Mazda CX-9

Car and Driver

Tested: two thousand sixteen Mazda CX-9 AWD

2016 Mazda CX-9 AWD

• Jul 2016
• By TONY QUIROGA
• Photography By WEBB BLAND

We talk a big game. After endlessly professing our love for Chevy Corvettes, Porsche Caymans, and Mazda MX-5 Miatas, more often than not, when the time comes to pick a vehicle for a weekend road excursion, we choose something practical. Practical is three rows. Practical is all-wheel drive. Practical is quiet. Practical rails well. Practical doesn’t make us look as if we’re suffering a mid-life crisis. And practical gets driven. In our long-term fleet, the vehicles that rack up 40,000 miles the quickest are always minivans and three-row SUVs. As much as we love driving them, sports cars can’t accommodate the family or carry much stuff.

So the Mazda CX-9 is practical, but it’s not all Costco and Home Depot and road trips to Disney. The CX-9 looks like something Karl Lagerfeld would use to run errands on whatever his version of a nice little Saturday might be.

A wholesale redo, the fresh CX-9 lifts the design idioms of Mazda’s own CX-5 but also borrows some styling cues from the Infiniti QX70 (the SUV formerly known as the FX). The big Mazda, especially on its optional 20-inch wheels, looks elegant enough to wear a designer badge. Some of what makes the Mazda emerge expensive is actually its restraint. Yes, the large chrome grille juts menacingly forward and has LED lighting inwards it, but Mazda’s designers emerge to have sculpted the clay with mitts when forming the CX-9, rather than hacking at it with swords. Even the Mazda’s paint looks like a budget breaker. Covered in a finely flaked hue called Machine Gray, the CX-9 glows. This SUV has the presence and style to rival Acura’s MDX and Infiniti’s QX60.

It’s the same story inwards. Mazda’s material choices look and feel rich. Many of the plastics are so finely grained and soft to the touch that they emerge to be bovine based. On our top-spec Signature tester, sticker price $45,215, there are open-pore rosewood trim chunks, aluminum accents, and soft brick-colored Nappa leather seats. The gaps are consistently taut, and the trim all lines up with an obsessive attention to detail.

In an effort to bring the CX-9’s noise levels upmarket, Mazda tells us it worked on suppressing the tire roar that plagued the previous CX-9. The replacement has a thicker floorpan, fifty three pounds of sound deadening under the carpet, and an acoustically laminated windshield and front windows. The work pays off with a low sixty five decibels of noise at seventy mph, four less than the last CX-9 we tested and the same as the Tesla Model X. Our only gripes up front are related to the seats. The driver’s chair doesn’t go low enough and needs more hip support, and the passenger’s seat produces the same complaints while lacking any height adjustment.

As in the CX-9’s brethren, the instrument panel is predominated by round analog dials. But unlike in almost every other Mazda, one of the round gauges is actually a color LCD screen that can display trip-computer information and a compass. On all but the lowest Sport trim level, which gets a seven-inch screen, there’s an eight-inch touchscreen in the middle of the dashboard. It’s a bit too far to touch while driving, so the screen can also be managed by the BMW iDrive–like knob behind the shifter. Navigation and audio controls are logical and effortless to use with either the knob or the touchscreen.

In the 2nd row, there’s ample space for adults, provided they slide the split bench all the way back. However, second-row legroom comes at the expense of third-row space. Unlike some competitors, Mazda doesn’t suggest captain’s chairs in the 2nd row. The split-bench 2nd row folds forward to ease entry into the way back, but the Ford Explorer, Honda Pilot, and Toyota Highlander, with their second-row walk-throughs, make it lighter. The competition also hits the CX-9’s two-person third row. The Mazda’s rearmost row is kid-friendly, but the Highlander’s and the Pilot’s work better for adults, and each can theoretically hold three. There is a 14-cubic-foot cargo hold in the Mazda, and folding its third row increases that to thirty eight cubic feet. With both rows folded vapid, there’s seventy one cubic feet of space, but the Mazda is on the smaller end of the three-row spectrum. Also, you’ll be doing the folding yourself as power-folding seats aren’t available.

And while the rest of the class offers V-6 power, the CX-9 comes with only a four-cylinder turbo. The engine displaces Two.Five liters and makes two hundred fifty horsepower on ninety three octane and two hundred twenty seven horses on 87, says Mazda. On California’s 91-octane fuel, it makes something in inbetween and can run zero to sixty mph in 7.Two seconds. It passes through the quarter-mile in 15.7 seconds at eighty eight mph. The Pilot and Explorer Sport are both quicker to sixty by about a 2nd; the V-6–powered Highlander is about a tenth slower than the CX-9.

Mazda tells us that it studied how buyers use their three-row-mobiles and found that they almost never rev the engine past four thousand five hundred rpm. The power just above idle is more impor­tant. To provide punch where owners want it, the CX-9’s engine makes three hundred ten pound-feet of torque at two thousand rpm, regardless of octane. That torque translates into a nice hard shove from low revs, and it gives the big CX-9 the capability to squirt into slots in traffic. The throttle response is excellent, even from idle, with boost that builds instantly, likely due to the clever Dynamic Pressure Turbo system. But if you drive the CX-9 as we do—part throttle and no redlining makes Jack a abate boy—the power tapers off noticeably. It doesn’t fall away with the abruptness of a turbo-diesel, but there’s a big drop in enthusiasm beyond four thousand five hundred rpm.

According to Mazda, using a four instead of the old Trio.7-liter V-6 saves one hundred thirty two pounds. Front-drive models weigh 4054, a loss of two hundred sixty nine pounds. We measured four thousand three hundred thirty six for our all-wheel-drive CX-9 Signature, two hundred twenty three pounds less than the old CX-9. It’s inbetween two hundred and seven hundred pounds lighter than most of the three-row class, but the Pilot, Hyundai Santa Fe, and Kia Sorento are a few pounds lighter still.

The downsized engine and diminished mass help boost EPA fuel economy from last year’s sixteen city/22 highway mpg (AWD) and 17/24 (front drive) to 21/27 and 22/28, respectively. Those numbers are good enough to take the CX-9 to the head of the class; the GMC Acadia, with the freshly available naturally aspirated 194-hp Two.5-liter four and all-wheel drive, comes close at 21/25 mpg.

To boost real-world fuel economy, Mazda fits a cooling system to the exhaust-gas-recirculation system that helps reduce combustion temperatures. When on boost, a turbo causes the engine to consume more fuel, not only to match the extra air injecting the engine but also as a little extra to help keep the combustion chamber cool. By cooling the harass that recirculates back to the engine, combustion temperatures are thus diminished without having to rely on a rich combination.

Mazda tells us that while the system’s benefits don’t showcase up on the light-throttle, almost-no-boost EPA test, there will be a benefit for real drivers. We infrequently drive like real people, however, so we managed only nineteen mpg over almost five hundred miles.

All drivers will find the CX-9 is as sleek and charismatic as it shows up. The electrically assisted power steering is light and accurate. Like all Mazdas, the CX-9 is effortless to place on the road. With 20-inch wheels, the suspension tuning is on the rock-hard side of supple. Thrust the CX-9 hard, and it never feels as ponderous as the minivan-like Highlander and Pilot. Switch the six-speed automatic into sport mode, and the CX-9 almost starts to think it’s an MX-5 Cup car. The gearbox snaps through downshifts under braking and gears are held longer.

We measured 0.80 g of grip in skidpad testing despite an overactive stability-control system. Even on public roads, we found the stability control a bit too intrusive. It can’t be shut off, and if you press hard into a corner, it’ll clip down on the brakes. Should you need to jam on the brakes, stopping from seventy mph takes one hundred seventy nine feet, a typical distance for the class.

For the safety conscious, Mazda offers a total cache of driver-­assistance systems, including blind-spot monitoring, radar-based cruise control, and lane-departure warning and correction. Only Grand Touring and Signature models get the radar-based active cruise control that makes the collision-warning system possible. If the vehicle senses an imminent collision, it will catapult on the brakes. It’s too sensitive. Three times in as many days, the system thought an accident was developing when there was no danger. It astonished us by wedging on the brakes twice while step by step slowing behind a row of cars at a crimson light, and once again when switching lanes to dart around a slower car. The system can be shut off and its sensitivity can be adjusted (both times when the system intervened, it was set to its least sensitive setting), but it automatically reactivates every time the engine starts. The overactive system is totally inconsistent with Mazda’s driver-centric gospel.

Annoying collision-warning system aside, the fresh CX-9 is the most engaging vehicle in its class, proving that practicality doesn’t always mean providing up treating and style. What it lacks in third-row space, it makes up for in refinement and dynamics. A base CX-9 starts at $32,420; add all-wheel drive for $1800. Even fully loaded to $45,215 as our test car was, the CX-9 remains a strong value in a world where a Pilot Elite costs $47,470 and an Explorer Platinum costs $53,915. It might not have the acceleration or third-row space of those two, but what’s more practical than saving money?

