Cut-price Audi Q7? We test the 2020 Mazda CX-9 GT AWD – it's longer than a Landcruiser! 4K - video Dailymotion

CarExpert

Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior: 00:50 Interior: 03:01 Infotainment: 05:13 Features: 09:46  Practicality: 11:23 On the Road: 18:50 Verdict: 23:53  Read the full review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/review/2020-mazda-cx-9-gt-awd-review/  Paul reviews the 2020 Mazda CX-9 GT All-Wheel Drive. If you've got a stack of kids, but don't want to be seen dead in a people mover, could the Mazda CX-9 be a good premium, alternative alternative to something like the Audi Q7?... Only one way to find out!  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you! #mazda #review #cx9  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  @mazdaaustralia @MazdaOfficial

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. Now, if you've had more kids than hot dinners, you don't need to settle for a ghastly people mover.

00:06 And if you can't quite stretch to something like an Audi Q7 because, you know, the young ones take it up equestrian,

00:11 I reckon the Mazda CX-9 could be the good premium alternative. Come and have a look at this.

00:16 This is the CX-9 GT all-wheel drive. It's one down from the top spec. It's about $70,000.

00:24 You can see where the prices start and finish for the CX-9 range down in the comments below.

00:29 But I reckon this could be a really good premium alternative SUV.

00:32 Now you can skip ahead to the section you're interested in using the time codes above, or if you're watching this on YouTube,

00:37 just scroll down there to the description and you'll see all of the time codes that allow you to skip ahead.

00:42 And if you haven't done so already, we'd love for you to subscribe to our channel and also hit the bell icon

00:47 so you can see all the new cars that we're driving.

00:49 Let's talk styling. Did you know this is longer than a Toyota Land Cruiser? That is absolutely ridiculous.

00:56 It's just over five meters long and a Toyota Land Cruiser is just under five meters long.

01:01 It's incredible, but it doesn't actually look that big from the outside.

01:04 So that paints a picture of just how big the car is. Have a look at this.

01:07 My wife tells me I have like a horse mouth when I yawn.

01:09 And this is what I picture of a horse mouth.

01:13 It is a giant grille with a very proudly worn Mazda emblem.

01:17 This doubles as a radar for the radar cruise control as well, which is kind of cool.

01:21 But I have noticed here, this is all starting to peel, which is not great considering this car has done like 3,000 kilometers.

01:28 So I'm not entirely sure what that is, but that doesn't look very good.

01:32 Now in terms of the rest of this front end, they've really done a good job here with these chrome highlights.

01:36 There is sort of the typical chrome under here that's quite reflective,

01:40 but this is like a brushed aluminium and it looks really nice and it sort of sticks out a little bit as it drops down.

01:46 So it is a really sort of cool design.

01:48 Here you have daytime running lights and importantly full LED headlights.

01:52 That gives this car really good visibility at night time.

01:55 And then an air dam there, doesn't actually do anything, that's got a cover on it.

01:58 Round here, 20 inch alloy wheels.

02:00 They're like a shadow chrome.

02:01 They suit this car really nicely and it also matches that color.

02:04 There are seven colors available and I like the way it contrasts here with this plastic mold.

02:10 So that's meant to give it that sort of off-road look, despite the fact you're probably not going to be doing much off-roading in this.

02:14 You've got a sunroof here as well on the GT model, which is a handy addition.

02:18 Keeps the kids entertained, but it's on a full-length panoramic roof.

02:22 So if you are in the back seat or in the third row, you don't really get to see any visibility out the side.

02:26 Come around the back here.

02:27 So that styling continues around here.

02:29 This is a really good looking car, in my opinion.

02:32 Look at the way they've chiseled away here for these lights and then integrated that chrome strip.

02:36 It is a really nice design.

02:38 And then at night time, you can see all of these elements lighting up.

02:40 Not an LED indicator though, which is a little disappointing.

02:43 I love in the new Mazda 3 how there's that block of four LED lights that flash at you.

02:48 It's a bit like a concept car.

02:49 This, on the other hand, is a little more sedate in that respect.

02:52 It wears this badge proudly, SkyActiv-G.

