WATCH  Amazing Mazda  CX5 2017
Channel: Auto Today
Date: 16/01/2017

Originally introduced for the 2013 model year, the CX-5 was the first Mazda to combine what are now the company’s two signature tag lines: Skyactiv technology and the Kodo design language. But we liked it more for its class-leading fun-to-drive dynamics. Riding the wave of the compact-crossover boom, the CX-5 has become one of the carmaker’s most popular models, accounting for one in four Mazdas sold.

For the CX-5’s second generation, the 2017 iteration takes design cues from the new CX-9 and the Mazda 3 while nearly matching its predecessor’s dimensions. Mazda’s most important crossover gets a large new grille, sleeker headlights, slimmer taillights, and a freshened interior. Beyond the styling, there are significantly reduced NVH, G-Vectoring Control technology for improved steering turn-in, and, depending on the market, a choice of three four-cylinder engines: the revised Skyactiv-G 2.0- and 2.5-liter gas burners and a revamped Skyactiv-D sequentially turbocharged 2.2-liter diesel. In the U.S., we won’t get the 2.0-liter this time, but the diesel finally is coming to America.

New Diesel

We got a first taste of the new CX-5—and the diesel specifically—while driving undisguised prototypes at a Japanese media event near Mount Fuji, about 80 miles southwest of Tokyo. The Japan-market version we sampled “is very close to the U.S.-spec diesel,” according to CX-5 program manager Masaya Kodama.

The powerplant is similar to the diesel available in the previous model in other markets. U.S. specs aren’t finalized, but in its home-market trim the new diesel pumps out 173 horsepower at 4500 rpm and 310 lb-ft of torque at 2000 rpm and is teamed with a six-speed automatic gearbox. Coming out of our first corner, the sharp pickup from low down in the rev range was a pleasant surprise, with the boost coming on at around 2500 rpm and remaining on tap until 4500 rpm. The transmission’s remapped shift schedule also assists in exiting corners faster, and downshifts are quicker, too.

To improve the driving experience, engineers also addressed the typical diesel clatter by dropping “natural sound smoothers” inside the piston pins, says Kodama. The result is somewhat effective in lowering the intensity of the clatter compared with its predecessor, but the diesel sound and vibration definitely are still there.

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