Hugely popular and still relevant as a very good family sports utility vehicle – but only just.

Price: $48,390
Powertrain: 2.5-litre four cylinder petrol, 140kW/252Nm, all-wheel drive, six-speed automatic, 8.2L/100km, 191g/km CO2.
Vital statistics: 4575mm long, 1845mm wide, 1680mm high, wheelbase 2700mm.
We like: The focus is all about comfort, high level of active and passive safety,
Not so much: Styling hasn’t changed much, no electrification.

WHEN, or even if the CX-5 will be replaced remains something only Mazda knows.

The current generation of the brand’s top seller here has been around since 2017. That means it is a bit of a veteran in the crucial mid-sized sports utility sector. It having undergone a recent facelift indicates it’ll be around for a little while yet.

That means CX-5 will continue to plug along with one of those traditional fossil fuel-burning internal combustion engines under its bonnet. No hybridisation, nothing electrified, no waiting at public EV charging stations – just an ICE powertrain that is fuelled the easy way simply by pulling into a service station and pumping petrol into its tank.

Ah, the good old days. But truth be told, such product is becoming increasingly unacceptable in a world where the effects of climate change are demanding motorists change their vehicle preferences. Mazda knows that, which explains why it plans to have its vehicles 100 percent electrified by 2030, with 25 percent of them pure EVs. The beginnings of this strategy will see introduction of 13 electrified models over the next three years – five of them hybrids, five of them plug-in hybrids, and three of them EVs.

Doesn’t leave much of a future for the current old-school CX-5, does it? But that shouldn’t take anything away from the stellar career this vehicle has enjoyed ever since the nameplate launched in 2012. Over the years it has been the first Mazda to adopt the brand’s so-called ‘Kodo’ design language, and the first to use various SkyActiv technologies developed in the interests of achieving the best possible performance, safety and economy.

Markets all over the world have recognised this, making the CX-5 the best-selling model offered by Mazda every year since 2014, with cumulative global sales now well past 3.5 million units.

But all good things must come to an end, and in the CX-5’s case that means that sooner or later it will be replaced by something either partially or fully electrified. It seems likely that in the meantime the model will continue to be offered alongside new product which will include the larger but similar-looking CX-60 which is due next year in PHEV form, and in later months the CX-70, CX-80 and CX-90. Whether or not any of these models are intended as the actual CX-5 replacement, is difficult to say.

Interestingly there is also such a vehicle as a CX-50, a CX-5-sized SUV which at present is only intended for the North American market and isn’t offered with any form of electrification. But word is it will eventually be hybridised – apparently using Toyota hybrid technology. Maybe then it might eventually be assembled in right-hand drive form for sale as the CX-5 replacement in markets such as New Zealand? We’ll have to wait and see.

Meanwhile the CX-5 continues its successful career in this country, continuing to be Mazda’s best-performing vehicle with at least six to eight sales a day.

I was recently reminded of just how very good the CX-5 has been, when I spent a week behind the wheel of a GSX version – the 2.5-litre all-wheel drive, not the 2.0-litre front-drive. There are two FWD models, the other one an entry GLX, and in some respects I’m a little surprised Mazda NZ hasn’t gone the way of some other overseas markets and dropped the front-drive models with their 115kW engines and gone exclusively AWD. Obviously there are still good numbers of buyers for them.

The four-pawed GSX is the only AWD CX-5 that retails for less than $50,000, and its $48,390 list price remains neutral under the Government’s feebate scheme, which means it represents pretty good value for the money. The entire CX-5 range has just been facelifted too, featuring new headlights, grille and bumper at the front, and new tailgate, tail-lights and bumper at the rear. In the case of the Snowflake White Pearl model that I drove the refreshed look really didn’t amount to much, meaning CX-5 is now slightly starting to show its age, particularly when compared against some of the really nice-looking medium-sized SUV product being offered by the likes of Kia and Hyundai.

The vehicle also benefits from slight changes to suspension and seating in the interests of improved comfort, and road noise has also been reduced. Combined, the changes represent mild improvements to the GSX – but certainly not to the level of some of the goodies introduced to other more expensive versions, such as an Off-Road mode for the Activ. All this underlines the fact that the GSX always has been intended as a more affordable family SUV very much oriented to on-seal work, with the safety of AWD as a bonus. And that explains why the GSX has always been the most popular CX-5.

In that regard, this facelifted Mazda remains a very good drive even at the entry AWD level. Its SkyActiv-G engine offers 140kW or power and 252Nm of torque, and a Sport mode does offer a good turn of speed when required, although engine note can get quite coarse under load.

The engine’s technologies, which include i-Stop and cylinder deactivation, help keep average fuel consumption down to a respectable 8.2 L/100km. While that’s by no means into the territory that can be enjoyed by electrified equivalents, its pretty good all the same.

But despite the CX-5’s excellence, right now there’s no getting away from the fact that it isn’t electrified in any way, and that has to increasingly be considered a barrier to its continued dominance in this country.

However, Mazda New Zealand does take its environmental responsibilities seriously. The company purchases five native seedlings for every new vehicle sold, to partially offset the environmental impact of each vehicle’s exhaust emissions. So far more than 111,000 trees have been planted this way, which will sequester more than 25,000 tonnes of CO2 over 50 years. That’s an impressive way of lessening the environmental impact of the CX-5 during its sunset years.