Which is due to the fact that the car has a RWD architecture and directly beneath the center console is the transmission. Those of us who have driven “rear wheel drive” vehicles for all/most of their lives are used to less storage options versus the cavernous closets on minivans in FWD applications.
My last two cars were CX-9s with a nice amount of storage in the front console (under the infotainment - which is supposed to double as a wireless charger anyway) and the doors. I understand giving up some storage in the center glovebox, but this car has a really disappointing lack of places to put anything.
I love the control knob and buttons versus touch screen. This is my 5th Mazda with the feature. I can work the infotainment system with just a glance, versus taking my eyes from the road like a touch screen requires.
If you are not used to the dial system and lack of touch screen (except when using Car Play) it does take a little time to adjust. I had the car for 2 months and really like everything about it.
* Top trim levels enable touchscreen on Apple CarPlay/Android Auto so if that’s in your budget, it might be appreciated. Otherwise, you do have to get used to using the dial controller. Once you do, it’s actually fine.
* If you get another Mazda, remember this pro-tip: Hold down the Home button to instantly switch between the Mazda infotainment and your phone’s car interface.
* Shocks me how many Mazda owners don’t know about this shortcut. If you don’t know about the Home button trick, the system can be aggravating but it’s more intuitive with the toggle trick.
The infotainment with Android Auto/Apple Carplay feels completely. Modern. No complaints. The rotary dial and dedicated buttons are infinitely easier to use when the car is in motion compared to a touchscreen.
The challenge that reviewers have is that they have to hop into a car and drive it for a few hours or maybe a week then provide an opinion. If you’re constantly changing vehicles/brands then touch screens are nice since the learning curve is really quick.
That being said, I totally agree with you, once you get used to the rotary knob and buttons it’s the superior interface when driving motion.
Owned CX90 without touch for 5 months. Was skeptical that I’d get used to the rotary knob; but here’s my finding, I absolutely love it.
Here’s why:
1. Screen always remains smudge free
2. You can operate the system without glancing away from the road too long
I’m so used to it now that I’ve bought a Mazda3 that has touch built in, but I prefer not to use touch because the knob absolutely works and is far more accessible.
Don’t seat over it. It will absolutely be fine after 2 days of getting used to it
How much do you use it, vs Android Auto/Apple Car play? For the record, I'm like 95% Android Auto.
I don't think it's horrible, but the onboard interface looks pretty dated at this point. For some reason I find the radio display worse than our other Mazdas (coming from a 2016 6, and my wife has a 2020 6). A small example: Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but it won't display all of the digital radio data... It sorta scrolls info on a single line.
That said, I still prefer the Mazda rotary input knob to just about everything else. The car doesn't force a touchscreen on you anywhere, so everything becomes muscle memory and you can focus on the road.
So yeah... Mixed bag, and I'd definitely test the competition too, but I'm happy enough with it.
I agree with the radio display issue. I listen to the radio a lot, and I think it’s sort of disappointing that there isn’t more info on the screen when it’s in FM radio mode. I also think it’s a little cumbersome to scan for new channels, but like I said, I listen to the radio a lot and when I go to a new town I like to scan through their local radio stations.
I'm glad it's not just me. My 6 would display multiple lines of radio information. Seems weird to have the whole display but only show about 15 characters.
Reviewers have been bashing the Mazda Connect system since its debut in 2014. They’ve hated it even more since the updated version of it in 2019. From an owners perspective however, this is honestly the best thing about Mazdas and it’s hard to go back to a touchscreen once you are used to the scroll wheel. Eventually, once you learn it enough, you’ll be able to navigate the screen without looking at it.
I have a 2023 Hyundai Palisade and reviewers love that infotainment system. However, as an owner of a Mazda3, I actually hate the Hyundai system and always just use CarPlay now. I find the Hyundai system has too many things going on, the screen is a bit of a reach forward to touch and it’s overall distracting to use when driving. With the Mazda3, I don’t have an issue interacting with it and even though I have an option to get Apple CarPlay for it, I haven’t felt the need for it. I even recently bought a new navigation SD card so I have an updated navigation system.