02:54 We'll talk about the engine later on, but that is the designation they've given to the efficiency features fitted into the engine in this car.

03:01 Let's chat styling inside the cabin.

03:04 Looks really nice.

03:05 It is kind of drowning in black here and thankfully this car has come with the optional beige interior.

03:10 So you can see that that actually really perfectly offsets all the black that you see.

03:15 And then it's broken up a little further with this shadow sort of satin chrome type stuff.

03:20 Now it's interesting that in the Mazda 6, they have real Japanese wood that's inlaid into the dashboard.

03:26 So I think the next update of the CX-9 is going to come with not only a new version of the infotainment system,

03:31 because this is the older MZD Connect system and I'll run you through that in a second,

03:35 but it'll be good to see different options there in terms of grains of material to really liven this up a bit.

03:41 Outside of that though, it's nicely laid out and style-wise it actually looks pretty good.

03:46 There's no sort of dramatic lines or edges or cuts.

03:48 It is just a really nicely laid out interior.

03:51 Now, as is tradition, I want to test the hardness of all this stuff.

03:55 So this all feels nice and soft to me, especially this.

03:58 So I'm looking forward to getting a durometer onto it.

04:00 Now this is our durometer.

04:02 So this is a scale of 0 to 100.

04:04 It tests the hardness of materials.

04:06 So we're able to precisely tell how hard a dashboard is and then later on I can compare all the cars on the market

04:12 to tell you which one has the softest touch dashboard.

04:15 So let's switch this on.

04:18 I'm going to give that a poke there.

04:19 About 56, 57.

04:23 So that's a really nice soft touch material.

04:25 But check this out.

04:26 I reckon that's going to be even softer.

04:28 Oh, 24.

04:30 That is amazing.

04:31 So it does show you that all of these materials that you're in contact with when you're driving feel really nice.

04:38 And in my eyes, that is the sign of a premium car.

04:41 However, here is something I really don't like.

04:44 Piano black.

04:45 Even in a car here that's done 3,000 kilometers, that's barely anything, it's already all scratched up.

04:50 Piano black scratches just without even touching it.

04:53 You just look at it and it just develops these scratches.

04:56 So it's impossible to keep clean.

04:58 I know they like using it because it kind of brings that air of premiumness to the interior.

05:02 But I don't know, I don't really reckon it works.

05:04 Other build quality items in this car are fantastic though.

05:07 Everything is nice and solid, well built.

05:09 There's nothing moving around and it feels like it's going to stand the test of time.

05:12 I'm a big fan of technology.

05:14 So let's talk infotainment here in the CX-9.

05:17 MZD Connect, when it comes to infotainment systems, this is one of the oldest systems on the market.

05:24 Because a lot of manufacturers will update their infotainment systems as they go.

05:27 This has been around for a long time.

05:29 All they've done here in the CX-9, instead of going to the new infotainment system that we've

05:33 seen in the Mazda CX-3, this infotainment system still has the old system on a bigger screen.

05:38 So this is a nine-inch screen and the big difference here between MZD Connect and Mazda's

05:43 all-new infotainment system is that MZD Connect is still a touchscreen only when the car is

05:48 stationary.

05:48 So you can see if I click here on apps and I'll walk you through all the menus, it is still a

05:52 touchscreen or you can use the dials down here with shortcut buttons around the edges, including

05:58 a favorite button which you can set in the infotainment system as well.

06:01 Now the interesting parts here on the apps section are that you can select Apple CarPlay

06:06 or Android Auto.

06:07 That's now standard.

06:08 And did you know that if you have an older version of MZD Connect, you can actually retrofit

06:13 Apple CarPlay and Android Auto through the dealer for a small fee?

06:16 And I'd love to see in the comments below, have you had that done?

06:19 Did it work well?

06:20 How much did you pay?

06:22 Let us know.

06:22 Back to here, you can see all of the information about iE loop.

06:25 We'll discuss that a bit more when we go for a drive, but this is where you can see how

06:29 much energy you've saved while you've been driving.

06:31 You've also got a vehicle status monitor.

06:34 This completes all the sections to do with the car's warnings and also maintenance.

