Mazda 5 - designed by nutters?
Discussion
OT wants an S-Max, but they're colossal money in the lower end of the market. £5k will get you a leggy basic LX or Zetec, so if you want something nicer you have to stump up. I've no doubt the S-Max is the very best of a bad bunch when it comes to having to chose an MPV thing, but still.
So imagine my joy when I discovered the Mazda 5 the other day! Looks ok (as good as an MPV can really get), interior looks nice enough, apparently good to drive (relatively speaking again) and 7 seats, which is a bonus also offered by the S-Max. Best of all - much cheaper than the S-Max and it has sliding doors, which are brilliant for situations when selfish people park in parent & child spaces and you have to squeeze 3 kids out between two other cars desperately trying not to knock doors.
So go to look at a 5 on the weekend - 7 seats my arse! I'm not totally sure of the logic involved, but I'm guessing glue was sniffed somewhere in Japan when this thing was being penned. Perfectly nice car that is not a seven seater. No, what it actually has is two front seats, two in the middle with a little fold out pad between them and two in the back. The middle row aren't even so wide they meet the doorcards, so there is masses of space wasted. Dreams of getting three of today's massive kid seats in there smashed, prospects of owning my first Mazda destroyed and back onto S-Maxes for crazy money. Back into the Picasso until the prices come down
The middle row centre seat is literally an armrest wide. If I wanted my kids to sit on an armrest I'd buy a Volvo; they're much nicer.
All joking aside, why a car company would go to the trouble of designing a car that looks like this:
and then NOT make it a proper 7-seater like all its rivals......mental!
Anyone got a Mazda 5? Please tell me it's s
t and I'm fussing over nothing 
So imagine my joy when I discovered the Mazda 5 the other day! Looks ok (as good as an MPV can really get), interior looks nice enough, apparently good to drive (relatively speaking again) and 7 seats, which is a bonus also offered by the S-Max. Best of all - much cheaper than the S-Max and it has sliding doors, which are brilliant for situations when selfish people park in parent & child spaces and you have to squeeze 3 kids out between two other cars desperately trying not to knock doors.
So go to look at a 5 on the weekend - 7 seats my arse! I'm not totally sure of the logic involved, but I'm guessing glue was sniffed somewhere in Japan when this thing was being penned. Perfectly nice car that is not a seven seater. No, what it actually has is two front seats, two in the middle with a little fold out pad between them and two in the back. The middle row aren't even so wide they meet the doorcards, so there is masses of space wasted. Dreams of getting three of today's massive kid seats in there smashed, prospects of owning my first Mazda destroyed and back onto S-Maxes for crazy money. Back into the Picasso until the prices come down
The middle row centre seat is literally an armrest wide. If I wanted my kids to sit on an armrest I'd buy a Volvo; they're much nicer.
All joking aside, why a car company would go to the trouble of designing a car that looks like this:
and then NOT make it a proper 7-seater like all its rivals......mental!
Anyone got a Mazda 5? Please tell me it's s
t and I'm fussing over nothing stedale said:
is there actually any boot space?
The boot is one of the let downs. Even with the 3rd row folded down, it's pretty shallow. But I could have lived with it. For the rare occasions the 3rd row would be needed, I'd just get a roof box. 9 times out of ten we'd only need the five seats, they just need to actually be full sized seats. Could always leave the 3rd row up all the time, but aside from the safety issues of sitting in the 3rd row all the time, it's more of a pain in the arse than just sticking with the current steed. And more expensive.My S-i-L has/had one- still sat for sale and replaced by a VW Sharan, which has a lot more room.
I thought the 5 was pretty decent; but I never saw the rear most seats in action, but couldn't quite see how it would be possible unless you had children with no legs.
Not sure if I recall that the middle seats extend outwards towards the doorcards or not (or maybe I'm dreaming it).
I drove it once, and it had a very "Japanese" feel to it- by that I mean all the controls were ridiculously light (not something I like at all or am really used to) and the seats were very soft and not entirely comfortable for my lanky frame. Bear in mind that the Japanese are on average shorter/smaller than Europeans, and maybe you begin to see how this could be a realistic 7 seater in the Japanese market.
I thought the 5 was pretty decent; but I never saw the rear most seats in action, but couldn't quite see how it would be possible unless you had children with no legs.
Not sure if I recall that the middle seats extend outwards towards the doorcards or not (or maybe I'm dreaming it).
I drove it once, and it had a very "Japanese" feel to it- by that I mean all the controls were ridiculously light (not something I like at all or am really used to) and the seats were very soft and not entirely comfortable for my lanky frame. Bear in mind that the Japanese are on average shorter/smaller than Europeans, and maybe you begin to see how this could be a realistic 7 seater in the Japanese market.
Bluebarge said:
1. Stick one kid in the back and you have walk-through access with the row 2 middle seat folded away
2. Honda FR-V
3. Mitsubishi Grandis
4. Stop whinging
5. That is all
1. Then you have half a boot, and whoever sits in the 3rd row becomes the crumple zone if a truck rear ends you. I'm ok with the risk if it's used 10% of the time, but not 100% of the time.2. Honda FR-V
3. Mitsubishi Grandis
4. Stop whinging
5. That is all
2. Has one less than 7 seats. (That's six, BTW)
3. Also a contender, but harder to find and more offensively ugly, as opposed to just ugly.
4. Stop reading.
5. Good.
Whitean3 said:
My S-i-L has/had one- still sat for sale and replaced by a VW Sharan, which has a lot more room.
