Mazda CX-5 Review – A family road trip to SoCal!

I am from Missouri where roads are pretty straight, traffic is limited, and everything in my city is within 30 minutes driving. When I was given the opportunity to write a Mazda CX-5 review for my family trip to Southern California, I was excited and nervous to drive. I actually asked if my husband can be the driver on the paperwork. When arrived, it was only my name on the car so I was the one driving for 4 days around the Los Angeles area with my entire family. This post is sponsored by our friends at Mazda and DriveShop in exchange for our honest opinion and experience with this car!

Mazda CX-5 Review

Most people know that LA has a lot of traffic. What I learned is that LA not only has a lot of traffic, but they have curvy roads, V-shape turns, random middle of the highway exits, lanes that randomly end, and several wheels hanging out on the side of the highway! The Mazda CX-5 made driving in LA easy, safe, and comfy for my entire family and all of our luggages!

I had so many favorite features of this car that I am not going to name them all but I will go through some of the ones that my family found very useful!

The Mazda CX-5 was so easy to drive even in a city where I didn’t know the roads and highways and kept our family more safe. Like most people it is a little tougher to see at night when you are driving. The rear-view mirror automatically muted the bright lights from the cars behind me. When changing lanes the car had the “mirror window blinker thingies” (blind spot monitoring) to help me change lanes. Also, if I found myself drifting a little too close to the lane next to me this set off a notification (Lane Departure Warning with Lane Keep Assist). This definitely helped from wanting to hug the shoulder since many of the highways had a wall that was pretty much touching the lane line! With the GPS syncing with the windshield display, I never had to take my eyes off the road! I always knew when my next turn would be, how close I was to making that turn, and what was my current speed! There are tons of other safety features!

There are some other awesome tech features in the Mazda CX-5 that I don’t have in my current car that I drive. First of all you can control all of your GPS, Radio, and Navigation with the knob in the center console so you don’t have to reach for the screen while driving.  Not to mention the screen was huge! I also love the push button start but I found it took a few times of getting into the car to drive prior to pushing the button! I was in LA so I didn’t have to use the heated steering wheel and heated seats, but I did try them out and I LOVE THEM! In Missouri we have a yo-yo weather pattern that really isn’t consistent. I already love the heated seats in my current car, but a heating steering wheel really is the icing on the cake (now all I need is a pumpkin spiced air freshener)!

I love to live frugally, and save money so that our family can afford to make memories together (like go to Disneyland and visit the beach) and the Mazda CX-5 will help! The mileage is GREAT! We drove all around Anaheim, LA, Pasadena, and Hollywood on only one tank of gas! The Mazda CX-5 gets up to 31 mpg without trading this for power! It did not feel like I was driving a four cylinder car. I had ZERO issues accelerating to keep up with some really short freeway entry ramps!

I am going to encourage all of you to go and check out the new Mazda CX-5 and take it for a test drive! We loved this car and it has the safety, the new technology, the room, and the extra bells and whistles to let you feel like you are driving in luxury!  Enjoy some of the pictures from our adventures below: