The Mazda5's hood is expansive and flows gracefully into the windshield and A-pillars. The entire front end is reworked for 2008. A single, horizontal bar still divides the Mazda5's grille opening and supports the Mazda trademark logo, but the opening itself is more angular and stylized. The same goes for the broad lower air intake and the large fog light recesses. Headlight housings slash into the fenders and reach around the sides to touch the front wheel well arches, which are mostly filled by the tires.

From the side, the vista is much busier, although geometrically consistent. A strong wedge influence flares character lines and surface planes from the pinched-down front end rearward to a tall, chopped off, stubby tail rendered even more awkward by a pouting, bulbous rear bumper. Matte black B-pillars and C-pillars play down the height of the glasshouse. Side mirrors attach to the lower half of small, wind-wing-shaped quarter windows. Body-color, full-round handles bridge concave circles in the doors. A gentle bulge crossing the doors' lower extremities ties together the blistered fenders. The slots for the sliding side doors scar the flanks. The optional side sill extensions create a ground-effect look that somehow works, giving the perspective a more complete, more finished touch.

At the rear, the clear-lens taillight housings maintain their basic shape, but the lights themselves are now LEDs. The liftgate extends well into the rear bumper, removing some visual mass from the back end, as well as easing loading with a low cargo floor. The rear window is fixed. We would prefer an opening rear window to ease loading of items such as groceries. The optional spoiler drags the roofline back and out above the rear window, adding a bit of edginess to the Mazda5's mostly egg-shaped rear outline.

Interior Features

Other than the packaging, there's nothing special, or unique, about the interior of the Mazda5. This isn't to discount the packaging. Making room for six in a vehicle casting a smaller shadow than the company's five-passenger, Mazda6 sedan is no small achievement. But beyond this, the interior is in line with what's to be expected of a vehicle in the Mazda5's price range.

The dashboard looks like something you'd see in a minivan, with broad reaches of quality plastic spreading far forward beneath the sharply raked windshield. Symmetrical right and left panels belie the Mazda5's international character, as it's easily re-cobbled for right-hand drive countries. The look is sleek and high tech, but with an odd-looking indentation splitting the upper and lower halves of the dash. Air vents shutter like window blinds if the cool or warm air gets to be too much. Metallic-look plastic trims the center stack, shift console and front door handles. The instrument cluster is pleasantly basic, with eye-catching contrasts between the speedometer and supporting gauges. Equally pleasant surprises for a car in this class are the steering wheel-mounted controls for audio and cruise settings.

The optional navigation system's screen has been moved for 2008. It used to rise out of the dash top above the center stack and had a control panel tacked onto the console on the driver's side of the shift gate. It is now integrated in the spot normally reserved for the radio. Menu buttons for the navigation system and radio are now placed above and below the screen, and some of the functions are controlled by touching the screen. The system will take some time to learn, but it should become natural after a few weeks. (The GPS was in the navigation system in our test vehicle wasn't working correctly. Though we were driving around Chicago, it thought we were in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.) The climate controls are sublime, with large, round knobs and widely spaced, clearly marked buttons.

The seats are, well, adequate: they are best in the front row, and they lose both comfort and support as you move farther back. The seat bottoms could be deeper, and the side bolsters could be more substantive. The driver's seat height adjustment is manual and pivots on the front of the seat bottom. Thus, the higher it's ratcheted, the less leg room it leaves. And be aware that opting for a moonroof shaves nearly two inches of headroom in the first row and about a quarter inch in the second.

Head restraints are adjustable in all three rows, but they, too, diminish in comfort in the second and third rows, especially the rearmost, which are functional, yes, but add nothing to an already minimally accommodating seat. On the other hand, in their lowered position in those two rows they cut so sharply into the upper back that anybody sitting there will be sure to adjust them to an effective height just to avoid the pain. And this is a good thing because headrests add a measure of safety.

Not many adults will want to park for very long in the third row. There's decent head room, measuring only 1.5 inches less than in the Ford Taurus X, another tall station wagon with three rows of seats. It's in leg room and hip room that the Mazda5 cramps third-row occupants. It gives up 2.6 inches of leg room to the Taurus X. Access to that third row is achieved one of two ways. You can climb in and snake through the open area between the second-row seats. Or you can yank on a loop located between the second-row seat bottom and back, fold the seat bottom forward, then release a lever on the side and fold the seat back forward. The second choice is also the way to fold the second-row seats down to open up maximum cargo room.

Rear cargo area is limited with the third row of seats in place. When they are folded, the rear compartment opens up to about 44 cubic feet of space, which is still about three cubic feet less than the Taurus X and much less than any other minivan. With both the second and third-row seats collapsed, the Mazda5 offers 70.9 cubic feet of space, 15 cubic feet less than the Taurus X, and some 30 cubic feet less than the smallest minivan competitor. Also, the front-passenger seatback doesn't fold flat like the Taurus X's, so carrying an eight-foot ladder or surfboard is a bit problematic. Still, 70.9 cubic feet is plenty of room.

The Mazda5's rear liftgate has a snub point in the gas struts that stop it before it reaches its full open height. This, Mazda says, is to keep it within reach of shorter people while ensuring it can be raised high enough so taller types needn't worry about cracking a forehead.

Visibility is good, as expected in a minivan-type transporter. However, the placement and thickness of the front pillars can block your view at stop signs. The outside mirrors could be farther forward, as the reason for those faux wind wings is so the track for the front door windows can be far enough back that they'll roll all the way down. The view forward from the second- and third-row seats is surprisingly unobstructed, thanks to each row being two inches higher than the row in front, and to the positioning of the third row closer to the centerline of the vehicle than either of the two front rows.

Climbing in and out is a breeze, even from the second row of seats, thanks to the sliding side doors. The rear side door windows roll down, an unexpected feature in a sliding door, leaving only about an inch of glass showing when fully retracted. The tradeoff for this comfort and convenience is no map pockets in those sliders. The pockets in the front doors are nicely configured, though, with a mold for water bottles along with space for maps and smallish notebooks.

The sliding rear side doors are also most welcome for loading groceries or passengers in close parking lots. Bags of yard stuff, like landscaping rock and smelly biodegradables, can be hefted into the back with little strain, thanks to the low lift-over. Waist-high, potted shrubs stand upright in the second seat row, thanks to the seamless storage bins under the flip-up seats.

Both second-row seats have storage bins beneath the flip-up seat bottoms, but the right-hand seat has an extra-added attraction: a cool, foldout tray parked under the seat. Lift the seat bottom, fold the tray up and over into the space between the two seats, and voila, you've got a couple of cup holders and flat tray for sandwiches or whatever, with notches in the corners to restrain plastic shopping bags. Lift out the tray bottom, and there's a mesh net for, well, something small, and possibly damp, that'd roll around or otherwise get in the way. Only the driver's seatback gets a magazine pouch.

The bi-level storage area in the front center console is generous, with more than enough room in the top part for a cell phone and in the bottom part for a half-dozen CDs and a radar detector. Two cup holders wait for duty to call under a flip cover forward of the storage bin.

© 2008 NewCarTestDrive.com