2012 Mazda 5 Grand Touring

Mazda has introduced a new way of hauling your family and all your gear. Take one look at the Mazda5 and you will see glimpse of a minivan, dual sliding doors, two captain seats for the driver, passenger and second row occupants. Yes there is a third row seating as well. Is it hard to get back there? Not really, you can slide and flip the second row seats or flip up the passenger side bottom cushion and there will be a center console that well flip and hide under the passenger seat which allows occupants to walk between the second row seats to the rear seats. Don't need a third row seat? Fine, just flip them into the floor and you have a solid flat surface to store groceries, or things from the big box stores.
I did sit in the third row seats, it took me a few minutes to get back there (Old age an all!) but once in the third row seats they were very comfortable, maybe not for adults on a long trip but I'm sure the kids would love it back there.
If you stand back from the Mazda5 you will notice sculpturing down the side of the car, very soothing and gives the Mazda5 a touch of class. It stands out on cars painted different colors. Another feature on the Mazda5 that wasn't mentioned at the press conference was the ability to raise and lower the headlights, why you ask? Well if your heading down the road and the fog comes in you can lower the lighting to go under the fog, need more lighting but don't want to flip on the high beams? Then scroll the headlights upward. You have three settings, pretty cool.

The interior was done with family in mind, all captain chairs had right side arm rests and a 12-volt plug ins were positioned in easy to access places throughout the Mazda5.

Powered by a thrifty 2.5-liter four cylinder that produced 21 mpg in the city and 28 mpg on the open road, my test Mazda5 got an average of 23 mpg combined. You have two transmissions to choose from, a six speed overdrive manual transmission or a five speed Sport with Adaptive Shift Logic and manual shift mode. My tester came with the five speed automatic which worked flawlessly.
There are three models to choose from, the Sport, Touring and Grand Touring.
The base offerings are very substantial and the options list is extensive so you can build the car the way you would like it as long as you stay within the confines of Mazda USA. Base price for the Sport is $19,195, the Touring starts at $21,195 and the Grand Sport bases out at $23,875 plus tax, license and freight.

Either way this is a car a young family would fall in love with so either check out the Mazda website or take a ride down to your local Mazda dealer and take one for a ride. Safety is very big with Mazda and you will be well protected inside the body of a Mazda, and remember Mazda motto, "Always the Soul of a Sports Car" No truer words spoken! , "Zoom-Zoom".