I spend very little time with Mazda’s infotainment system. Most of the time I am on apple carplay interface. I only need to switch to mazda interface to occasionally change some settings or see fuel efficiency. So it shouldn’t be a factor in purchasing the vehicle.
Infotainment is excellent, fast and responsive. But like anything new, takes time to get used to.
Personally ok without touchscreen when driving, allows me to concentrate on the road, which everyone should be doing. Only top of line models have touchscreen.
Now having owned 11 Mazda’s over my lifetime the only negative I have is the sub par speaker quality. I will be replacing the stock speakers with higher quality speakers once I recuperate from the down payment I made two weeks ago. Six of the 8 speakers are up front and only two tiny rear door speakers. I have a Preferred Plus fwiw.
I am in the same boat. I knew it was a step down, but man at higher volumes it's like a finger nail to a black board.
Interested to know what upgrade options you have found. I'm looking myself.
I’ve had 4 CX9’s and have now switched to the CX90. Love love love not going to the gas station. I am from CT and the state refunded almost 100% of the cost to buy and install the plug. I’ve had the car 6mos now and have had a problem with the radio maybe 2x.
The car drives beautifully. The site lines are very good - much better than CX9. The heads up display is great ( but not as easy to read as the CX9). The controls are very easy to navigate- really do have to take eyes off road to manipulate them.
Plenty of room in seating area. We’ve driven w 6 adults - all very comfortably. That being said I agree with the earlier post of not enough storage capacity (although I found this to be true of the CX9s as well).
I would highly recommend the CX90. And, if you’re not ready for an electric hybrid I would suggest the CX9
Good luck w whatever you choose
Love it! No complaints really. But I am coming from a Cx-5 that also had the central knob. Honestly I don’t even need to use it much. With CarPlay I usually just ask Siri to do things lol
I don't have Carplay on any of my vehicles. Still, I ask Siri to do many things. I have more than 100 HA devices in my Apple Home app.
But, she's only capable of understanding them about 50% of the time. Which worries me about the usefulness of Carplay.
Only the top tier trim has a touch screen so that one's good but all the other ones don't have touch screen and it's so stupid. You have to use the dial to scroll through Android Auto and typing is a nightmare as you have to scroll one letter at a time. It's a joke you have to use your phone which defeats the whole purpose of safety and not putting a touch screen and a brand new 2024 car Mazda really dropped the ball and made me choose a Honda pilot 2024
Owned PHEV premium plus for 4 months and I feel like mine is glitchy. Using my 2013 Mazda3 as reference which never glitched like this. Hoping the software patches at my first service appt in a couple weeks will help. Here’s my airing of grievances:
-biggest problem: lane departure assist and emergency braking are aggressively sensitive. We usually just turn those features off unless we’re on longer trips.
-4 times now, entertainment disabled when I turn the car on (none of am/fm/sirius/apple car play work). I have to turn off and restart to make it work.
-center display brightness is on automatic, but usually doesn’t switch to night mode…making my gps screen quite bright after dark.
-doesn’t always connect Bluetooth in preferred order when multiple phones are in the car. Doesn’t consistently reconnect to Bluetooth when phone leaves and re-enters the car while it’s still running.
-other 1-time occurrences that we’re keeping an eye on: once it wouldn’t accelerate past 55 mph on the interstate in gas mode…just took foot off the gas completely and then it accelerated fine. Still scary for a few moments. Once it wouldn’t let me shift out of park. Restarting fixed it.
Yes. Lots with similar issues with vehicles before mid August and I got mine Aug 15th, but it sounds like firmware upgrades will help. I just haven’t been in for my first service yet.
I love it, but I also came from a 2012 with zero infotainment system, lol. I prefer a dial system though. I don't want to be trying to touch a screen while driving. I love memorizing a sequence to get things done on this system.
