Mazda CX-80 review

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Mazda's new flagship – a seven-seat SUV – arrives to challenge the likes of the Skoda Kodiaq

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The seven-seat follow up to Mazda’s CX-60 of 2022, the Mazda CX-80 is on the cusp of arrival in the UK. A formal press launch is planned for early 2025, but the company loaned us a pair of very-late-prototype, right-hand drive examples of the car - cars it described as '99-per-cent finished' - to see how they cope with UK motoring.

Other than perhaps under the bonnet, this isn't a particularly unusual family SUV; although Mazda certainly has previous with those. Take the Pathfinder XV-1: a Series 1 Land Rover knock-off, only even more goggle-eyed, especially when painted Kermit green, as many were. In the 1960s, a tiny run of these 4x4s left a dedicated Mazda plant in what was then Burma, having been ordered by various government agencies. Even today some Mazda execs won’t believe the XV-1 really existed unless you show them a physical specimen; with its badges.

If the XV-1 was at least functional, the Parkway 26 was the oddball motor show concept that made production. With a glasshouse to rival that of The Shard, the pretty-ish 26 was a three-tonne, 25-seat minibus hauled along by, of all things, a gutless two-rotor Wankel. To make anything like progress, the thing had to be so remorselessly caned that two 70-litre fuel tanks were needed to assuage its thirst. A good-old reciprocating engine of 1000cc was also called for if you wanted to power the air-con. Talk about a vicious cycle. Just 44 were made.

All of which is to say that, for Mazda, developing a big-capacity diesel engine from scratch as it recently did, and then launching it into Europe amid the continent’s prevailing, puritanical anti-diesel sentiment, is a perfectly normal thing to do. The clever new mild-hybrid 3.3-litre straight six made its debut a year or two ago in the Mazda CX-60. That car was a mid-sized SUV with an interesting interior, quietly engaging handling and conspicuously poor ride quality, in thanks part to an over-damped back axle.

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We rather liked the engine, though: a lightly-stressed, thermally efficient, refined straight six with easy drivability and generous torque, given to work hard very willingly when called to.

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In the new CX-80, just as in the smaller car, it can be had as an alternative to a four-cylinder, petrol-electric PHEV model, which is intended to endear the car to fleets.  This is a seven-seater SUV designed to take on the likes of the Skoda Kodiaq and Hyundai Santa Fe, then, and has come in for some chassis tweaks to make it more refined on the move. Have they worked? Time to find out.

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DESIGN & STYLING

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This is ostensibly a CX-60 stretched by 250mm in the wheelbase. It can be had with a choice of either six- or seven seats - and, depending on trim level, either with an extra centre console between the second-row ‘captains chairs’ - or without one, should you prefer easier ‘walk-through’ access to row three.

Buyers can choose between 3.3-litre, 251bhp turbodiesel power, or 323bhp petrol-electric PHEV; so there's no lower-output, rear-driven, 197bhp diesel offered here, as there is in the smaller car. Both CX-80s come with an eight-speed automatic gearbox, which swaps out its torque converter for an electronically controlled clutch. Electronically controlled four-wheel drive is standard.

This car’s 3120mm wheelbase is huge: longer than that of a Volvo XC90, Kia EV9, BMW X7, or even a Range Rover LWB. So it feels a little unwieldy in car parks and when manoeuvring.
Matt Saunders
Road test editor

To look at, the CX-80's styling follows the -60's lead closely. It's a marginally taller car, but you could still easily confuse an -80 for a -60 from dead-on at the front, the car's wide radiator grille, slightly inset headlights and bumper styling being identical.

Looking further rear, you'll notice the car's particularly lengthy 3120mm wheelbase and it's near five-metre length clearly. It doesn't have the same sculpted bodyside as the CX-60, and inevitably isn't quite as pretty; but remains at least relatively handsome by the standards of these big SUVs.

On the PHEV version, a long-stroke, 2.5-litre atmospheric four-cylinder engine works in tandem with a 173bhp electric motor carried upstream of the gearbox; and charge is drawn from a lithium-ion drive battery of 17.8kWh of total installed capacity, for an electric range of up to 38 miles.

