2014 Mazda5 Sport: Tom's Hardware's Project Car Update

By Anh T. Huynh
published

Our project car recently received a few more goodies, including a Goshers Blind Spot Monitoring System, LED interior lighting, a ScanGaugeE OBD-II-based reporting device, new wheels and tires and a quick dyno run for baseline performance benchmarking.

New Wheels And Tires

You can’t have a project car and not try to spice up its looks a bit. Our Mazda5 came with the base 16-inch alloy wheels paired with low rolling resistance Toyo tires optimized for fuel economy more than performance. It was too easy to spin them in first gear, even when it was dry out. Naturally, then, the tires also didn’t provide much traction in Washington's wet season.

Since the 16-inch wheels are small by today’s standards, I wanted to step up to something bigger with more clearance. In the future, I plan on adding a brake kit that requires 18-inch wheels up front. And because I bias to OEM alloy wheels for fitment and price reasons, I hunted down a used set from a second-generation Mazdaspeed3 on Craigslist.

Before

Plasti Dip is a quick and simple solution for cleaning up wheels, so I purchased four cans of anthracite gray and a cap of Glossifier to give it a more brilliant sheen. After carefully cleaning and then painting the wheels, they were ready to go on the car.

They needed tires of course, so we teamed up with Yokohama for a fresh set of all-season performance rubber. My previous experience with Yokohama's S.Drive line-up was excellent; they were a great pairing to my Miata. But because the Mazda5 needs to cope with Washington's schizophrenic weather, I went with a set of Advan Sport A/S, the company's high-performance, all-season tire. Yokohoma even touts them as capable of treading through light snow, which is about as much as we get on the west side of the Cascades.

After

We’ve had the new wheels and tires on the car for about a month and couldn’t be happier. Whereas the stock Toyos had trouble putting power down when it was dry, the new Yokohomas grip well under any condition. The car wants to be pushed harder than before, and I'm perfectly fine with that.

At this point, I have no problem recommending the Yokohoma Advan Sport A/S for drivers in areas with a lot of rain. I'll keep the updates rolling as the car continues evolving, but so far the new wheel/tire combination has me in love with the Mazda5 all over again. They're often under-emphasized, but good rubber makes or breaks the driving experience.

Anh T. Huynh
Topics
Automotive
16 Comments Comment from the forums
  • md1032
    My 2012 Mazdaspeed3 has the factory BSM and it's also really sensitive...it will detect road barriers and objects 3-4 feet away as being a car when I'm on a narrower road.
    Reply
  • C3N4
    How about an Around-View-Monitor type system like in Infinitis and Nissans? Hopefully you could tie it into your existing Goshers BSM system so you don’t have to rewire new sensors.

    Also, what about adding some type of HUD system that can sync up with your head unit and/or smartphone?

    Finally, what about adding some remote controlled actuators that can remotely and automatically open your sliding doors?
    Reply
  • C3N4
    How about an Around-View-Monitor type system like in Infinitis and Nissans? Hopefully you could tie it into your existing Goshers BSM system so you don’t have to rewire new sensors.

    Also, what about adding some type of HUD system that can sync up with your head unit and/or smartphone?

    Finally, what about adding some remote controlled actuators that can remotely and automatically open your sliding doors?
    Reply
  • C3N4
    How about an Around-View-Monitor type system like in Infinitis and Nissans? Hopefully you could tie it into your existing Goshers BSM system so you don’t have to rewire new sensors.

    Also, what about adding some type of HUD system that can sync up with your head unit and/or smartphone?