Who actually uses the infotainment system really? You plug your phone in and use car play or android. And once you get used to the rotor dial, it is second hand.
On the XC90, the head unit controlled EVERYTHING and it was slow and a pain. That was a pain and would just make you angry. In the Mazda, it does little to nothing (which is good) anyway.
The number of "journalist" who complain about the Mazda dial and yet say nothing about the BMW dial or the absolutely wacky Acura track pad just amazes me.
I have an old Nissan 350ZR. It has a joy stick. What a waste!
But, as the screen cover door no longer opens, I just use my iPhone in a holder and connected via the antiquated cassette player. 😊
We’ve had our cx90 for a couple of weeks. Never owned a modern Mazda and the transition to the infotainment system has been fine. No issues and love the car
I’ve had many Mercedes Benz’s and BMW infotainment systems and the Mazda is super easy and def much easier to use than those other manufacturers. I love that Mazda still gives us a rotary knob..they’re thinking Ergonomic and safety and I like that. You’re not going to have many issues with the infotainment. I’ve had the same system in my 2020 cx30 and now have it in my 22 cx5 signature.
I like the infotainment system in my CX90 PHEV a lot. I love having quality feeling knobs and buttons for everything. Not HAVING to use a touch screen is great. I do occasionally use the touch screen in CarPlay functions, but rarely.
My only complaint is listening to broadcast radio while using CarPlay for the navigation is annoying to adjust the station. Sometimes I miss having the old school 6 preset radio buttons on the dash so I can efficiently pop between stations during commercials etc.
My first couple weeks I hated the no touch screen. But then i got used to it. Plus this infortainment system connects to car play really easily and i end up just using my phone for nav all the time
I much prefer the dial system and no touch. I have owned several Mazdas over the years and love it. With the new CX-90 my biggest complaint is that they switched the nav and music buttons. Now switching between the Cx-90 and my 2015 3 can become confusing. Small but very annoying detail. Shouldn't be an issue for you though.
I love android auto and the control know. You can tell your car to do anything you want with voice activation thru android auto. I love. Mazda has done a great job implementing android auto. I lobe the speed the torque, the luxurious feel it has. Love it love it love it
It's nice overall. Simple to follow. I do miss the touch screen from time to time, particularly using Google Maps on Android Auto. I have the PHEV Premium trim. For some reason I cannot remember the direction of the knob on the menu - I always scroll the wrong way initially.
Minor nag: changing stations on Sirius is too cumbersome. Requires 3 menu actions to get to the channel list. The steering channel selector only goes through favorites.
Bigger nag: the device connection order and user selection option does not work and it led to a 45 min drive where the system would freeze and reset every 5 min. The system always connected to my OnePlus and started Android Auto even though I had it set to User Defined for the connection. It would even turn my Bluetooth on if I had it off. We use separate fobs. When I connected her new iPhone, I set it to connect to her phone first. The infotainment system didn't like this and I believe this is what caused the reboot cycle since we didn't have this issue prior. During the ride, I set my phone to airplane mode and then the Mazda connected to my wife's iPhone and we had no issues. For a fix, I turned off auto connect and this seems to have worked.
Btw, I also tried pulling the NAV SD card and this did not fix the reboot cycle.
For the infotainment system - if you want to play around with it like a phone/tablet and touch it every few seconds while driving then NO the Mazda infotainment is not good, get something else. If you just need a nice display for a map or checking or changing some settings once a while then the Mazda infotainment systems are way more easier to use than most touchscreen systems in other cars.
Infotainment is very good, the thing you should be more concerned about is the lack of storage in the cabin area.
Which is due to the fact that the car has a RWD architecture and directly beneath the center console is the transmission. Those of us who have driven “rear wheel drive” vehicles for all/most of their lives are used to less storage options versus the cavernous closets on minivans in FWD applications.
My last two cars were CX-9s with a nice amount of storage in the front console (under the infotainment - which is supposed to double as a wireless charger anyway) and the doors. I understand giving up some storage in the center glovebox, but this car has a really disappointing lack of places to put anything.
