Mazda CX-5
An really beautiful SUV in my eyes. Consumes less fuel than most of those cars, and is bigger than many others. A nice interior and a huge trunk. I drove the Sports Line 4x4 with manual shift.
Acceleration is sporty enough, 0-60 mph (0-100 km/h) in about 10 seconds and up to 196 km/h fast.
It was stable at all times, the ESP wasn't even coming into action. Very nice. You wouldn't think so, with this high position in the car.
Yeah it really is something. About 7.5 liter fuel per 100 km for the petrol version is a good result, but not nearly as good as promised (6.6 liter). But the deal breaker was the estimated delivery time. About 8 month. Way too long. Plus the gas mileage is not as good as the advertisement suggests. However, it's a great car, and while not really meant for offroading, it can beat some slight offroad terrain.
The price is not as good as it looks first. If you want to have extras like rear camera e.g. you need to buy the version I drove, and that comes for about 33.000 Euro.
I wasn't convinced completely at the end. And I got another testdrive...
Mazda 6 (2013) Skyactiv
Brandnew. I could drive it even before the Premiere-Gala near Munich. It really looks great. The new design is, like the CX-5, really amazing. I drove the Sports Line i-ELoop engine sportswagon version with 165 hp. A manual shift that feels sporty as the car's look is.With over 8 liter per 100km, it's a bit strange, compared to the CX-5. It's not an SUV and consumes even more fuel? It isn't even faster in real life driving than the SUV. This really wondered me. But other than that a comfortable and good equipped car. But the same problem as with the CX-5. If you want a decent equipment, you need to buy the 32.000 Euro version. If you want an automatic gearbox, it takes another 1.800 Euro. I think this is a general problem with Mazda at the higher models. The price entry is always so good, but you really get a plain car. There is more extras for the same price in many cars from other manufacturers.
Anyway, the car itself is great. The price is more than okay. You can compare it to luxury cars if you like. The huge trunk of the sportswagon version is good for transport almost anything you like.
If you are looking for a beautiful, fast enough, and uncommon car, get the new Mazda 6. It's really good.
Why I didn't chose this one? Well for me something has to be very special. Either you can really do offroad, be extremely fast, extremely fuel efficient, or something other that is unique. The problem here was, it's a really good car. But there is nothing extraordinary.
So I'll have another testdrive... in the next post :).
