Is The 2018 Mazda CX-5 a Safe Buy

Car shoppers generally have many questions about vehicles they're considering buying. Amenities, trim level, and price are all important factors. If you're in the market for a family car, there is another thing to take into consideration – safety. After all, when you are traveling with children and pets, you want to make sure everyone stays as safe as possible. If you're considering the2018 CX-5 for your next car, you'll be glad to know that this vehicle certainly makes safety a priority. Since 2017, the popular crossover has had the honor of being an IIHS “Top Safety Pick.” Both standard and optional passive and driver-assistance features try to stop accidents before they happen and reduce the severity of an impact if your Mazda gets hit.

Standard Safety Features

There are three trim levels of the 2018 Mazda CX-5 crossover, which are the Sport, Touring, and Grand Touring. The higher-level trims offer more in the way of safety features, but nevertheless all three trim levels share some standard safety features. In any of the three trim levels, you will find:

Tire pressure monitoring

Traction control

Dynamic stability control

Blind-spot monitoring

Rear cross-traffic alert

Smart brake support

The tire pressure monitoring system keeps track of the air pressure in your tires. It gives you an alert if one or more of your tires drops below the minimum threshold. Traction control helps a car get as much grip as possible when it accelerates on road surfaces with low friction, such as slippery and rain-covered surfaces. Traction control works in tandem with the car's electronic stability control mechanism (called Dynamic Stability Control) to provide optimal traction and skid control on the roadways. Lastly, the smart braking system lets your Mazda automatically apply the brakes when a collision is imminent at low driving speeds. This system is especially beneficial when you are trying to navigate city streets or you're driving in densely populated areas.

As for driver-assist technologies, there are a variety of standard amenities in the Mazda CX-5. When you're cruising down the highway, the blind-spot monitoring feature warns you of vehicles on either side in the car's blind zone that you might not otherwise see. When you're backing out of congested areas, the rear cross-traffic alert sensor, which detects cars, pedestrians, bicycles, and other objects in your path of travel, is a safety feature that certainly comes in handy when you need that extra bit of added security.

Advanced Safety Features

When you upgrade to the higher-level trims, you'll get even more in the way of standard safety features. The mid-level Touring trim adds:

Lane departure warning

Lane-keep assist

Radar cruise control

Lane departure warning and lane-keep assistance are both features designed to keep you safe as you're driving down highways and back roads. Lane departure warning detects if the car starts to drift out of its lane, either towards the center line or towards the side of the road. If this happens, it sends an audible alert. Lane-keep assist works in conjunction with lane departure warning by making steering corrections to help the car return to its original position.

Finally, the Grand Touring adds LED headlights and tail lights to the already long list of the crossover's safety features.

Passive Safety Features

Along with high-tech driver assistance features, theMazda CX-5 also comes equipped with a variety of passive safety features. This includes front and side airbags throughout the cabin to keep occupants as safe as possible in case of a collision. The seat belts are also equipped with pretensioners and load limiters, which work to keep occupants properly restrained in case of a crash or a rollover. Finally, safety innovation works from the outside in with the CX-5, which has an ultra-rigid steel body that helps to absorb and deflect energy when the car is hit. This keeps occupants as safe as possible and reduces the amount of damage that the crossover sustains.

Available Safety Features

Along with the standard safety features available with the various trim levels, you'll be able to add on available amenities to your CX-5 if you so choose, too. One notable available feature is predictive all-wheel drive. This intuitive driving system determines when you might need to use all-wheel drive in your vehicle based on patterns like your braking patterns and changes in the outside temperature. The car uses sophisticated technology, like optimal torque distribution, to help your Mazda maintain traction when road conditions are less than perfect. Adaptive headlights, which move in your direction of travel, are also available.

With a combination of both active and passive safety features, the CX-5 is one of the safest cars in its class. And the fact that it is an IIHS top choice for safety further acknowledges that this is a safe vehicle. There are many convenient standard safety amenities across all trim levels, while additional standard safety amenities in the higher-level trims and available safety features make the CX-5 a solid choice for a family car.