CAR GAZING
Mazda SUV has spirit of a Miata
CX-7 feels light and fun, but may be too sporty for some
By Derek Price
The best thing about Mazda's CX-7 is that it drives like a sports car.
This five-passenger, crossover SUV seems to have inherited the spirit of the two-seat Mazda Miata, with a lightweight, tossable feeling that makes you want to fling it into corners and test how well the tires stick.
But it also has a major downside: It drives like a sports car.
Yes, the CX-7's greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. Everyone thinks about Miata-like, telepathic handling when they're at the racetrack for a weekend, but the rest of the time – when we're driving to work or taking kids to school – we're reminded of how annoying sports cars can be.
Pure sports cars are bumpy. They're noisy. They make your back feel like it's being beaten with canoe oars and have interiors that feel like squeezing through a birth canal, only with less elbow room. That's just part of the charm.
It's also why you don't see MGBs and Alfa Romeo Spiders in the carpool lane.
What Mazda is trying to do with the CX-7 is take the best aspects of a sports car – the taut suspension and thrilling spirit – and somehow inject them into a much larger, more practical vehicle. And for the most part, Mazda has succeeded.
The CX-7 is, indeed, a blast in corners. Its weight is so equally balanced, its suspension so tight and precise, that it has a certain eagerness that's almost impossible to find in SUVs. Heck, it's even rare in "sporty" sedans.
Part of this playful personality comes from the engine bay, which conceals a turbocharged 2.3-liter four-cylinder engine that makes 244 horsepower. It's the kind of free-revving, zippy engine you'd expect in a little sports car, but with the added oomph of a turbo.
Turbo lag is definitely noticeable. If you stab the throttle when exiting a corner, there's a brief but annoying pause before the turbo power whooshes in, making it a little less responsive than you'd want. But when the power rush comes, it's exciting.
It also looks, to a certain extent, like a sports car. The front end is clearly influenced by Mazda's RX-8 four-door coupe, and the back has a sexy taper. This cool style comes at the expense of rear-seat comfort, though, where you'll find less knee and head room than in competitive SUVs.
It starts under $24,000 and tops out around $35,000 if you select every single option. Every version comes with the same great engine and six-speed automatic transmission, but you can pick whether you want the power routed to just the front wheels or all four.
The only question is whether you really want to live with the sports-car-like personality. For people like me – those of us who worship at Our Lady of Precise Handling – it's the best small SUV on the market.
For others, it may just be too bumpy.
(Derek Price is a newspaper editor and freelance writer living in Texas.)
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