The Highlander is home and the CX-5 is not.

"mazda616" (mazda616)
09/14/2019 at 19:09 • Filed to: Highlander, New Car Smell

I’m a little sad about dumping the CX-5, but I’m very happy that my wife got a good car for a good price. This should provide us with many years of trouble-free service.

It had 3 miles on the odometer when we took delivery. The cooled seats are already my favorite things.

Also, my wife is going to get a speeding ticket. This has almost twice the horsepower (literally) of the CX-5. I already had to tell her to slow down twice on the way home.

Bye bye, little CX-5. Seven years and 68,500 miles of service. I hope it provides someone else with reliable and economical transportation like it did us.

DISCUSSION (34)

HondoyotaE38: A Japanese and German Collab...wait a minute > mazda616
09/14/2019 at 19:15

Looks very nice. I sat in one during a car show last year and was surprised at how nice the interior materials and at how comfortable it was.

Phyrxes once again has a wagon! > mazda616
09/14/2019 at 19:16

Did you guys have the 2.0 in the CX-5 instead of the 2.5? I don’t doubt the Highlander will move though.

mazda616 > Phyrxes once again has a wagon!
09/14/2019 at 19:17

We just had the 2.0. Ours was a VERY early build 2013, and the 2.0 was the only engine for that first mode year.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > mazda616
09/14/2019 at 19:37

I forget, although I am sure I’d read it earlier...why did you replace the CX-5 again? Just needed something bigger?

Captain of the Enterprise > mazda616
09/14/2019 at 20:04

Congratulations!!

For Sweden > mazda616
09/14/2019 at 20:34

Toyota BIG

mazda616 > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
09/14/2019 at 20:59

Yep. My wife wanted something with a little more room and she didn’t like the CX-9 when we test drove one. Enter Highlander.

Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras > mazda616
09/14/2019 at 21:07

Solid buy

nj959 > mazda616
09/14/2019 at 23:27

On the bright side, if you wanted a car that wouldn’t attract attention from the police it’d be tough to do much better than a grey Highlander. I’m not even being snarky, having a car that blends in can be really nice for long highway trips when you want to just set the cruise control to 79 and not be bothered.

Keon > mazda616
09/14/2019 at 23:56

Congratulations. The Highlander is a great SUV and I’ve done many road trips in one, from 250 kms to over 1000 kms at a time. It was always comfortable, efficient , quiet , and roomy.

LJ909 > mazda616
09/15/2019 at 01:12

Bye bye, little CX-5. Seven years and 68,500 miles of service.

I guess it's just me but I don't understand how people don't drive that often. Or maybe it has something to do with having more than one car too. I've put that many miles on my car in a year.

AdverseMartyr > mazda616
09/15/2019 at 05:31

I’m sure you live in a safe neighborhood and all, but just to be certain I’d consecrate your driveway & turn it into holy ground.

shop-teacher > mazda616
09/15/2019 at 09:09

I think this was a good purchase. It's just a shame the Highlander isn't available in a color.

Under_Score > mazda616
09/15/2019 at 09:11

This car buying saga has to have the most combined page views of a simple series. It’s like the people that read the first posts came back for more.

mazda616 > Under_Score
09/15/2019 at 09:14

I was honestly surprised at how many people were interested in a people-mover purchase in Kentucky.

mazda616 > shop-teacher
09/15/2019 at 09:14

Our choices were Predawn Gray Mica or black. Haha.

Under_Score > mazda616
09/15/2019 at 09:21

If my channel wasn’t my name, I’d post my videos to here on a regular basis. But I just make videos of cars there aren’t videos of (and they do decent).

shop-teacher > mazda616
09/15/2019 at 09:54

Yeah, that’s about what I figured!

wnemay > mazda616
09/15/2019 at 11:29

I am waiting for the 2020 Hybrid Highlander, but we are doing the same. Trading my wife's CX-5. Our family has outgrown that awesome little CUV.

Sire1000 > mazda616
09/15/2019 at 18:00

Hey I liked reading about this journey! One thing I didn’t fully follow was the downside of the CX-9 driving too much like a car?

