2025 Mazda CX-5 AWD Carbon Edition First Test: More Style, More Luxe, No Turbo

The 2025 Mazda CX-5 Carbon Edition does its best to balance the automaker’s three pillars of sportiness, luxury, and affordability. That’s a lot of plates to spin, but in the near decade since Mazda started in its new “sporty economical luxury” direction, it hasn’t done a half-bad job. The 2025 CX-5 carries this pretty premium experience on nicely, even if it doesn’t add much substance to the Mazda’s baseline goods.

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Easy on the Eyes

There are no two ways about it, the 2025 Mazda CX-5 Carbon Edition looks good. Kudos to Mazda’s designers, who found a way to pull off luxury styling without having to rely on ancillary flourishes like blingy chrome or ostentatious use of carbon fiber. The designers pulled off classy styling almost exclusively from sculpted body lines. That will always be impressive given the CX-5, despite Mazda’s marketing, is pretty much priced in line with mainstream compact SUVs such as the Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, and Chevy Equinox—none of which look as good. 

The 2.5 S Carbon Edition's exclusive (and only) paint choice, Polymetal grey metallic, accents those lines nicely, and we appreciate the trim level’s stealthy gloss black grille and gloss black wheels. That’s pretty much the sum total of the Carbon Edition’s visual upgrades over similar CX-5s. We hope to see more of this type of subtle, classy styling in the next iteration of the CX-5, which should be coming very soon. Those seeking a more butch appearance can simply turn their heads in a Mazda showroom to the similarly sized, even more premium CX-50.

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Leather-Bound Comfort

There’s nothing shockingly impressive about the CX-5’s interior, but that’s fine because it gets nearly everything right. The Carbon Edition-exclusive red leather seats strike a nice balance between plush comfort and appropriate bolstering. The driver’s seat has a bonus power-adjustable lower back support, which should come in handy on longer drives.

Considering the CX-5 Carbon Edition’s price, there is generous use of black leather throughout the dashboard and door panels peppered with red contrast stitching. Just like the exterior, the cabin communicates luxury in a subtle way.Yeah, we know we just said the seats are red, but they aren’t bright, ketchup red. More like an understated shade of red that teases the fringes of burgundy. 

The CX-5 provides adequate passenger space for a compact SUV. As long as those passengers aren’t over 6 feet tall, they shouldn’t want for more leg- or headroom. If they are taller, it still wouldn’t be a squeeze to get into the back seat and enjoy a 40-to-50-mile trip comfortably. 

Due to the car’s shape, the rear door entryways are on the narrow side. No heads or knees were bumped against the door frames during our tests, but we can see it being a potential issue for people with larger builds or anyone fishing car seats in and out through the openings. 

When it comes to practicality, the CX-5 Carbon Edition is average if not slightly above. There’s enough space in the trunk with the rear seats up to hold more than a few roll-on suitcases and easily more than a week’s worth of groceries for a family of five. You can fold down the rear seats for some cargo space, but you definitely won’t fit a full-sized couch in the back.

If practicality is at the top of your priorities, you may want to shop the CX-5 against the Honda CR-V, which has significantly more cargo space.

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Middle of the Road

The 2025 Mazda CX-5 Carbon Edition drives as well as any other non-turbo CX-5, which is to say cleanly but not fast. Its 2.5-liter engine sends 187 horsepower and 185 lb-ft of torque to all four wheels, and while the engine isn’t boring, we couldn’t help feeling there was something missing, specifically torque. With less than 190 lb-ft on tap, there just isn't enough grunt to generate much drama coming off the line, just like most other mainstream SUVs of its type.

Once it gets going, the engine does a decent job of motivating the CX-5 to a brisk pace, but if we’re being honest, it isn’t quite enough to crack a smile on our faces. We award Mazda points for equipping the CX-5 shift lever with a proper up- and downshift gate oriented such that pulling back toward the driver nets an upshift, while pushing forward calls up a downshift. But that’s about the sportiest thing about the CX-5’s powertrain, and we should point out that paddle shifters aren’t on the menu for those who prefer to keep their hands on the wheel while manually shifting their automatic-transmission SUV.

For those who don’t care to shift at all, there’s also a switch for a “sport” drive mode, but it seems mostly useless. There are no dramatic changes in throttle response, though the transmission holds gears a little longer. 

Braking performance is just OK. We found that in normal driving the brake pedal takes a bit more pressure than it should for normal stops, which made it a little harder to be smooth in average driving conditions. Associate road test editor Erick Ayapana notes that the CX-5’s back end gets light and “a little wiggly” under hard braking but otherwise performs as expected.

Speaking of the brakes, we did experience a strange phenomenon with Mazda’s i-Stop system. Like any other system of its type, it’s meant to increase fuel economy by shutting the engine off at stops to prevent wasting fuel during idling. The engine will then start right back up once the driver takes their foot off the brake. 

However, we notice that when the i-Stop system is on and our foot is on the brake, we get a strange vibration through the brake pedal before the engine shuts off. The pedal vibrates enough to shake your leg a bit. Your results may vary.  

During the MotorTrend figure-eight handling test, road test editor Chris Walton couldn’t quite escape the specter of stability control intervention even with the safety feature turned off. “It was both braking and chopping throttle depending on how hard I drove the car,” Walton said, adding that it at least “was easy to tip into the corners with little drama or roll.”

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Infotainment and Tech

The 2025 Mazda CX-5 Carbon Edition has a somewhat basic infotainment system, but that isn’t a bad thing. Sometimes simplicity is the best way to go. It uses a 10.3-inch screen, and there aren’t hundreds of pages of options to get lost in. If you’re looking for granular levels of customization and adjustability, you won’t find it here. 

The real issue with the CX-5’s infotainment system is the method of navigating it, which is a confusing mess, to put it kindly. There are two methods: a BMW iDrive–like knob on the center console that can rotate and be “clicked” up, down, left, and right like a joystick, or via the screen itself. Neither is ideal. For starters, the main knob has all the problems the original BMW iDrive had. It can be hard to target what you actually want to select, especially when you’re connected to Android Auto or Apple CarPlay. It isn’t as bad as Acura’s dreaded touchpad, but it’s not great. 

Even more confusing is the touchscreen’s on-again off-again functionality. When using the default Mazda Connect software interface, you can only navigate with the knob on the center console, not the touchscreen. 

When connected to Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, you can use the touchscreen to navigate. However, if you’re connected to Android Auto or Apple CarPlay and the vehicle is in motion, touchscreen functionality is turned off and only the knob can be used. 

We—somewhat—understand deactivating touchscreen use while the vehicle is in motion. We just chalk that up as a dated way to reduce driver distraction. What we don’t understand is why the touchscreen doesn’t work with the Mazda Connect software at all, even when the car is at a standstill.

Regardless, the front passenger is outta luck if they want to navigate media at all while the CX-5 is in motion. It’s confusing, and we hope Mazda addresses the issue with an update soon.

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An Odd Choice

The 2025 Mazda CX-5 2.5 S Carbon Edition represents the pinnacle of non-turbocharged CX-5, and looked at that way, it’s every bit the range-topper you’d expect. We’re just not sure why it exists when there’s the entire other half of the CX-5 lineup with turbocharging. Its only major shortcoming, power, is solved by the more powerful CX-5 Turbo Carbon Edition that only costs about $3,800 more. If you’re someone who wants to save every penny and is more concerned with style, comfort, and convenience than performance, then the non-turbo CX-5 Carbon Edition is a decent choice. However, you can just have it all by spending a bit more for the CX-5 Carbon Turbo, which would be an even better choice.