys, take my words, do not try this on public roads unless you are very skilful and confident. The best part, when I throttle hard, I do not see any black soot from my exhaust, but in the Hilux or Fortuner that pumped Euro 2 diesel, you will see soot coming out from their exhaust, partly because of the fuel type that the SkyActive-D diesel engine used, which is strictly only Euro 5 fuel in the tank. Also, I do not smell the normal diesel fumes from the exhaust, but fresh air that is filtered through the diesel particulate filter, and it smells like you are in the jungle, that sort of smell.

When people say Euro 5 diesel pump is hard to find blah blah, if you stay in Klang Valley or Penang, there are a fair amount of stations that have Euro 5 diesel, and that is not an issue to me, but if you are staying outskirts say Kuala Terengganu, Muar, Kuantan, then the diesel is not the car for you.

Although this car is good as a practical SUV with fantastic handling, credits have to give to the 6-speed SkyActiv automatic gearbox, the gearbox behaves like a dual-clutch vehicle even it is a torque converter, especially in low speed, and if you do not modulate the throttle in slow-moving traffic, it’ll jerk, but up to speed, it shifts pretty fast. So far, I have no complaints as it behaves better than the Passat B7 which it’ll jerk at low speed, but I wish I have one extra gear on the SkyActive gearbox so that the RPM is kept low at high speed, and for some keyboard warriors or someone who is considering the Mazda CX-5, please kindly take note on this and do not say bad things bout it because it works fine for me as I have also driven my uncle’s Passat B7 to-and-fro KL quite often in previous years.

The handling is another level of the Myvi, pretty much close towards the Passat B8, and given that I have driven the BMW X1, I do not see the handling of the X1 comes close to the CX-5, trusts me for that, I have test-driven the X1 thrice, and never once it wins my heart when I was considering between them. With the CX-5’s ride, it’s firm but nonetheless comfortable, way better than the comfy yet bumpy Honda CR-V, and I prefer it to be firm and have road feedback so that I can feel the road more, and as a passenger, I wouldn’t have the kind of fear when the driver is driving hard with the road feedback. Don’t get me wrong, the firm is not the firm you expect on the BMW G20 330i, but a much pleasant firm ride.

Then, the downside of driving, the brakes, it responds slowly where I need to pedal quite further down to ensure I have sufficient braking force. The sensation of the brake is similar to the brakes on the Volvo XC90 T8 PHEV pre-facelift without the software update. When you first tap on it, the brakes don't bite until you brake harder, then it starts to bite. I’m not sure whether it is only on my particular car, as my friend who owns the pre-IPM 2.0GLS, hop onto the driver seat of my car, and he also says something about the brakes.

Then, here comes the big butt. Given that one day before I do weekend touge, I serviced my car at 4000km, which should be the scheduled 1000km but due to MCO, I did it at 4000km, and the service centre did also replace the engine oil on my car, check on my brakes as one time the AEB or SCBS front was activated, I requested the service centre to check my seatbelt pretensioner, the i-Active Sense system and four days after I rolled out from the service centre when I was fetching my colleague to Queensbay Mall for lunch and when we rolled out from the carpark after lunch, I noticed the undercarriage panel was dropping. Well, you wouldn’t expect an undercarriage panel to drop itself on a sunny day. That time I called my SA and they asked me to roll to the nearest service centre, which was Sg Tiram, but I decided to leave my colleagues back in the office and stop by the roadside. They asked the Mobility service team by Bermaz, to come to meet me at 2p.m., the moment the incident happened was 1p.m. And only at 2:45p.m. which my temper was already spooling when the team came since they were pretty late, they cable tied the panel and asked me to drive to the nearest service centre. That time, Sg Tiram service technicians just jacked up my car and did nothing, later on they claimed I broke the panel myself, which I should be paying.

Now, 5000km, third month, are you expecting this to happen, four days after you rolled out from the service centre? I immediately called my SA in Glenmarie and she asked me to escalate to the customer service in Penang. When I called the Penang Mazda Customer Service Centre during this incident, unfortunately, no one was picking up the phone call. I called Glenmarie and emailed them. That moment, Sg Tiram SA did not even bother yet still talking crap that I crashed my car previously, I ran through a flood which I did not as Penang was extremely warm during the second week of RMCO. First of all, I didn’t wreck my car as if I would, my driveshafts, rims tyres will be damaged, and Bermaz will have all the records. This issue ran for three weeks, and with the cable tied panel I drove my car for three weeks, before someone in Juru decided to give a replacement of the entire undercarriage panel without charging me after heavy escalation, and these panels cost RM378 per piece, mind you. Kudos to the team in PJ and Glenmarie that sorted this out.

Nevertheless, I still need to speak, apologies to the Juru dealer if you feel offended, the moment when you decided to sort this issue out, you asked me to keep quiet and talk nothing to Glenmarie or PJ and only with this condition you agree to replace the panel for me, and when you asked me and challenging me what AEB is, or you are pretty much dumb enough to only recognise SCBS in your dictionary, my temper is already at max, given that when I bought this car, your SA did not even tell me the Sonic Silver was not available, and only when PJ customer service officer told me that your SA captured the wrong message when he thought that the AEB malfunction warning light came out, done something on my car before I rolled out my car from the service centre, only then I know something has gone pretty wrong, and come to the inference that you guys are causing the undercarriage panel to drop, I even have the pictures of the screw is still intact when the panel fall. To even add, your technicians treat customers’ cars as if like a slave, revving hard towards the service bay recklessly from the main entrance. That pretty much sums up my poor sales and after-sales service experience in Juru, and highly recommend people not to buy a Mazda there again due to dishonesty, and I would definitely not service my car there again.