06:38 So maintenance will show you when your service intervals are due and then the warnings will

06:42 show any warnings that have appeared on the car and it will store those here if you ever

06:46 need to go back to the dealership and have them check on things.

06:49 Let's jump over to the entertainment menu.

06:52 Now this is one of my least favourite things about MZD Connect.

06:56 When you hop into the car, it's quite difficult to go through these menus and to select different

07:01 radio stations.

07:02 It comes with FM, AM and DAB digital radio.

07:05 With DAB, there's so many stations to choose from that when you click on the station list,

07:10 you just scroll for hours and hours until you find what you want.

07:13 So let's say we want that station just there.

07:16 Instead of now being able to simply go back to that exact spot where we were,

07:19 it takes me back to the top of the list and then I have to scroll again.

07:22 So if you do flick through radio stations a lot, which is something that I'm known to do,

07:27 it takes you forever to find what you need unless you want to save them as favourites.

07:30 And again, there's so many there that saving them as favourites takes forever.

07:34 Along the bottom here, you do have your favourites menu and as you scroll along,

07:37 you can scan, skip ahead, also set your base treble and that kind of thing.

07:43 This is all fairly intuitive and straightforward and easy to use.

07:47 Higher-end cars in the Mazda range with the MZD Connect system come with a BOSE sound system

07:51 and in there you can configure extra things like centre point, audio pilot and then also

07:56 where you're getting guidance, volume, how loud it is and that kind of thing.

08:00 If we jump back over to the nav menu, it's not amazing again because it is a little difficult

08:06 to use while you're on the move.

08:08 You have to go through, find an address, everything takes a little bit of time

08:12 to type it in and again, this is kind of pointless when you're on the move.

08:15 Even your passenger can't type things in here because the touchscreen doesn't work

08:20 while the car's moving.

08:22 You do have the ability to use a voice recognition system.

08:25 That tends to work okay but as you get to use it more and more in its functionality,

08:30 it becomes harder and harder to use and it becomes a little more counterintuitive.

08:33 It doesn't pick up voice commands very well and sometimes it does things that you don't ask it to do.

08:38 So the way to overcome that is to pair your phone with smartphone mirroring

08:41 and then a long hold then activates the smartphone voice recognition system

08:46 which uses the cloud and it's far easier and far more precise as well.

08:49 But for the most part, this is where all your navigation is

08:53 and here you'll also have things like traffic.

08:55 You'll be able to see which roads are congested.

08:57 It will tell you which way to go instead.

08:58 Different modes here as well in terms of the views.

09:00 You can go from 2D to 3D but it's not a very high resolution screen

09:05 and it doesn't really look as fancy as some of the other cars in this segment.

09:08 As we go back to the main menu there, you also have settings.

09:11 This is where you can change everything for the car.

09:14 You've also got control over all your Bluetooth connections here

09:17 because of course you can use Bluetooth for phone

09:19 and also streaming audio and music and that kind of thing.

09:22 In here you've also got all your settings for sensing wipers,

09:26 how long the lights stay on, door locks, GPS syncing for the clock in the car

09:31 which is a very handy thing to have.

09:32 You always know that it's going to be correct and in the correct time zone as well.

09:36 So that has been a look here at Mazda's MZD Connect infotainment system.

09:40 If you'd like to see a review of the more advanced version now fitted to the Mazda 3,

09:45 click up there.

09:45 But in terms of the rest of the technology fitted to this car,

09:49 it is jam-packed.

09:50 For that asking price you're actually getting quite a lot of equipment.

09:52 So ahead of me I have a heads-up display.

09:55 Down here, three zone climate controls.

09:57 So you have one zone for the driver, one for the passenger

10:00 and then one for the rear seats.

10:01 You have heated seats in the front row and heated seats in the back row as well

10:05 in the two outer seats.

10:06 We'll have a look at how that works when I clamber in the back there.

10:09 Connectivity for the infotainment system comes in the form of USB.

10:13 So they're hidden away in here.

10:14 There's an auxiliary port there and an SD port for the GPS system.

10:18 Now 12 volt, where is it?

