2019 Volvo XC40 vs 2019 Mazda CX-5 Turbo // Attack of the Compacts

Hey, what's up? Thomas? I've been kidnapped. What? I've been kidnapped. No, where are you? Well, we haven't actually moved, they've just put me in the car. Okay, where are you? I think I'm on Cedar Street. Okay, so you're nearby, that's good. Alright, describe the car to me, what did it look like? I actually did catch a glimpse before they threw me in here. Yeah, what did it look like? Honestly, it looked pretty cool, yeah, a bit of a futuristic vibe. What? No, James, describe the exterior. Oh right, the exterior, yeah, two-tone, but not in a distasteful way. A strangely fascinating combination of hard and soft edges that really only give you a small clue to its personality. Which, one can assume, is probably fun while engaging. From the front, you wouldn't even know it was Scandinavian. It has very much a Western European vibe. Even the floor surface is... Are you serious? What? Did you just make me try to find you so you could boast about having the new XC40? You're watching Throttle House, my name is Thomas. And I'm James. And this is the 2019 CX-5 with a turbo. And this is the 2019 Volvo XC40. We want to see if this can take that on. Well, yours is already at a disadvantage, though. Why? Well, mine has a badge that actually means something cool. It means it's rolling iron, this is the symbol of iron. Okay, well, Mazda's obsessed with symbolism, so that's not actually an M, that is wings. It represents Ohura Mazda, the god of intelligence, wisdom, and harmony. Well, I didn't know that. Okay. In England, we say something is as easy as pie. But in Sweden, they say easy as pancakes. And that's exactly what this should be for the XC40. This is the R-Design spec, which means it's sporting the 19-inch rims, a panoramic sunroof, and LED headlights, just to name a few. Unlike the CX-5, you are actually reminded on the exterior that you've bought a higher-level trim, with R-Design nicely displayed on the C-pillar. This particular vehicle also has a 360-degree camera as part of the Vision Package, and a power-operated tailgate, which comes with the Convenience Package. All these things put the car at a premium price point over the CX-5, and we want to find out if it's worth it. So this is the signature trim of the CX-5, which gets you the cooled seats and some nice interior materials. But it's lacking a few neat features that the Volvo has, like a card parking ticket holder and a garbage can. But nevertheless, it still feels very premium. And now it has a 2.5-liter turbocharged engine to back that up. Now, these cars are very closely matched in size and power numbers, but the CX-5 comes in at a much cheaper price. So subscribe, hit the bell, and listen to find out which one of these would get our money. Volvo XC40. The car that looks like a Nissan Juke, but done right. Two-tone seems to be making a comeback as well. It's got the black roof with the white body. I think it looks great. It reminds me of the Veloster Turbo that we drove not too long ago. So yes, the CX-5 might be cheaper and have a bigger trunk and have a few inches more in length. But it's not about that, is it? It's about how you use it. And what this thing lacks in trunk, it makes up for in funk. Also, this thing must be hitting the treadmill a bit more because it weighs about 100 pounds less than the CX-5. All right, the 2019 CX-5, now with turbo power. We were actually just at the launch for this thing where we got to off-road it in the snow, and we had tons and tons of fun. But this is actually the first time we're driving it on a dry road, so we actually get to see what the new turbo can do, which I'm excited about. Let's put it in sport mode. Now, these cars are both on snow tires. That doesn't mean they can't get the power to the ground because when I put my foot down, there's torque now in the CX-5. It's not a substantial amount of torque, but it is most certainly faster than the CX-5 used to be. Okay, so in a car that's all-wheel drive as standard, what have we got under the hood? It's a 2-liter, 4-cylinder, turbocharged, 248-horsepower engine that gives you 258 pound-feet of torque, which is less than the CX-5, but from the driver's seat, it doesn't seem any slower. In fact, it does seem a bit faster, but I think that's a bit down to the gearing because this thing has eight gears. We found that the XC40 is at a higher RPM for a given road speed, so it feels like it's putting that torque down to the ground better than the CX-5. It doesn't have a twin-scroll turbo, but you have access to your 310 pound-feet of torque way down low in the rev range because of some clever engineering that Mazda did where they have a little valve that closes and allows the air to rush through really quickly at low RPMs to spool up the turbo quicker. However, it doesn't seem to quite have that feeling of really low-end torque that a twin-scroll turbo does, so there does seem to be a little bit of a delay. It's not the end of the world, though. So given that we said they feel about the same speed, what does that speed feel like? I'm going to switch it down to dynamic mode here, high performance from a crossover, compact crossover. Let's see what happens. Yeah, it feels pretty good. It's definitely not slow. So power delivery is smooth and refined, but on throttle it doesn't sound very nice. It kind of has that sound when you get in a car and turn your climate control on for the first time and the air con starts blasting you. It's not very nice. In going through some sweeping back corners like this, you notice two things. Number one, Mazda's G-Vectoring Control allows the car to kind of just go where you point it, which is nice. It's very passive, it doesn't intrude, and the car feels like it can go through a corner at really high speeds. Even in the snow, we were just crushing some back roads with this thing. I'm so confident. And the next thing you notice is how good the steering is. You get really good on center feel, and