I’ll look for Mazda Jelutong instead, and carry out my next service in PJ to recalibrate my i-ActiveSense camera sensitivity to very sensitive, as for current mode, the SCBS front is not really working. Again, kudos to the service advisor in Glenmarie and PJ. Speaking of SCBS rear, I did activate it once, when I was reversing too fast and near to another car due to rush, and I believe only Volvo and Mazda have AEB on reverse, which I do highly appreciate.

For Adaptive LED headlamps, it helps me during heavy rain at night, and early in the morning or extremely late at night after work, where it shines and lightens up the road, and creates a shadow by not glaring other road users when they are in front of me. This matrix LED is a much needed safety feature that every car should have to make sure the roads are well-lit and provides clear visibility.

Before I forgot about the i-Stop or Mazda version of Auto Start Stop, as all driving enthusiasts, I turned off all the time, and activated only when I come to a long stop at a traffic light.

Mazda Connect (MZD Connect) infotainment system, I pretty much didn’t use it, when I have Android Auto APK installed on my phone. MZD Connect is a great system to use nonetheless, but having Spotify and Waze integrated in the system, it spices up to another level and I used Waze all the time for navigation, Spotify to keep myself entertained.

During the weekend when family is out for lunch or dinner, the Mazda CX-5 perfectly fits five adults in my family, including myself. Space is pretty much usable and much better than Toyota’s newly launched C-segment sedan in my house, and you guys must be flaming me about different segments and pricing, I know I know. Cuppy space is descent with two cup holders, and bottle holders at all doors, two USB ports fast charging on the rear centre armrest allows my sister to charge her iPhone, two on the front which one I’m using for Android Auto (I wish I could have with wireless to prevent the wires dangling around), and three 12V socket, one on the front, one on the centre console and one at the boot. Now, when everyone complains the CX-5 is the smallest in its class, I have to say, it fits perfectly five adults, with some unused space which is still decently practical, and with 40 20 40 split-folding rear seats, it’s practical enough to do Ikea run, although I still don’t use it once, but the narrow window lines make the car claustrophobic and that’s lead to an ok visibility all round, and the black perforated leather seats don’t help, I wish that I have the option to spec beige leather and sunroof to allow more light transmits into the cabin and ventilated the heat in the cabin, which is very cool, but you guys Malaysian will say, nahh it’ll get dirty, all those nonsense.

In fact, I even wonder, 10-15 years ago, when the Vios and Innova came with beige fabric seat, why people never complain huh? Build quality and interior design of the CX-5 is way better than some M badge continental SUV.

Yes, I also do have the power boot, but I highly appreciate it if the operation would be much silent, and with hands-free function so that when my hands are full, a swipe would make things easier, and speaking of that hands-free, Mazda version of the keyless entry is a button type and only available on two-front doors, instead of on four doors all around, which feels less premium. The boot itself is enough to do MCO heavy groceries shopping without fuss, although it has only 445litres of space. I have to say, given a CR-V with ample amount of unused space and trade for driving dynamics, I wouldn’t even have that car come into my mind, because the unused space is still an unused space.

And a minor issue, the side mirrors of the Mazda CX-5 do not have auto-folding function when the car is locked, and what’s worst is there’s no button to manual lock and unlock the car, all you can only do is do it the old Myvi way of lock and unlock by pushing the buttons on the interior door handle, which then makes the “atasness” in build quality of the car feels less premium.

Having owned this car for the fifth month, just under 9,000km, I still love and appreciate this car a lot, albeit with the poor after sales experience. i-ActiveSense really saved my day when I was not attentive on the road due to fatigue, and I couldn’t think if my next car didn’t have all these safety features.

Ride is decent, the handling is fantastic, and there are plenty of features about this car, spacious enough to me and all cars are not perfect, in spite of the cons and shortcomings of the Mazda CX-5. Then again, as a fresh grads, for those who wanna bring yourself to next level, I highly recommend do not follow my footstep of having a budget of RM175-180k for car, unless if your parents have a lot of cash to support your monthly instalment, because every month I calculated just nice for monthly instalment, assigned few amounts of cash for foods, and give parents some pocket money and some for savings. If anything goes wrong, I’ll be in deep trouble.

Rating

Total score: 4/5

Performance: 4/5

Quality and Features: 5/5

Space: 3/5

Ride Comfort: 3/5

Fuel Economy: 5/5

Price and Cost: 4/5

Conclusion

RM175k if you are wondering, is the Mazda CX-5 affordable? No, but given all the features over its rivals, the Mazda CX-5 is worth every penny and it can compete up to even Continental made SUVs, yes I’m pointing to the Mercedes-Benz GLC250 or GLC300 ahem. I also appreciate Mazda’s five years 100,000km free service and warranty, whichever comes first for maintenance, and would not need to worry much apart from tyres, brake pads and discs. Mind you the 19-inch ultra-high performance (UHP) Michelin PS4 SUV or Continental PremiumContact 6 which I’m going to replace after the stock Toyo wears out doesn’t come cheap. Although I spend a lot on cars, when it comes to thinking of having my own house, then I’m pretty much stressed out due to having a loan of nine years and 50% of the salary goes into my car instalment. The savings I have couldn’t easily afford me a condo, unless I work hard enough for increment and bonuses. Therefore, I urge those young chaps, better think before you follow my footstep. For a family car, yes, the Mazda CX-5 is a good option despite the shortcomings, provided you opted for the 2.5 onwards as the 2.0 feels slow to my liking, has decent space, good interior build quality, superior handling at its price and its segment, practical and has good active safety systems, and not forgetting, it’s still pretty good looking after years and it ages quite well.