Mazda CX-9 Reviews – Mazda CX-9 Price, Photos, and Specs – Car and Driver

Mazda CX-9

Car and Driver

Tested: two thousand sixteen Mazda CX-9 AWD

2016 Mazda CX-9 AWD

• Jul 2016
• By TONY QUIROGA
• Photography By WEBB BLAND

We talk a big game. After endlessly professing our love for Chevy Corvettes, Porsche Caymans, and Mazda MX-5 Miatas, more often than not, when the time comes to pick a vehicle for a weekend road journey, we choose something practical. Practical is three rows. Practical is all-wheel drive. Practical is quiet. Practical rails well. Practical doesn’t make us look as if we’re suffering a mid-life crisis. And practical gets driven. In our long-term fleet, the vehicles that rack up 40,000 miles the quickest are always minivans and three-row SUVs. As much as we love driving them, sports cars can’t accommodate the family or carry much stuff.

So the Mazda CX-9 is practical, but it’s not all Costco and Home Depot and road trips to Disney. The CX-9 looks like something Karl Lagerfeld would use to run errands on whatever his version of a nice little Saturday might be.

A wholesale redo, the fresh CX-9 lifts the design idioms of Mazda’s own CX-5 but also borrows some styling cues from the Infiniti QX70 (the SUV formerly known as the FX). The big Mazda, especially on its optional 20-inch wheels, looks elegant enough to wear a designer badge. Some of what makes the Mazda emerge expensive is actually its restraint. Yes, the large chrome grille juts menacingly forward and has LED lighting inwards it, but Mazda’s designers emerge to have sculpted the clay with palms when forming the CX-9, rather than hacking at it with swords. Even the Mazda’s paint looks like a budget breaker. Covered in a finely flaked hue called Machine Gray, the CX-9 glows. This SUV has the presence and style to rival Acura’s MDX and Infiniti’s QX60.

It’s the same story inwards. Mazda’s material choices look and feel rich. Many of the plastics are so finely grained and soft to the touch that they emerge to be bovine based. On our top-spec Signature tester, sticker price $45,215, there are open-pore rosewood trim lumps, aluminum accents, and soft brick-colored Nappa leather seats. The gaps are consistently taut, and the trim all lines up with an obsessive attention to detail.

In an effort to bring the CX-9’s noise levels upmarket, Mazda tells us it worked on suppressing the tire roar that plagued the previous CX-9. The replacement has a thicker floorpan, fifty three pounds of sound deadening under the carpet, and an acoustically laminated windshield and front windows. The work pays off with a low sixty five decibels of noise at seventy mph, four less than the last CX-9 we tested and the same as the Tesla Model X. Our only gripes up front are related to the seats. The driver’s chair doesn’t go low enough and needs more hip support, and the passenger’s seat produces the same complaints while lacking any height adjustment.

As in the CX-9’s brethren, the instrument panel is predominated by round analog dials. But unlike in almost every other Mazda, one of the round gauges is actually a color LCD screen that can display trip-computer information and a compass. On all but the lowest Sport trim level, which gets a seven-inch screen, there’s an eight-inch touchscreen in the middle of the dashboard. It’s a bit too far to touch while driving, so the screen can also be managed by the BMW iDrive–like knob behind the shifter. Navigation and audio controls are logical and effortless to use with either the knob or the touchscreen.

In the 2nd row, there’s ample space for adults, provided they slide the split bench all the way back. However, second-row legroom comes at the expense of third-row space. Unlike some competitors, Mazda doesn’t suggest captain’s chairs in the 2nd row. The split-bench 2nd row folds forward to ease entry into the way back, but the Ford Explorer, Honda Pilot, and Toyota Highlander, with their second-row walk-throughs, make it lighter. The competition also hits the CX-9’s two-person third row. The Mazda’s rearmost row is kid-friendly, but the Highlander’s and the Pilot’s work better for adults, and each can theoretically hold three. There is a 14-cubic-foot cargo hold in the Mazda, and folding its third row increases that to thirty eight cubic feet. With both rows folded plane, there’s seventy one cubic feet of space, but the Mazda is on the smaller end of the three-row spectrum. Also, you’ll be doing the folding yourself as power-folding seats aren’t available.

And while the rest of the class offers V-6 power, the CX-9 comes with only a four-cylinder turbo. The engine displaces Two.Five liters and makes two hundred fifty horsepower on ninety three octane and two hundred twenty seven horses on 87, says Mazda. On California’s 91-octane fuel, it makes something in inbetween and can run zero to sixty mph in 7.Two seconds. It passes through the quarter-mile in 15.7 seconds at eighty eight mph. The Pilot and Explorer Sport are both quicker to sixty by about a 2nd; the V-6–powered Highlander is about a tenth slower than the CX-9.

Mazda tells us that it studied how buyers use their three-row-mobiles and found that they almost never rev the engine past four thousand five hundred rpm. The power just above idle is more impor­tant. To provide punch where owners want it, the CX-9’s engine makes three hundred ten pound-feet of torque at two thousand rpm, regardless of octane. That torque translates into a nice rock hard shove from low revs, and it gives the big CX-9 the capability to squirt into fuckholes in traffic. The throttle response is excellent, even from idle, with boost that builds instantly, likely due to the clever Dynamic Pressure Turbo system. But if you drive the CX-9 as we do—part throttle and no redlining makes Jack a abate boy—the power tapers off noticeably. It doesn’t fall away with the abruptness of a turbo-diesel, but there’s a big drop in enthusiasm beyond four thousand five hundred rpm.

According to Mazda, using a four instead of the old Trio.7-liter V-6 saves one hundred thirty two pounds. Front-drive models weigh 4054, a loss of two hundred sixty nine pounds. We measured four thousand three hundred thirty six for our all-wheel-drive CX-9 Signature, two hundred twenty three pounds less than the old CX-9. It’s inbetween two hundred and seven hundred pounds lighter than most of the three-row class, but the Pilot, Hyundai Santa Fe, and Kia Sorento are a few pounds lighter still.

The downsized engine and diminished mass help boost EPA fuel economy from last year’s sixteen city/22 highway mpg (AWD) and 17/24 (front drive) to 21/27 and 22/28, respectively. Those numbers are good enough to take the CX-9 to the head of the class; the GMC Acadia, with the freshly available naturally aspirated 194-hp Two.5-liter four and all-wheel drive, comes close at 21/25 mpg.

To boost real-world fuel economy, Mazda fits a cooling system to the exhaust-gas-recirculation system that helps reduce combustion temperatures. When on boost, a turbo causes the engine to consume more fuel, not only to match the extra air injecting the engine but also as a little extra to help keep the combustion chamber cool. By cooling the harass that recirculates back to the engine, combustion temperatures are thus diminished without having to rely on a rich combination.

Mazda tells us that while the system’s benefits don’t display up on the light-throttle, almost-no-boost EPA test, there will be a benefit for real drivers. We uncommonly drive like real people, however, so we managed only nineteen mpg over almost five hundred miles.

All drivers will find the CX-9 is as sleek and charismatic as it shows up. The electrically assisted power steering is light and accurate. Like all Mazdas, the CX-9 is effortless to place on the road. With 20-inch wheels, the suspension tuning is on the stiff side of supple. Thrust the CX-9 hard, and it never feels as ponderous as the minivan-like Highlander and Pilot. Switch the six-speed automatic into sport mode, and the CX-9 almost starts to think it’s an MX-5 Cup car. The gearbox snaps through downshifts under braking and gears are held longer.

We measured 0.80 g of grip in skidpad testing despite an overactive stability-control system. Even on public roads, we found the stability control a bit too intrusive. It can’t be shut off, and if you press hard into a corner, it’ll pin down on the brakes. Should you need to jam on the brakes, stopping from seventy mph takes one hundred seventy nine feet, a typical distance for the class.

For the safety conscious, Mazda offers a total cache of driver-­assistance systems, including blind-spot monitoring, radar-based cruise control, and lane-departure warning and correction. Only Grand Touring and Signature models get the radar-based active cruise control that makes the collision-warning system possible. If the vehicle senses an imminent collision, it will insert on the brakes. It’s too sensitive. Three times in as many days, the system thought an accident was developing when there was no danger. It astonished us by stuffing on the brakes twice while little by little slowing behind a row of cars at a crimson light, and once again when switching lanes to dart around a slower car. The system can be shut off and its sensitivity can be adjusted (both times when the system intervened, it was set to its least sensitive setting), but it automatically reactivates every time the engine starts. The overactive system is downright inconsistent with Mazda’s driver-centric gospel.

Annoying collision-warning system aside, the fresh CX-9 is the most engaging vehicle in its class, proving that practicality doesn’t always mean providing up treating and style. What it lacks in third-row space, it makes up for in refinement and dynamics. A base CX-9 starts at $32,420; add all-wheel drive for $1800. Even fully loaded to $45,215 as our test car was, the CX-9 remains a strong value in a world where a Pilot Elite costs $47,470 and an Explorer Platinum costs $53,915. It might not have the acceleration or third-row space of those two, but what’s more practical than saving money?

