I lowered the psi to about 30 and it helped with the rolling abrasive part of the ride, but the problem is that the suspension is too stiff and gives a bone-jarring ride. My response here is rather calm but I'm beyond frustrated at having to endure this abusive ride every day. Two features the deaership didn't tell m about are bad head pain and a cricket ensemble that last for hours. My recommendation is to test drive this car for about a month to see if you can really deal with this ride.

 

JohnD: We get that you're frustrated with the ride, but never having stated whether you have 17" or 19" wheels (and for that matter if you test drove a CX-5 with the smaller rims and then purchased one with the larger ones!) makes it difficult to offer any morehelp. Some folks feel that the 19" wheels on the GT do produce a harsher ride because of the shorter sidewalls. I have no opinion because I have a Touring with the 17s and it's been ages (3 years) since I test drove a GT. That said, if you do have the 19s, you may want to look at finding a set of 17" take-offs on the internet and selling your 19s the same way. There is a better market for 19s than 17s, so you could probably "buy low and sell high" if that is something you're willing to do.

 

The Touring model comes with 17" and the GT comes with 19". Mine has 17" and I purposely stayed away from the 19" and got the Touring with navigation and the moonroof/Bose package.

 

Oh, sorry, I missed that. Well... you're screwed then. But I have to tell you I've been on this and a much more active CX-5 forum for three years and you're the only one that's complained this vociferously about the ride with 17" wheels. 19s yes, but not 17s. And Mazda supposedly has made subtle changes to the suspension over the years for better ride quality on all trim levels! Most folks buy a crossover knowing that the ride will not be as cushy as the corresponding sedan version of the chassis (in this case the Mazda 6). It's the price you pay for jacking a car up on its suspension and the necessary alterations needed to keep it from flopping over when you go around corners! The CX-5 is slanted a bit more towards the handling side of the equation in the ride/handling trade-off. That's why they're more popular with the enthusiast crowd than Rav4, CR-V, Forester and the like.

 

Ok thanks for your reply paris1. This actually makes sense because when I had a 300zx with adjustable suspension before the ride was actually quite pleasant on the softer setting. The car's center of gravity was lower and therefore didn't need to be super stiff.

My friend from work has the same car and she doesn't like the ride either. The roads around here even when new are not smooth this is a place where it pays to have a softer riding car.

 

I regret purchasing this vehicle more and more everyday. Should've gotten the Forrester.

 

Wait a minute; 8 minutes ago in another post here you said you should have stuck with Honda! Which is it?

 

When I decided to trade in my 12 year old Honda, one of the vehicles I checked out was the Forrester. Should've gone with that instead of Mazda.

 

I'm curious as to why you regret purchasing your CX-5. I went from a 2014 Accord Coupe V6 to the CX-5 I'm driving now, and I regret buying either one. Of course the Accord with the V6 was seriously quicker than the CX-5 and had more features for about the same price. It didn't have nearly as much cargo space but the truck was still large.

I regret buying the CX-5 because I feel like I ended up with less car for the same money. There are several quirks that are rather annoying, but the deal killer has been the ride quality. I think Paris1 mentioned that I was the only one to complain to a great extent about this car on this forum, but I don't think most people would go to an enthusiast forum to complain... even though I did. I have read other people's complaints here but I would have to search for them as it has been a while. All I want to do is make any potential CX-5 owners aware of what they are getting themselves into before they buy one.

 

I'm going to name my car Thumper!