Is the Mazda5 enough van?

Real-world fuel economy is going to be vastly better than any of the full-size vans (Oddy, GC, Sienna, Quest). Those will struggle for high-teens in the city and mid-20's on the highway. 30+ highway is easy breezy for the 5, high-20's in town, and low 20's when you hammer the snot out of it constantly (autocross, for example).

+1 It's city mpg where the MZ5 really shines.

We have a '07 Sienna AWD and in town mileage is hard to swallow at 16-18 mpg. Every time I fill the thing up I wish we were driving a 5 instead.

twolittlebroncos wrote:

Real-world fuel economy is going to be vastly better than any of the full-size vans (Oddy, GC, Sienna, Quest). Those will struggle for high-teens in the city and mid-20's on the highway. 30+ highway is easy breezy for the 5, high-20's in town, and low 20's when you hammer the snot out of it constantly (autocross, for example).

+1 It's city mpg where the MZ5 really shines. We have a '07 Sienna AWD and in town mileage is hard to swallow at 16-18 mpg. Every time I fill the thing up I wish we were driving a 5 instead.

Our 03 Ody didn't get much pure highway driving -- for trips, we've got the conversion van, so why be cramped? -- but in mostly around-town driving with a little bit of in-town interstate (usually in traffic) it was usually clocking in around 22-ish. The 5 has had two fill-ups so far. I'm not sure how much gas was in the tank initially, but if it had a completely full tank before the first mile was recorded on the odometer and never got any more fuel until we filled it the first time, it was showing about 22. With an honest mix of about 100 miles of highway and about 250 of in-town commuting, it was just a tad over 26. Even on the occasional road trip, I can't ever recall the Ody getting up past about 25.

EDIT: I just realized I am in full-fledged Mazda5 fanboi mode. I'm not sure how this has happened, but I kind of apologize for that...

In reply to JohnRW1621:

Ha! I had a 855T for a while. Wifes current car that we are selling is B5.5 Passat wagon. And while the car does a lot of what we need, it's not quite all the way there.

One of the nicest cars i ever owned was an ex-rental Intrepid. The nicest car i ever owned was an ex-fleet dodge magnum.

My dad has an ex-rental Volvo S40 (2002?)...

I hate it, but not because it was a rental :)

Funny, because I had a euro-spec V40 on my honeymoon in Norway (some sort of sport package with good summer tires, no turbo, and a manual tranny), and that was actually decent.

If you want to spend some time with a Mazda5, what about renting one? I almost had one via Hertz. I say "almost" because as I drove away from the airport I realized that it only had a third of a tank of gas. It was the only 5 in the lot, so I eventually got a Corolla S.

I'm a huge fan of my Mazda5 but I have 3 kids, and solving the 3-car-seat dilemma is what makes the car for me. If I had 2 kids, I'd have a wagon instead. Also, I have a Sedona for the times I need more room. In your situation, it's a hard sell. Unless your wife plans on carpooling a lot, I'd either go big or go wagon.

We did borrow a 5 from the dealer for a couple of hours. Worked well for what we needed that day.

Personally, I'm still undecided, but the wife wants the bigger one.

I think an ideal fleet for us would be the van for her, and a hot hatch for me (Subie WRX, Focus ST? Ferrari FF?).

Thanks guys, good food for thought.

And now the clincher:

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/2014-transit-connect-goldilocks-van/66953/page1/

I'll see your high-20s gas mileage, raise you by a crapload of interior volume, and throw in a torque-vectoring E-diff and turbo-motor upgradability just to sweeten the pot!

If we hadn't needed to replace our Odditty right away if not sooner, I would have totally held out until these were on lots. I don't know if we would have bought one (I showed a picture to the woman and she said she hated the way it looked), but I would have at least crawled over it and taken it for a drive.

In reply to Vigo:

I looked into those. Took them off the list mostly because not available soon enough. Also 1.6L, turbo or no, seem like too little motor. I don't know why they wouldn't spec the 2.0L turbo for that thing...