Mazda CX-9 Reviews – Mazda CX-9 Price, Photos, and Specs – Car and Driver

Mazda CX-9

Car and Driver

Tested: two thousand sixteen Mazda CX-9 AWD

2016 Mazda CX-9 AWD

• Jul 2016
• By TONY QUIROGA
• Photography By WEBB BLAND

We talk a big game. After endlessly professing our love for Chevy Corvettes, Porsche Caymans, and Mazda MX-5 Miatas, more often than not, when the time comes to pick a vehicle for a weekend road tour, we choose something practical. Practical is three rows. Practical is all-wheel drive. Practical is quiet. Practical rails well. Practical doesn’t make us look as if we’re suffering a mid-life crisis. And practical gets driven. In our long-term fleet, the vehicles that rack up 40,000 miles the quickest are always minivans and three-row SUVs. As much as we love driving them, sports cars can’t accommodate the family or carry much stuff.

So the Mazda CX-9 is practical, but it’s not all Costco and Home Depot and road trips to Disney. The CX-9 looks like something Karl Lagerfeld would use to run errands on whatever his version of a nice little Saturday might be.

A wholesale redo, the fresh CX-9 lifts the design idioms of Mazda’s own CX-5 but also borrows some styling cues from the Infiniti QX70 (the SUV formerly known as the FX). The big Mazda, especially on its optional 20-inch wheels, looks elegant enough to wear a designer badge. Some of what makes the Mazda emerge expensive is actually its restraint. Yes, the large chrome grille juts menacingly forward and has LED lighting inwards it, but Mazda’s designers show up to have sculpted the clay with forearms when forming the CX-9, rather than hacking at it with swords. Even the Mazda’s paint looks like a budget breaker. Covered in a finely flaked hue called Machine Gray, the CX-9 glows. This SUV has the presence and style to rival Acura’s MDX and Infiniti’s QX60.

It’s the same story inwards. Mazda’s material choices look and feel rich. Many of the plastics are so finely grained and soft to the touch that they emerge to be bovine based. On our top-spec Signature tester, sticker price $45,215, there are open-pore rosewood trim lumps, aluminum accents, and soft brick-colored Nappa leather seats. The gaps are consistently taut, and the trim all lines up with an obsessive attention to detail.

In an effort to bring the CX-9’s noise levels upmarket, Mazda tells us it worked on suppressing the tire roar that plagued the previous CX-9. The replacement has a thicker floorpan, fifty three pounds of sound deadening under the carpet, and an acoustically laminated windshield and front windows. The work pays off with a low sixty five decibels of noise at seventy mph, four less than the last CX-9 we tested and the same as the Tesla Model X. Our only gripes up front are related to the seats. The driver’s chair doesn’t go low enough and needs more hip support, and the passenger’s seat produces the same complaints while lacking any height adjustment.

As in the CX-9’s brethren, the instrument panel is predominated by round analog dials. But unlike in almost every other Mazda, one of the round gauges is actually a color LCD screen that can display trip-computer information and a compass. On all but the lowest Sport trim level, which gets a seven-inch screen, there’s an eight-inch touchscreen in the middle of the dashboard. It’s a bit too far to touch while driving, so the screen can also be managed by the BMW iDrive–like knob behind the shifter. Navigation and audio controls are logical and effortless to use with either the knob or the touchscreen.

In the 2nd row, there’s ample space for adults, provided they slide the split bench all the way back. However, second-row legroom comes at the expense of third-row space. Unlike some competitors, Mazda doesn’t suggest captain’s chairs in the 2nd row. The split-bench 2nd row folds forward to ease entry into the way back, but the Ford Explorer, Honda Pilot, and Toyota Highlander, with their second-row walk-throughs, make it lighter. The competition also hammers the CX-9’s two-person third row. The Mazda’s rearmost row is kid-friendly, but the Highlander’s and the Pilot’s work better for adults, and each can theoretically hold three. There is a 14-cubic-foot cargo hold in the Mazda, and folding its third row increases that to thirty eight cubic feet. With both rows folded plane, there’s seventy one cubic feet of space, but the Mazda is on the smaller end of the three-row spectrum. Also, you’ll be doing the folding yourself as power-folding seats aren’t available.

And while the rest of the class offers V-6 power, the CX-9 comes with only a four-cylinder turbo. The engine displaces Two.Five liters and makes two hundred fifty horsepower on ninety three octane and two hundred twenty seven horses on 87, says Mazda. On California’s 91-octane fuel, it makes something in inbetween and can run zero to sixty mph in 7.Two seconds. It passes through the quarter-mile in 15.7 seconds at eighty eight mph. The Pilot and Explorer Sport are both quicker to sixty by about a 2nd; the V-6–powered Highlander is about a tenth slower than the CX-9.

Mazda tells us that it studied how buyers use their three-row-mobiles and found that they almost never rev the engine past four thousand five hundred rpm. The power just above idle is more impor­tant. To provide punch where owners want it, the CX-9’s engine makes three hundred ten pound-feet of torque at two thousand rpm, regardless of octane. That torque translates into a nice rock-hard shove from low revs, and it gives the big CX-9 the capability to squirt into crevices in traffic. The throttle response is excellent, even from idle, with boost that builds instantly, likely due to the clever Dynamic Pressure Turbo system. But if you drive the CX-9 as we do—part throttle and no redlining makes Jack a abate boy—the power tapers off noticeably. It doesn’t fall away with the abruptness of a turbo-diesel, but there’s a big drop in enthusiasm beyond four thousand five hundred rpm.

According to Mazda, using a four instead of the old Trio.7-liter V-6 saves one hundred thirty two pounds. Front-drive models weigh 4054, a loss of two hundred sixty nine pounds. We measured four thousand three hundred thirty six for our all-wheel-drive CX-9 Signature, two hundred twenty three pounds less than the old CX-9. It’s inbetween two hundred and seven hundred pounds lighter than most of the three-row class, but the Pilot, Hyundai Santa Fe, and Kia Sorento are a few pounds lighter still.

The downsized engine and diminished mass help boost EPA fuel economy from last year’s sixteen city/22 highway mpg (AWD) and 17/24 (front drive) to 21/27 and 22/28, respectively. Those numbers are good enough to take the CX-9 to the head of the class; the GMC Acadia, with the freshly available naturally aspirated 194-hp Two.5-liter four and all-wheel drive, comes close at 21/25 mpg.

To boost real-world fuel economy, Mazda fits a cooling system to the exhaust-gas-recirculation system that helps reduce combustion temperatures. When on boost, a turbo causes the engine to consume more fuel, not only to match the extra air injecting the engine but also as a little extra to help keep the combustion chamber cool. By cooling the harass that recirculates back to the engine, combustion temperatures are thus diminished without having to rely on a rich combination.

Mazda tells us that while the system’s benefits don’t demonstrate up on the light-throttle, almost-no-boost EPA test, there will be a benefit for real drivers. We infrequently drive like real people, however, so we managed only nineteen mpg over almost five hundred miles.

All drivers will find the CX-9 is as slick and charismatic as it emerges. The electrically assisted power steering is light and accurate. Like all Mazdas, the CX-9 is effortless to place on the road. With 20-inch wheels, the suspension tuning is on the rock-hard side of supple. Shove the CX-9 hard, and it never feels as ponderous as the minivan-like Highlander and Pilot. Switch the six-speed automatic into sport mode, and the CX-9 almost starts to think it’s an MX-5 Cup car. The gearbox snaps through downshifts under braking and gears are held longer.

We measured 0.80 g of grip in skidpad testing despite an overactive stability-control system. Even on public roads, we found the stability control a bit too intrusive. It can’t be shut off, and if you press hard into a corner, it’ll pin down on the brakes. Should you need to catapult on the brakes, stopping from seventy mph takes one hundred seventy nine feet, a typical distance for the class.

For the safety conscious, Mazda offers a utter cache of driver-­assistance systems, including blind-spot monitoring, radar-based cruise control, and lane-departure warning and correction. Only Grand Touring and Signature models get the radar-based active cruise control that makes the collision-warning system possible. If the vehicle senses an imminent collision, it will jam on the brakes. It’s too sensitive. Three times in as many days, the system thought an accident was developing when there was no danger. It astonished us by jamming on the brakes twice while step by step slowing behind a row of cars at a crimson light, and once again when switching lanes to dart around a slower car. The system can be shut off and its sensitivity can be adjusted (both times when the system intervened, it was set to its least sensitive setting), but it automatically reactivates every time the engine starts. The overactive system is downright inconsistent with Mazda’s driver-centric gospel.

Annoying collision-warning system aside, the fresh CX-9 is the most engaging vehicle in its class, proving that practicality doesn’t always mean providing up treating and style. What it lacks in third-row space, it makes up for in refinement and dynamics. A base CX-9 starts at $32,420; add all-wheel drive for $1800. Even fully loaded to $45,215 as our test car was, the CX-9 remains a strong value in a world where a Pilot Elite costs $47,470 and an Explorer Platinum costs $53,915. It might not have the acceleration or third-row space of those two, but what’s more practical than saving money?

