Short Take Road Test
We recognize that for many people there is a minivan phase of life, when the ability to carry a small brood and their paraphernalia in an economical and relatively fuel-efficient manner is a necessity—stigma be damned.
But at the advent of this phase, when the kids are few and tiny, and at the end, when they grow large enough to leave on their own accord, there is a niche for a smaller, three-quarters-scale minivan.
It is here that the Mazda 5 takes residence: a six-seat crossover with sliding doors that stems from the Mazda 3 platform. In Europe, compact multipurpose vehicles such as this are known as space wagons. In North America, the Mazda 5 occupies this space almost unchallenged; the closest competitor is the Kia Rondo, but the Rondo has conventionally hinged rear doors.
What also sets the Mazda 5 apart is that, true to the sporty nature of the brand, it possesses some driving flair—it’s not the enthusiast buzzkill that is most full-size minivans.
It’s obviously not a conventional minivan when the $18,645 base Sport model comes equipped with a manual transmission. That’s our favorite, but just five percent of buyers opt to shift for themselves.
Mazda’s big news for 2008 is that it has replaced the somewhat outdated four-speed automatic transmission with a five-speed that is available in all three trims (Sport, Touring, and Grand Touring). We tested it in the top-of-the-line Grand Touring, which adds heated leather seats, Bluetooth, and automatic climate control. Our Mazda 5 was $25,645, which included the optional navigation, making it pretty much as loaded as they come.
New Five-Speed Automatic Passes Muster
We confess adherence to the preconceived notion that performance would suffer with the automatic; subsequently, we have a huge plate of crow on the menu for tonight. In fact, we begrudgingly predict that the number of buyers who want the manual may even drop further since the new tranny preserves enough of the fun quotient for most drivers. Minivan customers might be confused by the manumatic’s operation—forward for downshifts, back for upshifts—that, true to Mazda’s Zoom-Zoom mantra, stems from sequential manual transmissions in real race cars.
Under the hood of all 5s is Mazda’s 2.3-liter four-cylinder pumping out 153 horsepower and 148 pound-feet of torque and squirting the 3505-pound mini-minivan to 60 mph in a ho-hum 9.4 seconds.
But that’s no reason not to have some fun on the way to Grandma’s house, with respectable fuel economy en route. The five-speed automatic and some engine management tweaks add 2 mpg to the EPA ratings that now list the 5’s fuel efficiency at 21 city and 27 highway with the automatic. It is 22/28 mpg with the manual.
The Mazda 5 might be almost as high as it is wide, but there is nothing square about its ride. The squat look leads to the expectation that it can’t mimic the Mazda 3 in dynamics, but it proves to be a reasonable copycat, thanks in part to its nearly identical curb weight. That makes the 5 about 1000 pounds lighter than the average full-size minivan in our most recent comparison test.
Furthermore, at 0.80 g, the 5 outgripped all those full-sizers on the skidpad. Meanwhile, the electrohydraulic rack-and-pinion steering is accurate and quick at 2.9 turns lock-to-lock, understeer is moderate, and the turning diameter is impressive.
