CarBrandLogos archive · Mazda · 2012

MazdaMazda CX-5

The car that carried the entire Skyactiv gamble on its back — and won.

Photo: Mr.choppers · CC BY-SA 3.0

The story

A defining chapter in Mazda history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Mazda CX-5, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Ford sold down its controlling stake in Mazda in 2008, leaving a small independent manufacturer with no deep-pocketed partner facing the most expensive decade in the industry's history. Mazda's response was to refuse hybridisation and instead attack the fundamentals: very high compression petrol engines, unusually low compression diesels, lighter and stiffer bodyshells, and a redesigned automatic gearbox. The programme was branded Skyactiv, and the CX-5 of 2012 was the first car built entirely to it.

Mazda Mazda CX-5 · M 93 · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

Design and engineering

It was also the first full expression of Kodo, the design language by Ikuo Maeda that replaced the smiling faces of Mazda's previous decade with long bonnets and taut surfacing. In a compact crossover class then dominated by soft, anonymous shapes, it stood out simply by looking like it had been drawn on purpose.

Mazda Mazda CX-5 · M 93 · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

In production

The rest was quietly conventional: five doors, front- or four-wheel drive, and a chassis tuned with more care than the class required. Reviewers noted it drove like a lower car; buyers noted the fuel economy without a hybrid system's cost.

2012 Mazda CX-5 Grand Touring wagon 02 · OSX · Public domain

Legacy

It replaced both the Tribute and the CX-7 and rapidly became Mazda's best-selling model worldwide, funding the rollout of Skyactiv across the rest of the range. Two further generations have followed the same recipe.

At a glance