Mazda CX-9 Reviews – Mazda CX-9 Price, Photos, and Specs – Car and Driver

Mazda CX-9

Car and Driver

Tested: two thousand sixteen Mazda CX-9 AWD

2016 Mazda CX-9 AWD

• Jul 2016
• By TONY QUIROGA
• Photography By WEBB BLAND

We talk a big game. After endlessly professing our love for Chevy Corvettes, Porsche Caymans, and Mazda MX-5 Miatas, more often than not, when the time comes to pick a vehicle for a weekend road tour, we choose something practical. Practical is three rows. Practical is all-wheel drive. Practical is quiet. Practical rails well. Practical doesn’t make us look as if we’re suffering a mid-life crisis. And practical gets driven. In our long-term fleet, the vehicles that rack up 40,000 miles the quickest are always minivans and three-row SUVs. As much as we love driving them, sports cars can’t accommodate the family or carry much stuff.

So the Mazda CX-9 is practical, but it’s not all Costco and Home Depot and road trips to Disney. The CX-9 looks like something Karl Lagerfeld would use to run errands on whatever his version of a nice little Saturday might be.

A wholesale redo, the fresh CX-9 lifts the design idioms of Mazda’s own CX-5 but also borrows some styling cues from the Infiniti QX70 (the SUV formerly known as the FX). The big Mazda, especially on its optional 20-inch wheels, looks elegant enough to wear a designer badge. Some of what makes the Mazda emerge expensive is actually its restraint. Yes, the large chrome grille juts menacingly forward and has LED lighting inwards it, but Mazda’s designers emerge to have sculpted the clay with mitts when forming the CX-9, rather than hacking at it with swords. Even the Mazda’s paint looks like a budget breaker. Covered in a finely flaked hue called Machine Gray, the CX-9 glows. This SUV has the presence and style to rival Acura’s MDX and Infiniti’s QX60.

It’s the same story inwards. Mazda’s material choices look and feel rich. Many of the plastics are so finely grained and soft to the touch that they emerge to be bovine based. On our top-spec Signature tester, sticker price $45,215, there are open-pore rosewood trim lumps, aluminum accents, and soft brick-colored Nappa leather seats. The gaps are consistently taut, and the trim all lines up with an obsessive attention to detail.

In an effort to bring the CX-9’s noise levels upmarket, Mazda tells us it worked on suppressing the tire roar that plagued the previous CX-9. The replacement has a thicker floorpan, fifty three pounds of sound deadening under the carpet, and an acoustically laminated windshield and front windows. The work pays off with a low sixty five decibels of noise at seventy mph, four less than the last CX-9 we tested and the same as the Tesla Model X. Our only gripes up front are related to the seats. The driver’s chair doesn’t go low enough and needs more hip support, and the passenger’s seat produces the same complaints while lacking any height adjustment.

As in the CX-9’s brethren, the instrument panel is predominated by round analog dials. But unlike in almost every other Mazda, one of the round gauges is actually a color LCD screen that can display trip-computer information and a compass. On all but the lowest Sport trim level, which gets a seven-inch screen, there’s an eight-inch touchscreen in the middle of the dashboard. It’s a bit too far to touch while driving, so the screen can also be managed by the BMW iDrive–like knob behind the shifter. Navigation and audio controls are logical and effortless to use with either the knob or the touchscreen.

In the 2nd row, there’s ample space for adults, provided they slide the split bench all the way back. However, second-row legroom comes at the expense of third-row space. Unlike some competitors, Mazda doesn’t suggest captain’s chairs in the 2nd row. The split-bench 2nd row folds forward to ease entry into the way back, but the Ford Explorer, Honda Pilot, and Toyota Highlander, with their second-row walk-throughs, make it lighter. The competition also hits the CX-9’s two-person third row. The Mazda’s rearmost row is kid-friendly, but the Highlander’s and the Pilot’s work better for adults, and each can theoretically hold three. There is a 14-cubic-foot cargo hold in the Mazda, and folding its third row increases that to thirty eight cubic feet. With both rows folded plane, there’s seventy one cubic feet of space, but the Mazda is on the smaller end of the three-row spectrum. Also, you’ll be doing the folding yourself as power-folding seats aren’t available.

And while the rest of the class offers V-6 power, the CX-9 comes with only a four-cylinder turbo. The engine displaces Two.Five liters and makes two hundred fifty horsepower on ninety three octane and two hundred twenty seven horses on 87, says Mazda. On California’s 91-octane fuel, it makes something in inbetween and can run zero to sixty mph in 7.Two seconds. It passes through the quarter-mile in 15.7 seconds at eighty eight mph. The Pilot and Explorer Sport are both quicker to sixty by about a 2nd; the V-6–powered Highlander is about a tenth slower than the CX-9.

Mazda tells us that it studied how buyers use their three-row-mobiles and found that they almost never rev the engine past four thousand five hundred rpm. The power just above idle is more impor­tant. To provide punch where owners want it, the CX-9’s engine makes three hundred ten pound-feet of torque at two thousand rpm, regardless of octane. That torque translates into a nice rock-hard shove from low revs, and it gives the big CX-9 the capability to squirt into slots in traffic. The throttle response is excellent, even from idle, with boost that builds instantly, likely due to the clever Dynamic Pressure Turbo system. But if you drive the CX-9 as we do—part throttle and no redlining makes Jack a abate boy—the power tapers off noticeably. It doesn’t fall away with the abruptness of a turbo-diesel, but there’s a big drop in enthusiasm beyond four thousand five hundred rpm.

According to Mazda, using a four instead of the old Trio.7-liter V-6 saves one hundred thirty two pounds. Front-drive models weigh 4054, a loss of two hundred sixty nine pounds. We measured four thousand three hundred thirty six for our all-wheel-drive CX-9 Signature, two hundred twenty three pounds less than the old CX-9. It’s inbetween two hundred and seven hundred pounds lighter than most of the three-row class, but the Pilot, Hyundai Santa Fe, and Kia Sorento are a few pounds lighter still.

The downsized engine and diminished mass help boost EPA fuel economy from last year’s sixteen city/22 highway mpg (AWD) and 17/24 (front drive) to 21/27 and 22/28, respectively. Those numbers are good enough to take the CX-9 to the head of the class; the GMC Acadia, with the freshly available naturally aspirated 194-hp Two.5-liter four and all-wheel drive, comes close at 21/25 mpg.

To boost real-world fuel economy, Mazda fits a cooling system to the exhaust-gas-recirculation system that helps reduce combustion temperatures. When on boost, a turbo causes the engine to consume more fuel, not only to match the extra air injecting the engine but also as a little extra to help keep the combustion chamber cool. By cooling the harass that recirculates back to the engine, combustion temperatures are thus diminished without having to rely on a rich combination.

Mazda tells us that while the system’s benefits don’t demonstrate up on the light-throttle, almost-no-boost EPA test, there will be a benefit for real drivers. We uncommonly drive like real people, tho’, so we managed only nineteen mpg over almost five hundred miles.

All drivers will find the CX-9 is as sleek and charismatic as it shows up. The electrically assisted power steering is light and accurate. Like all Mazdas, the CX-9 is effortless to place on the road. With 20-inch wheels, the suspension tuning is on the rock-hard side of supple. Thrust the CX-9 hard, and it never feels as ponderous as the minivan-like Highlander and Pilot. Switch the six-speed automatic into sport mode, and the CX-9 almost starts to think it’s an MX-5 Cup car. The gearbox snaps through downshifts under braking and gears are held longer.

We measured 0.80 g of grip in skidpad testing despite an overactive stability-control system. Even on public roads, we found the stability control a bit too intrusive. It can’t be shut off, and if you press hard into a corner, it’ll pin down on the brakes. Should you need to catapult on the brakes, stopping from seventy mph takes one hundred seventy nine feet, a typical distance for the class.

For the safety conscious, Mazda offers a utter cache of driver-­assistance systems, including blind-spot monitoring, radar-based cruise control, and lane-departure warning and correction. Only Grand Touring and Signature models get the radar-based active cruise control that makes the collision-warning system possible. If the vehicle senses an imminent collision, it will insert on the brakes. It’s too sensitive. Three times in as many days, the system thought an accident was developing when there was no danger. It astonished us by ramming on the brakes twice while step by step slowing behind a row of cars at a crimson light, and once again when switching lanes to dart around a slower car. The system can be shut off and its sensitivity can be adjusted (both times when the system intervened, it was set to its least sensitive setting), but it automatically reactivates every time the engine starts. The overactive system is totally inconsistent with Mazda’s driver-centric gospel.

Annoying collision-warning system aside, the fresh CX-9 is the most engaging vehicle in its class, proving that practicality doesn’t always mean providing up treating and style. What it lacks in third-row space, it makes up for in refinement and dynamics. A base CX-9 starts at $32,420; add all-wheel drive for $1800. Even fully loaded to $45,215 as our test car was, the CX-9 remains a strong value in a world where a Pilot Elite costs $47,470 and an Explorer Platinum costs $53,915. It might not have the acceleration or third-row space of those two, but what’s more practical than saving money?

