![]() ![]() At 185.8 inches long and 75.6 inches wide, it’s also 5.7 inches longer and 3.0 inches wider than the incumbent CX-5.Įven with the added ground clearance, the CX-50 stands shorter than the CX-5 by a hair, and that makes the body look a bit more compressed. The CX-50’s 110.8-inch wheelbase is 6.4 inches longer than the CX-30’s and 4.6 inches longer than the CX-5’s. The CX-50 shares a platform with the CX-5 and the smaller CX-30, but it’s been stretched out to make the CX-50 longer and wider than the CX-5 by a fair margin. The widened version of Mazda’s grille feeding directly into the headlight clusters makes the front more cohesive and it looks great in profile, but those prominent fenders make the diagonal views less convincing. It looks attractive from some angles but awkward at others. But while most of the market maxes out at $37,000 to $40,000, cars like the Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V, Volkswagen Tiguan, and Hyundai Tucson are either much less powerful than the turbocharged CX-50 or lag it on interior quality (or both… sorry Toyota).The CX-50 is a curious sight to behold in person. Only loaded examples of the GMC Terrain Denali, Jeep Cherokee, and new Ford Escape (not to mention a few plug-in hybrids that don't really compete with the CX-50) exceed my CX-50's as-tested price. That price is among the highest in the segment – and it's much more expensive than the segment average, which sits at about $33,000.īut the CX-50 is a solid value if you're shopping at the top of the mainstream compact crossover segment. There are no options aside from optional paint and dealer-installed accessories, although the top trim does include a few extra safety goodies, heated outboard rear seats, and a surround-view camera system that you won't find elsewhere in the CX-50 lineup. My range-topping Turbo Premium Plus starts at $43,575. The suspension is firmer than usual, too, and it feels like this Mazda will tolerate far more aggressive driving than most of the competition.įor that price, you can score either a loaded naturally aspirated model or a base turbocharged trim. This is arguably the most entertaining vehicle in the class to throw around and it's down mostly to the steering – the wheel itself has a thin rim and a smallish diameter, while the rack benefits from a tight dead zone relative to more relaxed rivals, which contributes to the feeling of quick reflexes that make the CX-50 so fun. ![]() Handling has been a strongpoint for Mazda since before the Zoom-Zoom days, and the CX-50 is no exception. The six-speed automatic is smooth and predictable once moving, although like the engine, it feels lethargic rolling off the line. ![]() The engine itself is merely a different page of the same book – it will feel familiar to anyone that's driven a turbocharged CX-5, which sandwiches fantastic mid-range punch between laggy off-the-line character and peaky performance near the 6,300-rpm redline. My tester had the latter engine, and like all CX-50s, its power gets to the standard all-wheel-drive system via a six-speed automatic. The 7.0-inch cluster display trails newer competition too, and that's before taking into account its almost total lack of reconfigurability. And to make matters worse, the display is so far away that even using CarPlay’s touch commands is annoying at best. I can’t begin to comprehend why Mazda would include touchscreen hardware that’s only usable via third-party software and not its own native OS, but here we are. Programming destinations or tweaking the settings is similarly arduous.Īpple CarPlay adds another bewildering layer to things, because it accepts touch commands. Say you want to stray from your usual preset satellite radio stations rather than one, two, or even three inputs, it takes six. It reacts quickly to these commands, sure, but the menu structure is a mess. The native operating system only accepts inputs from a physical knob and buttons. Because of that, Mazda is able to mount the display quite deep on the dash – the result is an attractive housing, but man oh man, I wish this were a touchscreen all the time.
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