Mazda CX-7 Luxury 2008 Review

Mazda CX-7 Luxury - Road Test

Compact SUVs are like a fanned deck of cards. Whatever you pick, it's bound to be different from the one either side. The range of vehicles in this segment is broader and more diverse than in almost any other VFACTS segment.

Mazda's CX-7 is an excellent case in point. It's virtually as soft as Nissan's Dualis, but offers better onroad performance -- at the expense of running costs. Attractive looks, reasonable equipment levels and sporty manners all combine in the CX-7 to place it in a little niche of its own.

Some will find it more attractive than the Nissan X-TRAIL, some will prefer its ride comfort to that of the Suzuki Grand Vitara, but others still will feel it lacks the commanding driving position of the offroaders that are at the other end of the compact SUV spectrum.

And now the Mazda is about to face serious competition from the Volkswagen Tiguan, a vehicle that has been in short supply, but not for much longer. The VW is a vehicle that offers a choice of petrol (turbo, like the Mazda) or diesel engines, both with manual and automatic options. In essence, the Tiguan rides, steers and handles like a mini-X5 and at lower cost than the Mazda CX-7 in Luxury trim. Sure you could run a spec-adjusted pricing analysis and work out which represents better value, but for vehicle dynamics, even the very adept Mazda will struggle against the Tiguan.

Leaving the Euro import aside, the Carsales Network set out to judge the CX-7 in isolation -- to determine whether it was up to scratch in its native environment, the urban jungle.

Mazda provided a CX-7 in luxury trim, with its reversing camera virtually a unique feature in this class of vehicle. This is a genuinely useful safety aid, especially given the high windowline to the rear of the Mazda. It will certainly save kids from being run over and it may also prevent panel damage backing into such things as fire hydrants, for example.

As an aid to parking though, it's not as useful as it might be if it were complemented by ultrasonic parking sensors and acoustic guidance.

In the cabin, the CX-7 on test was trimmed in a sort of birdseye maple woodgrain look-alike, which is not to the particular taste of the writer and it is very much a generic Ford premium trim… Often found in Volvos (and formerly Jaguars), as well as Mazdas.

As with Mazdas generally, the placement of controls and the legibility of the instruments were good for the most part. The trip computer and clock buttons (which alternate read-out functions in the left of the LED located in the upper centre fascia) are located as far to the left as possible and are something of a stretch for the driver. Other than that, there was little cause for complaint.

Cruise control and audio functions on the steering wheel were quite readily used by touch alone. The front-seat passenger could change the radio stations through the LCD touch screen and the presets could be changed by holding the finger pressed down on the touch screen until the system accepted the new frequency -- intuitive to use, because it works just like standard audio systems' preset buttons.

A pleasant blue backlighting for the instruments is restful at night and the driving position is generally comfortable, with a decent footrest and a properly established relationship between steering wheel, gearshift and pedals. A sequential-shift facility for the auto gearbox is operated by sliding the 'gated' transmission lever over to the right from the Drive position and shifting down by moving the lever forward or up by pulling it back.

Front seat accommodation was good -- although the seats lacked adequate shape for either offroad driving or more exuberant driving onroad. The rear seat was okay, but could be short on legroom with taller front-seat occupants. Overall though, knee and headroom were both perfectly acceptable for adults.

Cupholders front and rear were large enough to pass the McDonalds thick-shake test and the lidded storage bin in the centre console is quite deep enough to hold a large format street directory.

In the boot, despite the space-saver spare in the well, the floor was quite high. The upside to that is that heavy items don't have to be lifted far over the lip of the tailgate, but luggage capacity is squandered for the sake of the vehicle's style. There are finger-pulls on either side to lower the rear seats for the stowing of longer objects, a useful feature that is becoming increasingly common in other SUVs and wagons.

On the road, the CX-7 provided what might be called a balanced compromise between ride and cornering. The Mazda is one of the finest riding vehicles we've driven in recent times, but it doesn't come at the expense of grip or steering. Indeed, steering feedback was surprisingly good by softroader standards.

Considering the very light offroad duties compact SUVs are called upon to perform by most owners, it's a surprise that the well sprung, well damped CX-7 with its virtuous steering is not more popular. Perhaps thirst has something to do with it...

As a general rule, the CX-7 turned into corners with alacrity and there was only one occasion that the weight of the body made itself felt, but did so without any handling vices rising up to bite the driver's nether region. The tyres are not really for sports driving and did howl in protest on bitumen when asked to keep accelerating through a corner at one point, but the car's suspension and steering lacked for nothing in this type of driving.

On dirt, the CX-7 felt poised and the stability control system ensured that there was very little likelihood of trouble. Hyundai's Santa Fe driven recently provided a little more latitude in this regard. In the context of the Mazda, driven with verve the car would basically track around a corner on dirt in a four-wheel drift -- not quite understeering, not quite oversteering.

The standard traction control system can be disabled with a switch to the right of the steering column, but the system is re-enabled once the speed exceeds 30km/h. We can see this posing a problem if you attempt to drive the CX-7 through deep sand. Perhaps it's selling the CX-7 short, but we don't see its strengths lying in offroad driving. It's actually quite a good thing for just onroad touring or the occasional dirt road excursions up to the farmlet...

In respect of NVH, the CX-7 is a very quiet car. The tyres can be noisy, as already mentioned, but not unless you're trying. As far as open-road cruising is concerned, it is genuinely difficult to pinpoint which makes more noise, the wind or the tyres -- because the car is so quiet across the board. Certainly the engine is inaudible if it's not accelerating.

Very early on, we noticed some noise from the rear under brakes and suspect it might have been rust on the rear rotors, because the noise ceased over the course of the week.

The CX-7 is a vehicle you frequently see on the road, but if there's one reason in particular that people might stop and think before purchasing the Mazda, that reason would be the car's fuel consumption. According to the trip computer, the CX-7 managed an average of 13.4L/100km for the week -- and it wasn't like the car was given a thrashing during that time. Much of the time, the vehicle was driven in free-flowing urban traffic, with some open-road operation and light duties offroad, so not unduly demanding stuff...

Performance aside for the moment, contrast this to the mid-9.0L/100km stats (and occasional eights) we're getting from our naturally-aspirated Forester long-termer. When most compact SUV buyers are not performance-focused, Mazda could do well to offer an alternative to turbo-only.

As it is, the turbocharged petrol four-cylinder sounds sporty and remains reasonably refined into the upper rev range, but isn't a real screamer. Nor, unfortunately, can it muster enough torque fast enough from low revs to get the CX-7 moving briskly, considering the weight of the car, the traction and drag from the permanent all-wheel drive system allied to the at times power-sapping automatic box.

It's okay for driving around town, but how much better could this vehicle be with either this engine operating through a manual box or a diesel matched to the auto?

The automatic box is quite adept and never clunked or carried on at any time. It even provided some degree of engine braking and was responsive to manual shifting from the driver, so we would probably rather keep the auto and ditch the engine for something with a lot more torque.

In our Fantasy Island Garage, the CX-7 would have the diesel engine that now powers the Mazda6.