the weight builds as you push into the corner, and I can very easily tell how much I've turned the wheels. It's really confidence-inspiring. It actually builds a surprising amount of weight in the middle of a corner. The tighter you go, the harder it gets until it starts to understeer, whatever it does, and it starts to loosen. So it's like there's feedback in a crossover. So the steering in this car is way over-boosted. I can't really feel where the wheels are using the steering wheel, so I end up steering with my bum. And I don't know about you, but my bum is not nearly as coordinated as my hands are. As far as the way the body reacts in the corners, it's not something that's too different to any normal crossover. It's not spectacular, but it's not terrible either. Now, back to the engine, though. One thing that I notice more and more as I drive it, I usually have the radio on, but now I have the radio off because I'm talking to you, and the engine noise is not nice that comes through. Let's see if you can hear this right now. Foot down. It's not very refined, the way that it comes through. But overall, this feels very sophisticated and refined to drive, and it doesn't have that kind of engine note coming into the cabin the way the CX-5 does. So at least when you're not on throttle at cruising, it's very nice to drive. Now, the ride and the NVH, which is noise, vibration, and harshness, if that's a new term for you, is improved, and it is good in the CX-5. This is a premium-feeling vehicle. The ride is supple. For being on snow tires with the radio off, I'm not actually getting that much road noise through. It's quite nice. The car feels like it's in a higher class than it was intended to play in. So when talking about the interior, the CX-5 is suddenly in trouble, because where Mazda have decided to not be brave, Volvo have very much done that. Getting into the cabin, the first thing that you see is this bright orange side door trim fur thing, which I'm sure, when it's new, looks great, and when it's kept clean, it looks great. Right now, it's slightly dirty. It kind of looks peppered. So the good news is if you don't clean it, in a few years, it's just going to be black like every other car. But in the middling stage, you kind of end up looking like, you know, it's like when you're trying to grow your hair long, and you want to look like Thor, and instead you end up looking like Nicolas Cage in Con Air. All right, let's move on to the interior. Mazda's made an effort to kind of reduce the visual noise that's going on in the interior of the cabin. However, back to backing it with an XC40, it kind of seems plain now. It doesn't mean that it isn't nice, though. I get what they're doing. It's very simple. The materials are very high quality. That's real wood on the dashboard over there. And the steering wheel feels really, really nice. And all aspects about where I look right here feel high end. There's nothing that feels cheap. There's no cheap plastics, save for a little bit of piano black down here, which is a minimal amount, actually less than the XC40 overall. The next most obvious thing is this giant touchscreen here in front of you, which even though it kind of appears to be easy to use, it's a little bit labored, and it's not super intuitive. I'm not such a big fan of the fact that the climate control buttons are in the touchscreen. I like it on the Mazda where you can do it with the hard buttons. But what the screen does give me is the ability to use the park in, park out feature where this car can park itself for you. Take that, CX-5. The nice thing about this is that when you're in Apple CarPlay, it also splits your screen so you can see the other stuff at the same time. And that's not the only digital part of this car. The dash is fully digital and very dynamic. But you can change the dials in the digital display, which kind of gives it your own personality, gives it your own look. You can also have a map in between the two dials. For me, I don't like that because the map isn't the same as the Apple CarPlay one, so I just leave the music in the middle. And what's nice is in the center cluster, it shows you station, artist, and song, which isn't as common as I would want it to be in most cars. But really nothing about it is a deal-breaker. In fact, the touchscreen is very clear, although it does fall victim to finger marks very easily. However, Volvo have provided us with a very handy Volvo-branded cloth that you can use to clean the screen once you've held the button down for two seconds. And now, thankfully, Mazda has brought Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to the CX-5. And it works. Now, Mazda's infotainment is fine. I don't love it, but I don't hate it either. I see what they're doing. It's very simple. It's meant to be able to be used without taking your eyes off the road for any significant length of time. Unlike that Volvo, James is having to scroll through different screens using his fingers and look down a lot. I can do everything with this little knob down here. Also, one feature that is really nice for the fact that the car doesn't have the ability to show you Apple CarPlay and whatever else is on your screen at the same time, I can toggle back and forth between Apple CarPlay really easily just by holding the Home button. I hold that down, and it brings up Apple CarPlay in front of me. However, Apple CarPlay always works better with a touchscreen because it's like an iPhone. You have your apps, and you click on them. But I have to scroll through with the wheel and select them. I'm not a big fan of that. I wish that this was a little bit bigger and it was a touchscreen because your passenger might want to use it, and they don't want to have to use this wheel with their left hand. That's kind of weird. On a cold winter's day like this, I welcome the heated steering wheel. However, between these two cars, the seats in the Volvo heat up so fast, and the steering wheel takes a while, and it's the other