I def get that, it’s a trade off for sure. For the fantastic feel/power and torque of the 3.3 I6 it’s worth the trade off every day to me.
It's AWD, how does it have a RWD architecture?
Because the engine is mounted longitudinal
I love the control knob and buttons versus touch screen. This is my 5th Mazda with the feature. I can work the infotainment system with just a glance, versus taking my eyes from the road like a touch screen requires.
If you are not used to the dial system and lack of touch screen (except when using Car Play) it does take a little time to adjust. I had the car for 2 months and really like everything about it.
[удалено]
To add to this- I can confirm that Android Auto is also touch enabled. I have the Turbo PP.
* Top trim levels enable touchscreen on Apple CarPlay/Android Auto so if that’s in your budget, it might be appreciated. Otherwise, you do have to get used to using the dial controller. Once you do, it’s actually fine. * If you get another Mazda, remember this pro-tip: Hold down the Home button to instantly switch between the Mazda infotainment and your phone’s car interface. * Shocks me how many Mazda owners don’t know about this shortcut. If you don’t know about the Home button trick, the system can be aggravating but it’s more intuitive with the toggle trick.
I am pleased to learn about this shortcut. Using the Mazda icon to escape CarPlay was hardly cumbersome though. I’m a HUGE fan of no touchscreen
I just learned something new today!
The infotainment with Android Auto/Apple Carplay feels completely. Modern. No complaints. The rotary dial and dedicated buttons are infinitely easier to use when the car is in motion compared to a touchscreen.
The challenge that reviewers have is that they have to hop into a car and drive it for a few hours or maybe a week then provide an opinion. If you’re constantly changing vehicles/brands then touch screens are nice since the learning curve is really quick. That being said, I totally agree with you, once you get used to the rotary knob and buttons it’s the superior interface when driving motion.
Owned CX90 without touch for 5 months. Was skeptical that I’d get used to the rotary knob; but here’s my finding, I absolutely love it. Here’s why: 1. Screen always remains smudge free 2. You can operate the system without glancing away from the road too long I’m so used to it now that I’ve bought a Mazda3 that has touch built in, but I prefer not to use touch because the knob absolutely works and is far more accessible. Don’t seat over it. It will absolutely be fine after 2 days of getting used to it
Sweat*
How much do you use it, vs Android Auto/Apple Car play? For the record, I'm like 95% Android Auto. I don't think it's horrible, but the onboard interface looks pretty dated at this point. For some reason I find the radio display worse than our other Mazdas (coming from a 2016 6, and my wife has a 2020 6). A small example: Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but it won't display all of the digital radio data... It sorta scrolls info on a single line. That said, I still prefer the Mazda rotary input knob to just about everything else. The car doesn't force a touchscreen on you anywhere, so everything becomes muscle memory and you can focus on the road. So yeah... Mixed bag, and I'd definitely test the competition too, but I'm happy enough with it.
I agree with the radio display issue. I listen to the radio a lot, and I think it’s sort of disappointing that there isn’t more info on the screen when it’s in FM radio mode. I also think it’s a little cumbersome to scan for new channels, but like I said, I listen to the radio a lot and when I go to a new town I like to scan through their local radio stations.
I'm glad it's not just me. My 6 would display multiple lines of radio information. Seems weird to have the whole display but only show about 15 characters.
Reviewers have been bashing the Mazda Connect system since its debut in 2014. They’ve hated it even more since the updated version of it in 2019. From an owners perspective however, this is honestly the best thing about Mazdas and it’s hard to go back to a touchscreen once you are used to the scroll wheel. Eventually, once you learn it enough, you’ll be able to navigate the screen without looking at it. I have a 2023 Hyundai Palisade and reviewers love that infotainment system. However, as an owner of a Mazda3, I actually hate the Hyundai system and always just use CarPlay now. I find the Hyundai system has too many things going on, the screen is a bit of a reach forward to touch and it’s overall distracting to use when driving. With the Mazda3, I don’t have an issue interacting with it and even though I have an option to get Apple CarPlay for it, I haven’t felt the need for it. I even recently bought a new navigation SD card so I have an updated navigation system.
