Spoiled for choice
Mazda aims high with a growing range of premium machines, including the new CX-70
Mazda has gone all-in on SUVS. There are nine different sizes of SUV available on its website today, and if you factor in model grades such as “Touring” or “Azami”, the number grows to three dozen.
That’s before you consider twowheel-drive or all-wheel-drive options, the option of petrol, diesel or hybrid power, and various colour and trim choices.
Mazda recognises it might be excessive to have more than 100 SUV options, so some are being phased out. You can’t order a new CX-8, CX9 and MX-30, though they do remain in showrooms.
Others aren’t here yet, such as the new Mazda CX-70 that debuted overseas this week. The Mazda CX-70 is a premium SUV with plush leather, posh proportions and powerful sixcylinder engines. It’s one of four models that will match that description in Mazda showrooms – customers will be able to choose between CX-60, CX-70, CX-80 and CX-90 body styles.
Mazda Australia managing director Vinesh Bhindi recognises that there is work to be done establishing the CX-70S place, and that there is “a bit of an overlap and a lack of a very clear position of where it’s going to be”.
“Our strategy is to offer consumers as much choice as possible,” he says. “We are the only market to have all four.”
No other country will offer all four of Mazda’s big-dollar SUVS, cars that weren’t really intended to sit alongside each other in the same showroom.
Mazda Australia hopes customers will appreciate the opportunity to choose the exact model that meets their needs. Marketing boss Alastair
Doak concedes it “will take time” to communicate each car’s character to customers.
“We have a job to do there,” he says. “The CX-70 is the flagship five seat SUV. A lot of people want space and the practicality as well as that flagship model.
“They want to be rewarded.” The even-numbered CX-60 and CX-80 have slightly narrower bodywork than the broadshouldered, more spacious CX-70 five-seater and CX-90 seven-seat duo.
Final prices and specifications will be confirmed closer to the car’s arrival at the end of the year.
We’ll guess that the CX-70 will share running gear with the longer CX-90, which has a pair of 3.3-litre six-cylinder engines offering a choice of 254kw/500nm petrol power, or 187kw/550nm with a more economical diesel.
Expect to see toys such as ambient mood lighting, heated and cooled seats, and a Bose stereo.
So it won’t be cheap.
The CX-70 will sit above the Mazda CX-60, a car that costs about $66,000 to $93,500 drive-away, but below the CX-90 sold for about $80,000 to $102,500 drive-away.
Those are big-dollar vehicles. But Mazda says it has no plans to stop selling more affordable SUVS such as the CX-3 and CX-30.
And the medium-sized Mazda CX5 sold for $41,000 to $60,000 driveaway will continue for years to come.
“That product has been confirmed as here to stay in a new generation,” Bhindi says. “We don’t talk about future products, but in this case we are happy to confirm that there will be a direct replacement of the CX-5 model in the future at some point.”
Unlike Ford, which ditched sub$50,000 cars such as the Fiesta, Focus, Mondeo, Ecosport and Escape to cash in on the more expensive – and profitable – Ranger, Everest and Mustang, Bhindi says Mazda’s premium push will not come at the expense of cheaper models.
The company aims to deliver about 100,000 cars per year in Australia, with compact cars such as the Mazda3, CX-3 and CX-30 representing a good chunk of sales.
“[The premium push] was always an expansion of our product offering,” Bhindi says. “We still have smaller platform cars that we have in our product portfolio. The strategy hasn’t really changed, but it has expanded as the portfolio expands.”