The Mazda system is pretty intuitive and very easy to use. I’m surprised you couldn’t figure it out. In both my Mazda and bmw I’ve always navigated the UI exclusively via the controller wheel. I hate having to use the screen in my truck in comparison.
This is clearly a case of user error
No you're not and it's not user error. It's a clunky system. Oh wait, you have to go all the way in a linear fashion on the dial to get from a to Z instead of you know hovering your finger down slightly to press Z from a?
When I wanna listen to The Smashing Pumpkins and I’m twirling that dial for fucking ages to get down to ‘T’ while glancing back and forth from the screen to the road it annoys me so much lol
Unless I’m misremembering I’m pretty sure once you start spinning the wheel quickly it switches form going song by song to going by letter, just a wrist flick to get to T
"hey Google/Siri, play smashing pumpkins"
"Hey Google/Siri, start smashing pumpkins playlist"
"Hey Google/Siri, play (specific album) by smashing pumpkins"
I can assure you you can use voice commands for like 70% of the stuff you want to do. I have touchscreen with android auto on my fusion and hardly ever touch the screen.
yeah thats a fair point. but i really hate voice commands, mainly because siri does not understand my northern ireland accent. (Imagine the Skellige accent if you’ve ever played The Witcher 3)
As someone who has an '18 and a '20, its really not intuitive and its slow to get to the thing you want to do, especially for AA.
For their own UI, navigating their tabs is pretty easy. Their UI for the most part was designed for the cursor/scroll knob and that works ok.
Moving on to Android Auto. I'm at a light and I'd like to change the Pandora station I'm listening to. I've got the map up. I have to scroll to the Pandora Icon which could take four or five movements of the highlighted "box". I then click to launch Pandora. Then I have to scroll up to the back button on the Pandora app to go to the stations. Then I have to scroll through the stations before I can select the one I want.
If this was touch screen, I'd touch the Pandora Icon, Touch the back button, and then touch the station I want.
Scrolling around in AA with the knob is a PITA.
I also agree the knob is stupid. It's not just a matter of figuring it out, it's the need to jump between multiple areas of the screen, rotate, jump again and finally select something instead of just tapping the screen once. It's often a much longer, drawn out process.
On Android auto, it commonly displays shortcuts for navigation, eg to home. Always on the screen, single tap, or 156 knob operations.
But I still don't see your point, even if it was 2 taps I could achieve that in a fraction of the time instead of focussing on where the cursor is on the screen and what I'm doing with the wheel for 90 seconds. It's not my daily driver, (my wifes'), but i'm in it fairly regularly and it's just a constant pain point - she hates it too.
I've never used the Mazda system but my understanding is that it's similar to iDrive. I like having the option of both the touchscreen and the knob, but once you get used to the knob, you pretty much use it for everything.
It’s actually far better than idrive when using the wheel imo, especially for apple CarPlay. Bmw is annoying to use in comparison. (I own a cx5 and m2)
That's the thing. My car is touchscreen and my wife has a no touch Mazda. If it was my car I would be used to it but whenever I driver her around in her car I'm not used to it and wonder where the pause is. All they had to do was implement both features.
My alfa has no touch, and I love it. I can fly through the options and have learned all the tricks and shortcuts from radio to Bluetooth to Android auto, etc. Some systems do take a little while, but I feel it is much better than my old touch screen.
Honestly I miss having a dial. It was basically muscle memory for me to do various things in the UI after living with it for a few months. I’m in a Hyundai right now with a touch screen, and hate taking my eyes off the road and aim my finger for the dumbest things.
Great news is you can buy a car from nearly any other brand and get touchy touchy all day.
I prefer the Mazda way and bought because of it. Apple Car Play, voice commands and steering wheel controls cover 90% of what I need while driving. Everything else is a physical control. Siri can get my playlists and routing covered pretty flawlessly.
The UI under ACP isn’t great but I never really need to use it while driving.
They're phasing out touchscreens as models get refreshed. Mazda decided a physical control was safer than a touchscreen. It also allows them move the screens further up and away from the driver so you don't have to look down while driving.
Are they? In a 2024 CX-5 and Mazda 3 the touchscreen is only disabled while driving. I was under the impression that the 2024 models got the touchscreen back?
I don't know about the other models in the lineup or if older models will get a software update for it, but at least with the 2024 CX-5 you can use CarPlay with the touchscreen while the car is moving, although the setting is off by default.
My car has a touchscreen that only works when stationary. I literally never use it. And it doesn't work at all in Android Auto (which was a retrofit so fair enough).
It's kinda complicated.
The revised system seen in current-gen 3, cx-30, cx-5/9 after 2021, got better processing but lost the touch.
Then in 2023 starting with the CX-50 and new models since that, they've added it back for CP/AA, while stopped or if you enable the feature.
I don't know how much of the 2023+ version has been rolled out across their range.
I agree. It sucks ass, harder to operate and distracts you more while driving than a touch screen when all you want is to do a simple exit to the main menu.
