Best Mid-Size SUV: Mazda CX-9 – two thousand seventeen 10Best Trucks and SUVs – Car and Driver
The Mazda CX-9 Is the Best Mid-Size SUV – two thousand seventeen 10Best Trucks and SUVs
To everything there is a season. A time for roadsters, and a time for wagons. A time for joyrides, and a time for commutes. But if the time has come for a three-row family hauler, descend not into weeping and gnashing of teeth. Yea, fathers and mothers, there is one among the throng that can save us from the drudgery of suburban life. And we shall know it by the name Mazda CX-9.
In a segment where some automakers are pleased with delivering little more than anodyne shuttles, Mazda has created a trailblazing alternative to the status quo. The striking exterior is understated yet defined by interesting details, mimicking a formula more often seen in luxury offerings. Inwards, the cabin is both airy and roomy while also being cosseting enough to feel like your own private refuge. Upscale materials and trim chunks such as the available rosewood accents are positively luxurious, everything is pieced together with uniformly taut gaps, and while the dash trim isn’t leather, you won’t care, so nice is the emulation.
Narrow poles and a comparatively low seating position give the CX-9 fine sightlines and a decidedly un-SUV-like sensation from behind the wheel. It feels a fraction of its size on the road, aided by the light and accurate steering we’ve come to expect from all Mazdas. Highway on-ramps and winding back roads aren’t just lightly dealt with, but become opportunities that can be reveled in. It’s no Miata, but the CX-9 comes closer than anything else with seven seats. It’s also a fuel-economy standout, with EPA highway ratings as high as twenty eight mpg.
At very first glance, the CX-9’s four-cylinder-only engine strategy—a Two.5-liter unit fitted with a lag-reducing Dynamic Pressure Turbo—and modest two hundred fifty horsepower may provide ammunition for skeptics. But it’s a ideal illustration of Mazda’s preparedness to invest in technologies and tuning that will benefit customers but don’t necessarily translate well to marketing materials. It turns out that crossover drivers are pretty universally feather-footed, so Mazda traded off a big horsepower rating at high rpm for more low-end torque, in this case three hundred ten lb-ft peaking at two thousand rpm, down where customers will frequently tap into it.
The CX-9 may not be the most capacious in its class—if that’s what you’re looking for, permit us to politely steer you toward our 10Best-winning van—and doesn’t have all the latest, sometimes gimmicky features. So there are no power-folding rear seats, and the liftgate, which is power actuated on all but the base trim, doesn’t open by contorting your arms into the form of a grocery bag, or whatever the latest trend is. But there’s still no other mid-size SUV to which we’d rather entrust the diverse duties of family life. Morning drop-off? Check. Impress the in-laws? Sure. Date night? The car is better dressed than you are. And there’s no need to sell indulgences to foot the bill. Even in its swankiest guise, the CX-9 undercuts similarly tooled rivals by several thousand dollars. Call us disciples, evangelists, or fanatics, but we’ll be the parents who arrive at every soccer practice with smiles on our faces.