way around in the Mazda. So depending on your preference, whether you want warm hands or warm bum first, the Volvo has your bum sorted before your hands. In fact, I'm starting to see a trend here of being a very bum-centric car. It doesn't care for your hands or the steering wheel. But in all seriousness, material quality in this car is great. I'm not a particular fan of these checkered things, but I don't mind them either. The steering wheel is perforated on the sides, and it's fully heated, whereas the CX-5 only heats the side bits, which I still think is a crime. That's true for the CX-3, and I imagine for the CX-9 as well. It's got the nice little hole in it, which the CX-5 doesn't. It has that plastic thing still. I don't know why. But if I had to pick my favorite feature in this car, it's this glass sunroof. I love a good sunroof. I love being able to see. It kind of makes the car and the cabin feel a lot bigger. So I bet you James is probably in there right now telling you that the XC40 has a lovely dual-pane glass sunroof. And to him I say, look, a bird! Now the interior feels very premium, and I have a lot of space. I actually have quite a lot of headroom in this car. If you were 6'5", you'd probably be able to drive this. We sat James in the back as well, and he actually told me that he was a little bit more comfortable in this car than he was in the XC40 in the rear. As far as leg and headroom, he felt like it was about the same, but the fact that the rear seats were a little bit more reclined meant that he felt a little bit more comfortable overall. So the seats in the CX-5. I feel like after they're worn in, they'd probably be better. But for me, right now, they feel too narrow. And yes, I suppose that's probably a me problem. And thank you, by the way, to that commenter in the last video that told me that I look like Jesus from The Walking Dead got killed off the show and gained some weight and then started reviewing cars. That's the motivation I needed to start going back to the gym. And much like the eject button, if you don't like the people in the back, all you have to do is press this button, and they'll be violently killed. One thing I am excited for is that they are going to be bringing out an EV variant of this car, which is more than I can say for Mazda at this point. So I think, soon enough, Throttle House is going to have to do a battle of the EV variants and see who comes out on top. So, in conclusion, the CX-5 with the signature trim and the turbocharged engine feels premium. It can play with the big boys, which is why we're comparing it to an XC40. So I'm going to meet Thomas right now to drive that CX-5 to see if it can live up to the premium level and the experience that the XC40 gives you. All right, let's do it. I don't know what I found. What's that? White gloves. What are the white gloves for? To change a tire. James, I have never seen you change a tire in your life. Not again. All right. Oh, yep. It feels peppier immediately right off the line. There's just, it's gearing, honestly. 8-speed transmission. This has paddle shifters, too, which is nice. It just feels like it snaps off the line just a little bit more aggressively. That is nice. Okay, I'm in the CX-5, and immediately there's a dullness to the cabin, which is annoying because I actually do like this interior, but getting out of the XC40, it's dull. If it was me in the signature trim, I'd want a sense of occasion. I think I'd go with a lighter color leather. I wouldn't do the black leather. It sounds like a fan. It's weird. Neither of these cars sound very good. They don't have an ultra-premium sound to them, and I guess in that respect they're pretty closely matched. This does, though, have a lot more immediate punch right when you put your foot down. The throttle response seems a little bit better. Okay, is it as punchy? It doesn't feel it, but I know that the speeds of these cars are inconsequentially similar. However, the steering is way too light. Way too light. The CX-5 crushes this car in front-end feel. I cannot believe how different they are. Yeah, like middle of the corner, there's absolutely no weight building. I have no idea where my front tires are pointing. That is a very weird choice by Volvo. Everything that the Volvo lacks in the steering, getting into this, you can immediately feel that it's there again, which is very refreshing. I suddenly know where the wheels are. I can drive the car using these hands. These hands! However, the overall feeling of this car is a little bit more sophisticated. There's something about the ride, the power delivery, just kind of the visual of where I'm sitting right now. It just feels a little bit more premium, but only a little bit. $10,000 more premium? I'm not sure. So which one of these cars would I have? That's a difficult question, honestly. And usually, I'm going to be able to bring it down right to a choice, but I'm not sure I can do that with these because if you pay the extra money for the Volvo, you are getting some nicer features, a little bit more refinement. It feels more premium, and this car can park itself. The CX-5 can't do that. So I suppose in that respect, yeah, I guess it's worth the extra money, but would you be upset if you decided to get the CX-5? No, because it feels premium as well. It really does. And for that reason, I think I would personally probably just save the money and get the CX-5. With the price difference that it is, if I could just add the glass sunroof that the XC40 has and then make the engine noise not pipe in as much as it does, then this for 10 grand less would 100% be my choice. So after spending a lot of time with each car, we realize they are both great to live with and both have their strong points. Yes, the Volvo feels a bit more premium, which accounts for its price, but the CX-5 is so good now, you have to consider it. So in the end, it's really up to you. Make sure you subscribe to Throttle House and tune in next week for another comparison.