Car pool: Mazda CX-9

The car: Mazda CX-9 Grand Touring

The price: From $63,828 plus on-road costs

Vital statistics: 3.7-litre V6; 204kW/367Nm; six-speed automatic; AWD; 11.2L/100km and 261g/km CO2

The tester: Matt Campbell

Why we're driving it

Mazda recently gave the CX-9 a facelift to bring the big rig's styling into line with the smaller CX-5. We tested the top-end Grand Touring model, which is now $2223 more expensive and gains new safety gear including blind-spot, lane-departure and forward-collision warning systems.

Likes:

Lots of standard goodies, including 20-inch wheels, bi-xenon headlights with auto high-beam, the aforementioned safety gear, a 10-speaker Bose stereo, Bluetooth and USB input, satellite-navigation, reversing camera and rear parking sensors, electric tailgate, sunroof and leather seats. Steers well and the body doesn't roll too much through corners. Engine has lots of grunt. Roomy cabin with decent room in all seven chairs. Second-row airconditioning and fan controls. Big boot if you're only using five seats. Stereo is a corker.

Dislikes:

New safety items don't get it right very often – the lane-departure warning system was inconsistent, the automatic high-beam would adjust between on and off for no reason and the blind-spot system failed to pick up other cars on occasion. Petrol V6 is not very frugal, and there's no diesel option. Ride is quite lumpy due to huge wheels. Front passenger seat foot-space cut short by fat dash. Electrics quirks: passenger-side power window wouldn't close at one stage, the electronic boot-lid started to close while I was getting things out, and the stereo continuously skipped songs when my iPod was connected via USB.

Would I buy one?

Not when the flagship versions of the Kia Sorento and Hyundai Santa Fe offer almost as much gear and significantly better fuel economy for $10K less. Sure, you miss out on the safety tech items with those South Korean seven-seaters, but I found the Mazda's warning systems annoyingly inaccurate anyway.