Multipurpose vehicles (MPVs) have experienced significant growth in the past decade. Their versatility has won over more than just parents wanting to ensure that their offspring all have seatbelts of their own.
Many car makers see the MPV segment as one that will continue to grow, even stealing sales from traditional SUV buyers, and it’s for this reason that Mazda has developed the Mazda 5. To expand the versatility of its products, the company will be looking to create products for segments in which it has no representation.
Mazda 5 programme manager Kenichi Fukunaga travelled to South Africa from Mazda headquarters in Hiroshima, Japan, to launch the newcomer to the Mazda family.
According to Fukunaga, Mazda will be putting a great deal of effort into quality, cost, safety, delivering great products and strengthening relationships with existing clients. He also highlighted the 5’s achievements internationally — it has won 21 world awards, including the United Kingdom MPV of the Year award for 2005 — and encouraged motoring scribes to explore the versatility of the Mazda 5.
One of its notable features is the two sliding passenger doors, which make entering and exiting the vehicle easier than through normal doors.
Despite being an MPV, the 5 makes its somewhat chunky appearance rather becoming, and its agility adds to its appeal. Driving the 5 in Cape Town was an absolute pleasure; it accelerates easily, feels composed at all times — even when being driven hard — and fits its marketing slogan of being “surprisingly stimulating”.
The only thing that feels slightly out of place in this Mazda is the somewhat notchy five-speed gearbox, which saw many motoring journalists over-revving the vehicle unnecessarily.
Inside, the build quality is decent enough, if not a tad staid, but this is a family car, so one cannot realistically expect the interior to be anything but functional. Between the second and third rows of seats is the karakuri seat, which folds away if you want only six seats.
The ease with which the rear seats fold and prop up again is a huge bonus for this vehicle, as folding seats away to increase storage space usually requires the help of a burly friend.
Being an MPV, the 5 has quite a few storage spaces under seats, on the seat backs and between seats.
It comes with just the two-litre engine, which pushes out a sprightly 107kW of power and 185Nm of torque. However, there are two trim packages; the Active, which puts the price of the car at R199 990, and the Individual, which costs R216 990.
On a combined cycle, the estimated fuel consumption is 8,2 litres per 100km, and the Mazda 5’s top speed is 196km/h.
Pic slugged Mazda 5 in Scans
A purposeful multiseater with oodles of space
BLURB: Despite being an MPV, the new Mazda 5 makes its somewhat chunky appearance rather becoming, and its agility adds to its appeal. Driving the 5 in Cape Town was an absolute pleasure; it accelerates easily, feels composed at all times — even when being driven hard — and fits its marketing slogan of being “surprisingly stimulating”, writes Sukasha Singh.
Sukasha Singh
Multipurpose vehicles (MPVs) have experienced significant growth in the past decade. Their versatility has won over more than just parents wanting to ensure that their offspring all have seatbelts of their own.
Many car makers see the MPV segment as one that will continue to grow, even stealing sales from traditional SUV buyers, and it’s for this reason that Mazda has developed the Mazda 5. To expand the versatility of its products, the company will be looking to create products for segments in which it has no representation.
Mazda 5 programme manager Kenichi Fukunaga travelled to South Africa from Mazda headquarters in Hiroshima, Japan, to launch the newcomer to the Mazda family.
According to Fukunaga, Mazda will be putting a great deal of effort into quality, cost, safety, delivering great products and strengthening relationships with existing clients. He also highlighted the 5’s achievements internationally — it has won 21 world awards, including the United Kingdom MPV of the Year award for 2005 — and encouraged motoring scribes to explore the versatility of the Mazda 5.
One of its notable features is the two sliding passenger doors, which make entering and exiting the vehicle easier than through normal doors.
Despite being an MPV, the 5 makes its somewhat chunky appearance rather becoming, and its agility adds to its appeal. Driving the 5 in Cape Town was an absolute pleasure; it accelerates easily, feels composed at all times — even when being driven hard — and fits its marketing slogan of being “surprisingly stimulating”.
The only thing that feels slightly out of place in this Mazda is the somewhat notchy five-speed gearbox, which saw many motoring journalists over-revving the vehicle unnecessarily.
Inside, the build quality is decent enough, if not a tad staid, but this is a family car, so one cannot realistically expect the interior to be anything but functional. Between the second and third rows of seats is the karakuri seat, which folds away if you want only six seats.
The ease with which the rear seats fold and prop up again is a huge bonus for this vehicle, as folding seats away to increase storage space usually requires the help of a burly friend.
Being an MPV, the 5 has quite a few storage spaces under seats, on the seat backs and between seats.
It comes with just the two-litre engine, which pushes out a sprightly 107kW of power and 185Nm of torque. However, there are two trim packages; the Active, which puts the price of the car at R199 990, and the Individual, which costs R216 990.
On a combined cycle, the estimated fuel consumption is 8,2 litres per 100km, and the Mazda 5’s top speed is 196km/h.