Competing for Space

The interior is well-engineered and well-executed, but there's no avoiding the fact that there are six seats in a relatively small space. This isn't uncommon, but many models sacrifice space in just the rear seats, while the Mazda5 distributes legroom more evenly. As the table farther down this page reflects, the Mazda5 has less front-seat legroom than the Rondo and a few compact crossovers. The Mazda5's dimensions seem only slightly smaller — 1.1 inches at most compared with seven-seat versions of the Rondo and Toyota RAV4 — but at 6 feet tall I felt more crowded behind the wheel than the specifications suggest.

Lowering the driver's seat also moves it rearward, but I preferred to ride higher to improve forward visibility. (The A-pillars extend pretty far forward, and it's hard to tell where the car's nose ends.) I'm not suggesting I was crowded to an unsafe degree, but it was tight enough that I personally wouldn't invest in a Mazda5. It's a shame, because letting the front seat move a bit farther back would open up the model to more buyers.

    See also:

    Brake System
    Foot Brake Your Mazda has power-assisted brakes that adjust automatically through normal use. Should power-assist fail, you can stop by applying greater force than normal to the brake pedal. But ...

    SeatWarmer
    Press the HI or LO side of the seat warmer switch with the ignition is switched ON. The indicator on the switch illuminates and the seat warms up. If a higher temperature is preferred, press th ...

    Efforts to promote vehicle recycling
    Mazda has achieved recyclability ratios of over 90 percent. Beginning in 2005, Mazda also became the first in the auto industry to fully implement 'bumper-to-bumper recycling' that recycles materi ...