Gadgetory

if you want to come out of the automotive slump these days one of the first places to double down is compact SUVs they grow nearly 20% last year so Mazdas got the all-new cx-5 showing here in LA you'll see all-new sheetmetal all around I read Volvo in the face maybe that's just me but under the hood is the key thing a full launch of what they call their SKYACTIV technologies this car is showing a 2 liter inline-4 gasoline direct injected motor with a sky-high compression rate of 13 to 1 getting a lot out of a little and that goes into a gearbox that they say combines the best of automatic dual clutch and CVT behavior all in one we'll see when they deliver us one and I get it out on the road in terms of mileage that yields 2633 for this guy pretty good for a car that's relatively chunky and kind of like moving a loaf of bread through the air inside you're gonna find an all-new interface a 5.8 inch touchscreen LCD and if you option up nav it's TomTom technology I've seen some third-party PMDs like TomTom and Garmin get integrated into dashboards before it can be hit and miss so I'll be curious to see what this guy looks like when it hits the market and we get one early 2012