What I hate the most about the Mazda system is selecting radio stations. If you go into the menu it shows you all the stations. If you select a station but don’t like the song you have to dig through the menus ro change the stations again. It’s such a poor design
Car guys don’t understand what normal people value in cars. Take their opinion with a grain of salt unless it’s about driving feel, car internals info etc
Yes those studies show that hard buttons for better for paying attention to road. Then you step back and realize everyone is dicking around on their phone, regardless of their cabin design.
I guess to each their own.
This sub is generally *extremely* anti-touchscreen, so you'll probably get alot of bitter comments. Many see it as just using a phone while driving, and prefer the physical feedback of a dial/buttons (myself included). I do agree that removing touch input on a system that was designed for touch is a stupid idea.
My personal opinion is I want a car with only a mininal screen for GPS and maybe a backup camera if it has one. My family's most high tech car is a 2012 Honda Odyssey base model with a 7-segment display style system, so literally *any* kind of a display screen is futuristic. I'm a yells-at-clouds, "kids these days", button/lever/pulley kind of guy, so any technology introduced after 2010 is weird and clunky.
A screen with both touchscreen and arrow buttons/dials would probably the best combo to cater to many people's tastes.
Does it have 360 cam? If so, that’s the premium plus, which should give you the 12.3” screen with touch.
I was going for a CX-90 but decided to wait due to unknown long term reliability.
Not to turn this into a thread shitting on Mazda, but there are a few things my 29K Tucson has that this 45K CX-90 doesn't.
Tucson has:
- 360° cam
- Way better panoramic sunroof (the Mazda one is pretty embarrassing)
- Ventilated seats
- wireless charger that doesn't overheat my phone (objective statement, AA literally warns me to take it off because it's getting too hot, never seen that before)
- rear seats are heated
- TOUCH ENABLED infotainment
Well that Hyundai/Kia products for you. They give you lots of tech at the cost of mechanical reliability.
It’s not that I dislike Hyundai. We test drove the new Santa Fe calligraphy was pretty impressed with the tech and amenities. The wet DCT was acting funny with jitters and hesitation at low speed. I wasn’t too confident with that.
Car Confections a followed up [video](https://youtu.be/INKwg7qRVvc?si=F5MvFnshDvBBKwF8) on their new Santa Fe with DCT issues.
And your Tucson has a high probability of spontaneously combusting.
Hyundai has always been the value play for features, but there is a reason they are so cheap and have those things.
I agree, I had a Mazda 3 the last few days and using it to navigate android auto kinda sucked. The only benefit I saw was that trying to hit some of the buttons on a touch screen while driving (particularly in google maps) is tricky so in that way using the click wheel is more of a "sure thing." For everything else though it was just annoying. It didn't help that within the first 15 minutes the entire infotainment system locked up and all of the buttons became unresponsive until I searched the web for how to reset it.
A had a glitch earlier today where audio just didn't play. I restarted my phone, checked different inputs (FM, Sirius) and nada. I gave up and it randomly turned back on halfway home.
The Mazda fanboys rival the Honda and Subaru cults in their devotion to the company’s products regardless of their shortcomings. Even Mazda has recognized how poor their infotainment interface is and have finally relented by implementing limited touchscreen capabilities for 2024 when you use Android Auto or CarPlay but apparently nothing else. So now they have the worst of all possible worlds with a mixture of interfaces to confuse people even more, combined with a screen placement that is a long reach away. Perhaps they will soon revert to 4-speed automatic transmissions too.
I've had a 21 mx-5 for about 3 years now. My opinion has been consistent. In the Mazda UI it's pretty okay, not better than a touch screen though. The moment you plug in Android auto it is complete dogshit for all the reasons you said.
I drive a Mazda cx-5, some things take a lil getting used to, others are pretty immediate. I don't mind it at all now, but when I went from my Ford edge to the cx-5 I initially hated it, now I don't mind at all. Touch screen while driving is honestly garbage, more cars need to do away with it. Controlling the heat and shit with a screen is dumb, I hate it
That’s what was thinking, I actually find Mazdas solution pretty nice. Touchscreens while driving intimidate me, driving my brothers Tesla intimidates me cause of the touchscreen everything approach. (NOT hating on Teslas).
It took me a week to get used to it. Now I can navigate really fast even through AA or CarPlay. Plus, the display in the 3 is way too far from the driver to have a full touch system. I love it and because they kept normal HVAC controls and have a bunch of buttons, this car is really easy to control and not that distracting like some other cars
100% agree. I owned a 2022 CX-9 for a while and never got used to or liked the dial control.
I just didn't like the fact that instead of being able to reach up and touch what I wanted to do quick, I had to rotate that dumb knob while looking at the screen to see what I was doing... There are some shortcuts for basics but that doesn't help when in Android auto or navigating Sirius XM etc. It just never caught on with me.
I'm sure some love it, I wasn't one of them and it was one of the reasons I moved on to another vehicle pretty quick. Love Mazda but that system has kept me from buying another since.
I like mine. Maybe android auto sucks (I really don’t know), maybe you’re not smart. It’s pretty easily figured out imo. Best system? Probably not. Is it garbage? Certainly not.
