2022 Mazda CX-5 GT SP Turbo Review

The Mazda CX-5 has been on sale in Australia for 10 years now and while it doesn’t hold a candle to RAV4 sales any longer, it’s still immensely popular locally. It’s currently the global best-selling model the Japanese brand currently makes and it is also the second best selling mid-sized SUV on the market, so safe to say it is quite an important car for Australia. We tested the 2022 Mazda CX-5 GT SP fitted with the 2.5-litre turbocharged engine to see what all the hype is about and if buyers should keep flocking in droves to buy them, or consider something else.

Being the second-from-the-top of the range model in the CX-5 lineup, the GT GP may just be the value option in the range. For the 2022 model year the CX-5 got a facelift which gave it some new styling details, some new safety features and some more technology – we’ve already tested it in top-spec Akera form, but we predict the GT SP to be a bigger seller.

Price & Equipment: 8.5/10

Priced from $32,390 plus on-road costs, the 2022 Mazda CX-5 range is rather affordable for a mid-sized SUV. Climbing up the range and choosing the GT SP Turbo we tested here brings the price up $51,490 plus on-road costs (around $54,000 drive away, depending on your location).

The CX-5 GT SP is well equipped and comes with black 19-inch alloy wheels, all-LED lighting, auto lights and wipers, dual-zone climate control with rear vents, keyless entry and start, auto-folding/heated mirrors, leather upholstery with red stitching, 10-way driver and 6-way passenger electrically adjustable front seats with driver’s memory functionality, heated front seats, wireless phone charging, a 10.25-inch infotainment screen with wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, satellite navigation, digital radio, a 249-watt 10-speaker Bose sound system, a sunroof, paddle shifters and a power tailgate.

Safety features are aplenty in the 2022 Mazda CX-5 GT SP. They include six airbags, auto emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian detection, rear auto braking, blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert, lane keep assist with lane departure warning, lane trace assist, a reversing camera with front and rear parking sensors, a heads-up display, an auto-dimming rear mirror, auto high beam, driver attention monitoring, tyre pressure monitoring, traffic sign recognition and adaptive cruise control with stop and go functionality.

While the CX-5 GT SP is very well equipped – especially for a not top-spec model – we would like to see the addition of a wireless smartphone mirroring, a panoramic sunroof, roof rails, rear occupant alert and a 360-degree surround view camera.

Standard colours include our test car’s ‘Snowflake White Pearl’, ‘Sonic Silver’, ‘Eternal Blue’, ‘Jet Black’ and ‘Deep Crystal Blue’, and for an additional $695, you can choose from ‘Soul Red Crystal’, ‘Polymetal Grey’, ‘Machine Grey’ and ‘Zircon Sand’ colours. There are no optional features on the 2022 Mazda CX-5 GT SP.

Rivalling the CX-5 GT SP are the $50,400 plus on-road costs Hyundai Tucson Highlander 1.6-litre turbo, the $49,370 +ORC Kia Sportage GT-Line, the $52,700 +ORC Toyota RAV4 Edge hybrid and the $49,590 +ORC Ford Escape Vignale. All cars have similar features and are pretty on par with each other – the South Korean platform twins do feature more equipment than rivals, but their drivetrains aren’t as powerful as the Mazda and – in particular – Ford.

Performance & Economy: 8.0/10

The engine fitted to our test car is the optional 2.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol unit, which is also featured in the Mazda CX-9 and Mazda6. It powers all four wheels and produces a reasonable 170kW of power and a massive 420Nm of torque – that’s only 30Nm short of the excellent 2.2-litre diesel engine that’s available in the upper spec CX-5 Akera.

This engine has been used in the CX-5 for a few years now and we have to say we love it. While it doesn’t sound amazing, it is very torquey low in the rev range (the peak 420Nm hits at just 2,000rpm) and has plenty of grunt. The engine doesn’t require to be revved out to get power – in fact, its delivery is very diesel-like and basically stops above 5,000rpm – and is also quite smooth.

The sole transmission option is a six-speed torque converter automatic, which is generally excellent and pairs with the engine very well. Unlike some cars these days, where with sporty engines manufacturers are using dual-clutch transmissions in their cars, Mazda is sticking with torque converter automatics. This is great because they’re so much smoother in low speed driving, which is where many of these cars will be driven. We do wish that this gearbox had more than six gears, however – hopefully the new eight-speed gearbox in the new CX-60 makes its way across the Mazda range soon.

The claimed average fuel consumption for the 2022 Mazda CX-5 GT SP Turbo is 8.2L/100km, which is a little on the thirstier side. Our time behind the wheel of the CX-5 GT SP saw a pretty high figure of 11.8L/100km with a mixture of highway and urban driving – we’d definitely consider the diesel CX-5 for this reason alone, as this engine can be quite thirsty. Helping costs is that it will happily accept 91RON regular unleaded fuel, and it has a 58-litre fuel tank.

Ride & Handling: 8.0/10

Being a mid-sized SUV, the ride quality for the 2022 Mazda CX-5 GT SP is rather important and while it’s a touch on the sporty side, your family won’t be disappointed. The ride characteristics are excellent and portray a rather mature and composed nature. It is on the firmer side being more sport-oriented, but that is not to say that it is uncomfortable by any means. The handling ability is also rather impressive for a car in this segment with excellent grip, meaty steering and a more natural feel than the also-sporty Ford Escape.

