Press Release
Design – Stylish and Clean
• Two appearance packages
• Segment-first double sliding doors
• Dual-stage liftgate
The Mazda5 was designed with external dimensions chosen to yield room for up to seven and easy ingress and egress. Its design is fresh and well balanced with an appealing Zoom-Zoom personality that is familiar but never boring.
Exterior Design
The all-new Mazda5 is 4,505 mm long (4,555 with aerodynamic bumpers) and 1,755 mm wide, with a height of 1,615 mm (with roof rails 1,665 cm) and a good sized wheelbase of 2,750 mm. Its wedge shape is realized by a low nose and strong character lines rising from the outside of the trademark five-point grille to the base of the A-pillars. The grille itself flows seamlessly into the surfaces around it and features a large Mazda emblem in the centre. The bottoms of the headlights are in line with the bottom of the grille and have projector lamps with shiny reflectors, which give the face of the Mazda5 a bold yet refined expression.
From the side, the wedge-shape design is most obvious, with a climbing roofline that slants steeply over the front compartment then tapers slightly downwards at the rear of the car. Just below the door handles is a distinct character line that emerges from the top of the front fender, moves across the side doors and fuses with the sliding door’s side rail. A solid and compact look is achieved by tapering the side windows towards the rear end and by forming the side doors to slope inward just above the waistline. When seen from the front or back of the car, this seems to make the upper sections of the Mazda5 lighter and less massive.
At the rear of the Mazda5, the D-pillars are comprised of uniquely shaped rear lamps that curve into the sides of the vehicle and the rear end, which help Mazda5 avoid the square look associated with some vehicles in this segment. The rear quarter windows, rear lights and the liftgate window form a wrap around surface that gives the rear end of the Mazda5 a clean, well-toned look.
Two Appearance Packages
Two appearances packages are available in
Mazda5’s second appearance package is meant to appeal to customers who want a more sporty-looking vehicle. It has a “winged” front grille design, front air intake side lines that converge towards the bottom to emphasize the vehicle’s wide stance, and a front bumper shape that makes the vehicle’s nose look longer and lower. It adds side skirts, headlights and rear lights with metallic-look accents and relatively dark colours for a sportier feel, 17-inch, five-spoke alloy wheels, side spoilers, a rear underspoiler and roof spoiler for a look of stability and aerodynamic potential.
Mazda5 comes with 15, 16 and 17-inch aluminium alloy wheels and a 15-inch steel wheel (depending on engine and grade) and a choice of 11 body colours, with two completely new colours, all of which contribute to the vehicle’s overall stylish and clean road presence.
Double Sliding Doors
Mazda5 is the only car in its segment to have sliding doors. When open, the doors protrude only 159 mm out from the sides, making the Mazda5 more practical and convenient in tight parking spaces than vehicles with hinged rear doors. The sliding door openings were optimized during tests using adults entering the vehicle into both the second and third rows with an average-sized three-year old in their arms. Developers then maximized the slide range of the doors to reach back as far as possible by placing the lower slide rail inside the side sill and minimizing the curvature of the C-pillar. The result is a sliding door opening that is 700 mm wide at beltline height—where the open space is best employed—and 1,083 mm high, making getting in and out of the Mazda5 easy and practical, even when holding a small child in your arms.
Mazda5’s sliding doors were also engineered to be easy to open. Developers used three dimensional motion-capture studies to understand the physical processes involved in opening the sliding doors of larger MAVs. From this, a door path for the Mazda5 was realized where the initial action of opening the doors provides enough inertia to make pulling the door sideways easy and with a natural movement of the body. The door itself is lightweight with a centre of gravity as close to the middle of the door as possible and is designed with a lower exterior door handle placement. Both slide rails (lower and centre) have relatively large rollers to minimize roll resistance, which maximize the force applied by the person opening the door. As a result, just about anyone can open Mazda5’s sliding doors easily with one hand.
Dual-stage Liftgate
Mazda5’s liftgate is also designed to be convenient and easy to use. It has a two-stage opening mechanism with a first stop at 1,812 mm from the ground, which is low enough for shorter people to reach and use easily. The second stop is at the fully opened position 1,909 mm from the ground, which is just the right height for tall people to use easily. Mazda5’s liftgate also has a large opening and a low load sill that supports easy loading and unloading.
Interior Design
The Mazda5 interior design compliments the car’s superior functionality by shapes, materials and colours, and by placing instruments throughout the cabin in such a way to create an atmosphere of comfort, quality and ease of use. The instrument panel design creates a natural and convenient distance between the driver and the instrument panel controls. Developers raised the centre instrument panel so the controls are easy to reach, and placed the shift lever at the bottom of the instrument panel, a position that makes shifting easier, especially during longer trips.
Mazda5 comes in two interior trim and material packages (name depending on market) that match the two exterior appearance packages. The first interior package has a light beige colour, which contrasts the aluminium-look finishes on the centre stack and door switch bezels, and fabric and trim that feel soft to the touch, which make travelling in the Mazda5 warm and relaxing. The second interior package combines a black keynote colour with metallic accents on the centre instrument panel for a contemporary feel. The two-tone fabric employed is slightly stiffer and woven with a geometric pattern that matches the grain of the instrument panel, which gives a sense of balance and quality.
Exterior and Interior Craftsmanship
Mazda vehicles are known for delivering high levels of craftsmanship and quality. Mazda5’s build quality is immediately obvious via minimal gaps between body panels and precise exterior fittings. It is also obvious in Mazda5’s exterior details, like the inner surface of the B-pillar—visible when the sliding door is open—where spot welding marks and roughness were eliminated for a high quality look.
On the inside, Mazda5’s trim, materials and colours are made with high levels of craftsmanship that focuses on customer delight and functional beauty. Its interior is aesthetically pleasing with all visible parts communicating a sense of refinement for a strong feeling of quality. Those parts touched by customers have a high degree of softness, including trim made of relatively thick cushioning materials. All dials and switches are optimized for a smooth and positive operating feel. User-friendly ergonomics are applied everywhere to achieve ease of use in the cabin. The centre instrument panel is organized in a way that ensures the driver can pay full attention to traffic and driving.
