So I'll be picking up this beauty on Friday (had no idea the poor dealer drones didn't get the day off!) and I know the owner's manual is only just short of War and Peace...

This car has all the bells and whistles, and I will of course be reading the manual, but are there any tips and tricks that anyone could share that I might not immediately glean from my bedtime reading for the next week? Not necessarily stuff that isn't in the manual (though that would be great!), but stuff that's easy to overlook or makes things much more convenient. I've already come up with questions in my mind as to various things - like I know the driver's seat can be programmed to go to the memory setting of the keyfob that it's bound to, but what happens when both of us sit up front with our fobs? It keeps me up at night, I tell you...

 

Welcome to the forum

 

Thank-you! I'm coming from a Nissan Note and there was a great forum for those for a little while. But being a discontinued model (in Europe, at least), it was getting a bit dead in there so it's nice to be somewhere alive.

 

I had to finally shut down my own personal forum after years of being active and over 90 thousand members since 2000. It was down to about a dozen regular members, and we all started talking more about everything but the platform the forum was created for. I even allowed politics' and a gun thread (watching it carefully and it was only seen by members logged in) to be allowed to try to keep it alive for a couple more years. But the last year it was no longer generating revenue from sponsorship and I was not going to pay for it with so low member attendance.
This forum gest visited by more than any other Mazda forum. Also we have a regular attendance of active members that just like to BS and also help new and existing members with issues.
So again WELCOME ABOARD.

 

Welcome.
We all have different methods of garnering new knowledge but it's best to read what the "Manufacturer" has written before seeking our own path or someone else's.
I would suggest carefully read the entire manual as it will have all the information you need and explain it in the correct manner/order.
Then you can experiment with the vehicle settings, if required, so they best fit your personal needs.
Then you can post up any questions should you have them.
Enjoy.

 

I have found one issue, which is that the start/stop system keeps saying the battery isn't ready. We gave it a good 50 miles down the motorway and back, and it still says that. Dealer thinks it will go away after a few weeks and it's just because it sat in the sales lot for too long on its lonesome. Does that ring true to anyone? Is there anything that I can do, beyond waiting, to get it to think the battery is OK? It's a three and a half year old car, so I wouldn't expect the battery to be faulty in any way, but the motorway run should have charged it up pretty well considering it's got enough juice to start itself.

 

I would recommend to have the battery be load tested and also check the charging system static and under load. At least it will be documented to your vehicles service history .

Often times factory installed batteries will be bad at the dealerships for various reason none of which are usually vehicle problem related. This is also a reason why some find later on that their battery is not a factory but a dealer replacement battery.

 

Agreed. It sounds like a bad battery to me. 3.5yrs is actually pretty good for a CX-5. You could also try a good quality charger (such as a NOCO like this: ).

It's easier to just go to a parts store and have them load test it though.

 

Agreed on getting battery load tested.
I bought a used 2020 CX-5 with about 10,000 miles in January 2021, and the battery was toast from having set around in the lot in cold weather.
The dealer replaced the battery with one of my choosing for no charge.
Most OEM batteries do not last long in new vehicles even under the best conditions.
Over the past 15 years I've averaged about 3 years on OEM batteries for the various makes & models I have owned.
Extrapolate what you wish from that.

 

Just to update on this, it started working after regular driving for two weeks. I will definitely keep an eye on it, though.

And at my two-week anniversary, a little old lady crashed into the back of me. It looks like just a cracked bumper, so I'm hoping it's nothing more than that. She was gutted, because no-one is going to pay to fix her 21 year-old VW Lupo.