When we said goodbye to Valborg, or trusty ’86 745 GLE, in 2013, we needed another daily driver. Ever on the alert for another stick-shift to replace the Volvo, one day I found a Craigslist used-car ad posted by Hemborg Ford, a dealer not too far away from us in Norco, California.
Pairing a minivan with Mazda’s “Zoom-zoom” tagline, such as on the cover of this 2010 brochure, seemed incongruous. Time would prove that to be correct for most customers.
The ad’s subject was a 2010 Mazda5 minivan, claimed to be a one-owner trade with less than 22,000 miles. As I perused the description, I was amazed to read that it also had a five-speed manual gearbox. Sure enough, the photos included a dashboard shot of the actual stick shift. This was getting interesting…
The rarely-seen Mazda5 stick shift, caught on camera to prove it really exists.
I suspected that a manual-transmission minivan, especially from a low-volume make and model that had been basically invisible from a new-car marketing point of view, would probably be sitting on the used-car lot for some time. I mentally filed the ad away for future reference, checking back every couple of weeks to make sure the van was still available. A couple of months later, the four-year-old van’s $15,995 asking price had been reduced twice without success, confirming my assumption regarding potential buyers’ lack of interest.
About ten weeks later, though, the original ad was gone. Selecting “Mazda5” in the Craigslist search box, I scrolled through the posted SoCal choices, finally confirming to my relief that the same van was still available. The Ford dealer had swapped it with Rydell Chrysler Dodge Jeep, a San Fernando new-car dealer about ninety miles away.
Convincing the always-practical Mrs. H. that a small minivan could be a useful daily driver, perhaps even necessary to transport our furry menagerie, we first ensured that the Mazda was still available and then drove to the dealer on a sunny Sunday afternoon to check it out. A thorough inspection and test drive raised no red flags, nor did the supplied Carfax report, which confirmed the van’s single-owner, accident-free history.
A pristine, single-owner, 22K-mile Mazda5 in our SoCal driveway.
The rest of the process was surprisingly painless. Our no-pressure salesperson was respectful and helpful throughout, and we escaped the clutches of the dealer’s F&I department by presenting them with a check for the van’s full $13,500 purchase price.
For those who might not be familiar with the Mazda5, it replaced the Hiroshima automaker’s previous MPV minivan for model year 2006 in North America. Based on the compact C-platform shared with Ford and Volvo, it offered front wheel drive, three-row seating for up to six passengers, and perhaps not surprisingly for Mazda, sportier handling than typical for the category. In terms of size, it was close to the original standard-wheelbase Dodge Caravan, differing one-half inch or less in overall width and height. While its wheelbase, at 108.3,” gave away nearly four inches to the Dodge, it boasted a longer length overall, at 181.5” (vs. 175.9” for the Caravan).
The Mazda5 essentially duplicated the interior packaging of the ’84 Dodge Caravan, twenty-two years later. To my mind, the concept still resonated.
Under the hood, while the Caravan’s base 2.2-liter four-cylinder and the Mazda5’s 2.3-liter I4 might also sound quite competitive, the Dodge only developed 98-HP, compared to a resounding 157-HP for the Mazda. Peak torque, at 119 lbs./ft. and 148 lbs./ft., respectively, was closer but still a win for the Mazda.
The Mazda5’s 2.3-liter four-cylinder was surprisingly stout, not to mention reliable and durable. (Source: www.ttac/Michael Karesh)
Of course, we’re comparing apples and oranges here, as the ’84 Dodge Caravan tipped the scales at 2934 pounds in its base form, while the 2006 Mazda5 (burdened by Federal bumpers, airbags, and all the additional niceties deemed essential by a new generation of buyers) weighed almost exactly 400 pounds more. Still, a revealing comparison.
As is frequently the case, by the mid-aughts the minivan had evolved in “Grand” form, with extended wheelbases, additional passenger capacity, and more cargo room behind the seats (though perhaps not all at the same time). There might still have been a tiny sub-segment of the minivan market for whom smaller models sufficed, but you couldn’t tell that from sales of the Mazda5, which peaked at just over 22,000 units in 2008, declining to just over 8,600 in its final 2015 model year.
A facelift for the ’08 model year and the “Nagare”-inspired redo in 2011 briefly improved sales, but it was mostly downhill.
Could it be that Mazda’s virtual lack of marketing for their sole minivan offering presaged its slow demise? Did the mere fact that a manual transmission was offered at all suggest a complete misreading of its target market? Or was it just lost in the sea of 3s, 6s, and CX-whatever’s which made up the bulk of the brand’s stateside sales?
Selling your product based on what it’s NOT is generally frowned upon in the marketing world…
By then, Mazda has chosen to forsake the minivan market for the higher-volume (and more profitable) world of the sport-utility vehicle. It had tentatively entered that market earlier, first with the Navajo, a badge-engineered version of the two-door Ford Explorer, and later with its take on the first-generation Ford Escape, ironically badged “Tribute.”
Mazda first dipped its toe into the SUV waters with the Explorer-based Navajo and the later Tribute, a slightly tweaked Ford Escape.
But I digress. I’m here to celebrate the unappreciated Mazda5. Especially in manual-transmission form, it’s fun to drive for a vehicle of its type, and its taut suspension and low-profile 17-inch tires help it get around corners quite satisfactorily. Speaking of those tires, we found that they were directional Continentals when our first dealer services included a tire rotation. They weren’t factory; the OE tires were Toyos. Who puts directional tires on a minivan? We could only conclude that our van may have had an interesting life for its first 22K miles. (I’ll ignore the fact that it took two “be-backs” for the Mazda dealer’s tire jockey to properly rotate those Contis.)
Not usually the most fetching view, but hey, it’s a minivan, after all…
At any rate, our Mazda5 is now most definitely a COAL, still going strong with nearly 150K on the odometer. After all, at just fourteen years of age, it’s only slightly older than the average vehicle now roaming U.S. roads, so I’m hoping there’s lots more life left in it.
Especially because I have no idea what I’d replace it with…
A Mazda5 made my “almost” list a couple of times. I remember considering one before we bought our Honda Fit in the summer of 2006. We never got close on it, and I am trying to remember why. I think I probably decided that if I was going to get a small economy vehicle, the Fit was more on top of that task, where the Mazda was a family vehicle that compromised too much on size (for people coming to the end of life with a Ford Club Wagon).
The second time was when we bought our Sedona in 2011. By then, Mazda had gotten into its oddball styling phase, and the strange ripples (intentionally) pressed into the side sheet metal were a big turn-off for me.
I knew these came with a stick and have secretly harbored a little desire for one. I am currently experiencing that 2.3L four in my Mazda3 hatch, and am really enjoying it. Yours has to work harder in that larger vehicle, but I imagine it still has plenty of grunt for the job, especially with the stick shift.
Friend of mine has a exJDM Mazda that model seems to be an ok car, The Mazda Tribute is what the Ford Escape was based on we have both new out of Japan. My friends car is axiomatic it rarely leaves the city