The 2026 Mazda CX-5 is mechanically perfect, but the new touchscreen infotainment is a total UX disaster
I’ve been driving for 20 years. For the last 7 years, I drove a 2012 Subaru Crosstrek with physical buttons for everything. Recently, I upgraded to the new 2026 Mazda CX-5. Since it essentially has no real competitors in its price range, I bought it, hoping I’d get used to the new touchscreen-heavy interface.
I haven't. It causes nothing but pure irritation.
Don't get me wrong: technically, this car is divine. The engine, transmission, suspension, comfort options, and exterior design are absolutely fantastic. I love driving it. But the software/touchscreen ruins the entire experience.
I’ve actually started emailing Mazda corporate weekly about these issues (specifically focusing on safety hazards), but I wanted to summarize them here to see if anyone else feels the same way, and hopefully push them to rewrite this terrible software.
Here is a list of the biggest flaws and how Mazda could easily fix them:
Volume Control I know there was a massive post about this a month ago, but I have to repeat it: the touchscreen volume control is pathetic. Yes, as a driver, I have steering wheel controls. But if my passenger wants to adjust the volume, they have to precisely tap a tiny 1x1 cm square on a moving screen. Solution: Put a massive, permanent volume widget right on the home screen.
Audio Balance/Fader settings When my kids fall asleep in the back (or are just chatting), I like to quickly move the audio to the front speakers. In my 2012 Subaru, I pressed the audio knob 4 times and gave it a twist. It took 2 seconds without taking my eyes off the road. In the CX-5, it’s buried deep inside sub-menus. Solution: Allow users to create custom quick-action buttons/widgets on the home screen for things like Fader/Balance.
Playing Music from a USB This is a multi-layered disaster:
- There’s only one USB-C mass storage port, and plugging a flash drive into it blocks access to the center console tray. Tiny USB-C flash drives are practically non-existent or cost a fortune.
- The UI is painfully slow. I only have 300 tracks, yet the car spends a couple of minutes every single morning indexing them.
- Album Art Bug: I spent hours embedding cover art into the ID3 tags, but the system only caches one image and displays it for every single song.
Solution: Update the software to increase the cache size, stop re-indexing the same directory every day, and fix the album art bug.
- Touchscreen Climate Control This is a literal safety hazard. The buttons are tiny. If I see a garbage truck ahead and need to quickly turn on air recirculation, I have to open an extra slider-menu where the icons are dark grey on a black background. Good luck hitting that while driving.
Solution: A permanent climate control widget on the home screen with large buttons and sliders.
Voice Assistant is a useless gimmick It doesn't support my native language, and forcing myself to speak English just to adjust the AC feels ridiculous. Also, I simply hate talking to my car. If my wife is talking, I have to interrupt her: "Wait, honey, be quiet, I need to ask Mazda to make it cooler." If the kids are sleeping, I don't want to speak, and I definitely don't want the car talking back. On top of that, it only works half the time because it relies on cloud/internet coverage. It’s a useless feature made for investor reports.
Trip Computer functionality It’s missing two basic things: an easy Trip A/B reset (you have to dig 3 menus deep!) and an Average Speed display. Where I live, there are a lot of average speed camera zones, so I need to reset this the moment I enter the zone. My old Subaru did this with one physical button.
No auto-roll-up windows on lock Apparently, this isn't available in any trim. Why? When I lock the car, I have to manually check if my passengers rolled up their windows or if the sunroof is closed. Extremely annoying.
Finding the car in a parking lot. I bought a black one (other colors were sold out), and finding it is a pain. The app has a "Find My Car" button, but you have to unlock your phone, open the app, click 10 things, and wait for cloud servers to tell the car to flash its low beams. The joke is, I park nose-in! I can't see the headlights. Solution: It needs to flash the turn signals and honk the horn, not just blink the headlights (and only if it has internet coverage).
Apple CarPlay / Android Auto integration I tried using CarPlay, but it lacks multi-touch. You can't pinch-to-zoom on the map; it uses clunky on-screen buttons like a GPS from 2005. The built-in Android Automotive navigation is okay, but the screen is positioned so low that checking a complex intersection means taking my eyes completely off the road. Also, activating CarPlay hides the native media button on the touchscreen, meaning more menu digging. And if CarPlay is active, it locks Google Maps on my phone. I ended up disabling CarPlay entirely and just using Bluetooth audio.
Background YouTube playback. I like to listen to talking-head news/podcasts on YouTube while driving. I don’t need the video, but the car’s system won't allow YouTube to play in the background.
The "2026" Ritual (Cables & Mounts) Because of points 9 and 10, I am forced to use my phone on a windshield suction mount - just like I did for 7 years in my old Subaru. Because the charging port is between the seats, I had to buy a 2-meter cable and run it across the entire cabin. So now, in a brand-new 2026 car, I have a massive 13-inch screen doing almost nothing, a phone glued to my windshield, and wires everywhere.
Fingerprints everywhere. It’s a touchscreen media hub, which means it’s always covered in greasy fingerprints. I tried wiping it daily, but it's pointless. It constantly looks filthy. Conclusion: Since the system runs on Android Automotive, I actually thought about writing my own apps/widgets to fix this mess. Unfortunately, it’s heavily locked down by security settings.
So now, I’m just driving, cursing the UI designers who approved this for production, and waiting for an aftermarket solution (like the control bars they make for Teslas).
Am I the only one going crazy over this UX nightmare? Does anyone know if Mazda has plans for a massive UI overhaul?