I’m driving down the freeway in a compact SUV from a mainstream automaker. So it’s not a luxurious automobile, but it surely has heated and ventilated seats, a heated steering wheel, leather-based upholstery, a panoramic sunroof, and headlights that modify their brightness to keep away from blinding oncoming visitors.
Mainstream vehicles in 2025 can really feel near the luxurious vehicles of, properly, most likely the final time you went automobile buying.
This one is a 2025 Mazda CX-50and it prices lower than the typical new automobile purchaser paid final month. Nevertheless it looks like extra.
Mazda can, at occasions, appear a little bit like a youngster making an attempt on personalities. We have been fairly comfy with its athlete part just a few years again (you may hear the whispered “Zoom-Zoom” now, can’t you?).
However final 12 months, the corporate promised yet one more “model transformation” below the tagline, “Select to be moved.” It led to some combined messages, with adverts for the brand new full-size CX-90 seeming like luxurious automobile adverts and the earliest advertising and marketing for this CX-50 seeming to emphasise off-roading expertise.
Nonetheless, piloting the CX-50 on an East Coast highway journey helped clarify the newest persona shift. That is no Jeep Wrangler rival, however it’s an unusually composed, compact crossover well-suited to a highway journey with just a few luxurious options at a cut price value.
In regards to the Take a look at Mannequin
My tester is the highest trim, Turbo Premium Plus, which provides it a extra highly effective engine than the mannequin’s base choices and a few luxurious options like heated outboard rear seats. The asking value is $45,515, together with $595 for Machine Grey Metallic paint and a $1,420 supply charge.
That’s steep for a compact SUV from a mainstream automaker, but it surely’s lower than the roughly $48,000 value of the typical new automobile final month. You may get a CX-50 within the low-$30,000 vary with among the similar virtues.
Good-looking Seems to be
Mazda’s best-selling mannequin is the CX-5 SUV — a equally sized, equally priced crossover that sits subsequent to the CX-50 within the showroom. We’ve all the time preferred that one for its crisp dealing with and curvy appears to be like, even in an period when SUVs get boxier by the day.
Mazda hasn’t formally stated the CX-50 is the CX-5’s alternative. Initially, the corporate positioned the CX-50 as an out of doors lover’s CX-5, extra rugged and able to get muddy. With a little bit time in the marketplace, it’s change into extra obvious that this automobile is a barely extra refined tackle the compact crossover.
Maybe the CX-5’s appears to be like have lastly grown a bit dated. However I discover the CX-50 refreshing. An extended, flatter hood and extra pronounced fender flares with a little bit of protecting cladding do make it look extra succesful, but it surely hasn’t become a mountain climbing shoe on wheels like lots of its opponents.
Upscale Cabin With a Few Quirks
I gained’t argue that Mazda kits the CX-50 like a luxurious automobile. I’ll argue that, for a mainstream automobile priced properly below luxurious automobile ranges, it’s fairly premium.
The Turbo Premium Plus mannequin that Mazda loans to reviewers has leather-trimmed seats in a gorgeous two-tone sample, with heating and air flow within the entrance and heating on the rear outboard positions.
The audio system is a Bose 12-speaker system, not on par with what you’d discover in a Mercedes-Benz or a Lexus, however for an inexpensive compact crossover, it’s spectacular.
The cabin has just a few quirks that remind you you’re not in an precise luxurious automobile. Mazda persists in utilizing an odd interface for its central display screen. It capabilities as a touchscreen if linked to a telephone by Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. If not, the driving force operates it by a puck controller on the middle console.
I do not know why they don’t decide on a single manner of interacting. The display screen froze on me periodically as I paged out of CarPlay to regulate drive modes or different non-entertainment capabilities.
The driving force’s instrument cluster homes old style gauges, not a display screen. This selection isn’t a lot of a limitation, however some rivals provide you with a digital show in that place so you may configure the data you wish to see in entrance of you.
The CX-50 does, nonetheless, lose the cargo house comparability to many equally priced small SUVs.
Refined Driving Expertise
Mazda might have dropped the “Zoom-Zoom” promoting tagline, however many People nonetheless affiliate the model with spirited driving. The CX-50 can deal with it.
I took the CX-50 on a protracted freeway journey, attractive again roads round Lake Erie, and over muddy grime roads after a number of days of rain.
It stays flatter than most equally priced fashions in a tough nook, and the steering really feel will not be sports-car aggressive, however agency for a crossover. It’s no Miata, however you’d somewhat race this than a Toyota RAV4 or a Honda CR-V. Dealing with is sedan-like, however with the added grip of all-wheel drive (AWD).
When the CX-50 was new, Mazda marketed it as an off-roader. I wouldn’t go that far, however the i-Activ AWD system dealt with mud and gravel with out a lot drama.
Choosing any mannequin with “Turbo” within the title will get you a 2.5-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine making 227 horsepower with common fuel or 256 with 93-octane. In actuality, most consumers could be positive with the cheaper 187-horsepower 4-cylinder within the fashions sans Turbo.
