I agree. It is important to me. If you are a techie, then the CX-5 and pretty much the infotainment system in all current Mazdas will disappoint. If all you use is the radio, then it should be ok. Also the Nav is pretty bad compared to the competition, but that is for another thread.

 

I just purchased a 14 CX-5 & am experiencing the same problems. Attached my Ipod nano via USB and find it also starts at the first song. If I turn the audio off and turn it back on it won't recognize the Ipod. I have to turn off the ignition and start the car again, and then it goes to the first song and not the playlist I was playing. The dealer's service guy suggented I make sure my Ipod and Mazda (TomTom) software are up to date. My Ipod was up to date and I updated all of the Mazda software, but the problem still exists. Even tried my very old first generation Ipod - same issues. I love the CX-5, but these audio problems are frustrating. I traded in a 2012 Toyota Camry Hybrid for the CX-5 and the Toyota audio system worked perfectly with the Ipod. This Mazda audio & navigation system is not state of the art and I guess the only hope is that they come up with a software fix soon.

 

I just purchased my CX-5. I am not the audiophile many of you are and the Bose systems sounds fine to me. Generaly I am pleased and everything functions (blue tooth, Pandora, Sirius). Two issues I am experiencing:

1) the infamous start at the first song on the iPod everytime I start the car.
2) The Bose Centerpoint feature is grayed out and I cannot select it in any mode (FM HD, iPod, Pandora). I have not tried with a CD.

Anyone else unable to select the Centerpoint feature?

I do hope Mazda will fix the issue with the iPod. Anyone have past experience with Mazda providing SW updates for the audio system?

 

I bought the 2014 CX-5 yesterday. Today I tried to use the iPod to listen to an audiobook. A disaster. Shut the car off and restart it and the iPod starts on the first page of the book. Then a few moments later the ipod froze completely.

The car is a Grand Touring that costs over $30,000. This is totally unacceptable. Apparently from this forum nothing is being done about it by Mazda.

This thrad has over $8000 hits. Amazing for any forum. This is close to a class action suit candidate.

Does anyone know if Mazda even reada this Forum?

 

i got my CX-5 T last week. love the car but same issues as all of you. I have two older 60GB iPods and one connects and the other doesn't. the one that does connect takes (like everyone else) forever.
I figure the more media you have on your device the longer it will take to connect. I also did what one guy suggested in that i eliminated a few of my main menu items from the device leaving only artist, song, album, genre and something else (?)
I decided instead to try the flash drive route. Copying a couple of my iPod Artist folders to a FAT32 formatted flash drive provided great results but i figure that was because of the little amount of media stored on it. I saw that I had 33GB of music on my iPod so I went to Walmart, bought a very small 32GB flash drive, made sure it was formatted FAT32 (EXFAT doesn't work), copied all my favorite music to it (~22GB) and tested it out in the car. It's load time is about 2.5-3min. Still too long but at least half the time it takes to load my iPod. I like that the drive is so small and call live in the car permanently.
The last thing I did, which some suggested was to create a 5-10min mp3 track of silence in an audio-editing app and named it 0000000_Slient_Track.mp3
Now, no more same song starting to play every time I get in the car.
Again, hopefully Mazda will fix this issue with audio device loading time.

 

I feel your pain. Can you use bluetooth? Its a bit more reliable, that being said, for the price of the car the ipod interface should work! Its not like the iDevices are a new thing in 2013. There has been plenty of time to work out these issues. Mazda seems to be very tacit in acknowledging the issues. I don't know if class action is warranted, but there is one out on MyFord Touch and I wish the Mazda interface was half as good as the myFord touch interface

Proposed class-action lawsuit targets 'defective' MyFord Touch - Autoblog

If that is the basis for a class action against Ford, I could easily say the same for Mazda's current system.

 

Hello everyone,

I just bought my brand-new 2014 Touring CX-5 about 2 months ago. First new car ever and have the payment to prove it! Anyways, I was able to take my CX-5 on a nice long road trip to break it in soon after getting it. I got to learn the car quite well over the 1,100 mile trip. Almost immediately after getting back, I had to go away for business and have been driving a rental 2013 Ford Escape for the past few weeks. Go figure.

I can say that I will certainly miss Ford's excellent Sync system. I too experience all of the previously mentioned problems with the CX-5 entertainment system, which I find nearly unacceptable, since I've got an iPhone 5 and a 4G iPod and a brand new car. These are fairly new and nearly ubiquitous devices. It's not as if I am expecting backwards compatibility for anything I'm interfacing to that headunit. Long load times using USB, no album art (even though Gracenote is a selectable option on the '14), no USB Spotify compatibility (or anything other than the Apple player app = completely ridiculous), automatic play-back from top of Artist/Song list on start-up, no text messages from the phone, etc... Check, check, and check.