I thought the 5 was pretty decent; but I never saw the rear most seats in action, but couldn't quite see how it would be possible unless you had children with no legs.
Not sure if I recall that the middle seats extend outwards towards the doorcards or not (or maybe I'm dreaming it).
I drove it once, and it had a very "Japanese" feel to it- by that I mean all the controls were ridiculously light (not something I like at all or am really used to) and the seats were very soft and not entirely comfortable for my lanky frame. Bear in mind that the Japanese are on average shorter/smaller than Europeans, and maybe you begin to see how this could be a realistic 7 seater in the Japanese market.
I never drove one to be fair, and like you I'm not into all the over-light controls stuff too much. Just struck me as a strange way to design a car!I thought the 5 was pretty decent; but I never saw the rear most seats in action, but couldn't quite see how it would be possible unless you had children with no legs.
Not sure if I recall that the middle seats extend outwards towards the doorcards or not (or maybe I'm dreaming it).
I drove it once, and it had a very "Japanese" feel to it- by that I mean all the controls were ridiculously light (not something I like at all or am really used to) and the seats were very soft and not entirely comfortable for my lanky frame. Bear in mind that the Japanese are on average shorter/smaller than Europeans, and maybe you begin to see how this could be a realistic 7 seater in the Japanese market.
Yes, its disappointing isn't it? I looked at one too. If Vauxhall managed it with the Zafira based on the Astra, why couldnt Mazda with a Focus based car such as the 5? Could be that sliding doors have an impact on interior space? dunno.
Not getting the Mazda, you've probably dodged a bullet and saved your self posting about wheel arch rust in about 3 years time too.
Not getting the Mazda, you've probably dodged a bullet and saved your self posting about wheel arch rust in about 3 years time too.
BL Fanboy said:
Yes, its disappointing isn't it? I looked at one too. If Vauxhall managed it with the Zafira based on the Astra, why couldnt Mazda with a Focus based car such as the 5? Could be that sliding doors have an impact on interior space? dunno.
Not getting the Mazda, you've probably dodged a bullet and saved your self posting about wheel arch rust in about 3 years time too.
Yeah but I'll end up buying a bloody Ford! Not getting the Mazda, you've probably dodged a bullet and saved your self posting about wheel arch rust in about 3 years time too.
Superhoop said:
To be fair, the Mazda5 was actually sold as a 6 seater, with a fold down centre seat for occasional use only
It may well have been. I was being simple and just taking what I'd seen listed on A/T as gospel!But still begs the question, why design a 6 seater, with three rows of seats? Multipla and FRV I can understand, as you still get the boot. But if you sacrifice the boot, you want to get at least 7 in.
Most annoying thing is that there is room for three full-sized seats in the middle, I'm sure of it, it's just they haven't fitted them. Maybe they'd prevent access to the rear too much or something?
We had a Mazda 5 from new in 2005. It was a great car but, yes, the middle seat is a ledge, akin to those planks on the armrests, you sat on, when you went to the barbers, as a kid.
This forced Child 3 into the rear row which ate into luggage capacity, deprived them of a good view of the roof-mounted DVD we had and alienated them from the general "circle of communication" at the front.
We chopped it in for a 2009 Mondeo which can fit 3 abreast, in the rear and offers a huge luggage area as well. It was more refined, handled better and the only thing we missed was the sliding rear doors, especially on hot days, when you can sit in the rear with the doors open both sides to get that draught through.
However, other cars now offer the side-sliders, still a great feature.
This forced Child 3 into the rear row which ate into luggage capacity, deprived them of a good view of the roof-mounted DVD we had and alienated them from the general "circle of communication" at the front.
We chopped it in for a 2009 Mondeo which can fit 3 abreast, in the rear and offers a huge luggage area as well. It was more refined, handled better and the only thing we missed was the sliding rear doors, especially on hot days, when you can sit in the rear with the doors open both sides to get that draught through.
However, other cars now offer the side-sliders, still a great feature.
Edited by LuS1fer on Monday 19th May 13:36
There was a thread not long ago about someone's Mazda rusting away well before you'd expect it to.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Maybe don't rule out something rugged and 4x4ish if you need to seat that many people. They wouldn't suit everyone, of course, but I'd find it easier to get excited about owning one than than an MPV.
Not my area at all so can't recommend anything specific.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Maybe don't rule out something rugged and 4x4ish if you need to seat that many people. They wouldn't suit everyone, of course, but I'd find it easier to get excited about owning one than than an MPV.
Not my area at all so can't recommend anything specific.
Explains why the Zafira is such a popular car really I know loads of folk who bought one for this reason - Full 7 seats in a compact footprint from a mainsteam brand.
Ford had absolutely no answer to that with the C-max.
Funnily enough, most folk don't care its a Vauxhall. People! no taste eh?
Ford had absolutely no answer to that with the C-max.
Funnily enough, most folk don't care its a Vauxhall. People! no taste eh?
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