First Drive: 2007 Mazda CX-9 - Previews

Mazda’s new seven-passenger crossover seeks to perform the zoom-zoom magic for bigger crowds.

Mazda’s full-size crossver CX-9 debuted at the New York auto show back in April 2006. After being quite taken by the Mazda CX-7 mid-size crossover’s tall sporty-car behavior, we have been wondering if Mazda would stick to the same ingredients while doubling the recipe for a bigger family. This would be a first—nobody has ever made a truly sporty minivan (excluding the $90,000 Mercedes-Benz R63)—and a full-size crossover is essentially a minivan for people who really don’t want to be seen in a minivan.

Unmistakable family looks, surprising interior comfort.

From the outside, the similarities to the little brother CX-7 and the rest of the Mazda lineup are immediately apparent. Mazda’s racy corporate face, with its trapezoidal grill and
angular headlamps, manages the translation from small car to full-size SUV without losing its charm or originality. The steeply raked windshield, bulging fenders, and swoopy beltline are double-take close to the CX-7, but toned down from garish and aggressive to simply stylish. Base models get 18-inch wheels, while uplevel Grand Touring models roll on 20s. The proportions try to trick your brain into thinking the CX-9 is smaller than it is, and almost succeed. But with an overall length just a smidge shy of 200 inches, there is no hiding the CX-9’s size.

From inside, your perception of size depends on your location. Sitting in the driver’s seat, the CX-9 feels relatively cozy, but not small. The large center console and attractive instrument panel create a driver-centric cockpit, but on a winding, snowy road, we were always aware of the right wheels’ proximity to the slippery shoulder. The CX-9’s external size means a spacious interior for the front five passengers, while third row detainees will beg those in the second to please slide their seats forward. This is done easily enough; the second-row seats have over five inches of travel. The seat rails have detents for three positions within those five inches. The rearmost allows even our 99th percentile testers to fit comfortably in the second row, but leaves no room for anyone much over five feet tall in the third seat. The forward setting simply reverses those roles, while the middle setting is a compromise that will leave passengers in both rows happy, as long as they’re all moderately-sized folks and the trip isn’t too long.

First Drive: 2007 Mazda CX-9 - Soul of a Sports Car?

Available in either black or beige, with gray seat accents, this is one of Mazda’s nicest interiors ever. The materials look and feel top-shelf, and quality touches abound. The wood trim flanking the center stack is echoed in size and shape by a wooden trim strip on the door panels, and the small notch in the center console lid allows your iPod cord to pass through to the auxiliary input jack in the console without being pinched. The instrumentation and control layout are logical, and the first- and second-row seats are remarkably shaped for fantastic support and comfort.

Can a seven-passenger crossover really have the soul of a sports car?

Of course, the seats need to be comfortable, because the suspension is tuned more for response than comfort. We were surprised at how true to the “soul of a sports car” ideal Mazda stayed with this largest and most unsporting vehicle. Our drive route for the CX-9 included a few roads that we frequent during our 10Best Cars and 5Best Trucks flogs, roads with a rare (for Michigan) combination of elevation changes and curves, and typical Midwestern pavement composed primarily of cracks, patches, and potholes. On these roads, the CX-9 reminded us too much of the hardcore Mazdaspeed 3, which reacted so violently to the surface inconsistencies that it seemed ready to pitch itself into the trees. Of course, the CX-9 isn’t that stiff, but Mazda is adamant that its three-row crossover is a vehicle intended to satisfy the driver. That it will do better than most anything in this class, but the kids in the back are going to have the ketchup shaken off their fries and all over the upholstery. We wonder if a little bit more compromise wouldn’t have been a good idea. Or maybe you can just tell the ungrateful brats to wait until you get to Grandma’s to eat.

A stiff suspension does not a sporty drive make, though, and Mazda knows this. Sporty means clear communication between car and driver, and this the CX-9 does as well as some cars with much better sports credentials. Steering response is crisp, with excellent on-center feel, nice effort, and sharp feedback. The quick-shifting Aisin six-speed automatic transmission features a manumatic mode that submits fully to the driver’s whims, bouncing off the rev-limiter until the driver shifts and refusing to downshift under any demand through the throttle without an accompanying request from the shifter. The exceptions are in the tall sixth gear, when the CX-9 sometimes downshifts to fifth gear to maintain speed, or when decelerating out of a gear’s range. The brake pedal, too, offers feel that seems to have come right out of one of Mazda’s smaller, more conventionally sporty offerings.

Powered by Ford’s 3.5-liter V-6.

Linear zoom is attained through Ford’s new corporate 3.5-liter V-6, also found in the Lincoln MKX, Lincoln MKZ, Ford Edge, and Ford Five Hundred. Rated at 263 horsepower and 249 lb-ft of torque, the six will move the 4300-pound CX-9, but, like the MX-5, the CX-9 is the least fun in a straight line. We predict 0-60 times around eight seconds, which would put the CX-9 just behind the segment benchmark Honda Pilot. Those wanting to pull the really fun stuff behind them rather than have all their fun on the way can order a towing package that will up the tow rating of the CX-9 from 2000 to 3500 pounds and includes a transmission cooler, larger cooling fan, and an engine computer recalibrated to recognize when a trailer is attached and adjust transmission shift points.

Safety and security, brought to you by the letters T, S, C, D, and R.

Responsive handling and quick reflexes are fun, but the CX-9 is still a family vehicle, and family vehicles have to protect the chitlins. An Eskimo roll is invigorating in a kayak, not so much in an SUV. To that end, Mazda has equipped all CX-9s with four-wheel anti-lock brakes, traction control, stability control, and—borrowed from Ford’s trucks—Roll Stability Control, which plugs a second yaw-control sensor to monitor roll motions into the existing array of vehicle stability sensors. All-wheel drive is optional on all trim levels. Should these not do the trick and accident avoidance become accident survival, the CX-9 comes standard with driver and passenger front and side airbags, as well as extended-duration three-row curtain airbags that stay inflated for approximately six seconds.

The CX-9 will be on sale by the end of February, starting from $29,035 for a base Sport model to over $41,000 for a fully loaded, all-wheel drive Grand Touring. This biggest Mazda still possesses all the familial traits of the winged-M brand; the only question is how many people will want this much sport in their crossovers.

source: caranddriver.com