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Originally Posted by 19bonestock88
Can the second row seat three? You mentioned a fold and tumble seat...
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Hello 19bonestock88,
Not in the North American market. The Mazda5 is 2, 2, 2 seating. Front buckets, middle fold and tumble buckets, and a split flat-folding rear bench. 6 seatbelts total. For passenger toting service I'd say its a 3+2 seater ride (similar to the 2+2 rating for some convertibles/sports cars - the back seats are, well, they are there...). There was a center 3-spot bench seat offered in the UK/EU market, IIRC, but good luck importing/finding one - and that center position would likely be pretty tight.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 19bonestock88
Hence me not being willing to have a Caravan or similar vehicle... biggest I’d ever consider is the 5
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We got the 5 because, at the time, it had the best MPG of all the minivans, and was the smallest of them, and IIRC the best MPG of all 6-seat vehicles. The MT would likely do better on MPG, but the auto has been acceptable for us. My wife doesn't like sitting up high or leaning over a lot in turns, so an SUV was out.
Oh, forgot to mention: seat bolsters wear out over time - ours are squashed pretty bad on both driver and passenger outside positions. Seatbelts are also having trouble retracting these days - probably kid-gunk and dust in the mechanism. The seats in general are a bit firm, but we've done OK on multiple 450+ mile trips. I'm serious about the tires, though. It is super picky. Too much positive camber designed in. It comes with 205/50R17 tires. This is a minivan, but the suspension is set up like a sporty-ish compact car (like the Mazda3 and Focus it shares a platform with). So in regular minivan usage it isn't exactly optimized. 16" rims fit, though, so 205/55R16's are on it now. A bit more sidewall for the potholes.