Rating
Quick Summary
Recommended. A stylish return to the SUV market for Mazda. The recent conversion to diesel power makes it a lot more sensible, too.
Road Test
The compact SUV sector is a busy place, but Mazda reckons the CX-7 is one of a kind. It calls the vehicle a 'sports crossover', reasoning that it's the first SUV designed with the style of a coupe rather than an old-school 4x4. Needless to say, it argues its case using the words 'zoom' and 'zoom' with tiresome regularity, but let's not hold that against the car itself. After all, the CX-7 certainly does stand out in a crowd. It's perhaps not as dramatic to look at as the RX-8, but the family resemblance is clearly there.
However, it is not quite as fast as it looks - or as it used to be. The CX-7 used to have a 256 bhp petrol engine - about as sensible as putting a saddle on a cow. Instead it now has a much more reasonable 170 bhp diesel: not quite as much fun, but a configuration a rational human being might actually buy. In truth we do miss the insanity of the petrol engine slightly, because this is an SUV with the heart of a sports car. It lets you have loads of fun through corners, and there's plenty of steering feel, too, and the well-judged suspension settings mean the CX-7 is an agile, confidence-inspiring SUV to chuck around. It stops well, too, as any true sports car should.
What's more, all this fun doesn't come at the expense of refinement or practicality. There's a useful flat-folding rear seat system, for example, and the one criticism is that the cargo limit of 774 litres is very poor by SUV standards. You'll get almost twice as much in a RAV4.
Up front, however, it's outstanding. The dashboard has a really attractive twin-deck design, which makes it an exciting car to sit in, let alone drive, and the quality of the materials is admirable.
For all these reasons, the CX-7 is best viewed as a cool form of personal transport rather than a practical SUV. It's fast, fun and stylish, and it'll be pretty exclusive, too.
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