Mazda CX-5: The Perfect Family Vehicle?
In this fast-paced world, it’s nice to see a car company concerned for families, and the only goal is to get the kids to school. One such car is the Mazda CX-5. It is a great example of family-friendly driving enhanced by today’s automotive technology.
With cars, when people discuss artificial intelligence, it’s about self-driven cars that relieve commuter anxiety and worry, even freeing commuters of the burden of driving. It’s not often that the technological advances we hear so much about go into making a car family-friendly.
Type of Body
The Mazda CX-5 is a uni-body compact crossover which means it’s both compact car and sports utility vehicle. The hatchback and station wagon is a fine choice for a family vehicle. The 5-seat 2-box design makes it fully functional for a family to travel in because it's both a cargo space and a people space at the same time. It’s very family friendly because the CX-5 provides ample storage room. The electric lift-gate is a nice extra feature.
As to the CX-5’s performance, the all-wheel drive provides you with enough traction that you aren’t wanting for more. Even the two-wheel drive CX-5 exceeds handling expectations, so Mazda has the traction issue solved. Either drive will serve you well during holiday weather when you want to get the kids to the mall. That gives you the added confidence you need to maneuver through troubled road situations with a car full of children. Get the all-wheel-drive model if you can.
Thankfully, the climate-controlled interior allows kids to be kids, even when they’re riding in the family vehicle. Provide them with music from the cool Bose ten-speaker system and the streaming Bluetooth technology or the am/FM/cd equipment. If the kids are entertained during the trip, you can concentrate on driving.
With all its features, it’s easy to forget that the CX-5 also gets 31 mpg highway so it won’t break the bank to operate. That’s significant for a family vehicle. With a base sticker price starting at just under $25k, the CX-5 is a solid value.
Safety First
Inevitably though, one or more of the kids are going to distract you, even if it means you fail to put enough distance between the vehicle in front of you and your CX-5. Don’t worry. The alerts will go off. The screen will show you exactly where your driving is failing, and you can make the necessary corrections. The smarter the cars get, the easier it is to transport children.
Obviously, one of the first features you want is safety features. As long as the car generally passes your road performance standards, your next concern is for the children’s safety. In today’s competitive car market, manufacturers are bending over backward to give you safety features you really benefit from.
It’s important to be able to put the brakes on and reach for a kid at the same time and discover everything works out. That’s an example of the car model’s response. You know after driving a vehicle for a while whether it has good response. The first safety feature in a car might be the performance of the drive train and the suspension. Does it enable you to get out of dangerous situations? The CX-5 delivers with a 2.5 liter, 187 hp four-cylinder engine and a six-speed automatic transmission. The company’s G-Vector control gives even more grip on the car.
Technology to Help Multi-tasking
With a car like the CX-5, many driving errors set off alerts that aid you to keep the car traveling safely down the road. Raising kids is work, and driving a car is also work. It’s not always good when the wires cross. That’s why a car packed with safety technology is a real plus. High-end technologies like I-active sense radar in the CX-5 give you an advantage. By alerting you to of oncoming hazards, you can react before they happen. The following technologies give you a heads up before something terrible happens:
- Advanced Blind Spot Monitoring
- Rear Cross Traffic Alert
- Smart City Brake Support
- Adaptive Front Lighting System
- Active Safety Technology
Pre-collision safety technology
The Active Drive technology in optional packages provides a driving display with sign recognition technology. Then the CX-5 includes built-in technology that makes the car seemingly invincible when bad things happen. These features include:
- Rigid sky active frame with a ring structure
- Pretensioner and load limiter in the seat-belt construction
- Anti-intrusion brake pedal
SRS airbags
Unfortunately, no car is invulnerable in road accidents. Mazda’s commitment to making accidents a rarity displays the kind of commitment that should give parents confidence going forward with a product like the CX-5.
