Category: Compact MPV 
Price Range: £16,245 to £20,295
Stylish shape for a seven-seater, surprisingly fun to drive, roomy and cleverly designed cabin, quiet at speed, sliding rear doors.
Too many hard plastics in the cabin, centre-row middle seat decidedly occasional, seats not removable.
If you want a compact seven-seater with proper rear seats, decent looks and a fair dose of fun-to-drive, the Mazda 5 is that car.
Not much to quibble with here. The Mazda is quite softly sprung, so it leans when cornered quickly, but its damping keeps a good grip on the Mazda's movements so passengers aren't thrown around much. In fact it's a tidy handler, as befits its Focus-derived underpinnings, well able to hold its course in a bend and very neat when subjected to a slalom test. There's enough interactivity here to amuse the driver even while s/he is ostensibly driving for practical, mundane, people-ferrying reasons.
The diesel version has regular hydraulic power steering, which feels better lubricated and more natural than the electro-hydraulic system of the petrol cars even though the steering rack itself is the same. Against that, the diesel's heavier nose makes it more prone to drift outwards in a fast curve, and with the traction and stability system switched off it's more prone to spin its inside front wheel. It's a very good stability system, incidentally, a gentle guiding hand which helps rather than takes over. Even skilled drivers will find the Mazda more pleasing with the system activated.
Dials and switchgear follow current Mazda design themes and are easy to use, and the steering wheel is adjustable for reach and rake. Shorter drivers, who are likely to raise the driving seat, might feel they are slipping off the front edge, though. The view all round is commanding, helped by the low waistline at the front, and Mazda 5s with the optional DVD navigation have a rear parking camera which moves to match the path the car will take as computed from the steering angle.
Four stars again. Reflecting today's way with these things, the quickest version is the more muscular of the 2.0 diesels: just 2bhp down, at 143bhp, on the 2.0 petrol but endowed with nearly twice the peak torque. It reaches 62mph in 10.4sec against the petrol's 10.8 and the 1.8 petrol's 11.4, while both 2.0s reach 122mph compared with 113mph for the 1.8. The lower-power (110bhp) diesel is barely worth mentioning, as it's the slowest of all yet has identical economy and emissions figures to the 143bhp version's.
Even the 1.8 feels lively enough, with a good throttle response, but the petrol 2.0 is lustier throughout the rev range and still refined. The high-output diesel is the one best able to haul a full load of passengers, though, which it does with some spirit. This is a crisply-responding engine once past a little turbo lag, responding with real bite as the revs rise but staying reasonably serene in the best manner of today's relatively non-rattly diesels. Its six-speed gearbox has a crisper shift than the petrol cars' five-speeders, too. Automatics aren't in the range yet, but may arrive later.
The bottom two trim levels, TS and TS2, are available with both petrols but only the 110bhp diesel engine, the 143bhp version is reserved for Sport and Sport Nav trim levels.
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