Mazda CX-9 Reviews – Mazda CX-9 Price, Photos, and Specs – Car and Driver

Mazda CX-9

Car and Driver

Tested: two thousand sixteen Mazda CX-9 AWD

2016 Mazda CX-9 AWD

• Jul 2016
• By TONY QUIROGA
• Photography By WEBB BLAND

We talk a big game. After endlessly professing our love for Chevy Corvettes, Porsche Caymans, and Mazda MX-5 Miatas, more often than not, when the time comes to pick a vehicle for a weekend road tour, we choose something practical. Practical is three rows. Practical is all-wheel drive. Practical is quiet. Practical rails well. Practical doesn’t make us look as if we’re suffering a mid-life crisis. And practical gets driven. In our long-term fleet, the vehicles that rack up 40,000 miles the quickest are always minivans and three-row SUVs. As much as we love driving them, sports cars can’t accommodate the family or carry much stuff.

So the Mazda CX-9 is practical, but it’s not all Costco and Home Depot and road trips to Disney. The CX-9 looks like something Karl Lagerfeld would use to run errands on whatever his version of a nice little Saturday might be.

A wholesale redo, the fresh CX-9 lifts the design idioms of Mazda’s own CX-5 but also borrows some styling cues from the Infiniti QX70 (the SUV formerly known as the FX). The big Mazda, especially on its optional 20-inch wheels, looks elegant enough to wear a designer badge. Some of what makes the Mazda show up expensive is actually its restraint. Yes, the large chrome grille juts menacingly forward and has LED lighting inwards it, but Mazda’s designers emerge to have sculpted the clay with mitts when forming the CX-9, rather than hacking at it with swords. Even the Mazda’s paint looks like a budget breaker. Covered in a finely flaked hue called Machine Gray, the CX-9 glows. This SUV has the presence and style to rival Acura’s MDX and Infiniti’s QX60.

It’s the same story inwards. Mazda’s material choices look and feel rich. Many of the plastics are so finely grained and soft to the touch that they emerge to be bovine based. On our top-spec Signature tester, sticker price $45,215, there are open-pore rosewood trim lumps, aluminum accents, and soft brick-colored Nappa leather seats. The gaps are consistently taut, and the trim all lines up with an obsessive attention to detail.

In an effort to bring the CX-9’s noise levels upmarket, Mazda tells us it worked on suppressing the tire roar that plagued the previous CX-9. The replacement has a thicker floorpan, fifty three pounds of sound deadening under the carpet, and an acoustically laminated windshield and front windows. The work pays off with a low sixty five decibels of noise at seventy mph, four less than the last CX-9 we tested and the same as the Tesla Model X. Our only gripes up front are related to the seats. The driver’s chair doesn’t go low enough and needs more hip support, and the passenger’s seat produces the same complaints while lacking any height adjustment.

As in the CX-9’s brethren, the instrument panel is predominated by round analog dials. But unlike in almost every other Mazda, one of the round gauges is actually a color LCD screen that can display trip-computer information and a compass. On all but the lowest Sport trim level, which gets a seven-inch screen, there’s an eight-inch touchscreen in the middle of the dashboard. It’s a bit too far to touch while driving, so the screen can also be managed by the BMW iDrive–like knob behind the shifter. Navigation and audio controls are logical and effortless to use with either the knob or the touchscreen.

In the 2nd row, there’s ample space for adults, provided they slide the split bench all the way back. However, second-row legroom comes at the expense of third-row space. Unlike some competitors, Mazda doesn’t suggest captain’s chairs in the 2nd row. The split-bench 2nd row folds forward to ease entry into the way back, but the Ford Explorer, Honda Pilot, and Toyota Highlander, with their second-row walk-throughs, make it lighter. The competition also hammers the CX-9’s two-person third row. The Mazda’s rearmost row is kid-friendly, but the Highlander’s and the Pilot’s work better for adults, and each can theoretically hold three. There is a 14-cubic-foot cargo hold in the Mazda, and folding its third row increases that to thirty eight cubic feet. With both rows folded vapid, there’s seventy one cubic feet of space, but the Mazda is on the smaller end of the three-row spectrum. Also, you’ll be doing the folding yourself as power-folding seats aren’t available.

And while the rest of the class offers V-6 power, the CX-9 comes with only a four-cylinder turbo. The engine displaces Two.Five liters and makes two hundred fifty horsepower on ninety three octane and two hundred twenty seven horses on 87, says Mazda. On California’s 91-octane fuel, it makes something in inbetween and can run zero to sixty mph in 7.Two seconds. It passes through the quarter-mile in 15.7 seconds at eighty eight mph. The Pilot and Explorer Sport are both quicker to sixty by about a 2nd; the V-6–powered Highlander is about a tenth slower than the CX-9.

Mazda tells us that it studied how buyers use their three-row-mobiles and found that they almost never rev the engine past four thousand five hundred rpm. The power just above idle is more impor­tant. To provide punch where owners want it, the CX-9’s engine makes three hundred ten pound-feet of torque at two thousand rpm, regardless of octane. That torque translates into a nice stiff shove from low revs, and it gives the big CX-9 the capability to squirt into fuckholes in traffic. The throttle response is excellent, even from idle, with boost that builds instantly, likely due to the clever Dynamic Pressure Turbo system. But if you drive the CX-9 as we do—part throttle and no redlining makes Jack a abate boy—the power tapers off noticeably. It doesn’t fall away with the abruptness of a turbo-diesel, but there’s a big drop in enthusiasm beyond four thousand five hundred rpm.

According to Mazda, using a four instead of the old Trio.7-liter V-6 saves one hundred thirty two pounds. Front-drive models weigh 4054, a loss of two hundred sixty nine pounds. We measured four thousand three hundred thirty six for our all-wheel-drive CX-9 Signature, two hundred twenty three pounds less than the old CX-9. It’s inbetween two hundred and seven hundred pounds lighter than most of the three-row class, but the Pilot, Hyundai Santa Fe, and Kia Sorento are a few pounds lighter still.

The downsized engine and diminished mass help boost EPA fuel economy from last year’s sixteen city/22 highway mpg (AWD) and 17/24 (front drive) to 21/27 and 22/28, respectively. Those numbers are good enough to take the CX-9 to the head of the class; the GMC Acadia, with the freshly available naturally aspirated 194-hp Two.5-liter four and all-wheel drive, comes close at 21/25 mpg.

To boost real-world fuel economy, Mazda fits a cooling system to the exhaust-gas-recirculation system that helps reduce combustion temperatures. When on boost, a turbo causes the engine to consume more fuel, not only to match the extra air injecting the engine but also as a little extra to help keep the combustion chamber cool. By cooling the harass that recirculates back to the engine, combustion temperatures are thus diminished without having to rely on a rich combination.

Mazda tells us that while the system’s benefits don’t demonstrate up on the light-throttle, almost-no-boost EPA test, there will be a benefit for real drivers. We uncommonly drive like real people, however, so we managed only nineteen mpg over almost five hundred miles.

All drivers will find the CX-9 is as slick and charismatic as it shows up. The electrically assisted power steering is light and accurate. Like all Mazdas, the CX-9 is effortless to place on the road. With 20-inch wheels, the suspension tuning is on the hard side of supple. Shove the CX-9 hard, and it never feels as ponderous as the minivan-like Highlander and Pilot. Switch the six-speed automatic into sport mode, and the CX-9 almost starts to think it’s an MX-5 Cup car. The gearbox snaps through downshifts under braking and gears are held longer.

We measured 0.80 g of grip in skidpad testing despite an overactive stability-control system. Even on public roads, we found the stability control a bit too intrusive. It can’t be shut off, and if you press hard into a corner, it’ll clip down on the brakes. Should you need to ram on the brakes, stopping from seventy mph takes one hundred seventy nine feet, a typical distance for the class.

For the safety conscious, Mazda offers a total cache of driver-­assistance systems, including blind-spot monitoring, radar-based cruise control, and lane-departure warning and correction. Only Grand Touring and Signature models get the radar-based active cruise control that makes the collision-warning system possible. If the vehicle senses an imminent collision, it will catapult on the brakes. It’s too sensitive. Three times in as many days, the system thought an accident was developing when there was no danger. It astonished us by wedging on the brakes twice while step by step slowing behind a row of cars at a crimson light, and once again when switching lanes to dart around a slower car. The system can be shut off and its sensitivity can be adjusted (both times when the system intervened, it was set to its least sensitive setting), but it automatically reactivates every time the engine starts. The overactive system is fully inconsistent with Mazda’s driver-centric gospel.

Annoying collision-warning system aside, the fresh CX-9 is the most engaging vehicle in its class, proving that practicality doesn’t always mean providing up treating and style. What it lacks in third-row space, it makes up for in refinement and dynamics. A base CX-9 starts at $32,420; add all-wheel drive for $1800. Even fully loaded to $45,215 as our test car was, the CX-9 remains a strong value in a world where a Pilot Elite costs $47,470 and an Explorer Platinum costs $53,915. It might not have the acceleration or third-row space of those two, but what’s more practical than saving money?

