THERE is no vehicle more important to Mazda right now than the CX-5.  The five-seat crossover wagon, which went on sale in February, has been the main beneficiary of the company’s research and development efforts over the last three years, making it something of a showcase for Mazda’s strategy and intentions.  The CX-5 carries the full complement of a technology package the company calls Skyactiv, an umbrella for the hardware and processes Mazda says will enable it to meet federal fuel economy standards for the coming decade — and do it without hybrid systems or electric powertrains.  Skyactiv is meant to chart a new course for the Zoom-Zoom company, which is angling to increase its share of the United States market to a tiny 2.5 percent, from today’s minuscule 2 percent. The powertrain portion of Skyactiv was introduced in the 2012 Mazda 3, the company’s best seller, helping that car to achieve E.P.A. fuel economy of 40 miles per gallon on the highway.  But the Mazda 3 was not all-new, and Skyactiv is more comprehensive: it is a philosophy that underlies the engineering of new lightweight engines, transmissions, chassis and body structures. The goal is to create performance-oriented vehicles that are also fuel-efficient.  Other automakers have been pursuing these goals as well, but without formulating a unified approach.  “Where Mazda is different is that there seems to be an integrated approach where Skyactiv covers all the bases,” said Mike Omotoso, senior manager for global powertrains at LMC Automotive, a market research firm.  The diet program has worked. The Skyactiv 2-liter, 4-cylinder gasoline engine in the CX-5 is 10 percent lighter than the 2-liter engine available in the 2012 Mazda 3 and MX-5 Miata. The manual transmission is lighter by 4.4 pounds, a sign of how determined Mazda’s engineers were to drop weight. The body structure is 61 percent high-tensile steel, making it lighter and stronger, Mazda says.  The CX-5 replaces the Tribute crossover, which was based on the Ford Escape. It is a completely new vehicle that brings nothing from the Escape.  Typically, even vehicles billed as all-new use major components from a previous generation. But Mazda didn’t want what it saw as a “piecemeal approach,” said Tim Barnes, the company’s product planning and strategy director. Among the benefits that came from making a fresh start were fuel economy bragging rights: at 35 miles per gallon, the CX-5 gets better highway mileage than any competitor in its class sold in North America, including hybrid models.  It is a valid claim, though it glosses over some of the fine print.  First, the 35 m.p.g. figure is for the front-wheel-drive Sport with a manual transmission, which Mazda said would account for about 5 percent of sales.  So the other 95 percent of buyers are looking at either 32 m.p.g., if they choose an automatic transmission with front-wheel drive (and 26 m.p.g. in the city), or 31 m.p.g. if they choose all-wheel-drive (25 m.p.g. city). The front-wheel-drive 2013 Ford Escape is rated at 33 m.p.g. highway and the Kia Sportage matches the CX-5 at 32 m.p.g.  On roads around this part of New England I found the E.P.A. estimates for the CX-5 easy to match or beat. On separate trips to Connecticut and New York City, the all-wheel-drive CX-5 test vehicle averaged 31, 32 and 33 m.p.g. on various highway segments.  But fuel efficiency has been achieved at the expense of power, which could be a problem for a company that promotes its Zoom-Zoom image.  The 4-cylinder engine, which uses direct fuel injection, is rated at 155 horsepower and 150 pound feet of torque, and it struggles to move the all-wheel-drive CX-5’s 3,426 pounds. The engine strained coming out of a rest area to merge onto busy Interstate 91. Just before that, it couldn’t handle a long, gradual hill at 65 m.p.h. without the automatic’s shifting down from sixth to fifth gear with only a driver aboard.  In a Motor Trend test comparing the CX-5 with four classmates, it posted the slowest zero-to-60 time, at 9.4 seconds. But perhaps it is unrealistic to expect blazing acceleration from a 155-horsepower engine, especially when all automakers have to meet higher fuel economy figures. Say goodbye to the free lunch.  Yet the lack of spunk is a bit puzzling given that Mazda engineers weren’t forced to use a 10-year-old engine or transmission. And the deficiency is all the more puzzling considering the engine’s high compression ratio of 13:1 — which Mazda boasts is “on par with the world’s highest-performance racecars” — and the free-flowing design of its exhaust manifold.
The CX-5 is an important vehicle for Mazda, as it continues to roll out the Skyactiv technology that should help it meet federal fuel economy standards. The crossover is certainly efficient, but it sacrifices power.