Been eyeing the CX-9 for a bit now, so would love to understand better.

mazda616 > Sire1000
09/15/2019 at 18:23

Ask my wife. Haha. I loved it. She said it just felt too small. Even if it isn’t on paper, it felt that way when driving it. I think that’s what she meant with her “too much like a car” statement.

Sire1000 > mazda616
09/15/2019 at 20:32

Got it so more about the internal space feel vs the actual drive sound s like

CJH > mazda616
09/16/2019 at 04:08

I’ve loved Toyotas for many years, and I’ve owned several. However... I predict you will regret this move, whether your wife does or not. The Highlander is relatively dead feeling to drive. Clunky. The Mazda is justifiably famous as one of the most fun things you can possibly get behind the wheel of. Not to mention you just cut your gas mileage by quite a bit.

A while ago I sold a wonderful little CX-5 and bought a Lexus GX470. Huge mistake - which I am correcting.

mazda616 > CJH
09/16/2019 at 07:50

The Highlander ferries my wife and son around and will take us on trips out of town. I don’t need it to be “fun” or anything like that.

I don’t regret buying it at all. It will serve its purpose reliably and comfortably.

mazda616 > LJ909
09/16/2019 at 11:12

We split the driving between our two cars and we live in a small town, close to work. Long trips are taken half of the time in one car and half of the time in the other.

mazda616 > Sire1000
09/16/2019 at 11:15

I would 100% buy a CX-9 tomorrow if I could. I loved it. It is the closest thing to a 6 wagon, which is what I really want.

mazda616 > wnemay
09/16/2019 at 11:15

Ours was so good. I miss it already but we plan to have another child and we have other kids with us sometimes, so a bigger car will come in handy.

LJ909 > mazda616
09/16/2019 at 11:52

Ah makes sense. Must be nice. If you lived here in Southern California it’d be way more miles.

DoomsdayMelody > LJ909
09/16/2019 at 14:15

I’m in agreement, less than 10m miles a year and you should consider alternate modes of transit, whether it’s on public transit or via bicycle or walking.

Let’s put this statement in perspective:

68,500 miles/7 year puts that car at about 9800 miles annually.

9800 miles/52 weeks is about 188 miles a week or 26 miles a day which is easy to cover on a bicycle and especially easy when you factor in buses or trains. In an urban environment, it would even be possible to cover a large portion of that on foot.

mazda616 > DoomsdayMelody
09/16/2019 at 14:56

Ha.

If only we lived somewhere where that was possible. You assume I live in a city. I don’t. My house is surrounded by cornfields. There is NO public transit where I live. Seriously. None.

I work in an office. I can’t walk the eight miles down a 70 MPH speed limit four lane highway to get to work. Neither can my wife. And, we certainly aren’t walking down the side of the road with our two-year-old son.

The city has a bus service, but it doesn’t come anywhere near close to my home. And Lyft just became available here - but there are usually 1-2 cars in town at once, and never early in the morning. I did a calculation and it’d cost me $30.00 one way to get home from work using Lyft.

Just because we don’t pile on the miles with our cars doesn’t mean we don’t need them or use them.

LJ909 > DoomsdayMelody
09/16/2019 at 15:55

Yes I could never drive that less. Many commute here so that 188 miles for example could be someone’s round trip commute. When I was still working in my office for example ( I work at home now) I was doing 142 miles a day round trip. It doesn’t help that our public transit system is trash here.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > LJ909
10/16/2019 at 15:48

I lived in SoCal and just lived close to work. I averaged 6 000 miles a year in spite of longer drives for R/C racing, snowboarding, vacations, and frequent trips to Los Angeles to visit family.

It’s easy to do more miles there, though, because there are so many freeways and such vast distances between things. Where I live now the speed limits are low and you can pay tolls in lieu of miles/time.

LJ909 > Eric @ opposite-lock.com
10/16/2019 at 19:23

You got more lucky than most people here, like myself, who commute.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > LJ909
10/16/2019 at 23:15

I couldn’t fathom doing a major commute down there. Mine is bad enough here.