2010 Mazda CX-9
Mazda CX-9
If you keep up with the print mags, it would be easy to think that every journalist, PR flack and blogger loves Mazda’s CX-9.
From afar, the car’s 20-inch wheels and narrow greenhouse give the impression of a smaller, sportier vehicle. Mazda dug deep into its bag of sports car styling to make the 16.5-foot-long CX-9 look svelte. As on the smaller CX-7, the CX-9′s windshield is low and long, more like an Italian supercar than a suburban soccer mom’s ride.
Inside the monstrous Mazda, it’s easy to imagine the company’s engineers studying hundreds of photos of luxury-car interiors, picking the best woodgrain trim from one and seat design and instrument layout from another. The cream-colored (friends call it “Sand”) leather seats are contrasted nicely by dark gray inserts. Center stage on the CX-9′s dashboard is the entertainment system, just what every couch needs for comfort completion.
While Mazda used soft, buttery leather in the interior of the smaller CX-7, for the CX-9 it instead went with leather that almost exactly imitates the feel of high-grade vinyl.
Possibly the most valuable bit of electronics this Mazda sported was its $200 blind spot monitoring system. Signal a lane change with the icon lit, and the car beeps to get your attention.
Next on our list of high-tech annoyances for the CX-9 is its standard Bluetooth system. The car then gets confused and calls Bangladesh instead.
The worst, though, was the CX-9′s navigation system. The CX-9, however, refused to admit that the street on which it was parked exists. Out comes the owner’s manual, which means the car has failed at intuitiveness. With the high-tech, high-dollar, low intelligence nav system informed of its location and destination, two routes were generated. About 12 miles outside Atlanta, the CX-9 wanted us to exit onto surface streets. We’ll just fiddle with the CX-9′s route a bit and straighten things out, right? While the CX-9 is in motion, no one, not even the passenger, can alter a route on the navigation system. Right? We like safety, but we don’t like overbearing Dynamic Stability Control systems. Or is it the CX-9′s Roll Stability Control? Or maybe its Traction Control System? For those who like to have a little fun even when forced into an SUV, we recommend the smaller CX-7.
A 4,300-pound SUV is more likely to be bought by someone looking for minivan alternatives than wannabe race car drivers.
Some three-row SUVs sacrifice cargo space for that additional seating, but even with all of its seats ready for use, the CX-9 retains a good bit of its rear hauling space and rear-seat passengers even have comfortable leg room. Our average over 380 miles was only 14 mpg.
For them, the CX-9 might indeed be “about perfect.”