Mazda CX-9 Reviews – Mazda CX-9 Price, Photos, and Specs – Car and Driver

Mazda CX-9

Car and Driver

Tested: two thousand sixteen Mazda CX-9 AWD

2016 Mazda CX-9 AWD

• Jul 2016
• By TONY QUIROGA
• Photography By WEBB BLAND

We talk a big game. After endlessly professing our love for Chevy Corvettes, Porsche Caymans, and Mazda MX-5 Miatas, more often than not, when the time comes to pick a vehicle for a weekend road journey, we choose something practical. Practical is three rows. Practical is all-wheel drive. Practical is quiet. Practical rails well. Practical doesn’t make us look as if we’re suffering a mid-life crisis. And practical gets driven. In our long-term fleet, the vehicles that rack up 40,000 miles the quickest are always minivans and three-row SUVs. As much as we love driving them, sports cars can’t accommodate the family or carry much stuff.

So the Mazda CX-9 is practical, but it’s not all Costco and Home Depot and road trips to Disney. The CX-9 looks like something Karl Lagerfeld would use to run errands on whatever his version of a nice little Saturday might be.

A wholesale redo, the fresh CX-9 lifts the design idioms of Mazda’s own CX-5 but also borrows some styling cues from the Infiniti QX70 (the SUV formerly known as the FX). The big Mazda, especially on its optional 20-inch wheels, looks elegant enough to wear a designer badge. Some of what makes the Mazda show up expensive is actually its restraint. Yes, the large chrome grille juts menacingly forward and has LED lighting inwards it, but Mazda’s designers emerge to have sculpted the clay with forearms when forming the CX-9, rather than hacking at it with swords. Even the Mazda’s paint looks like a budget breaker. Covered in a finely flaked hue called Machine Gray, the CX-9 glows. This SUV has the presence and style to rival Acura’s MDX and Infiniti’s QX60.

It’s the same story inwards. Mazda’s material choices look and feel rich. Many of the plastics are so finely grained and soft to the touch that they emerge to be bovine based. On our top-spec Signature tester, sticker price $45,215, there are open-pore rosewood trim lumps, aluminum accents, and soft brick-colored Nappa leather seats. The gaps are consistently taut, and the trim all lines up with an obsessive attention to detail.

In an effort to bring the CX-9’s noise levels upmarket, Mazda tells us it worked on suppressing the tire roar that plagued the previous CX-9. The replacement has a thicker floorpan, fifty three pounds of sound deadening under the carpet, and an acoustically laminated windshield and front windows. The work pays off with a low sixty five decibels of noise at seventy mph, four less than the last CX-9 we tested and the same as the Tesla Model X. Our only gripes up front are related to the seats. The driver’s chair doesn’t go low enough and needs more hip support, and the passenger’s seat produces the same complaints while lacking any height adjustment.

As in the CX-9’s brethren, the instrument panel is predominated by round analog dials. But unlike in almost every other Mazda, one of the round gauges is actually a color LCD screen that can display trip-computer information and a compass. On all but the lowest Sport trim level, which gets a seven-inch screen, there’s an eight-inch touchscreen in the middle of the dashboard. It’s a bit too far to touch while driving, so the screen can also be managed by the BMW iDrive–like knob behind the shifter. Navigation and audio controls are logical and effortless to use with either the knob or the touchscreen.

In the 2nd row, there’s ample space for adults, provided they slide the split bench all the way back. However, second-row legroom comes at the expense of third-row space. Unlike some competitors, Mazda doesn’t suggest captain’s chairs in the 2nd row. The split-bench 2nd row folds forward to ease entry into the way back, but the Ford Explorer, Honda Pilot, and Toyota Highlander, with their second-row walk-throughs, make it lighter. The competition also hits the CX-9’s two-person third row. The Mazda’s rearmost row is kid-friendly, but the Highlander’s and the Pilot’s work better for adults, and each can theoretically hold three. There is a 14-cubic-foot cargo hold in the Mazda, and folding its third row increases that to thirty eight cubic feet. With both rows folded vapid, there’s seventy one cubic feet of space, but the Mazda is on the smaller end of the three-row spectrum. Also, you’ll be doing the folding yourself as power-folding seats aren’t available.

And while the rest of the class offers V-6 power, the CX-9 comes with only a four-cylinder turbo. The engine displaces Two.Five liters and makes two hundred fifty horsepower on ninety three octane and two hundred twenty seven horses on 87, says Mazda. On California’s 91-octane fuel, it makes something in inbetween and can run zero to sixty mph in 7.Two seconds. It passes through the quarter-mile in 15.7 seconds at eighty eight mph. The Pilot and Explorer Sport are both quicker to sixty by about a 2nd; the V-6–powered Highlander is about a tenth slower than the CX-9.

Mazda tells us that it studied how buyers use their three-row-mobiles and found that they almost never rev the engine past four thousand five hundred rpm. The power just above idle is more impor­tant. To provide punch where owners want it, the CX-9’s engine makes three hundred ten pound-feet of torque at two thousand rpm, regardless of octane. That torque translates into a nice rigid shove from low revs, and it gives the big CX-9 the capability to squirt into slots in traffic. The throttle response is excellent, even from idle, with boost that builds instantly, likely due to the clever Dynamic Pressure Turbo system. But if you drive the CX-9 as we do—part throttle and no redlining makes Jack a abate boy—the power tapers off noticeably. It doesn’t fall away with the abruptness of a turbo-diesel, but there’s a big drop in enthusiasm beyond four thousand five hundred rpm.

According to Mazda, using a four instead of the old Trio.7-liter V-6 saves one hundred thirty two pounds. Front-drive models weigh 4054, a loss of two hundred sixty nine pounds. We measured four thousand three hundred thirty six for our all-wheel-drive CX-9 Signature, two hundred twenty three pounds less than the old CX-9. It’s inbetween two hundred and seven hundred pounds lighter than most of the three-row class, but the Pilot, Hyundai Santa Fe, and Kia Sorento are a few pounds lighter still.

The downsized engine and diminished mass help boost EPA fuel economy from last year’s sixteen city/22 highway mpg (AWD) and 17/24 (front drive) to 21/27 and 22/28, respectively. Those numbers are good enough to take the CX-9 to the head of the class; the GMC Acadia, with the freshly available naturally aspirated 194-hp Two.5-liter four and all-wheel drive, comes close at 21/25 mpg.

To boost real-world fuel economy, Mazda fits a cooling system to the exhaust-gas-recirculation system that helps reduce combustion temperatures. When on boost, a turbo causes the engine to consume more fuel, not only to match the extra air injecting the engine but also as a little extra to help keep the combustion chamber cool. By cooling the harass that recirculates back to the engine, combustion temperatures are thus diminished without having to rely on a rich combination.

Mazda tells us that while the system’s benefits don’t demonstrate up on the light-throttle, almost-no-boost EPA test, there will be a benefit for real drivers. We uncommonly drive like real people, however, so we managed only nineteen mpg over almost five hundred miles.

All drivers will find the CX-9 is as sleek and charismatic as it emerges. The electrically assisted power steering is light and accurate. Like all Mazdas, the CX-9 is effortless to place on the road. With 20-inch wheels, the suspension tuning is on the rock-hard side of supple. Thrust the CX-9 hard, and it never feels as ponderous as the minivan-like Highlander and Pilot. Switch the six-speed automatic into sport mode, and the CX-9 almost starts to think it’s an MX-5 Cup car. The gearbox snaps through downshifts under braking and gears are held longer.

We measured 0.80 g of grip in skidpad testing despite an overactive stability-control system. Even on public roads, we found the stability control a bit too intrusive. It can’t be shut off, and if you press hard into a corner, it’ll tweak down on the brakes. Should you need to wedge on the brakes, stopping from seventy mph takes one hundred seventy nine feet, a typical distance for the class.

For the safety conscious, Mazda offers a total cache of driver-­assistance systems, including blind-spot monitoring, radar-based cruise control, and lane-departure warning and correction. Only Grand Touring and Signature models get the radar-based active cruise control that makes the collision-warning system possible. If the vehicle senses an imminent collision, it will jam on the brakes. It’s too sensitive. Three times in as many days, the system thought an accident was developing when there was no danger. It astonished us by wedging on the brakes twice while little by little slowing behind a row of cars at a crimson light, and once again when switching lanes to dart around a slower car. The system can be shut off and its sensitivity can be adjusted (both times when the system intervened, it was set to its least sensitive setting), but it automatically reactivates every time the engine starts. The overactive system is totally inconsistent with Mazda’s driver-centric gospel.

Annoying collision-warning system aside, the fresh CX-9 is the most engaging vehicle in its class, proving that practicality doesn’t always mean providing up treating and style. What it lacks in third-row space, it makes up for in refinement and dynamics. A base CX-9 starts at $32,420; add all-wheel drive for $1800. Even fully loaded to $45,215 as our test car was, the CX-9 remains a strong value in a world where a Pilot Elite costs $47,470 and an Explorer Platinum costs $53,915. It might not have the acceleration or third-row space of those two, but what’s more practical than saving money?

