The CX7 is Mazda's baby SUV. It's a practical family wagon, not a pretend offroader. great dynamics are a plus, but you might not enjoy the turbo petrol engine's prodigious burst. To find out more, here's car advice road tester Paul Meric. The turbo petrol engine's not the only tool in the shed here, though, is it?
Yeah, that's it. You've got the option of going for a 2.5 liter naturally aspirated four cylinder. That's a pickle engine, not quite as thirsty. That's right, and it sits at the lower end of the price bracket at just $33,000. Or, for the diesel hunters, you can go for the 2.2 liter turbo charged diesel engine which is only available in a manual transmission.
So you don't have to have the turbo, there's actually three engines in the range. What's the pick? big fan of the 2.2, 2.3 liter turbo. It provides sports car performance, great handling and while the fuel consumption is fairly thirsty. If you are light on the throttle its not too bad with our test car averaging around 12 to 13 liters per 100 kms.
And the diesel? How does that go? Look, the diesel's got plenty of torque, and it's surprising when you consider the car's weight. The diesel pulls it along nicely and the gearbox is great to use. It's slick shifting and the clutch is light with, you know, it's capable for anyone to drive. What about the rest of the vehicle as a driver's car, because Mazda hangs it's hat off zoom zoom and they're pretty good with their small cars.
They're very sharp dynamically. Does that translate into these bigger SUVs? Surprisingly it does. You can still fit your family inside the car and head up a mountain to thrash it around a bit. The brakes hold up well, the steering is really impressive and handling, you know, is fantastic. So they've done a great job with this, and if you really need that extra bit of room, you go for the CX9, which has a V6 engine.
And here's the news flash, we don't have very good roads in Australia and how does the ride quality hang up on our, you know, secondary roads . Its good, could be a little bit better obviously being sports oriented its a little bit firmer so when you hit the bumps you really feel the jarring through the cabin but it's bearable and certainly something that wouldn't hinder your opinion of the car.
Okay. What's the accommodation like in the second row?
It's not too bad. It might be, for adults, you'll find that you'll be a little bit squished if you stick a taller mate in the back there. But it's great for kids, and even teenagers. I think you'd comfortably fit three abreast.
You're sitting in the driver's seat, you're hanging on to the wheel, do you like every thing about that or is the inside, you know?
It's fantastic. It's surprising, the colors that they use and just the way they line up all the instrumentation. It's really a great place to be and certainly a funky design. It really gives a breath of fresh air to this, to this sector.
Only fantastic. Well, some of those cars in the SUV segment, there's plenty of choice, 20 something vehicles in compact SUV. What else do you shortlist, if you're in the market for a CX7?
Well, the more premium stuff includes Tiguan, which you can get with a 2-liter turbo. You can then go to X-Trail, you've got so many options there, even Outlander has the pedal shifters now for sportier driving. You know, there really is so much choice there. But the Mazda is definitely the short store in terms of handling and the prowess of the engine.
You even compare it to a Tiguan because it's got all that European cache. How does it compare directly with the Tiguan? It's really good Japanese really know how to make a great car and Mazda they've just been improving there design recently so much that its such a brilliant looking car and they've really managed to refine it and make it really sharp looking.
C'mon, mate. There's got to be something you don't like apart from the fuel consumption? It's a little bit hard to say' here at the back, but you've got parking sensors and a reversing camera for that. And satellite navigation is a bit fidelly as well, which I wasn't a big fan of. Satellite navigations generally though, I mean if they in the car.
They're ten times the price of a TomTom, and you can't take them with you when you go to a strange city by air, right? Yeah, that's it, so it is a little bit silly to pay that much money for a Sat-Nav. But on that same token, it's nice to see it integrated into the dash. You know I asked that question to Mazda at the recent Mazda 6 launch, and I put it to just like that, and their answer was, the reason it's there is because people want that.
So I guess there's demand out there in the marketplace and if you're a company you'd not to feed that demand. Exactly right, and it does look a bit cheap when you have a satnav hanging off the center of your windscreen. I like the way that they integrate it and make it Thanks Paul. That was Paul Merak on the Mazda CX7.
And you don't mind first there might be a few good reasons to earn that car. You can read the full CX7 review. download the specifications, add your comments, and even get a quote from a Mazda dealer. Just follow the links on this page
