Awesome, thanks for this. I don't usually need to transport things so this was new to me. Didn't know this existed.

I'll double check to see if this works on CX5s with power liftgate.

I seem to recall you were messing around with your boost all the time tho! lol

My MR2's first turbo went all the way to 240,000kms and I never blew a headgasket... but I didn't run a boost controller either

My black one was stock but I needed to replace the headgaskets because the head warped from the heat. After flattening out the head, the thing was solid. My SMG, I had the boost up to 16psi which is considered safe and reliable but the headgasket blew on that one. I dunno what the previous owner was doing with it, you can do your due diligence when buying a car but it's always a crapshoot when buying a used car.

Mind you, those cars made 200hp. These new breeds of 2.0 Turbo motors are making closer to 300hp. You can only do so much with the fuel system, the rest of it is how much air you can shove into the engine. My Sonata made 274hp on regular fuel. I dunno what kind of shape it would be in if I kept it, especially since it's GDI. The valves must be all gunked up by now.

Stock is best!

Yup, my last 2 daily drivers were stock. Want a faster car, buy a faster car. The only "mod" I did on my current one was the comma.ai Openpilot install.

regarding the CX5, my parents bought a 2019 brand new and they like it, it's pretty well optioned for the price etc. However i beleive my dad said the general complaint with them was that the ride is quite stiff and rigid. Said compared to his same year F150 the ride in the truck is way more comfortable for highway driving

had these so far

2013 RDX V6 - reliable, smooth but floaty suspension, while infotainment was lackluster - the sound system was great. but bland exterior...wtf no exposed exhaust tips

2017 RDX V6 Elite - reliable, smooth but floaty suspension, while infotainment was lackluster - the sound system was great. decent fuel economy. jewel eye headlights were great. but bland exterior...wtf no exposed exhaust tips

CURRENT:
2021 RDX A-Spec - so far so good, at times i miss the V6 . not sure on long term ownership although in 5yrs i'll be shopping for a similar SUV in electric.

Imo manufacturers are so dumb to try and reinvent their infortainment system each generation. With the advent of Apple and google CarPlay ditch your shitty in house system and let the pros do it.

I couldn’t believe the difference when I first used apple car play with google maps in Ireland VS my garbage Ford connect system in my Transit. The ford system is almost unusable

The CX-5 is just like the older Mazda3 that it sacrifices ride comfort for sporty handling. For us RS'ers who like sporty cars, probably fine. My parents had the same observation - they much preferred the CR-V/RAV4 floaty ride.

Feels like we have one of these SUV threads every few months now as everyone here is growing up and getting "adult" cars.

Most the 4cyl turbos are fine. The Mazda CX5 and Acura RDX 3G are both great cars with some interesting quirks. I'd avoid the Subaru solely on the fact that the CVT will blow on you with a turbo engine, unless you don't plan on keeping it outside of warranty.

The CX5 is small. It's 1/4 size smaller than everything in it's class, and the steering wheel is only heated on the 3 and 9 o'clock positions. Otherwise no complaints

The RDX 3G is really nice imo, but lots of complaints about the infotainment, and the transmission is/can be wonky.
The RDX 2G is fine. You can get them quite cheap nowadays. The whole squeaky problem that some one had with the 3G is pretty prevalent with the 2G as well.

Just don't get the Subaru.

I wish Audi and BMW brought back their wagons again. Not talking about the Allroads, but actual good ol' non-lifted SUV-wannabe wagons.

The lease for our IS is up somewhat soon, so we've been starting to explore options with regards to upsizing. This next lease is most likely going to be with us through our marriage/next move to another place, so I'd like to not have a repeat of trying to move with a convertible and one of the smallest sport sedans on the planet again.

Don't really want an SUV (CX-5, CR-V, RAV4, etc.) so we've been looking at the Q5 which is a smidge over our budget, the Q3 being too small, same with the GLA and all the other compact crossover crap out there. Don't need a lifted ride height, just want something long with a hatch lol.

A 3-Series wagon would be perfect. Shame they don't bring them here anymore. Perhaps the C Wagon.

I've been casually browsing C wagons and they are stupid expensive, a lease takeover on a C300 is like $800 a month. That's like model y money.

Volvo V60? Way into right field, but it seems like the intent with the Volvo wagons is in the right place.

https://www.uhaul.com/

Starts at $20/day. I can't imagine buying a vehicle based on what I'll do with it for exactly 1 day.

I had the 2018 CX5, but ended up selling it.

Great vehicle, but I found the engine somewhat anemic, I'm sure the turbo is much better. The sound system was also lackluster, oddly enough my 2017 Mazda3 had a better sound system. As someone else said, the infotainment system is sluggish, but I've heard it's been upgraded in the newer models.

Once I'm done with this 18' Civic Turbo, I'll probably check out the CX5 Turbo.

I agree with this 100%. My mom wanted me to drive a mid size SUV when I was younger, so she can drive a smaller vehicle and still have a large car on hand when needed. I ended up putting 100k on a Highlander in 4 years, mostly ever as the sole occupant. Biggest waste of gas ever.

To add to this some more. I made a thread last year about this and ended up in a BMW X3.

Roastpuff I think made a thread and he liked the X3 the most. Not sure if he ended up buying one.

Roastpuff and I had some different reasons to why we liked the X3. Our X3 has been mostly fault free except a minor cosmetic defect, and a broken child seat latch cover. The LATCH cover I would say was due to being poorly designed.

I don't remember why if you did not want a BMW other than you don't need two "well handling" vehicles. Your choices (CX5, RDX) actually line up really well with the X3 in terms of handling, if not actually better than the X3.

With the Euros though, you can't tune them now without losing your warranty. BMW does an automatic scan every time the car is plugged in and will flag if it detects anything out of the norm.

Agree stock is best.

I was going to get a X3 30i M-Sport as a "consolation compromise" as I honestly couldn't justify getting a M40i as the cost was just out of our budget, but then COVID hit and I'm not driving around much beyond getting groceries, since both the wife and I mostly work from home nowadays. Didn't see the point in getting a new car/SUV just to have it sit around all day so I ended up getting a cheap NB Miata that I'm pretty sure I'm going to make money on as a toy and I'm going to drive the GTI into the ground or until we need a bigger car for baby reasons.

Probably a good call.
We put 7k on the X3 since last Sept, and 5k on the M3. We've only put maybe 2k on the X3 since Covid hit.

Would probably just have the M3 if WFH fulltime came a little earlier.