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Beyond its role as Mazda's anchor SUV, this new model is the stalking horse for the brand's future.

BY: DON SHERMAN - Car & Driver
August 2011

We could all live without another compact SUV. The dozen or more already on the market suit every imaginable purse and purpose. So what's the Mazda CX-5's reason for existing? The simple answer is that Mazda's new bouncing baby bear is a smaller, cheaper model intended to round out the brand's set of SUVs?well, and that the small-SUV category is a sales mine and no company can afford to sit it out. But proving that nothing is ever as simple as it first seems, the CX-5 embodies two ulterior motives: This is not only our first look at two major Mazda initiatives, but it's also an accurate preview of other models scheduled for near-term introduction.

Before we delve into that grand plan, consider the key parameters that define the CX-5. It's a compact SUV designed fresh from the ground up with no hand-me-down components. It lives at the large end of its sprawling class and casts a shadow only slightly smaller than Mazda's middle-child CX-7. So the CX-5, a close size match to the Kia Sportage, rides on a 106.3-inch wheelbase (exactly two inches shorter than the CX-7's), and it has length and width dimensions of 178.7 and 72.4 inches versus the CX-7's 184.3 and 73.7. In lieu of the CX-7's sleek, swoopy, smiley-faced envelope, the CX-5 has a much boxier, more practical wrapper. The two Mazda siblings are about the same size inside, with comfortable room for four occupants and a third seatbelt in back for an occasional fifth passenger. (Although we spent a day driving four CX-5 prototypes in Iceland, final details regarding interior room, power, mileage, and price won't be released until the U.S. introduction at December's L.A. auto show.) In keeping with the CX-5's unpretentious role as the most diminutive and wallet-friendly SUV in Mazda's lineup, it will hit the deck with but one engine?a 2.0-liter inline-four rated at about 160 hp?and four driveline choices: front- or all-wheel drive with a six-speed manual or six-speed automatic transmission.