Our New Car - 2012 Mazda5 (part 1)

So we finally moved forward and bought a new car. We haven't had a new-new car in our family, well, ever. I sold my 2000 BMW last month after the repair list got too long, and our beloved 2001 Aztek received a terminal prognosis at its last checkup. It was time.

As I've been saying for over a year on Twitter and in blog posts, the Mazda5 is one of my favorite cars for families. It's the child of a compact car and a minivan and it's inherited some of the best traits of both. Good fuel economy, small footprint, good handling, and smaller price tag from the compact car side of the union, and three rows of seats, higher driving position, and convenient lift-gate from the minivan clan.

We aren't Mazda5 newbies, either. Mazda had loaned us a 5 for a 4500 kilometre trip to Disney World and back (read about it here). You learn a lot about a car when you spend that much time in one. Of course, people say they love a car when they get to drive it for free, but a couple things made it easier when it actually came time to sign on the line:

Value: The Mazda 5 (in our selected trim and options combination) is $26,185. I've challenged people before to find me better leather-clad 6-seat option. No responses yet. As far as I know, only the Kia Rondo comes in cheaper - but I couldn't live with the styling.

Manual Transmission: Both Alexandria and I love driving stick. The fact that we could get a leather 6-seat vehicle in manual blows my mind. This is a Canada-only combination. Sorry Americans, no leather seats with the row-your-own option for you.

Financing Deals: Mazda has great financing deals. Whether you need financing or not, good financing options can make one car materially less expensive than other. I have a lot to say on the topic of financing, but I'll leave that for another post.

Economic Support: I like supporting the local economy as much as possible. For better or worse, the Mazda5 is made in Japan, not Canada or the US. When I heard that the 5's newest competitor was a Chevrolet (the Orlando) I was pretty excited. Sadly, though, the Orlando is built in South Korea, not Oshawa. So I go into this with a relatively clear conscience.

So, in the next couple of days, after listening to our own advise, we take ownership of our new 2012 Mazda5. And, for the record, I took a GT model with a manual transmission, and made it black.

Ryan