Good point.
The Mazda 6 is about 100 pounds lighter than the CX-5. I wonder how similarly the CX-5 will accelerate to the Mazda 6 once it gets the same 2.5T engine.
I believe the RV on these for a 36/12k lease is something like 46%, so you’d be hard-pressed to get any sort of deal on the Escape, just FYI.
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If you want performance, check out the Ford Edge ST.
Oh thats good to know!
Also of note, torque is what should be discussed, not HP when discussing acceleration. Torque is what gets you the off the line zip. HP doesn’t come into play until higher speed/RPMs are factored in. They are correlated, no doubt, but the car world has been spoon fed HP #s at 6000 RPM, when low end torque is what the common Joe uses more of in their daily commute.
It’s noticeable if you happen to drive a BMW with the gimmicky torque/hp needles in iDrive. Floor it at a red light and the torque needle will rocket, while the HP needle moves more incrementally as the speed and RPM band climb.
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Ugh, I have that Ford is calling it an ST. It couldn’t furthest from the ST cars. “Performance” is a strong word to describe that vehicle.
42k is a lot of money to spend on it, rather buy a used Macan or SQ5.
This is the reason why a lot of manuf switched to turbo engine. I remember back in the e46 days where bmw is making fun of audi’s b6 puny turbo engine. Look whos laughing now.
Grand Cherokee Laredo with the 300hp V6 my fav!
The complete opposite philosophy of VTEC and variable valve timing systems.
That and it’s more fuel efficient to toss an i4 with a turbo in a car than a V6
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Back in the day a laggy turbo on a small engine mated to an unresponsive automatic was a bad combination
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Audi was on the right path. Audi was ahead of the game maybe way ahead from a technology standpoint. Torque comes at lower rpm with turbo engine if you look at the hp/torque curve and that will be very hard to replicate in a normal aspirated engine.
@max_g is right though. 20 years ago, people scoffed at a small 4 banger with a turbo because you had severe turbo lag. You were dead in the water till the turbo spooled up. Growing up, a buddy had an 85 K car with a turbo 4. At a light, he would stand on the pedal and it took several seconds before the turbo spooled and you finally took off. There was nothing he could beat off the line, including a wheel chair. With advances in the tech, better gearboxes and computer assist, many of the problems with turbo lag have been eliminated.
That said, although you bring up a valid point with regard to torque, I don’t think the major driver to 4 banger turbo powered cars was related to such. The big driver was CAFE, and the need to bring power to a 4 cylinder car to the masses that were used to 6 cylinder power in an attempt to get corporate fuel economy numbers in line while also continuing to sell the money maker trucks.
Its not just CAFE numbers but cost as well. It is very expensive to manufacture v6 than a small turbo engine. The fuel efficiency is an added benefit. As @StingerTT pointed out, vtec can match or even outperform fuel efficiency of non-vtech turbo engine. If you look back in the days, no one can beat honda in fuel economy with their proprietary vtec engine until the prius came along. Turbo is just that, offers torque at lower rpm and increased hp in a small and cheaper package.
I’m aiming at a Latitude Plus with the 2.0T right now most of the options of limited and a little cheaper gonna see what happens talking with some dealers now wish me luck!
What kind of lease numbers did you get on a GC?
This market is definitely a niche but I think would interest quite a few people. Europe has a bunch of decent options, but limited here in the US. I also hated the lack of ‘oomph’ of the CX5. The lethargic engine & awful gearbox ruined what is a great CUV. The Forester XT was probably the best option but now even that’s gone 
I ended up with a Highlander which is bigger than I want or need, but has a nice silky smooth V6 that’s not super fast but will get up and go on the freeway and feels like something is actually happening when I mash the pedal. Eventually I’ll upgrade to something like a SQ5 or X3M40i when I can justify the significant price difference.
It’s not for everyone but maybe a T6 Volvo XC60 would work? 316 BHP isnt bad if you can deal with the turbo lag.
It was back in July but I got low $300s on a $40k upland
Problem is a much higher MF and not as many incentives compared to the limited for leasing
Dang that would be a sweet deal sunroof??