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Vans & Minivans Mazda Mazda5 Mazda5: No Traction/ Stability Control. Is this an issue?
71 messages, Last post on Apr 07, 2009 at 11:22 AM
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I am fairly new to the Mazda5 forum and I stumbled upon this thread and read it all. I am in my early thirties so by no means did I ever grow up in the muscle car era nor the pre-muscle car era. I know I will probably get a lot of negative responses (maybe not) but as I read this thread it amazed me how much people have changed and progressively transferred "liability" to auto makers. Electronics in vehicles is a fairy new concept that dates back maybe 20 or so years. Vehicles now-a-days are better built and way safer then all those vehicles that we as kids and young adults for some rode in or drove. What happened to being a proactive and safe driver? Why "must" you have all these electronic controls just to prevent you from getting in an accident? We never had them before and we did just fine, why "must" you have it now. Very simple people...if you live in a region where it snows, either get yourself an AWD vehicle, but if you must go the 2WD venue then get yourself a set of snow tires to help traction and drive slower than normal conditions. If you cant control your own vehicle in dry sunny conditions then either maybe you should slow down and obey the speed laws or don't drive at all. The additon of all these gizmos to vehicles by automakers to make it a "safer" car all evolves from stupid, irresponsible people (for lack of a better term) that get into a major accident and want to blame someone else for their mistakes. Believe it or not people, most accidents are caused by human error and not vehicle malfunction. So if you "must" have DSC or TC or whatever alse you feel you must have on the vehicle to make you a safer driver, then go ahead and buy that vehicle. Hey guess what...? Mazda does not offer it on the MZ5 so stop whinning about the automaker decisions and profit this and profit that and go find yourself the vehicle with all your electronic gizmos and buy it. As for me ABS and EBD is far more than enough to control my MZ5. I am a car enthusiast and the last thing I need is a computer driving my vehicle or telling me how to drive it. Just my $0.02
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Replying to: vg33e power (Oct 15, 2008 3:51 pm) 
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Replying to: kivo (Oct 16, 2008 10:58 am) I was driving my DSC equipped vehicle a few weeks ago and made a planned hot entrance to a turn. Thinking I would have a small amount of oversteer, I began to compensate. At the same time the DSC kicked in and all but halted me in my turn. It did its job and "saved" me from myself. Talk about scary... In the end, it was a letdown and I'm still curious how this particular car slides. The real negative will come when I get back in a car w/o DSC: as I'm careening out of control, I'll be relaxing and waiting for the DSC to really save me. Reminds me a little of Wall-e and BNL.
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Replying to: maltb (Oct 16, 2008 12:59 pm) Here is the main sentence of your post. ..."you made a planned hot entrance to a turn" meaning that you intentionally wanted to toss what ever vehicle you were driving that has DSC onto a "hot turn", obviously not a MZ5. It kind of goes back to my statement of being liable for your actions. Yes DSC may be nice to have, but on a vehicle such as our MZ5's where its intentions, target, and design were not directly develop to go rally racing down a slope but rather a sporty, small, comfortable and efficient people mover. Perhaps an alternative to a much bigger, unathelitic and bland (may I say the word) mini-van. So (not intended directly to you maltb) if you want an awesome handling vehicle that includes just about every electronic gizmo out there to make you the race car driver and still at times be able to carry a few people plus gear, then pay the price and step up to a Subaru STI Wagon.
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Replying to: vg33e power (Oct 16, 2008 1:18 pm) As far as the MZ5 is concerned, I met a driving instructor who had one and felt, in fact, it was a very capable racer.
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Replying to: maltb (Oct 17, 2008 2:42 pm) |
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Replying to: chiefbongo (Aug 11, 2008 12:26 pm) It's like seatbelts: once you HAVE a safety feature, you are unwilling to regress. I live in New England and drive an AWD Passat. I was *shocked* that the Mazda5 skipped DSC (heck, I want AWD!), especially since it is available outside the US. I have wanted a Mazda5 since it came out (it really is a great package), but the wife demands every safety option for the family vehicle; she would CONSIDER foregoing AWD *IF* DSC were available, but it's not, so, so be it: Mazda5 was a non-starter. Price is not the issue: indeed, we will gladly pay up for Toyota's AWD Sienna, even if that is a bit of overkill. But I, personally, would have LOVED the Mazda (I have long been a fan and sometime owner of their products: RX7, Protege). Some have noted that Mazda will offer it when a suitable competitor arrives--however, if that competitor is, e.g., the Honda Stream, then they will lose again: whichever reaches our shores first, Honda Stream or DSC Mazda5 (or, heck, Mazdaspeed5 with DSC!) will be that which graces our driveway (unless, of course, we have already filled the opportunity slot with something else). |
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Just to make it clear I'm not defending the honor of my "noble steed" (as autoholic put it), I will say I was fully aware our Mazda5 lacked ESC when we decided to buy it. My feeling -- already articulated by "chiefbongo" and "vq33e power" -- is that there's really no substitute for safe driving, anyway, so it wasn't a necessity. I wasn't going to pay the extra (in purchase price, fuel, etc.) for something larger with ESC, because I simply didn't think it was worth it. I think Mazda should offer ESC as a readily-available option, but I wasn't going to walk away from an otherwise sensible purchase just because of it. |
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| I haven't bought my MZ5 yet, so nothing to defend. I don't care one whit that it lacks AWD, DSC, or ESC. I know it lacks it - and if it offered it as an extra, I'd probably not opt for it. Put me in the "not necessary" category. I think the 5 offers many other good reasons to choose it, and lack of the aforementioned features doesn't mean the 5 is an unsafe vehicle. It doesn't even mean other vehicles with them are more safe, if all other factors are not equal between compared cars. | |
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| I was talking to one of the sales people and he told me that they are not adding stability control till the 2011 model re-make which of course comes out 2010 sometime. So if you guys want options that are available elsewhere you need to start to but Mazda US which of course controls mazda canada of stuff you want added to it. I personally like the option of tinted glass(not the stick on stuff) which is available now in other countries. Another option which is really cheap to add is the back up camera. The power sliding doors which are available elsewhere now would be handy even though the assist ones are on them now the power open and close is handy. Also the sunroof there is loads of room to make it one that slides within the roof of the car and would give a reasonable opening as compared to the tiny one now. | |
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