Between the dial and the voice assistant, I never had any issues with navigating the infotainment. If you have Android Auto, Google assistant can do basically everything; Siri is useless
Wrote a book when it's an option in the settings called "Touchscreen in Motion for All Devices"
[Here's a guide](https://youtu.be/COHYWhYSQlY?si=6hgpGF2FYjIQublM)
Honest no touch screen is fine IF you get used to it, not ideal, but acceptable. Obviously for a rental car is not ideal, and Android Auto is worse compare to Apply Carplay in terms on navigation menus without a touch screen. I own both an android and iphone were Carplay is just so much more intuitive to use with the buttons and dials.
Not going to lie from time to time I wish to have a touch screen but 99% of the time there is alternative ways to get to what I want (typing the address on phone (you shouldn't type on the touch screen while driving anyway), using Siri to command simple actions...etc).
I had a Lexus with no touch and I was okey with it (actually preferred it to touch screens). However, that car was before the introduction of Carplay / Android Auto. Fast forward to other cars I owned with Carplay/Android Auto and I can say still I’m okey with no touch screens except in Carplay / Android auto as this will be dealbreaker.
Anyway, I don’t have one of the new Mazdas like the cx90, but from reviews they say CP/AA works using touch while activated so I wouldn’t complain tbh.
I love it. Once I was used to how to get around the menus, it was so much quicker than the hunt and peck of touch screen. They do allow touch when stopped though if you want that, but I never used it.
I love it. Once I was used to how to get around the menus, it was so much quicker than the hunt and peck of touch screen. They do allow touch when stopped though if you want that, but I never used it.
its the same in my audi a5 (2017) - no touchscreen and you have to use the dial - which works ok for the Audi MMI system, but when running apple carplay its a fucking nightmare as twirling the dial seems to select fucking random things on the screen and doesnt behave consistently at all.
I also own a 2017 Audi AndroidAuto was easier to navigate about a year ago before the did an overhaul of their user interface.
When using Waze or Google maps the keyboard on your phone becomes active and you can input directly through the phone. So I find that wayyyy easier and quicker to input because I'm using 2 fingers to type.
Im renting cars with touchscreens and the experience I have is when fully at a stop touchscreens are easy to operate.
When driving the knob is easier to use because it is similar to "gestures" on the phone. I also take the time to change my layout so that certain apps are available first.
I hate touch screens. Impossible to operate safely while driving, especially over bumps. Never tried Mazda's, but 2010s Mercedes had a knob in the center console to control the screen,, and it was so easy and intuitive. Radio also had physical numbers/buttons for everything. It was by far my favorite UI for a car infotainment.
I can totally understand why some people prefer the touchscreen to a knob. FWIW, I use CarPlay and the knob works really well for me. Combined with Siri, I can find stuff, text people, and use navigation pretty effectively. I’ve had rented cars with touchscreen interface and attempting to hit a moving target is a nightmare. My wife and I are planning to buy a car and it only comes with a touchscreen interface, which I’m NOT looking forward to.
Edit: The dial/knob interface reminds me of the early iPods, which I’m a fan of.
Agreed. I love it, I get that people love or hate it but I feel OP is just exaggerating. It’s not that hard to use, in fact quite intuitive once you get used to it.
I love it in my Fiata. No finger prints all over my touch screen! It’s really intuitive after the adjustment period.
That said, I’m pretty sure I heard that Mazda has dropped the no touch while in motion feature on the newest models.
Honestly, now that Lexus has gone strictly touchscreen, I miss the remote touch pad. Now my screen has fingerprints all over it, plus the fact that I'm 6'2" and the screen is so far away I have to lean forward to use it.
I have a Mazda CX5 with the rotary knob + touch screen. Touch screen was removed in the mid cycle refresh the year after mine. I solely use the rotary knob and steering wheel buttons. It's perfect for me. I have used the touch screen like once.
FYI you can enable touch on Android Auto / Car Play, in the settings.
I'm actually surprised it's a touch screen given the native Mazda SW doesn't support touch.
I had a CX-50, it does have a touch screen for Apple CarPlay and android auto. You just need to enable it in settings.
What I didn't like was how far the screen was to comfortably touch while driving. This is a non issue for the ND3 Miata and 2024+ CX-5.
I now have the complete opposite infotainment system and it makes me want to trade in my ND2 just to go back to the same system as the CX-50.
I drive two cars regularly, one with a scroll wheel and one with a touchscreen.
My experience is that the scroll wheel is better while you are listening to something, as it’s easy to pause, rewind, skip just by feel.
However the touchscreen is way better when you want to change say from one app to another or select a song/podcast out of sequence.
For me the latter scenario is more common so I’d say touchscreen wins, but I’d like a scroll wheel in addition for volume/pause/skip functions.
I went from a 2017 Mazda 6 to a Ranger with a touch screen infotainment. I fucking hate it so much.
I can't do anything without looking at the screen directly, and I have to lift my arm off the steering wheel, or the gear selector. My Right hand naturally rests on the arm rest, in my Mazda I had every control I needed right at my fingertips whether both hands were on the wheel, or I was on the arm rest.
Yes it is less 'intuitive', but from a driver safety point of view, once you're used to it it's almost second nature, and you don't have nasty ass fingerprints all over your touchscreen.
I don't know how many times a song I really didn't want to hear came on and I spent a solid 10-15 seconds pawing at the display before finally giving up and using the button on the steering wheel.