    Finally, what about adding some remote controlled actuators that can remotely and automatically open your sliding doors?
    Reply
  • C3N4
    Sorry! Inadvertent back-button reposts. How do I delete the extra comments?
    Reply
  • M3God
    My wife owns a 2012 Mazda5. Great little car. However the dyno results do not add up. Was the dynojet set-up to spit out crank numbers? 154 rwhp is about 186 crank HP. Was the dynojet calibrated correctly? Dynojets are notorious for giving high numbers especially is calibration is off. I drive her far and it does not have that much HP. I am pretty sure Mazda did not underrate the motor by 30 hp if anything they would advertize the extra HP as the car definitely needs it. Another dyno run would be awesome as I am very curious what the true number will be.
    Reply
  • tuanies
    14505672 said:
    My 2012 Mazdaspeed3 has the factory BSM and it's also really sensitive...it will detect road barriers and objects 3-4 feet away as being a car when I'm on a narrower road.

    I never experienced that with any factory implementation, but my time in a 2ndGen MS3 was quite limited. I also don't usually go down narrower roads in the press cars either, so that may be why.

    14505732 said:
    How about an Around-View-Monitor type system like in Infinitis and Nissans? Hopefully you could tie it into your existing Goshers BSM system so you don’t have to rewire new sensors.

    Also, what about adding some type of HUD system that can sync up with your head unit and/or smartphone?

    Finally, what about adding some remote controlled actuators that can remotely and automatically open your sliding doors?

    I only found one company that makes it aftermarket. Mazda offers a system in Japan, but I haven't quite found a way to look up the part numbers and get them to the US quite yet. The around view monitor systems don't have sensors, its just four cameras.. My wife has it on her Leaf and I love it.

    So far the aftermarket HUD units I've found only connect to your smartphone. Navdy is releasing one soon and we're looking into that. I love HUDs though.

    As for the automatic sliding doors, its a factory option on Japanese models. I've yet to speak to anyone at Mazda USA that's too familiar with the JDM implementations to figure it out. That and my wife's previous car, a 2011 VW Routan had power sliding doors and I found them more annoying after a while since the car had to be in park for them to work, so you couldn't just have your foot on the break, let someone out and keep going. They were also slower than the manual ones too.

    14505929 said:
    My wife owns a 2012 Mazda5. Great little car. However the dyno results do not add up. Was the dynojet set-up to spit out crank numbers? 154 rwhp is about 186 crank HP. Was the dynojet calibrated correctly? Dynojets are notorious for giving high numbers especially is calibration is off. I drive her far and it does not have that much HP. I am pretty sure Mazda did not underrate the motor by 30 hp if anything they would advertize the extra HP as the car definitely needs it. Another dyno run would be awesome as I am very curious what the true number will be.

    The dynojet is calibrated properly. If her car is a automatic, that could be why. The 5-speed auto sucks quite a bit of power and fun from the car and is tuned mostly for economy. There's also more powerloss through the torque converter as well. It could be they chose a middle number that was representative for the manual and the auto. The 2.5 MZR makes varying levels of power in every car, the Mazda5's 157hp is the lowest of all I believe. I'm also barely above sea level too.
    Reply
  • lpedraja2002
    A little out of topic but will it be possible for you guys to review the HUD in the new Toyora Prius? I haven't seen any review yet from what I understand there's a freaking HUD in the freaking windshield! Am I the only one psyched for this? Will we be using cars like the ones in iRobot? Please review it Tom's Hardware!!!!
    Reply
  • tuanies
    14510682 said:
    A little out of topic but will it be possible for you guys to review the HUD in the new Toyora Prius? I haven't seen any review yet from what I understand there's a freaking HUD in the freaking windshield! Am I the only one psyched for this? Will we be using cars like the ones in iRobot? Please review it Tom's Hardware!!!!

    Which Prius? The current Toyota HUD is awful in the Prius and the RX350. Its very pixelated and single color. If you want your mind blown, go check out the HUD in the Hyundai Genesis, any GM vehicle, BMW, Mercedes, etc... They're full color and offer navigation, radio information, driver assists, etc... I love them in every car.
    Reply
  • blackmagnum
    Enjoyable and informative article, Anh T. Huynh. On another note: You should've saved all the trouble and bought a Honda Accord.
    Reply