Our Year With a 2026 Mazda CX-5 Is Off to a Bumpy Start

This is a big moment for Mazda. The brand’s bestselling vehicle for the last 11 years is new after the outgoing model's long nine-year run. A redesigned CX-5 is a rare event, and we're testing the new one for an entire year.

And we don't mean track-testing, though we'll do that, too. We mean life-testing. We're going to live with a 2026 Mazda CX-5 2.5 S Premium Plus for 12 months as part of our yearlong review program and, thanks to early tech issues, things are off to a rough start.

From CX-50 to CX-5

The five-seat CX-5 is bigger than before, and it has far more tech. Mazda hopes these changes will help it steal sales from the two Goliaths of the compact SUV segment: the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4.

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While the CX-5 fights for more conquest sales from Honda and Toyota owners, it must also please existing Mazda owners. This is where I'm uniquely qualified for a year with a 2026 CX-5—I drove a 2023 Mazda CX-50 for a year. The brand would like you to see the two compact SUVs as complimentary: Pick the CX-50 if you like the Subaru outdoorsy design aesthetic or stick with the long-running CX-5 if you want something more mainstream.

It’s easy to imagine a CX-50 lessee wanting something new, and hearing from MotorTrend that the new CX-5 holds promise.

Which it does; this new CX-5 makes a good first impression. We positively reviewed the 2026 Mazda CX-5 in our initial review, calling it a wonderful SUV that still has the Mazda soul we've come to expect from everything the brand makes.

Sometimes, a year with a car can tell you more about what it’s like than any other type of test. With a Lucid Air, its greatness (almost) made me want to forgive its many faults. Or, with a plug-in hybrid Prius, it was just as good at the end of the loan as it was during our first encounter.

What will we say about our 2026 Mazda CX-5 Premium Plus?

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A $41,080 CX-5? How?

Our 2026 CX-5 2.5 S Premium Plus' price is right in line with the competition. That fully loaded price is about the same as what you'll find on a non-hybrid Kia Sportage, and it's thousands less than the top-trim Toyota RAV4, though part of that is because the Toyota is only sold as a hybrid.

Every 2026 CX-5 has standard AWD, a more spacious cabin than before, and a 12.9-inch touchscreen display. Our top-trim model swaps that screen for a massive 15.6-inch unit and adds a 12-speaker Bose sound system, panoramic dual-panel moonroof, leather seats, and a lane change assist feature on the adaptive cruise control system.

All CX-5s use a 187-hp 2.5-liter naturally aspirated inline-four, a powerplant we’ve seen across Mazda’s lineup. A CX-5 hybrid is coming, possibly as early as 2027. We're looking forward to that variant because hybrids are often quicker than equivalent gas cars while also offering a longer driving range before stopping to refuel.

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So What's the Problem?

We expect more from a Mazda, but perhaps some of the bugs we’ve experienced will be rectified with infotainment updates before most customers take delivery. Here are a few of the issues we've had in the first few thousand miles:

• Occasional screen blackouts
• An SOS button beeping three times shortly after we start the car
• Certain on-screen functions temporarily not being available
• The driver profile feature sometimes doesn't recognize me; we experienced this issue in our long-term test CX-70 SUV, too

During a visit to a local dealer, the technicians found that a fuse wasn't properly installed at the factory, and this was addressed. Problem solved, right? Unfortunately, no: The SUV continues to experience intermittent issues we don’t expect from a new car built by a well-established brand.

First-model-year vehicles sometimes have new tech that can thrill, but there’s always a risk. Keep in mind this is the first appreciably new infotainment system Mazda has offered in years.

Our plan is to approach this with both frustration and cautious optimism.

The latter stems from my experience with a yearlong Subaru Outback test SUV. Over the course of the year with that wagon, Subaru made a couple meaningful changes to the way the tech worked to better meet owners' needs.

We hope Mazda will adopt a similar strategy here, but the clock is ticking. In the meantime, our year in what's arguably the most important new Mazda in a decade continues; we’ve already taken it on two road trips. Oh, and stay tuned to MotorTrend to hear more about how and when the CX-5 tech situation changes.