Mazda Teases 2017 CX-5 - What To Expect From the New Version

Mazda’s top-selling vehicle is being redesigned.

Mazda’s CX-5 is the company’s best-selling vehicle, and in just two weeks we will see the new design when Mazda unveils it at the Los Angeles Auto show. Here’s what we predict for this very popular Mazda.

Compact crossovers are the most important vehicles in most automakers portfolios these days. Aside from trucks, compact crossovers are the largest segment now, ahead of both compact and midsize cars in sales. Mazda’s CX-5 outsells the Miata by more than ten to one and is ahead of Mazda’s second-leading seller, the Mazda3, by a full of month of sales at this point in the year. These sales facts support an argument that the CX-5 is not going to be radically different from what the company now sells.

We expect the drivetrain to remain the same. A 2.5-liter and perhaps 2.0-liter engine and geared automatic transmission. Although Mazda is one of the few automakers to still offer a manual transmission, it would not be a surprise if this went away or was offered in just one base trim in 2017. Don’t expect a diesel engine offering any time soon. Diesel engines are proving more trouble than they are worth to automakers and small gasoline turbo engines with CVTs will match the petroleum efficiency and cost per mile of diesels in the coming years anyway.

The 2017 Mazda CX-5 will use a new platform Expect Mazda to grow useful space slightly and for the new CX-5 to be a bit more upscale inside, like the Mazda6 and CX-9 are. Outside, the Kodo design language will evolve and the CX-5 will look more like a mini-CX-9 than it does today.