Mazda CX-60
FOR EXTENDED GARAGE REPORTS, AND TO EXPLORE THE ARCHIVE
GOODBYE
£48,380 OTR/£50,030 as tested/£629 pcm
WHY IT’S HERE
Can Mazda join the large/luxe SUV party?
DRIVER
Andy Franklin
AFTER 12 MONTHS OF LIVING WITH THE BIGGEST, MOST EXPENSIVE, most ambitiously positioned Mazda yet it’s time to say sayonara We started out with a petrol litre plug in hybrid petrol and replaced it with this old school diesel That was a good call as the hybrid version never felt quite sorted The gearbox hybrid motor and engine often busied themselves with marital breakdowns resulting in some embarrassingly jerky driving Even jerkier when you factored in the bouncy unsettled ride The diesel is a better effort The litre straight six has a smooth but raspy tone when floored It’s quick yet returns impressive mpg and has lots of torque which came in handy when I needed to tow a project car see issue
While the ride still isn’t perfect it’s a lot better Same goes for the handling There’s less body roll presumably from not having to lug around a weighty battery That made it more popular with my family
I came to realise the more you push this car on the open road the better it shows off the chassis’ strengths But its heavy steering means it doesn’t really like being driven slowly around town which goes against the ethos of what Mazda wants this car to be a premium SUV To be honest I quite liked it once I’d got used to it
Interestingly for me the CX ’s strongest suit is its interior No it’s probably not quite as ‘premium’ whatever that is as a BMW but that’s more than made up for by common sense It has a calmness and simplicity about it and as ever with Japanese cars brilliant ergonomics
There’s no touchscreen thankfully with the central display handling the satnav entertainment and car settings via a rotary control on the centre console aided by handy shortcut buttons All the climate controls are physical buttons a refreshing change in this world of too much tech My biggest tech highlight is the camera not unique to the CX by any means but vital in such a bulky machine
Sadly the tech that is festooned into the CX did dent some of its lofty ‘premium’ aspirations The adaptive cruise control was far too sensitive the driver alert monitor constantly bonged at me if I looked away from the road for the slightest of moments to do some urgent parenting and I simply ended up switching off the i Stop system as it was just annoying
But is it worth buying? Something to propel Mazda out of the fringes of the mainstream and into Lexus baiting premium territory? Well yes and no It’s a lot of car for the money but there are a fair few irritating faults and foibles once you tot them up over a year of ownership I reckon it’s not beyond Mazda to fix them so what I’d say is wait for the facelift then try a CX Once it’s had a proper software update and a ride rethink then it might be time for the Germans to keep an eye on their rearview mirror