 

INTERIOR

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Mazda CX 80 review 2024 08 dash

The CX-80's six-seater ‘walk-through’ cabin layout could make the car quite appealing to parents of younger kids. It also has longer rear passenger doors than the -60, opening to a wider angle, to try to make it easier to fold yourself into that back row from the kerb. 

The second row chairs slide and tumble forwards; but even after they have, it’s still a squeeze to get behind them for fully grown adults, and space once you’re in isn’t as generous as the biggest seven-seaters. Those sliding, reclining second-row seats do feel more spacious than the CX-60's, of course; for bigger families, though, I suspect a Hyundai Santa Fe offers a roomier third row.

Mazda clearly has ambitions to move a little way into premium-brand territory with the CX-60 and -80. The -80’s upper model grades increase the material appeal of its cabin markedly, the Takumi-grade car particularly with its maple wood trim, white nappa leather and expensive-looking decorative chrome.

Entry-level ‘Exclusive-line’ grade cars like our test car look and feel a little plainer, however. Some of the plastics feel as solid and expensive as Mazda’s usual high standard; others don’t quite. Unlike, say, the smaller Mazda 3, the CX-80’s prevailing quality standard is just a little bit inconsistent.

The cockpit is still well sorted ergnomically, and you still get USB-C ports even for the third-row seats. As ever with Mazda, there’s also plenty of physical switchgear. You can adjust crucial infotaiment and climate controls without having to take your eyes off the road using the physical infotainment rotary controller, with the touch-sensitivity of the touchscreen itself only 'active' when the car is stationary: a smart decision. 

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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Mazda’s unconventional but innovative and efficient 3.3–litre straight-six turbodiesel, and its 2.5-litre, four-cylinder plug-in hybrid petrol, make for quite starkly different ways to power this car. Like the equivalent CX-60, the PHEV narrowly misses the 40-mile electric range necessary to put it into an eight-per-cent company car tax band - but even so, Mazda expects it to account for the majority of UK registrations.

Mazda still isn’t as practised as with PHEV powertrains though, or perhaps as committed to them, as some car-makers - and with this CX-80, that much is fairly clear. This is a less refined car than you may expect it to be: either as a top-of-the-range model, a big SUV with luxurious aspirations, or simply as an electrified passenger car.

The electric motor squeaks and whines away gently when it’s running in EV mode - which it’ll do with decent low-speed performance and drivability, although only for about 30 miles before the battery runs flat (which doesn’t feel very 2024).

Then, when the petrol engine starts, it runs with some apparent coarseness and vibration. Outright performance feels fairly strong. But because that engine’s a bit noisy and needs to rev to make torque - and also because the eight-speed gearbox (which uses a clutch rather than a torque converter) isn’t the smoothest - this isn’t an especially enticing or enjoyable car to drive quickly. Neither is it very economical in 'range-extended' combustion running: think low-30s mpg.

The 3.3-litre diesel option is, however, much better. Its 406lb ft of torque feels almost as accessible as the PHEV's equivalent, and is even more influential in turning the car into something effortless in its delivery style. It's slightly less mechanically refined than an equivalent six-pot from BMW or Mercedes-Benz might be - but it takes to hard work really well, moves the CX-80s bulk really easily, mates better with the car's eight-speed automatic gearbox, and can close in on a real-world 50-mpg in typical UK motorway running.

RIDE & HANDLING

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Mazda has attempted to correct the CX-60’s failings (ever-present brittleness, reactive back axle) by removing the rear anti-roll bar, along with softening and lengthening the springs, for the CX-80. They’ve also upgraded the subframe bushes, while the geometry of the front wishbones has been tempered to make the longer car more languid in its steering response.

But, like its smaller sibling model, the CX-80 still doesn't deal comfortably with UK roads. It has a slightly busy, unsettled, hollow-feeling ride; and though it steers with plenty of connected feel, resists extremes of body movement well, and does have a bit of rear-drive handling poise, sheer size caps its driver appeal really.