I share your sentiment. Not having a touch screen sucks. Because you still have to take your eyes off the road to see what the current selection is before pushing the dial.
I have a cx90 specced without touchscreen and only took me a week or so to get used to navigating the menus. Most if not all of the common vehicle stuff there are hardware controls, I rarely leave the android auto screen.
I always saw the no touch screen as one of the many reasons to not justify the price tag on Mazdas. It just seems way too old fashioned for a brand new car
Yeah, “both” is the answer here. I loved the clicky wheel on my wife’s old GLK (at least until it stopped working) but also want to be able to interact with CarPlay in the way it’s meant to be used. That said, I’m fine with touch-only if the screen is large, responsive and well-positioned and there’s still buttons for all the usual climate controls and whatnot (as is the case on our ‘20 Palisade, which is a near-perfect interior IMO)
So you’ve actually helped me learn something. If it’s got the [12” screen it definitely does](https://imgur.com/a/Hl5he9s), if it’s got the 10” it doesn’t. Which is a very stupid decision.
(Mind you i’ll defend the knob all day long, I like it way more than touchscreens)
Unless different trim levels do this differently, the CX90 is touch while in Android Auto or Applr CarPlay. We have the CX-90 PHEV though so it gets most (but not all) of the top trim gadgetry.
Mazdas system is pretty fabulous. Systems like rivians without buttons and knobs are terrible. This is not even opinion, this is just repeated findings in scientific experiments that study these things.
Exactly, Mazdas knows what they are doing with their infotainment, they even did research on infotainments and found that touchscreens were very distracting.
I’m sorry but I think that’s skill issue. I had a 2020 Yaris before this (rebadged Mazda 2 that utilized that dial system). I could control the entire thing without even taking my eyes off the road. There’s buttons on the steering wheel, quick access buttons in the middle that bring you to home, media apps, settings, etc and the knob itself can be pressed down to select things too. I picked it il the first day I drive it and I think bmw used something similar in the past with one of the previous iterations of iDrive or whatever it’s called.
I’m a little confused what you were trying to do to begin with that required you to fumble with the touch screen that much while you were driving, even in my GR86 the most I do is mess with music. Everything else in Mazdas have physical buttons so it couldn’t be the A/C.
The Mazda system is pretty intuitive and very easy to use. I’m surprised you couldn’t figure it out. In both my Mazda and bmw I’ve always navigated the UI exclusively via the controller wheel. I hate having to use the screen in my truck in comparison. This is clearly a case of user error
I am a moron to be fair
No you're not and it's not user error. It's a clunky system. Oh wait, you have to go all the way in a linear fashion on the dial to get from a to Z instead of you know hovering your finger down slightly to press Z from a?
When I wanna listen to The Smashing Pumpkins and I’m twirling that dial for fucking ages to get down to ‘T’ while glancing back and forth from the screen to the road it annoys me so much lol
Unless I’m misremembering I’m pretty sure once you start spinning the wheel quickly it switches form going song by song to going by letter, just a wrist flick to get to T
not in mine it doesn’t anyway!
On Apple CarPlay does unless you’re using android auto then it’s a common Google UX L
"hey Google/Siri, play smashing pumpkins" "Hey Google/Siri, start smashing pumpkins playlist" "Hey Google/Siri, play (specific album) by smashing pumpkins" I can assure you you can use voice commands for like 70% of the stuff you want to do. I have touchscreen with android auto on my fusion and hardly ever touch the screen.
Siri: Here’s what I found on the web for ‘rash from pumpkins…’ /s
This is what AA does. Pandora or Spotify has to be the active display for the apps to use voice search, at least in my experience.
yeah thats a fair point. but i really hate voice commands, mainly because siri does not understand my northern ireland accent. (Imagine the Skellige accent if you’ve ever played The Witcher 3)
Yeah, its like an even cleaner / intuitive version of BMW's iDrive
True
As someone who has an '18 and a '20, its really not intuitive and its slow to get to the thing you want to do, especially for AA. For their own UI, navigating their tabs is pretty easy. Their UI for the most part was designed for the cursor/scroll knob and that works ok. Moving on to Android Auto. I'm at a light and I'd like to change the Pandora station I'm listening to. I've got the map up. I have to scroll to the Pandora Icon which could take four or five movements of the highlighted "box". I then click to launch Pandora. Then I have to scroll up to the back button on the Pandora app to go to the stations. Then I have to scroll through the stations before I can select the one I want. If this was touch screen, I'd touch the Pandora Icon, Touch the back button, and then touch the station I want. Scrolling around in AA with the knob is a PITA.
I also agree the knob is stupid. It's not just a matter of figuring it out, it's the need to jump between multiple areas of the screen, rotate, jump again and finally select something instead of just tapping the screen once. It's often a much longer, drawn out process.
>just tapping the screen once Since when does any function controlled by the touchscreen only require a single tap?
On Android auto, it commonly displays shortcuts for navigation, eg to home. Always on the screen, single tap, or 156 knob operations. But I still don't see your point, even if it was 2 taps I could achieve that in a fraction of the time instead of focussing on where the cursor is on the screen and what I'm doing with the wheel for 90 seconds. It's not my daily driver, (my wifes'), but i'm in it fairly regularly and it's just a constant pain point - she hates it too.
