Hi all,

I've got some answers to the earlier post about the letter I received from Mazda. Just to clear things up, I'm located in New Zealand. I've had the update applied and it was a fix for the TomTom only.

As that letter mentioned, some people may not have experienced some of the issues, I for one didn't experience any problems. Apparently it was a to fix an issue where the navigation screen would suddenly freeze, go blank and then reset the current location to Wellington no matter where you were in NZ. The only way to get it working again was to remove the SD card and put it back in.

One thing it did fix which wasn't mentioned is the safety lock function. If you try enter a new address and then started driving it would engage the safety lock and you'd have to retype everything when you stopped again. Now when I drive, it engages the safety lock but as soon as you stop, the address enter screen shows up where you left off and you can continue entering your desired destination. (I understand this is a minor fix but it's really helpful if you use the nav a lot). I'm not sure if this was a NZ only thing, you've probably already got this functionality elsewhere I'm presuming? I still don't like the safety lock, it's a pain in the ***...

Anyway following the update I decided to call Mazda's head office in NZ, their number was listed in the phonebook, you wouldn't find it on their website! I ended up speaking to a chap there who is well aware of the iPod issues. He took down all my details and he reassured me that Mazda Japan are definitely working on a fix. He said he would get in touch as soon as he has heard any news. He hadn't heard of any vehicles getting replacement units to fix the iPod problem...

So that's all I've got. My apologies if I got anyone's hopes up. I will definitely post something here if I hear any news at all. I really hope this get's sorted out soon.

Cheers, Jason

 

I have a 2013 Mazda 3 with NB1 head unit and use a 5th gen Ipod touch with ios 7 that is connected by USB cable. Two biggest problems: Always starts on song 1 & not a true random shuffle. Two things that I have found that makes listening to my Ipod better are:


1. Make your song 1 a blank mp3, at least you are not hearing the same song every time you start the car. Google blank mp3, look for a website Xamuel.com. Website has blank mp3's from .5 sec to 5 min. I use a 10 sec file. Right click and save target as to save file to your computer. Rename file so that it will be song 1 (mine is named 1.mp3). Import song to iTunes or whatever you use. I even used iTunes to change the artist name and album name to be "Press Shuffle Now". This gives me a 10 second window to press the shuffle button to hear a different song.


2. How I can get a true random shuffle: When I turn off my car, I then unplug the USB cable from the Ipod. The next time I start my car, I start it with my Ipod still disconnected. Once the Ipod tab reverts back to USB, I then plug the USB connecter back into my Ipod. I have about 475 songs so it takes 30-45 secs to load my library. My 10 sec blank song starts and gives me a chance to press the shuffle button and I get a truly random playlist every time. When I unplugged the cable from the Ipod, I leave the connector half in/half out to make it easier to plug it back in at the right time since I am usually doing it with my car in motion.


Renaming a blank song to be song 1 is something I read on a different forum. Finding a way to get a random shuffle I stumbled on by myself. While not ideal, it has made using my Ipod less stressful. Maybe Mazda will eventually come up with a fix for the NB1's Ipod integration, but I am beginning to serious doubt that it will ever occur. Reading forums for the 2014 Mazda 3 with their new infotainment system, it has had many problems as well. But they have already published 3 or 4 software updates in the last 6-9 months. I have had my car for over a year and they haven't made any changes to the NB1.

 

I have a 2014 cx5 touring…. all of a sudden my iPhone 5 won't connect to my radio over usb. It still charges, but it only says ipd reading, I could have the screen untouched for an hour and it still says reading iPod. has anyone encountered this or found a solution?

 

It's been about a week and a half since I traded in my Jeep Wrangler Unlimited for a 2014 Mazda CX-5 Touring, and for the most part, I'm still very thrilled.

But the biggest shortcoming in my new CX-5, by far, has been the infotainment system. I researched the heck out of this car before going into the dealership, and even then I only saw a couple of small quibbles about this system online. (I obviously did not chance upon this thread during my research, unfortunately.)

I wouldn't say that this issue is a dealbreaker for me; there are so many things to love about this vehicle. But it has begun to get frustrating that every time I get into my $27,000 purchase that I'm faced with broken or inadequate technology.