The CX-80's manner is, on smoother roads at least, appropriately easy-going and, on its passive springs it floats and rolls quite elegantly. It's a little more engaging to drive than most SUVs of its size, with good handling balance and a thin-rimmed helm that imparts not only some real road feel but also the ebb and flow of the suspension loadings.

These are not at the top of your typical seven-seat SUV buyer’s shopping list, though. They are very Mazda; but they may not be enough to redeem a car that simply doesn't isolate and filter like it should.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

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Mazda CX 80 review 2024 01 cornering

Company car drivers will gravitate towards the CX-80 PHEV; although the car's tax-qualifying electric range, at 38 miles, is disappointing in the large SUV class of 2024 - and so is its real-world, range-extended fuel efficiency.

Both models can tow up to 2500kg, though, and have a 'Trailer Hitch View' for the rear-facing camera that makes it easier for the driver to align car and trailer.

As for rivals, the CX-80's chief competitors are the Hyundai Santa Fe, Kia Sorento, Peugeot 5008 PHEV and Skoda Kodiaq. None offers a powertrain as likeable at the 3.3-litre diesel of the Mazda, but some are cheaper and offer better PHEV stats.

VERDICT

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There's a place for this car in today’s oceans-wide SUV market - but a more convincing for it one as a diesel certainly, for retail buyers looking for an efficient and torquey tow car and added-desirability family workhorse, than as a PHEV.

The CX-80's principal problem is that, as that bigger-selling PHEV, it isn't close to its best. It lacks refinement, efficiency and electric range, and is by some way short of the polished dynamic standard you'd expect of Mazda's new flagship model.

As a 3.3-litre diesel, however, the CX-80 is much better. That engine is torquey and efficient, pleasant and smooth.

It's partnered to a chassis with some driver appeal, but that doesn't have the isolation and comfort you'd hope for in a big family SUV, or that would best accompany a cabin that is commendably versatile and, in the right model trim guise, quite materially lavish and enticing.

The truth is that there are some aspects of this car that thoroughly deserve our praise and recommendation, and others that really let it down. As such, it's a hard car to alight on an aggregate rating for. Order the right car and it could be one of the best family SUVs you've owned; but the wrong one could be a bit of a disappointment.

Richard Lane

Richard Lane, Autocar
Title: Deputy road test editor

Richard joined Autocar in 2017 and like all road testers is typically found either behind a keyboard or steering wheel (or, these days, a yoke).

As deputy road test editor he delivers in-depth road tests and performance benchmarking, plus feature-length comparison stories between rival cars. He can also be found presenting on Autocar's YouTube channel.

Mostly interested in how cars feel on the road – the sensations and emotions they can evoke – Richard drives around 150 newly launched makes and models every year. His job is then to put the reader firmly in the driver's seat. 

Matt Saunders

Matt Saunders Autocar
Title: Road test editor

As Autocar’s chief car tester and reviewer, it’s Matt’s job to ensure the quality, objectivity, relevance and rigour of the entirety of Autocar’s reviews output, as well contributing a great many detailed road tests, group tests and drive reviews himself.

Matt has been an Autocar staffer since the autumn of 2003, and has been lucky enough to work alongside some of the magazine’s best-known writers and contributors over that time. He served as staff writer, features editor, assistant editor and digital editor, before joining the road test desk in 2011.

Since then he’s driven, measured, lap-timed, figured, and reported on cars as varied as the Bugatti Veyron, Rolls-Royce Phantom, Tesla Roadster, Ariel Hipercar, Tata Nano, McLaren Senna, Renault Twizy and Toyota Mirai. Among his wider personal highlights of the job have been covering Sebastien Loeb’s record-breaking run at Pikes Peak in 2013; doing 190mph on derestricted German autobahn in a Brabus Rocket; and driving McLaren’s legendary ‘XP5’ F1 prototype. His own car is a trusty Mazda CX-5.