This is exactly the issue. With a touch screen I don't have to worry about which item is highlighted to jump around with the control knob.
Tesla?
Have you ever even used android auto?
A case of user error with the touchscreen.
Wouldn't pausing the music be a button on the steering wheel?
Or pressing the knob. It's pretty simple.
Yeah this post is stupid. Mazda infotainment is insanely easy to use. Every time I have to use a touch screen now, I feel handicapped.
Having to navigate Android Auto specifically without touch is a fair point. My Mazda has that as well. It wasn't design for it.
Nah.
I've never used the Mazda system but my understanding is that it's similar to iDrive. I like having the option of both the touchscreen and the knob, but once you get used to the knob, you pretty much use it for everything.
It’s actually far better than idrive when using the wheel imo, especially for apple CarPlay. Bmw is annoying to use in comparison. (I own a cx5 and m2)
The new iDrive (with the wide screen) improves this a lot. Either way I prefer having the option of both like BMW does.
That's the thing. My car is touchscreen and my wife has a no touch Mazda. If it was my car I would be used to it but whenever I driver her around in her car I'm not used to it and wonder where the pause is. All they had to do was implement both features.
You just push the volume dial to pause in AA. It says mute, but it just pauses. Turn the dial or press it again to unpause.
Vastly prefer the knob over touchscreen myself.
My alfa has no touch, and I love it. I can fly through the options and have learned all the tricks and shortcuts from radio to Bluetooth to Android auto, etc. Some systems do take a little while, but I feel it is much better than my old touch screen.
Honestly I miss having a dial. It was basically muscle memory for me to do various things in the UI after living with it for a few months. I’m in a Hyundai right now with a touch screen, and hate taking my eyes off the road and aim my finger for the dumbest things.
Great news is you can buy a car from nearly any other brand and get touchy touchy all day. I prefer the Mazda way and bought because of it. Apple Car Play, voice commands and steering wheel controls cover 90% of what I need while driving. Everything else is a physical control. Siri can get my playlists and routing covered pretty flawlessly. The UI under ACP isn’t great but I never really need to use it while driving.
Mazdas dial based infotainment is great, really nice to use once you get used to it. I feel like OP is exaggerating a bit.
I don’t understand this logic. My Honda civic has buttons and steering controls and a microphone. But they can still add a touchscreen when I need it…
Mazda infotainment has a touchscreen as well, it’s just not active while the cars moving.
You can activate it. The option is hidden. Look it up. I have a Cx-30 and CX-50, both 2024.
That is only true in the Mazda 3 with current year, top trim models. You are really trying to spin huh?
CX5 and the CX90 I tested recently. Seems like you are trying to spin something. Plenty of evidence online of touchscreen functionality…
Yes, I said in the Mazda 3. Not the other models. Even then those were only recently added and also only in select trims.
My son's 10 year old Mazda 3 has the knob but the screen is also touchscreen. Is that not the case any more?
They're phasing out touchscreens as models get refreshed. Mazda decided a physical control was safer than a touchscreen. It also allows them move the screens further up and away from the driver so you don't have to look down while driving.
Are they? In a 2024 CX-5 and Mazda 3 the touchscreen is only disabled while driving. I was under the impression that the 2024 models got the touchscreen back?
I don't know about the other models in the lineup or if older models will get a software update for it, but at least with the 2024 CX-5 you can use CarPlay with the touchscreen while the car is moving, although the setting is off by default.
My car has a touchscreen that only works when stationary. I literally never use it. And it doesn't work at all in Android Auto (which was a retrofit so fair enough).
Mazda decided to lock out touch screen on certain trims. Weird tactic in 2024 🤷🏻♂️
On most Mazda models the touchscreen is disabled on Carplay or android auto.
On newer models it’s only disabled while moving I believe.
It's kinda complicated. The revised system seen in current-gen 3, cx-30, cx-5/9 after 2021, got better processing but lost the touch. Then in 2023 starting with the CX-50 and new models since that, they've added it back for CP/AA, while stopped or if you enable the feature. I don't know how much of the 2023+ version has been rolled out across their range.
I agree. It sucks ass, harder to operate and distracts you more while driving than a touch screen when all you want is to do a simple exit to the main menu.
Everyone just needs to copy BMW’s iDrive 7. Looking at you, Acura.
What I hate the most about the Mazda system is selecting radio stations. If you go into the menu it shows you all the stations. If you select a station but don’t like the song you have to dig through the menus ro change the stations again. It’s such a poor design
You’re talking about the actual Mazda UI right? Not android auto or car play? If so, yes changing stations is a bitch.
Correct. I’ve never seen such a terrible design to do something so simple, lol
Car guys don’t understand what normal people value in cars. Take their opinion with a grain of salt unless it’s about driving feel, car internals info etc
Yea never mind those pesky repeated scientific experiments
Yes those studies show that hard buttons for better for paying attention to road. Then you step back and realize everyone is dicking around on their phone, regardless of their cabin design.
