Helping my girlfriend buy her next Mazda after retiring her Mazda 6.

Getting a Mazda CX is the obvious choice. It's one of the best (if not the best) vehicles in its class.

Yesterday, we test drove the CX-5 and CX-50 in Premium Plus trims. Presently, we are leaning toward the CX-5 (with hesitation about its shorter center console armrest)

The major problem is the infotainment system. For any beginner to these vehicles, it seems like a complete disaster. I realize Mazda felt the **** operation was safer, but the touchscreen operation is far more intuitive.

And while we test drove the car, I was going crazy trying to maneuver around Apple Car Play using the ****. Playing Apple Music took a lot of ****-turning to get to the controls I wanted. In short, not fun.

I did realize that when the car is stopped, you can use the touchscreen in Apple Car Play mode. However, once vehicle is moving, you need to use the dial.

All the above being said...

Found a few YouTube videos pointing out the secret setting when selecting BLUETOOTH -> YOUR PHONE. You can put the infotainment system in touchscreen mode while driving. That's great and could be the answer to our biggest issue with the vehicle.

So two questions...

1. For those of you who have owned this vehicle for quite some time, how easy does it become to learn and become comfortable with the **** operation? Anyone who wanted a touchscreen won over by the **** operation?

2. For those that changed the settings for complete touchscreen use when the vehicle is in motion: I know that works for Apple Car Play, but does it also work for the Mazda home screens outside of Car Play?

 

It took me a long time to get comfortable with the entertainment system. None of it is intuitive, in terms of what setting I needed to get to phone/bluetooth and Carplay and anything else for that matter. Now I use Carplay all the time and I feel better about it. But it isn't totally touchscreen. For example using Spotify, if I want to scroll down a list of songs, I need to tap the down arrow instead of swiping. I've had the car since January. I JUST realized yesterday that the big **** is also like a joystick, where I had been using the back button to move around.

 

Thanks for the response, Junebug.

When you say it isn't completely touchscreen, is that even with the hidden touchscreen setting turned on?

 

NJRonbo,
I don't know how to turn on the secret setting?

 

Depending on your trim, this may radically change things for you. If you change the setting, please come back and let us know how much it improves the experience. This works on CX-5 as well.

 

Honestly once you learn the system it becomes muscle memory using the ****. I'm glad my 2021 doesn't have touchscreen because of the issues in the past that happened with Mazda.

 

As a longtime motorcycle rider, for safety reasons, I always set my 4-wheel vehicles music up before I get on the road.
I never listened to music while riding any motorcycle as it is a very unneeded distraction.
I've had way too many bad encounters with touchscreen drivers both on a motorcycle and in a 4-wheel vehicle and even a few in a boat.
No one should be using a touch screen of any kind when actually driving down the road.
It really just takes a few minutes to pull over and then you can safely take your eyes off the road to make your required adjustments.
It just might save someone's life, including your own.

 

NJRonbo,
I already have this enabled. I remember the sales guy changed the setting for me when I picked up the car. But... this only works when using Car Play. The "normal" screen never has touch screen enabled. Thank you!

 

I have a 2020 and 2022 CX-5 and LOVE the infotainment with command dial control. It took a few weeks to develop memory but have learned to prefer it so much over the touchscreen in my F150 and rentals. When you use the command control your arm just rests on the console. It feels right. When I use a touchscreen my arm has to be lifted in the air and any bump causes a miss. The menus and formatting and wonderful. The only oddity with the connect system is playlist setup - takes some work to make playlists it understands.