Marc UrbanoCar and Driver
Crossovers are popular, but in our office of car enthusiasts they aren’t the keys we fight over. We worship the tenets of performance, handling, and refinement. Crossovers have different values, and while we can appreciate their practicality, we’d argue that a station wagon does everything a crossover can do while being a better thing to drive. And yet, Americans are clamoring for the keys to these car-based SUVs. Last year alone, nearly 40 percent of new car shoppers bought crossovers, and 2.9 million of those were of the compact variety. As the market shifts to these lifted hatchbacks, passenger cars are beginning to die out.
Now, if we found ourselves at a compact-crossover key party, we’d try hard to grab the key fob to the Mazda CX-5 out of the bowl. It’s a fun-to-drive delight in a segment plagued by dullness. The CX-5 is such a bright spot and so aligned with our values that it earned its way onto our 10Best list for 2020. But there’s a new Ford Escape for 2020. A perennial best seller, the Escape has been redesigned from the ground up and features a new turbocharged three-cylinder engine and a new look inside and out. To see if the Escape’s key is the one we should be fishing for, we hit the road with both the Ford and the Mazda.
The Matchup
The Mazda is available with three different four-cylinder engines—two burn gas, and the third consumes diesel—while Ford takes a different approach and offers two turbocharged engines while its third powertrain is a gas-electric hybrid. Our CX-5 Grand Touring came with the standard 2.5-liter four and all-wheel drive. The Escape that aligns with the CX-5 Grand Touring is the Escape SEL. You’ll notice that we have an SE model with all-wheel drive. While it lacks a few of the features of the well-equipped CX-5 Grand Touring, the Escape does have a hefty $5000 price advantage.
On the Road
Perhaps the biggest difference between the Mazda and the Ford is what’s under the hood. The Ford Escape’s standard engine is a turbocharged 1.5-liter inline-three with 180 horsepower, while the Mazda CX-5’s base engine is a 187-hp 2.5-liter four-banger. At the test track, the Escape’s three-cylinder whisked it to 60 mph in 8.0 seconds. The CX-5’s larger four-cylinder sent it to the same speed in 7.9 seconds. Acceleration might be close enough to call a draw, but the Ford’s smaller engine handily beat the CX-5 in our 75-mph highway fuel-economy test—35 mpg to the CX-5’s 29 mpg.
Driving both back to back reveals some other differences. What’s immediately apparent is that the CX-5 steers, stops, and rides in a way that makes us grin. The Mazda’s controls feel alive, refined, and made for people who enjoy the act of driving. There’s nothing wrong with the way the Escape steers, stops, or rides, it’s just that the CX-5 is tuned better.
The Escape does lack the CX-5’s solid refinement, though. Even small road imperfections send loud thumps through the Escape’s floor and structure. At a steady 70 mph, the Escape is noisier than the CX-5. The CX-5 is a hushed 66 decibels to the Escape’s 69 decibels. Neither engine note is a perfect 10, but the Escape’s three-cylinder emits a low-pitched drone at about 1250 rpm that sounds like the car next to you is blasting Gucci Mane with the bass cranked up to its highest setting. It’s one of those things that you notice once and then haunts you forever. However, when you rev it out and venture into higher rpm, the Escape’s engine redeems itself with a more soulful character than the Mazda’s inline-four. Plus, the Ford’s three is quieter under hard acceleration, putting out 74 decibels to the Mazda’s 76.
The Inside View
We could gripe about the Escape’s cabin’s cheap-feeling seat fabric and plastic steering wheel, but moving up to the Escape’s SEL trim level would address our complaints with different seat fabric and a leather-wrapped steering wheel. Opting for the higher SEL trim level would have also brought memory seats and side mirrors as well as one-touch power windows. What spending more for the SEL trim level wouldn’t fix is the inexpensive plastics that dominate the interior. The Mazda, on the other hand, approaches luxury-car standards inside. Its cabin materials simply are richer and better looking.
Small-ute buyers likely imagine using their vehicles to go tailgating, taking the family on short vacations, or camping in the wilderness. Whether or not buyers actually do any of that is irrelevant, but cargo space is a must if any of those things are to happen. On paper, the Ford beats the CX-5 in terms of cargo capacity, with 34 cubic feet in the way back and 65 cubes with the second-row folded. Mazda measures three fewer cubic feet with all of its seats up and five fewer with the rear seats folded. However, the CX-5’s available space is more useable. We were able to shove nine carry-on-size suitcases in the CX-5’s cargo area and 23 with all of the seats down. The Escape swallowed eight with the seats up and 21 with them laid flat.
We prefer Ford’s Sync 3 infotainment system over the CX-5’s rather dated interface. The Escape’s 8.0-inch screen is an inch larger than the Mazda’s, the touchscreen responds quickly, and the menus are easy to navigate. Mazda’s smaller touchscreen also has a rotary rotary control knob on the center console, but the response and boot-up time can be laggy. Also, the graphics would benefit from the newer infotainment system Mazda uses on its Mazda 3 and CX-30 models. Both systems feature Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, but only the Ford has Wi-Fi.
The Bottom Line
After soaking in these these two compact crossovers, the Mazda emerges as a clear winner. Yes, the CX-5 benefits from being $5000 more expensive than the Escape, but what you get for that money is more refinement and a crossover that’s both better to drive and live with. Spending more for an Escape SEL would have solved a few issues, but the Escape’s larger fit and finish issues would not be completely addressed with that higher trim level. The Ford does enjoy some clear and important advantages over the Mazda, including a superior infotainment system and better fuel economy. But while the Ford feels like it came off the discount rack, the Mazda never stops feeling like it’s more expensive than its price.
The CX-5’s key is the one we’d grab.
Source: Reviews - aranddriver.com