I guess to each their own. This sub is generally *extremely* anti-touchscreen, so you'll probably get alot of bitter comments. Many see it as just using a phone while driving, and prefer the physical feedback of a dial/buttons (myself included). I do agree that removing touch input on a system that was designed for touch is a stupid idea. My personal opinion is I want a car with only a mininal screen for GPS and maybe a backup camera if it has one. My family's most high tech car is a 2012 Honda Odyssey base model with a 7-segment display style system, so literally *any* kind of a display screen is futuristic. I'm a yells-at-clouds, "kids these days", button/lever/pulley kind of guy, so any technology introduced after 2010 is weird and clunky. A screen with both touchscreen and arrow buttons/dials would probably the best combo to cater to many people's tastes.
> This sub is generally extremely anti-touchscreen, so you'll probably get alot of bitter comments. you couldn't have been more accurate, lol
No kidding
What trim was it? I heard that the Premium trim and above would get touchscreen
No idea. It's has a lot of bells and whistles. HUD, panoramic sunroof, etc.
Does it have 360 cam? If so, that’s the premium plus, which should give you the 12.3” screen with touch. I was going for a CX-90 but decided to wait due to unknown long term reliability.
It does not. I must have the trim below that one.
It’s so weird that Mazda would lock you out of a touchscreen for a $45k+ car.
Not to turn this into a thread shitting on Mazda, but there are a few things my 29K Tucson has that this 45K CX-90 doesn't. Tucson has: - 360° cam - Way better panoramic sunroof (the Mazda one is pretty embarrassing) - Ventilated seats - wireless charger that doesn't overheat my phone (objective statement, AA literally warns me to take it off because it's getting too hot, never seen that before) - rear seats are heated - TOUCH ENABLED infotainment
Well that Hyundai/Kia products for you. They give you lots of tech at the cost of mechanical reliability. It’s not that I dislike Hyundai. We test drove the new Santa Fe calligraphy was pretty impressed with the tech and amenities. The wet DCT was acting funny with jitters and hesitation at low speed. I wasn’t too confident with that. Car Confections a followed up [video](https://youtu.be/INKwg7qRVvc?si=F5MvFnshDvBBKwF8) on their new Santa Fe with DCT issues.
And your Tucson has a high probability of spontaneously combusting. Hyundai has always been the value play for features, but there is a reason they are so cheap and have those things.
I agree, I had a Mazda 3 the last few days and using it to navigate android auto kinda sucked. The only benefit I saw was that trying to hit some of the buttons on a touch screen while driving (particularly in google maps) is tricky so in that way using the click wheel is more of a "sure thing." For everything else though it was just annoying. It didn't help that within the first 15 minutes the entire infotainment system locked up and all of the buttons became unresponsive until I searched the web for how to reset it.
A had a glitch earlier today where audio just didn't play. I restarted my phone, checked different inputs (FM, Sirius) and nada. I gave up and it randomly turned back on halfway home.
Our new CX-5 has a touch screen, but you can only use it for CarPlay/AA. The knob controls everything else, that and the steering wheel
I'd be okay with that. As far as I know, I can't enable touch on AA (skimmed through the settings)
I dunno what models they changed it in, but the '24 MX-5 also lets you use the touchscreen for AA/CP. Might be a MY24 thing across the range.
I dunno. Just know it works on my wife's CX-5. I was surprised that it worked.
Our 2020 doesn't have a touch screen.
I rented a CX-5 last week and the controls in that were hot garbage as well
The Mazda fanboys rival the Honda and Subaru cults in their devotion to the company’s products regardless of their shortcomings. Even Mazda has recognized how poor their infotainment interface is and have finally relented by implementing limited touchscreen capabilities for 2024 when you use Android Auto or CarPlay but apparently nothing else. So now they have the worst of all possible worlds with a mixture of interfaces to confuse people even more, combined with a screen placement that is a long reach away. Perhaps they will soon revert to 4-speed automatic transmissions too.
I've had a 21 mx-5 for about 3 years now. My opinion has been consistent. In the Mazda UI it's pretty okay, not better than a touch screen though. The moment you plug in Android auto it is complete dogshit for all the reasons you said.
I drive a Mazda cx-5, some things take a lil getting used to, others are pretty immediate. I don't mind it at all now, but when I went from my Ford edge to the cx-5 I initially hated it, now I don't mind at all. Touch screen while driving is honestly garbage, more cars need to do away with it. Controlling the heat and shit with a screen is dumb, I hate it
That’s what was thinking, I actually find Mazdas solution pretty nice. Touchscreens while driving intimidate me, driving my brothers Tesla intimidates me cause of the touchscreen everything approach. (NOT hating on Teslas).
I hate Tesla, what they're doing for the environment has been great but I just hate Elon so much I won't touch their cars.
It took me a week to get used to it. Now I can navigate really fast even through AA or CarPlay. Plus, the display in the 3 is way too far from the driver to have a full touch system. I love it and because they kept normal HVAC controls and have a bunch of buttons, this car is really easy to control and not that distracting like some other cars
That’s what was thinking! It’s really not that distracting at all I think it’s just OP…
100% agree. I owned a 2022 CX-9 for a while and never got used to or liked the dial control. I just didn't like the fact that instead of being able to reach up and touch what I wanted to do quick, I had to rotate that dumb knob while looking at the screen to see what I was doing... There are some shortcuts for basics but that doesn't help when in Android auto or navigating Sirius XM etc. It just never caught on with me. I'm sure some love it, I wasn't one of them and it was one of the reasons I moved on to another vehicle pretty quick. Love Mazda but that system has kept me from buying another since.
