Driven: 2012 Mazda CX-5

Driven: 2012 Mazda CX-5:

There’s more to this model year 2012 SUV-Crossover than meets the eye, it is the Japanese manufacturer’s first car to totally embrace its SkyActiv technology.

Developed in-house, SkyActiv is the key to Mazda’s future, covering every aspect of vehicle engineering from body design and structure through to transmissions – both manual and auto – as well as a new generation of gasoline and diesel powertrains. By 2015, 80% of all Mazda cars will be based on the SkyActiv engineering philosophy according to program manager, Hideaki Tanaka.

Among the many technologies that SkyActiv embraces are gasoline and diesel engines that share the same 14:1 compression ratio, making the gasoline version the highest cr in its sector and the diesel the lowest cr. But what is perhaps most remarkable is that the latter revs quite happily to 5000 rpm, unheard of for this type of engine. With 173 bhp and nearly 310 lbs.-ft. of torque available at just 2000 rpm, in the most powerful diesel, it sprints out of the box like a much sportier car and, when mated to the slick 6-speed auto, provides a genuinely pleasing driving experience.

In fact the most powerful diesel shades the 2-liter gasoline engine with its 162 bhp and 155 lbs.-ft. of torque in terms of top speed and acceleration figures: 129 mph and 8.8 seconds versus 122 mph and 10.5 seconds in manual form.

But the CX-5 is about much more than just performance: Mazda has engineered and patented a unique rear seat folding mechanism that is operated by three simple levers in the rear hatch, so no more getting fingers trapped as you try to fumble with recalcitrant seat catches.

As one of the auto industry’s minnows, Mazda needed more than just its new “KODO Soul of Motion” design theme to make it stand out from the crowd and it has achieved this with the clever SkyActiv technologies that will underpin its future model programs.

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2. Driven: 2012 Vauxhall Ampera
3. Mazda Eyes Diesels for America

Source : Google Reader