I have a 2025 Premium Plus CX5 and had many others . This is not a " Problem "- but something to be aware of. since many of the 2.5 NA trim levels have cylinder deactivation- which operates flawlessly and did on previous years , I noticed one thing recently which might be something to watch . When Im in 6th gear cruising at freeway speeds , and use the paddle shifter to go to 5th gear from 6th while in CD mode , Theres a slight hesitation which occurs. Its not obvious or jarring yet noticeable. I believe its the engine going back to 4 cylinders before going to higher rpms in 5th gear . I am going to avoid doing this manually and use the gas pedal to downshift from 6 to 5 as it seems to be more immediate. The spec on CD transition is 0.15 seconds so this may or may not be noticeable by others --Anyone else have this experience ? I have tried to duplicate this every time and cannot --If I pull the paddle shifter and hold it just a split second longer --theres no heistation -- thus it may not be CD and just the learning curve on the Transmisson ( PCM)TCM -

 

What you describe is as you said not a problem and is user generated. The system in CD ( abbreviation for those that do not know is CD= Cylinder Deactivation) mode is not perfect with any platform and there are still some challenges that need to be ironed out with the ECU programing.
As most of us that tend to sport drive the Skyactiv models a bit we know the shifting characteristics can be somewhat an occasional aggravation moment if you are not on the ball when attempting to down shift a daily driver even without out CD . CD makes many shifting aspects less performance felt and less quick responses to manual shifting.

I can suggest that those who are interested run a live scan by connecting a quality scanner with live systems feed and see the large dips in the ECU controlled engine and transmission fields when downshifting at highway speeds or attempting to pass by more aggressive drive-by-wire actuation.

The few of us that actually on a professional level that do EFI/ECU Performance calibrating in a forum for Calibrators or slang Tunners some of us have experimented changes the transmission calibration. Unfortunately, that is a long-time consuming effort and no one in our group has been able to change much without too many other ECU control aspects become effected and so in the positive way.

CD is for fuel economy first and foremost and any other use a bit of common sense when aggressively or briskly accelerating or downshift when it is active really must be used.

Oh and to poke fun of some old school names of control parts, it's not a gas pedal anymore but a Drive-By-Wire