Express & Star

Long-term report: Our Mazda CX-5 goes on an overseas adventure

A recent journey to Belgium gave our Mazda CX-5 an opportunity to stretch its legs, as Jon Reay reports.

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There’s one word for the weather in the first few months of the year: grim. When it’s not freezing cold, it’s chucking it down with rain. And when neither of those things are happening, the sky is a relentless shade of 1990s-filing-cabinet grey, and the roads are… well, they’re the same colour as our CX-5, as it happens.

Anyway, I reckon the best cure for blue Monday is a holiday: catch some winter sun, immerse yourself in another culture, that sort of thing. Which is why I was thrilled to be able to take the CX-5 on a bit of a road trip a few weeks ago, to sit underneath the balmy, cloudless skies of uh, Belgium.

Alright, it’s not Alicante, but there was a good reason for going. The Brussels Motor Show – yes, it’s a thing – just happened to be on, and Mazda was whipping the covers off a new plug-in hybrid version of the MX-30 coupe. What better way to get there than to simply point our CX-5 at the Channel Tunnel and arrive in comfort two hours later?

I won’t bore you with the sights of Belgium’s incredibly flat and straight motorway network, but I can confirm that the Mazda makes for a very relaxing partner on a European jaunt. It probably helps that, by and large, the tarmac that paves Autoroutes across the channel is much smoother than our own, but nonetheless the CX-5’s seats proved as supportive and supple as ever.

Brussels itself proved a bit more of a challenge, both for man and machine. While it’s comically easy to get to the centre of Brussels initially – thanks to some enormous dual carriageways tunnelled under the city – trying to navigate around it once the roads get narrow is a different story.

Ever the studious product tester, I relied on the Mazda’s inbuilt sat nav to get us to our hotel – and do you know what, it did very well, just as it had for every UK-based journey I’ve ever used it for. Unfortunately, its talents don’t extend to knowing where the local government has suddenly dropped a traffic-calming boulder – leading to some rather awkward three point turns in side streets littered with electric bikes. Praise the Lord for parking sensors.

The CX-5’s sat nav proved useful on Brussels’ tricky-to-navigate streets. (PA)

The fun didn’t stop there, though. Despite our hotel’s otherwise enormous proportions, its underground car park seemed to be half pub cellar, half off-road course – with a narrow, twisting, 30 degree slope to thread yourself down for access. Suddenly the longer, wider CX-60s piloted by other people on the trip didn’t look like such a comfortable way to travel after all. Our CX-5 – naturally – squeezed its way around without incident, although my recurring nightmares about the ordeal might take some time to dissipate.

New plug-in Mazda revealed, and executives interviewed, the trip back was similarly stress-free – even allowing some time for the obligatory last hurrah of a petrol and wine fill-up in Calais. 18 bottles of red, if you were wondering. Bearing in mind the capaciousness of the CX-5’s boot, I probably should’ve been more ambitious.

That wasn’t the last that our CX-5 has seen of international travel either – albeit indirectly. Not long after, I set off on an actual holiday abroad: to the Mazda’s homeland of Japan, no less. Things were not so exciting for the CX-5 this time around – sat round the back of an ageing Heathrow hotel for 15 days and nights – but I’m sure it’ll forgive me.

The CX-5 can handle two huge suitcases with ease. (Mazda)

Having trekked around Tokyo, Kyoto and even the CX-5’s birthplace of Hiroshima, our car was a very welcome sight to return to after a sleepless 14 hour flight. Our two person, four suitcase entourage slotted back in with relative ease – though our particular pack-heavy philosophy did require use of the back seats for luggage too.

Still, it highlights just how much usable space has been crammed into the relatively compact CX-5. Having a tall, square boot might mean sacrificing some swoopy rear styling – the like of which you’d see on an Audi Q5 Sportback – but it pays dividends when it comes to actually using the car.

That’s the thing with the CX-5: it’s not a particularly new or eye-catching prospect compared to some of its jazzier rivals, but it feels much better thought-out, and as a result, much easier to live with. Clearly, it’s Mazda’s best selling car worldwide for a reason.

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