SUV Review: 2021 Mazda CX-5 Kuro Edition

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Hi Mum, 

How are you? It’s me, your eldest son. The one who’s always wandering around the country writing about cars on the Internet. How are things on the west coast? Has the snow melted yet?

I know this note might seem strange coming in this form — publicly on the Internet and all — but there’s something you need to hear, and I think it’s best if everyone else hears it too. 

Mum. Mum, hey Mum. You should buy this car: 

Recently, the 2021 Mazda CX-5 Kuro Edition was our ride for a week in the Niagara Region, Ontario, and every time I’d take it out I’d think of you, Mum. You’d love it. Trust me, Mum.  

As Mazda’s best selling vehicle in Canada, the CX-5 wins favour by combining the company’s proven reliability with a smart collection of technology. 

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Now, I know you’re going to say, “But Coleboy, I already have the 2016 CX-5 and it serves me perfectly well, only has 100,000 km on it, and still looks and drives like new…” Well, first of all, don’t call me ‘Coleboy’ in front of my friends, and second, you deserve a new car because you are a brilliant, striking, and financially capable woman. The kind of woman who drives a new -for-2021 and exclusive version of Mazda’s popular compact crossover, complete with red leather, 19-inch wheels, and ten-way adjustable seats. 

Even without the distinguishing special edition package that adds those interior features, black accents inside and out, and available Polymetal Grey Metallic or Jet Black Mica exterior paint, the second-generation 2021 CX-5 is a significant upgrade from the first-gen 2016 model you currently ride in. This is a fact that I, and your other abnormally large offspring, will appreciate as it unlocks a good deal more interior room. At a lanky 6’6”, I was able to comfortably drive it around Southern Ontario’s busy highways without feeling like my head could crack open like an egg on the corner of the sunroof in the event of a rollover. You wouldn’t want that, would you, Mum? 

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It’s also still got some of that zoom-zoom DNA that we both fell in love with back when you bought your original Mazda3 Sport. Steering is responsive and tight and gives the SUV an almost car-like connection to the road that isn’t the norm in this segment. You deserve this control, Mum. 

Now, the 2021 CX-5 Kuro Edition’s 2.5L 4-cylinder engine is no speed demon (neither is the 250-horse turbo model, either, to be fair), but it’s also no slouch. Producing 187 horsepower and 186 lb-ft of torque, it moves the crossover to left-lane speeds easily enough and benefits from cylinder deactivation tech that reduces the engine to two cylinders when appropriate to improve fuel economy to a combined 9.0 L/100 km. 

Priced at $36,950 and built off the GS Comfort, the Kuro Edition includes Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and Mazda’s i-Activ AWD, which uses 27 sensors to monitor a variety of inputs some 200 times per second and ensure the right drive mode at all times. Safety first, Mum. 

If all this isn’t reason enough for you to upgrade to the Mazda CX-5 Kuro Edition (they even have a 2022 model already, have you heard ?), dear sweet mother, then consider this final fact: you are certainly too classy for an old-hat 2016 vehicle, but I am not. And because I am a good son, I would be willing to take that near-vintage unit off your hands at a fair-for-family price. It’d be the least I could do, Mum. 

Anyway, look forward to seeing you around my birthday. The keys should be simple enough to wrap. Just sayin’.

Love, your son, 

Coleman