It's all in the Packaging
I do love it when you can pack a lot of kit in a reasonably small vehicle. The Mazda5 is basically a mini-minivan, complete with sliding side doors and a third row seat. You can get six people in the thing (as long as your third row residents are smallish in stature) and it's a comfortable, flexible hauler. It's little four-banger is no powerhouse, but the 5-speed automatic does a great job at finding the best gear to optimize acceleration. Lot's of useful features and a sub-$18K base price make this a sharp little unit. I see it being used effectively on the Circus circuit, for you really could cram a mess o' clowns in it.