On the whole though, I am missing my CX-5. I am looking forward to hopping in it when I get back, starting up some music with Spotify (on Bluetooth of course *sigh*), and enjoying how it drives and looks. I like the Escape, don't get me wrong. I like it alot. My rental has the 1.6 EcoBoost engine, and that turbo whine is something I miss (having traded in a 2008 MkV VW GTI manual for the CX-5). Okay, not the same thing or type of car at all I know, but coming from the GTI let me tell you all, Mazda really nailed the handling and feel of the CX-5. I find myself wanting to drive the CX-5, just to drive it, just as I did with the GTI. Not so for the Escape. Plus, the 2.5L in the 2014 model is a bit quicker than the 1.6 EcoBoost Escape I've got, which is pretty much exactly my car's counterpart in terms of price (used of course). I notice more and more Ford is doing many fantastic things with some of their cars; keeping them cheap is not one of them.

Ford's got Mazda trumped on a lot of pretty important things, no denying it. The tech and features on the Escape blow the CX-5 out of the water. You can just tell where Mazda cut corners and tried to save some money, especially on my Touring trim level. It drives me nuts. For example, big auto firms like Ford and VW apparently have enough of a budget to make every window in the car one-touch, for up AND down. Not JUST the driver's window, not ONLY for rolling my window down. Mazda, come on. Having user-definable LED cabin accent lighting in CX-5-land...unimaginable. I could go on and list all those little things, but I'm sure we all know them too well by now.

I am sticking with my CX-5 though and I'm at peace. I traded my GTI for something bigger, fun to drive, and reliable. I don't find myself wanting to drive the Escape, and I have a feeling I am just initially impressed by all the extras in the Escape that probably won't last the 5-6 years I'll have my Mazda. After all, on the CX-5 there's hardly any of that stuff to break anyways! Seriously though, I have faith software issues will be worked out. That Ford Sync system has some serious stability issues at times and it makes me glad I have a straight forward, simple UI with only a few kinks to be worked out. Until then, I'll deal with the quirks of the stereo (Non-Bose which sounds surprisingly good when adjusted and played with good audio files btw), and just enjoy the great drive. The cabin is a perfectly acceptable nice-enough place to be in for the daily commute or for the occasional weekend road-trip, but if you start to get bored or frustrated with it, just turn everything off and put your right foot down. You'll feel better.

 

So I posted to this thread back in April, and my car still has the same issues and I haven't heard anything from Mazda, and it doesn't look like anyone has had any luck either.

I guess I am asking, does anyone have the fix for some of the basic apple to CX-5 problems we have addressed?

and don't tell me to look in the manual. i've done that and it doesn't work. thats why so many people are upset with mazda...

 

Hey folks:

New poster here. I can't believed that nobody has complained about the annoying "Audio Off" screen. I select Settings and then Display-Off and the display goes off just fine. But I want that to be my default. Every dang day.

I turn on audio, and then turn it off again, the frickin' "audio-off" screen is back. Or, I place or receive a phone call over bluetooth, and the audio-off screen is back. Then I need to once again select Settings and then Display-Off. My wife's civic has a button that cycles through a selection of default screens (she likes the analog clock, but "off" is one of the options).

This is just an awful choice for a default screen on my Mazda -- I hate it every day. And they already have the buttons in place to make "off" the default -- this is just crappy programming (I design embedded hardware/software for a living and my customers would refuse to pay me for such shoddy work).

And then there is the starting-at-first-song issue... And how there are no FF/Rew buttons on the CD screen... Yeah, just crappy electronics design, which I did not expect from a high-quality Japanese company. Maybe they farmed out the electronics to a different country.

I do really love the drive, the mpg, the surprisingly-good power (given the mpg), the design (lack of smiley front is a big plus over the mazda3 that I considered), and the fact that I could put an oem trailer hitch on it (not avail on a mazda3, and an aftermarket hitch voids warranty). I just use a little utility trailer occasionally, but it was a mandatory feature for me.

Ahh, nothing is ever perfect. The only hopeful thing is that the electronics can be re-programmed if they ever release new firmware.

 

This is the response I got from Mazda in NZ regarding the iPod issues everyone else is experiencing. I have a 2013 CX-9 with Bose option:

Thank you for your enquiry on our website.

With the introduction of both grace notes and voice recognition the bluetooth module now down loads all the song data from the paired audio device when the ignition key is turned on. This enables you the listener to select which song/s you would like to listen to, by artist, song name or genre using the voice control function. With this feature every time the car is switched off and restarted the song download is re-initialised. Unfortunately, in our efforts to improve functionality on one way, we have limited it in others.

We are aware of this feature and have reported it back to Mazda Corporation for their attention. We have been advised that that it may take several months (up to 1 year) for changes to be made so the track position is retained and the connection / download speed is improved.

In the mean-time, as an option to enable you to listen to music or audio books, you could use the 3.5mm AUX connection and this would remove the current frustrations being experienced.

We apologise for the inconvenience caused but rest assured we are actively seeking a resolution.