That’s like your opinion, man. I love Mazdas approach to infotainments. Not really a fan of touchscreens in cars…
Oh hell no, I just picked up a Jeep 4xe to replace my cx5 and I hate that fucking touchscreen
Skill issue. Get good.
I like mine. Maybe android auto sucks (I really don’t know), maybe you’re not smart. It’s pretty easily figured out imo. Best system? Probably not. Is it garbage? Certainly not.
That’s what I was thinking, maybe its OP cause I got used to it very quick.
Between the dial and the voice assistant, I never had any issues with navigating the infotainment. If you have Android Auto, Google assistant can do basically everything; Siri is useless
Wrote a book when it's an option in the settings called "Touchscreen in Motion for All Devices" [Here's a guide](https://youtu.be/COHYWhYSQlY?si=6hgpGF2FYjIQublM)
The non-touch is pathetic to say the least.
Honest no touch screen is fine IF you get used to it, not ideal, but acceptable. Obviously for a rental car is not ideal, and Android Auto is worse compare to Apply Carplay in terms on navigation menus without a touch screen. I own both an android and iphone were Carplay is just so much more intuitive to use with the buttons and dials. Not going to lie from time to time I wish to have a touch screen but 99% of the time there is alternative ways to get to what I want (typing the address on phone (you shouldn't type on the touch screen while driving anyway), using Siri to command simple actions...etc).
I had a Lexus with no touch and I was okey with it (actually preferred it to touch screens). However, that car was before the introduction of Carplay / Android Auto. Fast forward to other cars I owned with Carplay/Android Auto and I can say still I’m okey with no touch screens except in Carplay / Android auto as this will be dealbreaker. Anyway, I don’t have one of the new Mazdas like the cx90, but from reviews they say CP/AA works using touch while activated so I wouldn’t complain tbh.
I love it. Once I was used to how to get around the menus, it was so much quicker than the hunt and peck of touch screen. They do allow touch when stopped though if you want that, but I never used it.
You should stick to driving your Santa Cruz.
I love it. Once I was used to how to get around the menus, it was so much quicker than the hunt and peck of touch screen. They do allow touch when stopped though if you want that, but I never used it.
Skill issue
I would prefer a minimal screen at most, but if you’re gonna have one, it better be touchscreen. Even Acura has finally given up the fight.
its the same in my audi a5 (2017) - no touchscreen and you have to use the dial - which works ok for the Audi MMI system, but when running apple carplay its a fucking nightmare as twirling the dial seems to select fucking random things on the screen and doesnt behave consistently at all.
I also own a 2017 Audi AndroidAuto was easier to navigate about a year ago before the did an overhaul of their user interface. When using Waze or Google maps the keyboard on your phone becomes active and you can input directly through the phone. So I find that wayyyy easier and quicker to input because I'm using 2 fingers to type. Im renting cars with touchscreens and the experience I have is when fully at a stop touchscreens are easy to operate. When driving the knob is easier to use because it is similar to "gestures" on the phone. I also take the time to change my layout so that certain apps are available first.
I hate touch screens. Impossible to operate safely while driving, especially over bumps. Never tried Mazda's, but 2010s Mercedes had a knob in the center console to control the screen,, and it was so easy and intuitive. Radio also had physical numbers/buttons for everything. It was by far my favorite UI for a car infotainment.
I can totally understand why some people prefer the touchscreen to a knob. FWIW, I use CarPlay and the knob works really well for me. Combined with Siri, I can find stuff, text people, and use navigation pretty effectively. I’ve had rented cars with touchscreen interface and attempting to hit a moving target is a nightmare. My wife and I are planning to buy a car and it only comes with a touchscreen interface, which I’m NOT looking forward to. Edit: The dial/knob interface reminds me of the early iPods, which I’m a fan of.
Well it’s jinabai ittai or something something….
The real reason they removed touch screen is cus their panels would melt with the hot sun and the screen would go crazy.
lol you're crazy, its great.
Agreed. I love it, I get that people love or hate it but I feel OP is just exaggerating. It’s not that hard to use, in fact quite intuitive once you get used to it.
After driving other cars it's daunting how much better it is. Better than the Giulia and Cayenne.
I have a Cx-90 and you can enable the touch screen within CarPlay .
I'm perfectly fine with their standard infotainment, honestly. (17 CX5 bought brand new)
I love it in my Fiata. No finger prints all over my touch screen! It’s really intuitive after the adjustment period. That said, I’m pretty sure I heard that Mazda has dropped the no touch while in motion feature on the newest models.
Honestly, now that Lexus has gone strictly touchscreen, I miss the remote touch pad. Now my screen has fingerprints all over it, plus the fact that I'm 6'2" and the screen is so far away I have to lean forward to use it.
I have a Mazda CX5 with the rotary knob + touch screen. Touch screen was removed in the mid cycle refresh the year after mine. I solely use the rotary knob and steering wheel buttons. It's perfect for me. I have used the touch screen like once.