Some of the issues I've faced (most of them with the audio):

• My system only has HD Radio. I knew this going into the purchase, but leaving Sirius/XM out of the "tech" package seems absurd. I thought I could deal without it, but . . .
• HD Radio is spotty at best. I'll be on a channel for a song or two before it loses the signal and cuts out. We have had cloudy weather for the past few days, so I'm hoping that's the cause of the issue, but even then, I never really had that problem with Sirius. It's unfortunate that HD Radio seems to be my most reliable option at this point because . . .
• My Pandora connection is terrible. It either won't connect at all to the app on my iPhone 5C, and on the rare chance that it does, it will only play a couple of songs before it loses connection.
• Using Bluetooth is okay, but it also has it's limitations, as well as spotty connectivity. It takes several moments to first connect when I turn on my car, meaning that I've been driving for several minutes before a song comes on, not to mention the sound quality is poor.
• Speaking of poor sound quality: how can a "tech" package, with PREMIUM Bose speakers, not give me more control over the sound beyond bass,treble, L/R,front and back? Are you kidding me? I had more equalizing power in my crappy Jeep system!
• Of course there's the whole issue with using USB. Has to load every time I turn on the car, takes forever, only starts at the first song, etc, etc.
• Using my phone in the car has been fine, although I always get an error message if I try to download my text messages.

These are the big issues. I haven't dared try to use the navigation system, and rely on my phone's apps for that sort of thing anyway, so I don't know what issues exist there. But I'm sure they are there. I love this car, but it's sad for me to think that I could get into my 6-year-old Jeep and immediately start listening to whatever audio I wanted; but doing the same in my CX-5 means constantly fiddling in frustration with the dashboard and trying to find workarounds.

I found this forum because I was actually hoping to find some sort of update or solution to my problem. Doesn't seem like there's one yet. I'm now posting my issues here in the hopes that somebody at Mazda is reading this and will grace us with a solution soon.

 

Just saw this article about Apple "CarPlay." I doubt this is a possible solution, but perhaps I'm wrong? The article doesn't mention any interest from Mazda (unfortunately) but I do have the tiniest bit of hope that perhaps this could possibly be a solution to the dreaded infotainment issues in my 2014 CX-5.

 

I was thinking the same thing. It would be perfect for the Mazda.

 

I loaded some of my wife's CDs on to an iPod nano and made each a Playlist with a name beginning with "1" so they would be listed at the top. After the slow start-up, the first song is from the first Playlist without a "1."

Our Touring CX-5 was bought last week. Salesman said it was made in December, so probably among the last of the '14s. Looks like Mazda still hasn't solved the iPod problem. This is a nuisance, not a showstopper, but you'd think they would have solved by now.

Also, I hear a whirring noise from the audio system. A fan?

I DO really wish I had been aware of the '15s coming so soon. Bad on me!

BTW, my iPod works flawlessly with my '10 VW CC.

 

Maybe for iOS users it would be. I'm rockin' an iPod classic 160gb. So that new interface would not do me and my android family any good :/

 

New 2014 CX-5 GT owner with all the same frustrations as everyone else. Was pretty excited about the purchase, only to find out the day after about the audio and electronics shortcomings. I thought it was just me when I noticed the audio sounding 'off'. It's very directional and definitely plays louder in the center speaker. The audio quality in general sounds very muddy and not "HD". I notice this especially on Sirius XM, which I thought would be the best sounding out of the radio/pandora/bluetooth/ipod options..


The iPod issue really sucks. Having a built-in iPod connector was one of the things I was looking forward to in upgrading my car. Prior to this I had a makeshift iPod jack that my uncle helped installed by plugging something to my car stereo. In other words, it was pretty ghetto but it played and worked SO much better than the iPod connection on my CX-5!

REALLY hope they offer a solution to this soon.

 

after reading some of these posts i have noticed some people in the US have mentioned that the radio has a digital receiver is this true .i am in the uk and the cx65 / mazda 6 does not have a digital DAB radio receiver for some reason do have all the same problems as everyone else though but it does look like they are recalling my 2014 cx5 in the near future to replace the whole system .