Mazda CX-9 Reviews – Mazda CX-9 Price, Photos, and Specs – Car and Driver

Mazda CX-9

Car and Driver

Tested: two thousand sixteen Mazda CX-9 AWD

2016 Mazda CX-9 AWD

• Jul 2016
• By TONY QUIROGA
• Photography By WEBB BLAND

We talk a big game. After endlessly professing our love for Chevy Corvettes, Porsche Caymans, and Mazda MX-5 Miatas, more often than not, when the time comes to pick a vehicle for a weekend road tour, we choose something practical. Practical is three rows. Practical is all-wheel drive. Practical is quiet. Practical rails well. Practical doesn’t make us look as if we’re suffering a mid-life crisis. And practical gets driven. In our long-term fleet, the vehicles that rack up 40,000 miles the quickest are always minivans and three-row SUVs. As much as we love driving them, sports cars can’t accommodate the family or carry much stuff.

So the Mazda CX-9 is practical, but it’s not all Costco and Home Depot and road trips to Disney. The CX-9 looks like something Karl Lagerfeld would use to run errands on whatever his version of a nice little Saturday might be.

A wholesale redo, the fresh CX-9 lifts the design idioms of Mazda’s own CX-5 but also borrows some styling cues from the Infiniti QX70 (the SUV formerly known as the FX). The big Mazda, especially on its optional 20-inch wheels, looks elegant enough to wear a designer badge. Some of what makes the Mazda emerge expensive is actually its restraint. Yes, the large chrome grille juts menacingly forward and has LED lighting inwards it, but Mazda’s designers emerge to have sculpted the clay with mitts when forming the CX-9, rather than hacking at it with swords. Even the Mazda’s paint looks like a budget breaker. Covered in a finely flaked hue called Machine Gray, the CX-9 glows. This SUV has the presence and style to rival Acura’s MDX and Infiniti’s QX60.

It’s the same story inwards. Mazda’s material choices look and feel rich. Many of the plastics are so finely grained and soft to the touch that they show up to be bovine based. On our top-spec Signature tester, sticker price $45,215, there are open-pore rosewood trim chunks, aluminum accents, and soft brick-colored Nappa leather seats. The gaps are consistently taut, and the trim all lines up with an obsessive attention to detail.

In an effort to bring the CX-9’s noise levels upmarket, Mazda tells us it worked on suppressing the tire roar that plagued the previous CX-9. The replacement has a thicker floorpan, fifty three pounds of sound deadening under the carpet, and an acoustically laminated windshield and front windows. The work pays off with a low sixty five decibels of noise at seventy mph, four less than the last CX-9 we tested and the same as the Tesla Model X. Our only gripes up front are related to the seats. The driver’s chair doesn’t go low enough and needs more hip support, and the passenger’s seat produces the same complaints while lacking any height adjustment.

As in the CX-9’s brethren, the instrument panel is predominated by round analog dials. But unlike in almost every other Mazda, one of the round gauges is actually a color LCD screen that can display trip-computer information and a compass. On all but the lowest Sport trim level, which gets a seven-inch screen, there’s an eight-inch touchscreen in the middle of the dashboard. It’s a bit too far to touch while driving, so the screen can also be managed by the BMW iDrive–like knob behind the shifter. Navigation and audio controls are logical and effortless to use with either the knob or the touchscreen.

In the 2nd row, there’s ample space for adults, provided they slide the split bench all the way back. However, second-row legroom comes at the expense of third-row space. Unlike some competitors, Mazda doesn’t suggest captain’s chairs in the 2nd row. The split-bench 2nd row folds forward to ease entry into the way back, but the Ford Explorer, Honda Pilot, and Toyota Highlander, with their second-row walk-throughs, make it lighter. The competition also hits the CX-9’s two-person third row. The Mazda’s rearmost row is kid-friendly, but the Highlander’s and the Pilot’s work better for adults, and each can theoretically hold three. There is a 14-cubic-foot cargo hold in the Mazda, and folding its third row increases that to thirty eight cubic feet. With both rows folded plane, there’s seventy one cubic feet of space, but the Mazda is on the smaller end of the three-row spectrum. Also, you’ll be doing the folding yourself as power-folding seats aren’t available.

And while the rest of the class offers V-6 power, the CX-9 comes with only a four-cylinder turbo. The engine displaces Two.Five liters and makes two hundred fifty horsepower on ninety three octane and two hundred twenty seven horses on 87, says Mazda. On California’s 91-octane fuel, it makes something in inbetween and can run zero to sixty mph in 7.Two seconds. It passes through the quarter-mile in 15.7 seconds at eighty eight mph. The Pilot and Explorer Sport are both quicker to sixty by about a 2nd; the V-6–powered Highlander is about a tenth slower than the CX-9.

Mazda tells us that it studied how buyers use their three-row-mobiles and found that they almost never rev the engine past four thousand five hundred rpm. The power just above idle is more impor­tant. To provide punch where owners want it, the CX-9’s engine makes three hundred ten pound-feet of torque at two thousand rpm, regardless of octane. That torque translates into a nice stiff shove from low revs, and it gives the big CX-9 the capability to squirt into crevices in traffic. The throttle response is excellent, even from idle, with boost that builds instantly, likely due to the clever Dynamic Pressure Turbo system. But if you drive the CX-9 as we do—part throttle and no redlining makes Jack a abate boy—the power tapers off noticeably. It doesn’t fall away with the abruptness of a turbo-diesel, but there’s a big drop in enthusiasm beyond four thousand five hundred rpm.

According to Mazda, using a four instead of the old Trio.7-liter V-6 saves one hundred thirty two pounds. Front-drive models weigh 4054, a loss of two hundred sixty nine pounds. We measured four thousand three hundred thirty six for our all-wheel-drive CX-9 Signature, two hundred twenty three pounds less than the old CX-9. It’s inbetween two hundred and seven hundred pounds lighter than most of the three-row class, but the Pilot, Hyundai Santa Fe, and Kia Sorento are a few pounds lighter still.

The downsized engine and diminished mass help boost EPA fuel economy from last year’s sixteen city/22 highway mpg (AWD) and 17/24 (front drive) to 21/27 and 22/28, respectively. Those numbers are good enough to take the CX-9 to the head of the class; the GMC Acadia, with the freshly available naturally aspirated 194-hp Two.5-liter four and all-wheel drive, comes close at 21/25 mpg.

To boost real-world fuel economy, Mazda fits a cooling system to the exhaust-gas-recirculation system that helps reduce combustion temperatures. When on boost, a turbo causes the engine to consume more fuel, not only to match the extra air coming in the engine but also as a little extra to help keep the combustion chamber cool. By cooling the harass that recirculates back to the engine, combustion temperatures are thus diminished without having to rely on a rich combination.

Mazda tells us that while the system’s benefits don’t demonstrate up on the light-throttle, almost-no-boost EPA test, there will be a benefit for real drivers. We infrequently drive like real people, however, so we managed only nineteen mpg over almost five hundred miles.

All drivers will find the CX-9 is as slick and charismatic as it emerges. The electrically assisted power steering is light and accurate. Like all Mazdas, the CX-9 is effortless to place on the road. With 20-inch wheels, the suspension tuning is on the stiff side of supple. Shove the CX-9 hard, and it never feels as ponderous as the minivan-like Highlander and Pilot. Switch the six-speed automatic into sport mode, and the CX-9 almost starts to think it’s an MX-5 Cup car. The gearbox snaps through downshifts under braking and gears are held longer.

We measured 0.80 g of grip in skidpad testing despite an overactive stability-control system. Even on public roads, we found the stability control a bit too intrusive. It can’t be shut off, and if you press hard into a corner, it’ll tweak down on the brakes. Should you need to wedge on the brakes, stopping from seventy mph takes one hundred seventy nine feet, a typical distance for the class.

For the safety conscious, Mazda offers a total cache of driver-­assistance systems, including blind-spot monitoring, radar-based cruise control, and lane-departure warning and correction. Only Grand Touring and Signature models get the radar-based active cruise control that makes the collision-warning system possible. If the vehicle senses an imminent collision, it will jam on the brakes. It’s too sensitive. Three times in as many days, the system thought an accident was developing when there was no danger. It astonished us by tucking on the brakes twice while little by little slowing behind a row of cars at a crimson light, and once again when switching lanes to dart around a slower car. The system can be shut off and its sensitivity can be adjusted (both times when the system intervened, it was set to its least sensitive setting), but it automatically reactivates every time the engine starts. The overactive system is totally inconsistent with Mazda’s driver-centric gospel.

Annoying collision-warning system aside, the fresh CX-9 is the most engaging vehicle in its class, proving that practicality doesn’t always mean providing up treating and style. What it lacks in third-row space, it makes up for in refinement and dynamics. A base CX-9 starts at $32,420; add all-wheel drive for $1800. Even fully loaded to $45,215 as our test car was, the CX-9 remains a strong value in a world where a Pilot Elite costs $47,470 and an Explorer Platinum costs $53,915. It might not have the acceleration or third-row space of those two, but what’s more practical than saving money?

