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Re: Mazda manual Posted by Snowmobile [Email] (#686) [Profile/Gallery] (more from Snowmobile) on Tue, 13 Nov 2012 08:17:18 In Reply to: Mazda manual, STICKMAN, Fri, 9 Nov 2012 10:12:13 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
It might work alright as a gas sipping cargo hauler - we rented one for a long trip and the fuel economy was very good. Ours was an older model automatic and quite likely the new ones are even better (especially with a stick). The back seats fold flat and we drove the car like that >90% of the time. I didn't like the power delivery or driving dynamics, but obviously many are happy with that, and the newer ones may be greatly improved.
Where I have trouble with the mazda5 is wrapping my head around safety the 3rd row. There was a guy on here "SWEDEMURPHY" who repeatedly posted "never put anything you care about in the 3rd row of anything" after their Ford minivan was rear ended (and he posted pictures of the carnage). Those big minivans have probably improved since the Freestar or whatever it was (I'd guess about 2002 vintage), and the Mazda is probably decently safe for it's size, but those little 3rd row seats are amazingly close to the rear glass. I don't mean to offend Mazda5 owners here, but I wouldn't put my kids back there. See photo below from "the internet". The intrusion looks to be into the 3rd row and the side curtain airbag can't do much when you get a bumper in the back of your spine... again, I don't mean to disparage owners of the Mazda5 - we all take calculated risks in life, and quite possibly I'm overreacting, but that was my judgement call when we rented it... safety is one of the things that drew us to Saabs...
As a cargo hauler, it would be fine.
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