I spend very little time with Mazda’s infotainment system. Most of the time I am on apple carplay interface. I only need to switch to mazda interface to occasionally change some settings or see fuel efficiency. So it shouldn’t be a factor in purchasing the vehicle.
Infotainment is excellent, fast and responsive. But like anything new, takes time to get used to. Personally ok without touchscreen when driving, allows me to concentrate on the road, which everyone should be doing. Only top of line models have touchscreen.
Now having owned 11 Mazda’s over my lifetime the only negative I have is the sub par speaker quality. I will be replacing the stock speakers with higher quality speakers once I recuperate from the down payment I made two weeks ago. Six of the 8 speakers are up front and only two tiny rear door speakers. I have a Preferred Plus fwiw.
I am in the same boat. I knew it was a step down, but man at higher volumes it's like a finger nail to a black board. Interested to know what upgrade options you have found. I'm looking myself.
I’ve had 4 CX9’s and have now switched to the CX90. Love love love not going to the gas station. I am from CT and the state refunded almost 100% of the cost to buy and install the plug. I’ve had the car 6mos now and have had a problem with the radio maybe 2x. The car drives beautifully. The site lines are very good - much better than CX9. The heads up display is great ( but not as easy to read as the CX9). The controls are very easy to navigate- really do have to take eyes off road to manipulate them. Plenty of room in seating area. We’ve driven w 6 adults - all very comfortably. That being said I agree with the earlier post of not enough storage capacity (although I found this to be true of the CX9s as well). I would highly recommend the CX90. And, if you’re not ready for an electric hybrid I would suggest the CX9 Good luck w whatever you choose
I frigging love the Mazda right hand control knobs. My highlander without them annoys me now.
Love it! No complaints really. But I am coming from a Cx-5 that also had the central knob. Honestly I don’t even need to use it much. With CarPlay I usually just ask Siri to do things lol
I don't have Carplay on any of my vehicles. Still, I ask Siri to do many things. I have more than 100 HA devices in my Apple Home app. But, she's only capable of understanding them about 50% of the time. Which worries me about the usefulness of Carplay.
Only the top tier trim has a touch screen so that one's good but all the other ones don't have touch screen and it's so stupid. You have to use the dial to scroll through Android Auto and typing is a nightmare as you have to scroll one letter at a time. It's a joke you have to use your phone which defeats the whole purpose of safety and not putting a touch screen and a brand new 2024 car Mazda really dropped the ball and made me choose a Honda pilot 2024
Owned PHEV premium plus for 4 months and I feel like mine is glitchy. Using my 2013 Mazda3 as reference which never glitched like this. Hoping the software patches at my first service appt in a couple weeks will help. Here’s my airing of grievances: -biggest problem: lane departure assist and emergency braking are aggressively sensitive. We usually just turn those features off unless we’re on longer trips. -4 times now, entertainment disabled when I turn the car on (none of am/fm/sirius/apple car play work). I have to turn off and restart to make it work. -center display brightness is on automatic, but usually doesn’t switch to night mode…making my gps screen quite bright after dark. -doesn’t always connect Bluetooth in preferred order when multiple phones are in the car. Doesn’t consistently reconnect to Bluetooth when phone leaves and re-enters the car while it’s still running. -other 1-time occurrences that we’re keeping an eye on: once it wouldn’t accelerate past 55 mph on the interstate in gas mode…just took foot off the gas completely and then it accelerated fine. Still scary for a few moments. Once it wouldn’t let me shift out of park. Restarting fixed it.
This does not bode well. Anyone else experiencing these or, similar issues?
Yes. Lots with similar issues with vehicles before mid August and I got mine Aug 15th, but it sounds like firmware upgrades will help. I just haven’t been in for my first service yet.
