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2018 Mazda CX-5 Buying Guide | Specs, safety, expert reviews, and more

Crossovers are all the rage these days, and spunky Mazda devotes half of its six-vehicle portfolio to the segment. The compact CX-5 slots right in the middle of its crossover lineup, size-wise, and outsells all other Mazda vehicles by a country mile, with sales continuing to climb so far in 2018. The CX-5 was the first car to feature Mazda's KODO design language, which has given its vehicles a more premium appearance and made the CX-5 longer-looking and more taut. Now in its second generation, Mazda offers the CX-5 in Sport, Touring and Grand Touring trims, with the option of front- or all-wheel drive configurations. This Autoblog buyer's guide is aimed at helping you to make an educated decision about whether to buy the 2018 Mazda CX-5. We'll summarize safety and reliability ratings, engine specs and horsepower, fuel economy ratings and pricing. We'll also touch on what Autoblog's professional reviewer thinks of the crossover. Is the 2018 Mazda CX-5 safe? Based on its crash tests, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration gives the 2018 CX-5 a four-star overall rating. It awards five stars for frontal- and side-crash protection, and four of five stars for rollover crashes. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety further vouches for the 2018 Mazda CX-5, giving the crossover its coveted Top Safety Pick + award — at the time of this writing, the only compact crossover to get this rating, thanks to available adaptive headlights. It also has good ratings for all of its crash-test metrics and headlights, a superior rating for front-crash avoidance, with optional equipment, and an acceptable rating for the ease of use of the child-seat LATCH anchors. We encourage you to visit the NHTSA and IIHS websites to review ratings on the specific vehicle you're researching. Is the 2018 Mazda CX-5 reliable? J.D. Power gives the 2018 Mazda CX-5 an overall score of 75 out of 100, considered average. On its 10-point scale, it rates the vehicle an 8 on overall quality, which is in the average range, and 9 — considered among the best — for overall performance. It rates an 8 for overall depreciation. As is customary, we note that Autoblog has raised concerns about the way J.D. Power weights serious and less-serious reliability issues. You can read more about that here. According to NHTSA, there has been one recall involving 682 models of the 2018 CX-5 because the side curtain airbags may not properly deploy following a side-impact or rollover crash.

Why a production Mazda Koeru won't be a Subaru Outback clone

No automaker has had a hit quite like the Outback Many have entered, few have won. The Subaru Outback is one of those automotive bogeys that competitors seek to imitate but never quite capture. Mazda is poised to change that, its CEO tells Automotive News, with a production version of the Koeru concept. We're torn on whether this attempt will be the one to do it, whether the proposed model is truly aimed at the Outback, or whether it's just another pale imitation destined for failure. While the ingredients are pretty basic – wagon-like shape, extra cladding, a smidge more ground clearance than a regular car – no automaker has had a hit quite like the Outback. Reasons include packaging issues, poor brand fit, and Subaru's seemingly unstoppable momentum in building all-wheel-drive archetypes. That hasn't stopped a bunch of companies from trying. And now for a list: Ford attempted with the Freestyle/Taurus X; note that that model no longer exists, having been replaced de facto by the Flex and the newly crossover-ified Explorer. Audi discontinued the A4 Avant and slapped the Allroad badge and some fender flares on to capture the affluent outdoorsy crowd, initially selling well but now down 40 percent since last year. The humpback Honda (Accord) Crosstour and Toyota Venza could also be considered Outback-apers, as both short-lived models took sedan bodies and added a hatch and optional all-wheel drive. Dodge got into this space a few years back with the Journey Crossroad trim level, but fake brush guards and black wheels do not an Outback make. Volvo has perhaps come closest with the XC70, a not-quite-crossover that it nevertheless brands like its other crossovers. It helps that the Volvo die-hard and the repeat Subaru buyer aren't too different. Most of these models no longer exist, and the ones that do haven't sold as well as Subaru's Outback so far this year. Even if you're generous and add all 96,718 Journey sales (and not just those for the Crossroad, which FCA doesn't break out separately) to V70/XC70, Venza, and Crosstour, it still doesn't equal the 136,227 Outbacks Subaru pushed through November of 2015. And, as Automotive News points out, Mazda hasn't sold that many crossovers so far this year (the number is 129,932 thanks to huge CX-5 numbers). So why is Mazda considering going after the hallowed Outback? First off, we're not sure that it is because there's the question of what tiny niche this vehicle would occupy. "It's a totally new car.

Mazda returns to rotary with RX-Vision Concept, crowd goes wild

Rotary! Forget everything for a second. Ignore the sleek styling, formed-by-wind sheetmetal, outrageously rear-drive proportions, and general ridiculousness of the sideview mirrors. And please be so kind as to ignore the poorly lit photos here – Mazda has a thing for drama. Concentrate instead on one fantastic phrase from the concept car press release: "next-generation Skyactiv-R rotary engine." The crowd here in Tokyo was downright frothing to get a look at the new concept car – hoping to catch a glimpse of the first evolutionary stage for a RX-9 sports car. The critical factor in that effort is of course the rotary engine. Mazda says that, while production of the powerplant is "on hold," the company has "never stopped research and development towards the rotary engine." The fact that the company has named the new engine gives us great hope that it exists in reality, and will be available for sale at some future date. The devil is in the details though, and there are precious few available at the Mazda stand. Other than a brief history lesson about Mazda's racing heritage, and fuzzy-vision talk about the future, we only have expectations to feed on. Oh, there's also a tiny press release, below. Related Video: HIROSHIMA, Japan—Mazda Motor Corporation unveiled the rotary-powered Mazda RX-VISION sports car concept at the Tokyo Motor Show*1 today. The rotary engine is a symbol of the company's "never-stop-challenging" spirit. RX-VISION represents a vision of the future that Mazda hopes to one day make into reality; a front-engine, rear-wheel drive sports car with exquisite, KODO design-based proportions only Mazda could envision, and powered by the next-generation SKYACTIV-R rotary engine. Rotary engines feature a unique construction, generating power through the rotational motion of a triangular rotor. Overcoming numerous technical difficulties, Mazda succeeded in commercializing the rotary engine, fitting it in the Cosmo Sport (known as Mazda 110S overseas) in 1967. As the only automaker to mass-produce the rotary engine, Mazda continued efforts to improve power output, fuel economy and durability, and in 1991 took overall victory at 24 Hours of Le Mans with a rotary engine-powered race car. Over the years, the rotary engine has come to symbolize Mazda's creativity and tireless endeavor in the face of difficult challenges. While mass production is currently on hold, Mazda has never stopped research and development efforts towards the rotary engine.