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Mazda CX-7
Zoom-Zoom into the all new Mazda CX-7!
Mazda's new thrill ride:
The CX-7 crosses over to either a sporty wagon or sleek SUV
The fact that Mazda has succeeded in creating a genre-bending vehicle that straddles the boundaries between a sports car, a station wagon and an SUV was immediately clear to us as we looked down onto our driveway from an upstairs window.
The 2007 Mazda CX-7 was parked next to one of our other test vehicles, a 2006 Chevrolet Corvette Z06. The turbocharged Japanese crossover looked like it was giving the 505-horsepower Vette a run for its money, just standing still.
A key visual cue: The CX-7's steeply raked windshield, which tilts at an eye-popping 66-degree angle -- sharper than many sports cars. The Mazda designers built their distinctive crossover around that dramatic windshield, which has a major impact on the vehicle's design and personality, inside and out.
But here's what Mazda's visually stimulating new crossover means to you: If you're a woman who wouldn't be caught dead in a minivan, but needs the extra space for your first baby, put the five-passenger CX-7 high on your shopping list. If you're a young married guy who refuses to be henpecked into driving a Volvo wagon, check out the CX-7.
However, if you have older kids who need lots of rear-seat amenities and room, you might want to wait until the bigger, seven-passenger 2007 Mazda CX-9 comes out early next year or stick with something a bit more traditional, such as a Chrysler Town & Country minivan. That's because Mazda is still fine-tuning the CX-7 to fit into the family mold. A rear-seat entertainment system won't be available until October and there's really no good place to stash a juice box in the rear seat -- two quirks that probably won't bother hip empty-nesters and young couples with no kids.
The Mazda CX-7 is on sale now, starting at $24,310, including a $560 shipping charge, for a base sport model.
Our test vehicle was a CX-7 Grand Touring model with all-wheel-drive and a $1,585 package that bundled a moonroof, a Bose audio system and a six-disc CD changer for a bottom line of $30,145.
If you're also of the mind that the CX-7 will give you a hint at what to expect with the upcoming 2007 Ford Edge crossover, think again.
The closest cousin to the CX-7 is the rock-solid Mazda6 midsize sedan, which also shares some of its basic underbody architecture with the Edge. But the larger, three-row CX-9 crossover will actually be closer to the Edge, according to Mazda spokesman Jeremy Barnes, because it will use the same 265-horsepower 3.5-liter V-6, six-speed automatic transmission and many of the suspension components. But the CX-9 will be longer, wider and taller than the Edge.
The CX-7's Ford family tree was one of the last things we thought about, however, during the week we spent in it in early July.
There's too much other intriguing and unusual stuff to pore over.
Exterior look
On the outside, the Japanese designers paid meticulous attention to such things as the bulging front fenders and striking taillights, which use frosted glass as an accent. And the seats, which feature a thin strip of fabric in a faux crocodile-skin pattern running down their centers. You won't find one bit of wood in the cabin. Instead, there's a heavy use of "piano black" -- glossy black exterior paint -- on the steering wheel and the instrument panel, combined with matte metal and red gauges to give the cockpit a high-tech, contemporary feel.
Because the windshield is so steeply raked, designers were under pressure to come up with an instrument panel design that did not mimic the cavernous, "Dust-Buster" look and feel of the old GM minivans. The solution: A bi-level, or what Mazda calls a "double-roof" structure that makes up the large instrument panel. It seems to work, except that we found it a bit puzzling to have the climate controls on the lower part of the structure with the climate-control readout on the upper part of the structure.
And the CX-7's sloping nose, combined with the unusual instrument panel, gave the shorter of us a bit of a problem when parking because we couldn't easily judge where the front of the vehicle ended. This does not seem to be an issue for taller drivers, however.
Of greater concern is the rear seat, which is something of a penalty box for passengers. It is woefully lacking in creature comforts. Our vehicle had only one rear map pocket, no individual reading lights or vents, two nonadjustable cup holders built into the armrest and no reclining rear seats. The rear cargo area is roomy and you can make it even more useful with a $170 package that includes a cargo net and cargo tray.
Our Fourth of July wanderings in the CX-7, which included a bit of low-key offroading, were satisfying from a driving perspective.
Powerful impression
The CX-7 is outfitted with a zippy turbo 2.3-liter I-4 engine that churns out a respectable 244 horsepower and 258 pounds-feet of torque. The CX-7's rather modest I-4 makes virtually as much horsepower as the 3.5-liter V-6 engine in the Nissan Murano, one of its closest competitors.
The Murano's engine makes 245 horsepower.
The CX-7's engine is mated to a six-speed automatic transmission with clutchless shifting, which adds to the sporty feeling.
Fuel economy is less thrilling. Our CX-7 returned 18 mpg in city driving and 24 mpg on the highway. Even the Corvette Z06 does better than that, returning 26 mpg on the highway. So much for a steeply raked windshield adding to the aerodynamics and aiding fuel economy.
A smooth ride
When it comes to ride and handling, the CX-7 feels much more like a car than a truck, thanks to its Mazda6 roots, including an independent front suspension, and a rear multi-link suspension that is borrowed from the Mazda5 crossover. The CX-7 is easy to park in tight spaces and handles well on twisty roads.
We gave top marks to our CX-7 Grand Touring model when it came to safety features, too. Our vehicle was equipped with an impressive array of safety items, including standard antilock brakes, traction control, a stability-control system, front side air bags and side curtain air bags that protect all outboard passengers.
Mazda did an excellent job of making the CX-7 look and feel more expensive than it really is.
However, there is some evidence of skimping, such as the "manual leveling" xenon headlights. On more expensive vehicles, these headlights adjust automatically to oncoming traffic so as not to blind other drivers. But on the CX-7, there's a little dial to the left of the steering wheel that lets you lower them by hand. We confess that we were well past most other drivers before it dawned on us to adjust them.
But that was one of the few items on our short list of complaints.
We found the Mazda CX-7 to be one of the most exciting vehicles of the '07 model year, a true creature of the new millennium that works hard to combine the best of several vehicle segments.