USED Mazda 5 MPV (05 - 11)

My car

I’ve just taken delivery of a 2.0D Sport Nav (141 bhp). In the compact MPV market it is clearly the best option: the Toyota Verso is far too cramped; the Zafira has a strange non-split middle seat that means everyone in the middle row has to get out in order to load the rear passengers. The Mazda has loads of room when the rear seats are folded and perfectly acceptable space when the 3rd row is deployed. In addition, the sliding doors are a huge plus compared to any other car in this class.

Overall, the build quality is excellent. It is, of course, not perfect and the boot storage cover, which is impossible to fit anywhere inside the car when you have the 3rd row of seats up, is one of the few examples of blatantly poor design. However, the overall package is well thought out and I’m very pleased with it. The sat nav system is excellent and the rear parking camera is actually amazingly useful (I had expected this to be a gimmick, but find that it greatly improves reversing, especially as the rear visibility is not too good). There are quite a few nice touches, such as the ability to close the windows when activating the central locking and the fact that the CD changer will play MP3s, which add to the overall satisfaction.

I did experience a major issue with availability of the 2.0D Sport Nav, having to wait 3 months for delivery and even then I had to take pot luck on colour. I was told that getting a specific colour would have taken a further 4 months!

My car

I am awaiting delivery of a 2.0D Sport-Nav, and have spent months reading many reviews of the car. I was alarmed when I read about owners who have experienced problems with speed humps, especially as I drive over 66 of them every morning just doing the school run! I wrote to Mazda UK, and would like to reproduce here part of their reply to me: "Having discussed this matter with our Technical Department, I am advised that this information was relayed back to the factory for investigation, where modified parts to alleviate this issue have now been produced. These modified components are currently available and can be ordered by our dealership network, should this matter become apparent. However, as a point of information, current production vehicles are already being fitted with the modified parts in question" I hope this will help some of the people who are experiencing this problem.

My car

It started well,got a good price on the car, in the limited launch model red, it looked great on its 17" alloys. All was OK for a few weeks, then the noises started, the suspension noises others have complained of over speed bumps, only mine sounds like grating metal, it's dreadful.

The dealer has had 3 failed attempts to fix it, the last supposed to be a modification only lasted 2 weeks and the noises came back.

I took it back to the dealer to look at, they said they would contact Mazda and get back to me. Weeks went past so I phoned them, they advised another modification was available they had ordered the parts on 4-5 days delivery and they would be in touch to book the car in. Another week passed so I phoned them. They advised me the parts probably wont be in till Mid June, another 10 weeks away.

My car has now done nearly 7k miles and is over 6 months old, the bad news is the noises get a lot worse. My 5 now does it over speed bumps, potholes & undulations in the road the noise at times beggars belief. In fact the last time the dealer road tested the car they didn't need to leave their car park for it to do it. Was this the shortest road test in history?

What’s the dealers stance on this "it's not detrimental to the running of the car" & the cars is “of merchantable quality”.

To those of you who have one that’s defect free, congratulations! you have a great car, to those of you with the same problem you have my sympathy, it ruins the whole experience.

My car

I have the Mazda 2.0 diesel (141bhp) model.

The car is good on the inside, vand has a very comfortable ride. The sliding rear doors are brilliant. When the third row of seats are not used, there is loads of leg room for the middle row. The rear boot cover is flimsy and seems like an after-thought - it's very loose-fitting with no adjustment.

On the road, I have not experienced the noise over the speed bump as described by other reviewers, but I do have the problem where the car pulls to the left (that's just how it is, according to the dealer) and I also smell burning rubber while reversing.

Fuel consumption is bad - I get 450 miles per week on a full tank with 80% of this being motorway driving. The dealer says this will go lower over time (funny how they don't mention this at time of sale).

Last but not least, the dealers are bad - I had to constantly chase the salesman for things. I had made a booking to get the wheel alignment and fuel consumption looked at, only to find that the salesman had not bothered to make the booking on their system. I was also promised a rear boot net as part of the deal, but it was never delivered - I have given up chasing it. Every dodgy sales trick was used, the worse part is that it was totally obvious!