[MetroMPG]

+1 on winter tires being all you need unless you're going off road. Been driving FWD subcompacts forever through Canadian winters.

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I originally had high hopes that the Mazda 5 would offer better fuel economy than it did - particularly since it was also available with a manual transmission.

Didn't turn out that way.

But looks like the ship is slowly turning. Hybrid options in the segment will ratchet up competition and more efficient conventional powertrain options will probably appear too.