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EdmundsWhat Edmunds.com says Remember when minivans were...
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Other Quotes we found:
Cars.com: "significantly smaller than traditional minivans"
Edmunds: "mildly freshened front and rear styling"
ConsumerGuide: "a sensibly sized wagon"
STYLING | 7 out of 10
The 2008 Mazda Madza5 is variously called a mini-minivan, microvan, vanlette, and tall wagon. Whatever you call it, the Mazda5 looks sporty and offers room for six passengers in the footprint of one of Mazda's smallest vehicles.
Cars.com says the 2008 Mazda Mazda5 is "significantly smaller than traditional minivans," and Mother Proof notes it's "more than a foot and a half shorter and 8 inches narrower than most minivans." It would not be a stretch to call the Mazda5 a "sensibly sized wagon," in the words of ConsumerGuide, if you overlook its sliding rear doors. A good idea, the Mazda 2008 Mazda5's sliders "make loading passengers in tight parking spaces easy," reports Edmunds, which attributes the feature to the Mazda5's European roots. For 2008, Mazda has slightly refreshed the Mazda5's grille, headlights, bumper, color options, and tail. Also new are restyled 17-inch alloy wheels.
For Mazda, 2008's interior design of the Mazda5 can be summed up as "sensible." A large speedometer dominates the three-gauge cluster, and the gearshift is mounted on a center panel. Cars.com confirms this, writing of the 2008 Mazda that "controls are sensibly arranged." Electroluminescent gauges (those that are lit day and night) are favorites of Mazda; 2008’s Mazda5 now features them "along with rear sear air vents and controls and additional passenger flip-down armrests," according to Edmunds. New this year is the optional navigation screen that no longer pops up out of the dash but now adorns a prominent position at the top of the center console. Mother Proof thinks it's "huge."
Conclusion
The 2008 Mazda Mazda5's chief visual attribute is its size: petite.
Comments (1 total)
Mazda5 Owner
By Steve | Posted: 7/7/2008
We're actually on our second Mazda5. We had a 2006 Touring with a manual transmission that we really loved. The car held its value really well and we actually decided to sell our car, pocket some cash, and lease a new '08 Grand Touring using some of Mazda's recent incentives. We lowered our payments by about $150/month and got some great new features. Primarily, the Grand Touring model includes standard Bluetooth integration which is very nice given California's new law requiring hands-free cell phone use. Anyway, I consider myself a real car nut having owned cars like the Miata, Porsche 911, E320 Cabriolet. The predecessor to the Mazda5 as our family car was a BMW 5-series wagon, also with a manual transmission. In other words, I like fast cars and consider performance an important part of my car purchasing decision and I don't find the Mazda5's engine performance lacking at all. The manual transmission was great but the new (for '08) 5-speed auto doesn't give up any noticeable performance. The power is more than adequate for four passengers and luggage and the fuel economy for us averages about 25 mpg in mixed driving... not Earth shattering economy, but pretty good. Other thoughts: road noise is a bit high at freeway speeds but the engine is very smooth and quiet around town. Less agressive tires might help with the noise issue but at a bit of cost to handling. The car is much easier to drive and park than "full size" minivans and loading the kids into the back (middle)row is super easy with the sliding doors. I really like the car and know at least two others who have bought them after riding in ours. They simply had never heard of the car before but found it to be the perfect solution for a small family after experiencing it. If you have only one or two kids and will use it primarily as a four seater with occasional use of the third row, you owe it to yourself to check out this car.
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