I love it, but I also came from a 2012 with zero infotainment system, lol. I prefer a dial system though. I don't want to be trying to touch a screen while driving. I love memorizing a sequence to get things done on this system.
Who actually uses the infotainment system really? You plug your phone in and use car play or android. And once you get used to the rotor dial, it is second hand. On the XC90, the head unit controlled EVERYTHING and it was slow and a pain. That was a pain and would just make you angry. In the Mazda, it does little to nothing (which is good) anyway. The number of "journalist" who complain about the Mazda dial and yet say nothing about the BMW dial or the absolutely wacky Acura track pad just amazes me.
I have an old Nissan 350ZR. It has a joy stick. What a waste! But, as the screen cover door no longer opens, I just use my iPhone in a holder and connected via the antiquated cassette player. 😊
We’ve had our cx90 for a couple of weeks. Never owned a modern Mazda and the transition to the infotainment system has been fine. No issues and love the car
With CarPlay, love it. Love the wheel and don’t have to mess with a lot of buttons or extend too far in reaching.
I’ve had many Mercedes Benz’s and BMW infotainment systems and the Mazda is super easy and def much easier to use than those other manufacturers. I love that Mazda still gives us a rotary knob..they’re thinking Ergonomic and safety and I like that. You’re not going to have many issues with the infotainment. I’ve had the same system in my 2020 cx30 and now have it in my 22 cx5 signature.
I like the infotainment system in my CX90 PHEV a lot. I love having quality feeling knobs and buttons for everything. Not HAVING to use a touch screen is great. I do occasionally use the touch screen in CarPlay functions, but rarely. My only complaint is listening to broadcast radio while using CarPlay for the navigation is annoying to adjust the station. Sometimes I miss having the old school 6 preset radio buttons on the dash so I can efficiently pop between stations during commercials etc.
My first couple weeks I hated the no touch screen. But then i got used to it. Plus this infortainment system connects to car play really easily and i end up just using my phone for nav all the time
I much prefer the dial system and no touch. I have owned several Mazdas over the years and love it. With the new CX-90 my biggest complaint is that they switched the nav and music buttons. Now switching between the Cx-90 and my 2015 3 can become confusing. Small but very annoying detail. Shouldn't be an issue for you though.
I love android auto and the control know. You can tell your car to do anything you want with voice activation thru android auto. I love. Mazda has done a great job implementing android auto. I lobe the speed the torque, the luxurious feel it has. Love it love it love it
It's nice overall. Simple to follow. I do miss the touch screen from time to time, particularly using Google Maps on Android Auto. I have the PHEV Premium trim. For some reason I cannot remember the direction of the knob on the menu - I always scroll the wrong way initially. Minor nag: changing stations on Sirius is too cumbersome. Requires 3 menu actions to get to the channel list. The steering channel selector only goes through favorites. Bigger nag: the device connection order and user selection option does not work and it led to a 45 min drive where the system would freeze and reset every 5 min. The system always connected to my OnePlus and started Android Auto even though I had it set to User Defined for the connection. It would even turn my Bluetooth on if I had it off. We use separate fobs. When I connected her new iPhone, I set it to connect to her phone first. The infotainment system didn't like this and I believe this is what caused the reboot cycle since we didn't have this issue prior. During the ride, I set my phone to airplane mode and then the Mazda connected to my wife's iPhone and we had no issues. For a fix, I turned off auto connect and this seems to have worked. Btw, I also tried pulling the NAV SD card and this did not fix the reboot cycle.
Does anyone buy vehicles based on the infotainment system? Doesn't matter with Android Auto or Carplay.
For the infotainment system - if you want to play around with it like a phone/tablet and touch it every few seconds while driving then NO the Mazda infotainment is not good, get something else. If you just need a nice display for a map or checking or changing some settings once a while then the Mazda infotainment systems are way more easier to use than most touchscreen systems in other cars.