Many miles ahead of the rest

The SUV segment is somewhat more appealing. The Mazda CX-5 is one that just oozes dynamic sensuality.

Ever noticed the difference in atmosphere when you travel in different vehicles with friends?

There may be more chatter about the car and perhaps, it becoming their dream car someday.

Receiving the keys, or rather a dongle for the smart keyless system of the Mazda Cx-5, I did not know what to expect of this aerodynamically-styled SUV.

The timing was perfect too, as it coincided with my trip to the Swiss-Garden Beach Resort for the inaugural Shafie Memorial Cup at the Damai Laut Golf & Country Club. It will be hard to forget a dear friend of the media and the Swiss-Garden Cup.

The alarm on my mobile “crowed” at 5am, as I had to get ready to fetch Eddie Hoo and his wife, not to mention having to squeeze prizes into the SUV.

My arrival at 6am triggered off the barking of dogs in Eddie’s neighbourhood, as they sniffed a stranger, and a new ‘deep crystal blue mica’ 2.5L Mazda CX-5.

In the boot, we managed to squeeze in two golf stand bags, a large box of 30 Crest Link golf shirts,  two small boxes of Wilson Staff balls, four bottles of Old Pulteney single malt whisky and three overnight bags.

Amazingly, we managed to complete the loading, or stuffing, with a PGA Tour 9” cart bag and another OnOff Cart bag by standing them up behind the driver’s seat. It had taken us nearly 20 minutes and it was time to hit the highway.

The one thing that makes this SUV special is that it is not as heavy as it looks. The Skyactiv body is 30 percent more rigid and eight percent lighter.

This reduction in weight further complements this energy efficient vehicle (EEV) with the new generation Skyactiv-G direct injection petrol engine with i-stop. Some of the technical breakthroughs include a 4-2-1 exhaust system, cavity pistons and multi-hole injectors that translate into an extraordinary compression ratio of 13.0:1, a world’s first.

Putting pedal to the metal when we hit the highway, the car touched the 100 k/ph mark within seconds. The CX-5’s powerful engine proved to be very quiet, even when I switched it to manual transmission to downshift a gear before overtaking.

Exiting at Sungkai, the twisty sections revealed the exceptional handling of the vehicle shod with 225/65 R17 tyres. Obviously, the Dynamic Stability Control (DSC) and Traction Control System (TCS) did play a part in making this two-wheel-drive SUV feel like it was a four-wheel-drive.

Going up and down the gears, the only thing that was lacking were paddle shifters that would have made gear changes faster. Furthermore, it felt that I had to reach a little more for the gear knob.

Averaging 140 k/ph on straight stretches of road, we arrived at the Damai Laut club house in slightly more than 3 hours. And, that even included a half an hour breakfast stop at Sungkai.

The full leather upholstery and 9-speaker Bose sound system certainly added to the comforting journey. As Eddie and the wife would say later, “It didn’t feel like a three-hour plus journey at all.”

Chances are, they may just place an order for a unit soon.