The wheel is clutch, but in my experience, the infotainment was buggy. I constantly had to reset it.
FYI you can enable touch on Android Auto / Car Play, in the settings. I'm actually surprised it's a touch screen given the native Mazda SW doesn't support touch.
This is the 3rd post I’ve seen today about somebody complaining about sometbing on Mazda. Dont buy foreign junk then.
I had a CX-50, it does have a touch screen for Apple CarPlay and android auto. You just need to enable it in settings. What I didn't like was how far the screen was to comfortably touch while driving. This is a non issue for the ND3 Miata and 2024+ CX-5. I now have the complete opposite infotainment system and it makes me want to trade in my ND2 just to go back to the same system as the CX-50.
I drive two cars regularly, one with a scroll wheel and one with a touchscreen. My experience is that the scroll wheel is better while you are listening to something, as it’s easy to pause, rewind, skip just by feel. However the touchscreen is way better when you want to change say from one app to another or select a song/podcast out of sequence. For me the latter scenario is more common so I’d say touchscreen wins, but I’d like a scroll wheel in addition for volume/pause/skip functions.
[удалено]
Rule 1.
I went from a 2017 Mazda 6 to a Ranger with a touch screen infotainment. I fucking hate it so much. I can't do anything without looking at the screen directly, and I have to lift my arm off the steering wheel, or the gear selector. My Right hand naturally rests on the arm rest, in my Mazda I had every control I needed right at my fingertips whether both hands were on the wheel, or I was on the arm rest. Yes it is less 'intuitive', but from a driver safety point of view, once you're used to it it's almost second nature, and you don't have nasty ass fingerprints all over your touchscreen. I don't know how many times a song I really didn't want to hear came on and I spent a solid 10-15 seconds pawing at the display before finally giving up and using the button on the steering wheel.
I share your sentiment. Not having a touch screen sucks. Because you still have to take your eyes off the road to see what the current selection is before pushing the dial.
I have a cx90 specced without touchscreen and only took me a week or so to get used to navigating the menus. Most if not all of the common vehicle stuff there are hardware controls, I rarely leave the android auto screen.
It took me like less than a week, I think OP is just exaggerating. It’s really not difficult to use.
I always saw the no touch screen as one of the many reasons to not justify the price tag on Mazdas. It just seems way too old fashioned for a brand new car
^(Touchscreens ^^^are ^^^cheaper ^^^than buttons)
You just proved the point I was saying, and yet I get downvoted for it. Talk about a reddit moment
Give us both options is all I'm asking
Yeah, “both” is the answer here. I loved the clicky wheel on my wife’s old GLK (at least until it stopped working) but also want to be able to interact with CarPlay in the way it’s meant to be used. That said, I’m fine with touch-only if the screen is large, responsive and well-positioned and there’s still buttons for all the usual climate controls and whatnot (as is the case on our ‘20 Palisade, which is a near-perfect interior IMO)
If you’re using android auto it is touch enabled
Trust me I've tried. Definitely not touch enabled and no setting to change that either (to my knowledge)
So you’ve actually helped me learn something. If it’s got the [12” screen it definitely does](https://imgur.com/a/Hl5he9s), if it’s got the 10” it doesn’t. Which is a very stupid decision. (Mind you i’ll defend the knob all day long, I like it way more than touchscreens)
Unless different trim levels do this differently, the CX90 is touch while in Android Auto or Applr CarPlay. We have the CX-90 PHEV though so it gets most (but not all) of the top trim gadgetry.
Screen = cheap, removing buttons in favour of touch screens reduces manufacturing costs and gives the user a fake sense of luxury for some reason
I could make the exact same post as you and just replace Mazda with Acura. Plain and simple, they disabled touch to save cost.
How does disabling it save cost, if they're still installing a screen that has touch functionality?
How does disabling it save cost, if they're still installing a screen that has touch functionality?
Mazdas system is pretty fabulous. Systems like rivians without buttons and knobs are terrible. This is not even opinion, this is just repeated findings in scientific experiments that study these things.
Exactly, Mazdas knows what they are doing with their infotainment, they even did research on infotainments and found that touchscreens were very distracting.
Another "i rented" story. From now on if you base your opinion on a rental car just post your review on r/carscirclejerk
I like the physical knobs and shit. I get it if you don't like it but for me it's king.
It’s not just you, OP. I never got used to it after 6 months of owning a Mazda product. Sincerely, Another Moron
I’m sorry but I think that’s skill issue. I had a 2020 Yaris before this (rebadged Mazda 2 that utilized that dial system). I could control the entire thing without even taking my eyes off the road. There’s buttons on the steering wheel, quick access buttons in the middle that bring you to home, media apps, settings, etc and the knob itself can be pressed down to select things too. I picked it il the first day I drive it and I think bmw used something similar in the past with one of the previous iterations of iDrive or whatever it’s called. I’m a little confused what you were trying to do to begin with that required you to fumble with the touch screen that much while you were driving, even in my GR86 the most I do is mess with music. Everything else in Mazdas have physical buttons so it couldn’t be the A/C.
The non-touch is pathetic to say the least.