The road noise levels in the CX-5 are pleasingly low, though the visibility isn’t amazing – thankfully the active safety systems are great. The lane keep assist works well to help you stay in the lanes, the adaptive cruise control does a good job of keeping the distance between you and the car in front of you and the blind spot monitoring will illuminate a triangle in the wing mirror to help notify when something is there. We also appreciate how subtle they are, and if you want them to be less subtle or more or less attentive, you can change them in the car’s settings. In a lot of ways, the CX-5 feels like it was built by car people for car people, and we love that a lot.

Interior & Practicality: 8.0/10

Despite the age of the CX-5, the interior of the 2022 Mazda CX-5 GT SP is very nice. Though the design is quite conservative and has been used in CX-5’s since 2017, the quality is excellent and we appreciate how Mazda updates their cars with each model year. We do like the quality of materials used in the Mazda CX-5, the leather feels nice (though not as nice as the Nappa leather in the CX-5 Akera) and there is a massive amount of soft touch surfaces – certainly more than the RAV4 and Sportage.

Storage in the CX-5 is what we would call average. There are deep door pockets, a good-sized centre console, two cupholders, a place for your phone on the wireless charging pad and a glove box – but there are no other storage spots for your wallet or for the car keys, so in the deep centre box they go.

The 10.25-inch infotainment screen sits atop the CX-5 dash looks rather premium compared to its rivals. The quality is nice and crisp which is welcome as Mazdas of past have had somewhat grainy screen quality. Navigating the infotainment system is done through a click wheel in the centre console – it’s not a touch screen, unfortunately. The navigation is rather good and easy to set, the wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto looks great, and the 10-speaker Bose sound system is genuinely excellent – and is much better than the JBL sound system in the Toyota RAV4. We hope to see wireless smartphone mirroring soon.

While the front cabin of the CX-5 is great, the rear is not quite as positive as it’s just not as spacious as its larger rivals, like the RAV4 and Sportage. The seats themselves are very comfortable and the doors open quite wide to 90-degrees for easier insertion of child seats, but the space on offer just isn’t as plentiful as its rivals. Having said that, rear amenities are generous and include a centre arm rest with cupholders and storage, map pockets, door pockets and rear air vents.

The soft touch materials from the front carry into the rear as well and there are two USB charging ports – though they’re annoyingly located in the arm rest, which means that it has to be lowered for them to be used.

Opening the power tailgate reveals a reasonable 442-litres of cargo space, though that is smaller than the 542L RAV4 and 543L Sportage. Folding down the rear seats opens the cargo space up to 1,342L, which is a lot less than the 1,829L Sportage. However, it is a well finished boot and there are some helpful features like hooks and tabs to fold the seats. New for 2022 is a dual-level boot that can be reversed from a carpet floor to more durable plastic, which is great for carrying dirty loads.

Service & Warranty: 8.5/10

Mazda offers a five-year/unlimited kilometre with all its new vehicles which includes the 2022 Mazda CX-5 GT SP, which is the same warranty that is offered with the Toyota RAV4, Ford Escape and Hyundai Tucson but the Kia Sportage has a seven-year unlimited kilometre warranty. The Mazda CX-5 also comes with five years of roadside assistance regardless of where you service it, but rivals only give you 12 months’ worth and only top it up if you service it at a dealer. Toyota gives you no roadside assistance.

The Mazda CX-5 GT SP requires being serviced every 12 months or 10,000km, which is the same as the Hyundai Tucson 1.6T and the Kia Sportage GT-Line petrol, though not as good as the 15,000km intervals of the Toyota RAV4. The cost of servicing the 2022 Mazda CX-5 GT SP Turbo over the span of five years or 50,000km is $2,103 (an average yearly service cost of $420). This is higher than the $1,595 Hyundai charge to service the Tucson 1.6T over the same period but less than Kia charge for the Sportage over the same period ($2,465). Keep in mind that if you drive more than 10,000km per year, the Mazda service cost will climb significantly thanks to its short intervals.

2022 Mazda CX-5 GT SP Turbo DiscoverAuto Rating: 8.2/10

The 2022 Mazda CX-5 GT SP is an intriguing proposition in the mid-sized SUV market. It offers an excellent standard feature list, still the best quality interior in the segment, sporty styling, and a pleasing driving experience that will please enthusiasts. It’s not as spacious as its rivals, yep, and its short 10,000km service intervals add cost for those driving more than 10,000km annually, but as far as mid-size SUVs go, it’s excellent. And for some, the cherry on top of the cake is that you reportedly don’t have to wait long for one either – unlike the RAV4 and its up to two-year wait list, for example.

So we like the Mazda CX-5 but is the GT SP the model to go for? In our opinion, yes. It offers a good balance between features and price, and isn’t priced too much higher than the next step down CX-5 Touring Active, despite a big jump in standard equipment. Would we choose the CX-5 over its rivals, though? The DiscoverAuto office was divided on that question – we massively prefer the CX-5’s driveability to the Hyundai Tucson 1.6T and Kia Sportage GT-Line, but the fuel economy of a RAV4 hybrid is hard to go by (if you can wait that long for one). But regardless, the CX-5 is still great buying and you should definitely be considering one if you’re after a mid-size SUV.