Ray Leathern finds the new Mazda CX-5 soft roader very incapable of zoom-zooming.

Maybe it’s because you won’t find the Mazda badge topping a survey of the ten most recognized global brands? Come to think of it, you’re unlikely to find it hob-knobbing with all the dancing and prancing horses on a list of top ten motoring brands either. No matter how often those in the know enthuse over this burning conundrum, the Mazda badge seems inexorably doomed to tread water in the middle lane of life, forever haunted by a phrase no more aspirational than, “you could do a lot worse than that Mazda”.

Conscious of this, one gets the sense that Mazda has long since been plotting its fight back. Despite the adversity of the Fukushima earthquake and global currency fluctuations, Mazda was yearning to leave the paper plates and polystyrene cups of the kiddies table behind and take up a place as a real player in global motoring. Sure, Mazda’s annual sales are but a crumb on Toyota’s plate of first quarter vehicle sales worldwide, but are popularity and bottom lines the only yard stick for greatness? Perhaps despite the hum-drum badge and uninspiring styling, Mazda’s are actually just as good as Toyota’s and Volkswagens where it counts?

Mazda decided that to try proving this inherent goodness, they should make themselves a popular soft roader. The CX-5 is a tall hatchback with an SUV look to it, but only two-wheel drive underneath. No problem with that. The Volkswagen Tiguan, Toyota Rav4, Nissan Qashqai, Kia Sportage, Jeep Compass and BMW X1 are all the same. One would hope then, that Mazda had the skills and wherewithal to make their offering even better than the others.

It didn’t start well though. My test car arrived in a mediocre-looking blue colour, which Mazda love to punt in their press material for some reason. It also arrived with rather tiny looking wheels I thought quietly to myself. I’d heard a lot about the design language given to the CX-5 by its stylists, something about ‘Kodo’ and ‘Soul in Motion’, but with that uninspired, glum face, I decided the only ‘motion’ it elicited was to my ‘soul’ to leave it parked in the driveway for a while and return later. Once I climbed inside the car I noticed Mazda had thought it prudent to offer me the entry-level, ‘Active’ specification, which comes with few amenities.

Cloth seats, manually operated air conditioning, orange backlighting on the radio that is positively ancient, gloss-black and satin-chrome finishes, together with some steering wheel controls for the MP3 and USB compatible (I did appreciate the USB port), that’s it. It does have keyless start, but it’s one of those pointless, annoying, keys, where you still need to tap the key fob before getting in or out of the car, followed by a lump of plastic bashing around the centre console all day because there is nowhere else to put it. Every time I looked to fiddle with something on a stalk or play with something on the dashboard I found nothing there, it was like the dashboard could only offer up subtle disappointment as standard.

Hopefully the CX-5 improves its chance of success with a healthy dose of driving fun. Well, it was hard to come to a reliable conclusion on the driving feel, because the test unit felt likes its wheels weren’t balanced properly. Trying to give an impression on handling and ride comfort in such a case is a bit like sitting on your tumble dryer while trying to do the Sunday crossword, a bit distracting. The engine felt very slick though I have to admit. Mazda’s SkyActiv engine and drivetrain technology has a new emphasis on efficiency, rather than outright performance and this is because Mazda sought to make the conventional internal combustion engine as efficient as possible rather than opting for a hybrid or diesel drivetrain.

In sticking with petrol, the 2.0-litre engine has a 4-2-1 exhaust system and special pistons that allow the engine to have an especially high 13:1 compression ratio. This allows for more power, less consumption, but still provides the CX-5 with 114 kW at 6 000 r/min and 200 Nm of torque at 4 000 r/min. The official claimed and combined fuel consumption figure for the manual model is 6.8 L/100km. Our test unit averaged much closer to 8.0 L/100km, which is still a good effort considering the weight and size of the car. Mazda also claim a 0 – 100 km/h sprint time of 9.3 seconds with a top speed of 197 km/h, which is par for the course in this segment.

The 6-speed manual transmission was specially developed to work in harmony with the SkyActiv engine. It is a lightweight and compact design and offers short throws modelled on the one you’ll find in the MX-5 sports car. We found the gear ratios to be relatively tall in the manual box though, meaning you often changed down two, sometimes even three, gear ratios when overtaking, which was a little frustrating on the open road.

What I did like about the CX-5 was how the electric power steering system felt surprisingly well matched to the car, giving a good weighted feel and providing an authentic response to the driver’s inputs. Despite the wheel alignment issue, I think the Mazda CX-5 does deliver enough to make it a sprightly two-wheel drive, crossover performer, but then again, so do a lot of its competitors.

With buyers spoilt for choice and Mazda’s late arrival into the market, I think Mazda might need a little more than good steering and decent fuel economy to win over the masses. The CX-5 is not the car to bring Mazda out of the middle lane and into the fray with the big boys. I would recommend a similarly powered Volkswagen Tiguan or Nissan Qashqai instead.

What we like…

• Healthy engine.
• Crisp gearbox feel.

What we would like…

• 18-inch wheels as standard.
• Modernised interior.
• Something more unique to sway us from the Qashqai / Tiguan norm.