Mazda CX-9 Reviews – Mazda CX-9 Price, Photos, and Specs – Car and Driver

Mazda CX-9

Car and Driver

Tested: two thousand sixteen Mazda CX-9 AWD

2016 Mazda CX-9 AWD

• Jul 2016
• By TONY QUIROGA
• Photography By WEBB BLAND

We talk a big game. After endlessly professing our love for Chevy Corvettes, Porsche Caymans, and Mazda MX-5 Miatas, more often than not, when the time comes to pick a vehicle for a weekend road journey, we choose something practical. Practical is three rows. Practical is all-wheel drive. Practical is quiet. Practical rails well. Practical doesn’t make us look as if we’re suffering a mid-life crisis. And practical gets driven. In our long-term fleet, the vehicles that rack up 40,000 miles the quickest are always minivans and three-row SUVs. As much as we love driving them, sports cars can’t accommodate the family or carry much stuff.

So the Mazda CX-9 is practical, but it’s not all Costco and Home Depot and road trips to Disney. The CX-9 looks like something Karl Lagerfeld would use to run errands on whatever his version of a nice little Saturday might be.

A wholesale redo, the fresh CX-9 lifts the design idioms of Mazda’s own CX-5 but also borrows some styling cues from the Infiniti QX70 (the SUV formerly known as the FX). The big Mazda, especially on its optional 20-inch wheels, looks elegant enough to wear a designer badge. Some of what makes the Mazda show up expensive is actually its restraint. Yes, the large chrome grille juts menacingly forward and has LED lighting inwards it, but Mazda’s designers emerge to have sculpted the clay with palms when forming the CX-9, rather than hacking at it with swords. Even the Mazda’s paint looks like a budget breaker. Covered in a finely flaked hue called Machine Gray, the CX-9 glows. This SUV has the presence and style to rival Acura’s MDX and Infiniti’s QX60.

It’s the same story inwards. Mazda’s material choices look and feel rich. Many of the plastics are so finely grained and soft to the touch that they emerge to be bovine based. On our top-spec Signature tester, sticker price $45,215, there are open-pore rosewood trim chunks, aluminum accents, and soft brick-colored Nappa leather seats. The gaps are consistently taut, and the trim all lines up with an obsessive attention to detail.

In an effort to bring the CX-9’s noise levels upmarket, Mazda tells us it worked on suppressing the tire roar that plagued the previous CX-9. The replacement has a thicker floorpan, fifty three pounds of sound deadening under the carpet, and an acoustically laminated windshield and front windows. The work pays off with a low sixty five decibels of noise at seventy mph, four less than the last CX-9 we tested and the same as the Tesla Model X. Our only gripes up front are related to the seats. The driver’s chair doesn’t go low enough and needs more hip support, and the passenger’s seat produces the same complaints while lacking any height adjustment.

As in the CX-9’s brethren, the instrument panel is predominated by round analog dials. But unlike in almost every other Mazda, one of the round gauges is actually a color LCD screen that can display trip-computer information and a compass. On all but the lowest Sport trim level, which gets a seven-inch screen, there’s an eight-inch touchscreen in the middle of the dashboard. It’s a bit too far to touch while driving, so the screen can also be managed by the BMW iDrive–like knob behind the shifter. Navigation and audio controls are logical and effortless to use with either the knob or the touchscreen.

In the 2nd row, there’s ample space for adults, provided they slide the split bench all the way back. However, second-row legroom comes at the expense of third-row space. Unlike some competitors, Mazda doesn’t suggest captain’s chairs in the 2nd row. The split-bench 2nd row folds forward to ease entry into the way back, but the Ford Explorer, Honda Pilot, and Toyota Highlander, with their second-row walk-throughs, make it lighter. The competition also hits the CX-9’s two-person third row. The Mazda’s rearmost row is kid-friendly, but the Highlander’s and the Pilot’s work better for adults, and each can theoretically hold three. There is a 14-cubic-foot cargo hold in the Mazda, and folding its third row increases that to thirty eight cubic feet. With both rows folded vapid, there’s seventy one cubic feet of space, but the Mazda is on the smaller end of the three-row spectrum. Also, you’ll be doing the folding yourself as power-folding seats aren’t available.

And while the rest of the class offers V-6 power, the CX-9 comes with only a four-cylinder turbo. The engine displaces Two.Five liters and makes two hundred fifty horsepower on ninety three octane and two hundred twenty seven horses on 87, says Mazda. On California’s 91-octane fuel, it makes something in inbetween and can run zero to sixty mph in 7.Two seconds. It passes through the quarter-mile in 15.7 seconds at eighty eight mph. The Pilot and Explorer Sport are both quicker to sixty by about a 2nd; the V-6–powered Highlander is about a tenth slower than the CX-9.

Mazda tells us that it studied how buyers use their three-row-mobiles and found that they almost never rev the engine past four thousand five hundred rpm. The power just above idle is more impor­tant. To provide punch where owners want it, the CX-9’s engine makes three hundred ten pound-feet of torque at two thousand rpm, regardless of octane. That torque translates into a nice rock-hard shove from low revs, and it gives the big CX-9 the capability to squirt into crevices in traffic. The throttle response is excellent, even from idle, with boost that builds instantly, likely due to the clever Dynamic Pressure Turbo system. But if you drive the CX-9 as we do—part throttle and no redlining makes Jack a abate boy—the power tapers off noticeably. It doesn’t fall away with the abruptness of a turbo-diesel, but there’s a big drop in enthusiasm beyond four thousand five hundred rpm.

According to Mazda, using a four instead of the old Trio.7-liter V-6 saves one hundred thirty two pounds. Front-drive models weigh 4054, a loss of two hundred sixty nine pounds. We measured four thousand three hundred thirty six for our all-wheel-drive CX-9 Signature, two hundred twenty three pounds less than the old CX-9. It’s inbetween two hundred and seven hundred pounds lighter than most of the three-row class, but the Pilot, Hyundai Santa Fe, and Kia Sorento are a few pounds lighter still.

The downsized engine and diminished mass help boost EPA fuel economy from last year’s sixteen city/22 highway mpg (AWD) and 17/24 (front drive) to 21/27 and 22/28, respectively. Those numbers are good enough to take the CX-9 to the head of the class; the GMC Acadia, with the freshly available naturally aspirated 194-hp Two.5-liter four and all-wheel drive, comes close at 21/25 mpg.

To boost real-world fuel economy, Mazda fits a cooling system to the exhaust-gas-recirculation system that helps reduce combustion temperatures. When on boost, a turbo causes the engine to consume more fuel, not only to match the extra air coming in the engine but also as a little extra to help keep the combustion chamber cool. By cooling the harass that recirculates back to the engine, combustion temperatures are thus diminished without having to rely on a rich combination.

Mazda tells us that while the system’s benefits don’t demonstrate up on the light-throttle, almost-no-boost EPA test, there will be a benefit for real drivers. We uncommonly drive like real people, tho’, so we managed only nineteen mpg over almost five hundred miles.

All drivers will find the CX-9 is as sleek and charismatic as it emerges. The electrically assisted power steering is light and accurate. Like all Mazdas, the CX-9 is effortless to place on the road. With 20-inch wheels, the suspension tuning is on the hard side of supple. Thrust the CX-9 hard, and it never feels as ponderous as the minivan-like Highlander and Pilot. Switch the six-speed automatic into sport mode, and the CX-9 almost starts to think it’s an MX-5 Cup car. The gearbox snaps through downshifts under braking and gears are held longer.

We measured 0.80 g of grip in skidpad testing despite an overactive stability-control system. Even on public roads, we found the stability control a bit too intrusive. It can’t be shut off, and if you press hard into a corner, it’ll tweak down on the brakes. Should you need to tuck on the brakes, stopping from seventy mph takes one hundred seventy nine feet, a typical distance for the class.

For the safety conscious, Mazda offers a total cache of driver-­assistance systems, including blind-spot monitoring, radar-based cruise control, and lane-departure warning and correction. Only Grand Touring and Signature models get the radar-based active cruise control that makes the collision-warning system possible. If the vehicle senses an imminent collision, it will plunge on the brakes. It’s too sensitive. Three times in as many days, the system thought an accident was developing when there was no danger. It astonished us by stuffing on the brakes twice while little by little slowing behind a row of cars at a crimson light, and once again when switching lanes to dart around a slower car. The system can be shut off and its sensitivity can be adjusted (both times when the system intervened, it was set to its least sensitive setting), but it automatically reactivates every time the engine starts. The overactive system is totally inconsistent with Mazda’s driver-centric gospel.

Annoying collision-warning system aside, the fresh CX-9 is the most engaging vehicle in its class, proving that practicality doesn’t always mean providing up treating and style. What it lacks in third-row space, it makes up for in refinement and dynamics. A base CX-9 starts at $32,420; add all-wheel drive for $1800. Even fully loaded to $45,215 as our test car was, the CX-9 remains a strong value in a world where a Pilot Elite costs $47,470 and an Explorer Platinum costs $53,915. It might not have the acceleration or third-row space of those two, but what’s more practical than saving money?

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