I love the space, gas mileage, and build quality of my 4-week old Mazda 5. Auto transmission17-in wheels. What I hate in descending order:
[ol][*]Road noise on some surfaces. On the 416 highway south of Ottawa there is one stretch where the noise is really really loud. Anyone out there have a suggestion for reducing it?[*]Lack of an armrest on the passenger seat[/ol]

 

Few years ago i bought an old 1986 peugeot 205 1.0 litre to commute to work in because of high mileages i covered. Being a basic model with lack of proper sound proofing it was very noisey on certain surfaces on the motorway (freeway) travelling at 70+ mph. My solution? A set of earplugs. My workplace had plenty of them on the factory floor so i 'borrowed' some. :-)

http://www.earinc.com/images/product...lassicfoam.jpg

 

The vehicle overall is great. Perfect for our young family right now. Things I would change. 1, Shut off seat belt minders. 2, Do not like low profile tires, too suspectable to curb damage. 3, Be able to lock the doors without all doors being shut (for those of us with young children). 4, Diesel engine option in US. 5, Spin on oil filter. As you can see, these are pretty minor, except for #2. Replacement oem wheels are hard to find and expensive. Philip.

 

the A/C is dreadfully inadequate. I live in Vegas and unless the amb temp is under 95° F, it simply won't bring the cabin to a comfy temp. I have the windows tinted DARK and still no dice. I'm actually thinking about an invention to reflect light and heat away from the auto glass, but its a tad bit inconvenient.

Though the stereo sounded ok, i elected to add a subwoofer - a single 10 is just about perfect and some listeners may not even need that much bass, a single ported or bandpass 8" will do the trick.

I hate that there is no arm rest on the passenger side...actually my wife hates it as she does not ever drive the five. It's MINE MINE...ALL MINE MUAHAHAHA

 

I agree that the aircon could do with a little more "ooomph" - we've just come back from the South of France and only "adequate" would describe it.

Our Berlingo manged better "fridging" and that gave us change out of 10 grand !

 

The interior plastic trim scratches easily. No arm rests for the front passenger. No rear A/C vents/controls. It's still a fabulous car.

 

Very nice car, but here is what bothers me.
1) Road noise.
2) Stereo system sounds like a battery radio + the road noise = useless
3) Lack of a decent resting place for the left foot.
4) No cruise control for the base version (GS in Canada).
5) AC does not reach 3rd row.

 

Just collected my spanking new Mazda 5 last Friday

Agree with 1. Travelling on motorway at speeds of 70mph+ there was road noise which rose depending on road surface. Simply turning up the volume of the radio helps but not for my kids who might be sleeping at the time.

Regarding 3 there is a foot rest in my right hand drive mazda 5

Totally agree with poor ventilation for the rear occupants.

The unique look and handling greatly outweigh the shortcomings listed above.

 

Not just UK models suffer with the tyre wear issue. There are reports of problems in Canada, US, Portugal, France and Spain.......

 

Hi Guys.. New member today. Orderd my new 5 furano 2.0 petrol in galaxy gray with leather seats and 17" wheels last weekget it the end of themonth paid £500 deposit pay rest when pick up thought i got a bargain got it for £16,500 with the leather and a free set of matts chucked in, instead of £17,995Now haveing second toughts about it from this good site of yours about tyer wear etc what should i do cancel or say something when i go to pick the car up???????????