With the 2013 CX-5, Mazda is starting with a blank slate. This clean-sheet design will be Mazda’s volume crossover, as the CX-7 and Ford Escape-based Tribute will be (or already have been in the Tribute’s case) phased out.
Based on the chatter around the water cooler at the WR office when we were loaned our CX-9, I’ll probably be in the minority opinion here, but I actually don’t particularly care for Mazda’s big crossover.
Our spy caught this interesting find—a smaller Mazda crossover doing some winter testing.
I remember that Mazda’s first ads for the CX-7 touted it as a cross between a sports car and an SUV. Allowing for some inevitable poetic license, I’d say those ads were at least half true.