10:20 I'm sort of having a bit of a look around.

10:21 It is in the most random location.

10:23 Come and join me.

10:24 It's down here.

10:26 It's kind of just buried away in that passenger side.

10:29 Actually makes sense to have it there because otherwise you're always having to have cables

10:33 hanging over everything, whereas when you tuck it down under there,

10:36 it's out of the way and you don't have cables dangling everywhere.

10:39 So that is a really clever system.

10:41 Front and rear parking sensors, very handy because this car is big.

10:44 You need to be able to park it easily.

10:46 So those things come in handy.

10:47 Safety wise, AEB, autonomous emergency braking.

10:51 It's the tech that stops the car if you don't.

10:52 That is excellent technology.

10:54 Head of the driver, we have analog gauges.

10:56 So unlike the new Mazda 3, which has a digital display in front of the driver,

10:59 we only have a small digital display on the right hand side.

11:01 The rest are analog gauges, but you do get extra features around that.

11:05 So in there, you'll be able to configure your radar, cruise control,

11:08 your lane keeping assistant and the other functions that come with the car.

11:11 You have rear cross traffic alert that tells you if there's a car coming

11:15 that you can't see as you're reversing.

11:17 It also has braking in reverse.

11:19 So if you are about to hit something while you're reversing, it will stop the car dead.

11:23 Okay, let's talk comfort and practicality.

11:25 It's really nicely laid out and there's plenty of space to store your things.

11:29 Let's start with the phone.

11:31 This easily slots down here.

11:33 What you'll notice though is there's no wireless phone charging,

11:35 which is a little bit disappointing in a car this size.

11:38 You want to have as much connectivity and charging options as you can.

11:41 There's enough room in here to lose an arm, which is great news.

11:45 So you can store plenty of things in there and that's where you can charge your devices as well.

11:49 What about bottles?

11:50 Both of these are sized the same with little retractable clips, so that fits in nicely.

11:54 And then in terms of storage in the doors,

11:56 bottle easily slides into there and there's enough room for other odds and ends as well.

11:59 Glovebox is reasonably sized, but once you put the manual in there,

12:02 these things are pretty old school now that they integrate a lot of it into the nav system.

12:06 That eats up most of your space.

12:09 The seats are super comfy.

12:11 In terms of the driving position, I really like this because it's commanding.

12:14 You can see everything out of this position.

12:17 That is despite the fact it is the size of a Land Cruiser.

12:20 I've mentioned that a thousand times already, but it just continues surprising me.

12:23 The thing I really like about the driving position though

12:26 is that I can rest my knee on a padded surface.

12:29 There are some cars on the market where all your knee interacts with is a hard surface

12:33 and it gets a little bit tiring on a long drive.

12:35 So from a comfort perspective, it is really good.

12:38 Okay, backseat.

12:39 You're probably going to be spending most of your time in this seat doing the driving,

12:43 but the kids are going to have a field day back here because there is heaps of room.

12:47 So even for me with this chair quite far back,

12:49 I have stacks of knee room and loads of toe room as well.

12:54 Terms of the things they're going to love.

12:56 Third zone of climate.

12:57 So if the kids are fussy about being too cold, too hot,

13:00 they can have their own climate zone back here.

13:02 That applies to that third row as well.

13:04 You have seat heaters on the two outside seats.

13:06 They're activated just by pushing this button and that switches them on and off.

13:09 And you get a little display here as well for the temperature controls.

13:12 Two map pockets in here.

13:14 Laura and Hamish, who the hell are they?

13:18 What are they doing in my car?

13:20 Here's something the kids are going to break in no time.

13:22 You get window shades, so you can pop those up if there is too much sun coming into the car.

13:27 They're actually quite robust.

13:29 Probably not going to break too easily, but I'm sure they'll give it a crack.

13:32 The center armrest here is interesting because in addition to your cup holders,

13:35 you've also got a little hidey hole for odds and ends,

13:38 but also to hold your devices while they're charging.

13:40 There's two USB outlets here.

13:42 They're 2.1 amps, which means they're going to be powerful enough

13:45 to charge things like iPads and phones fairly quickly.

13:47 It's a fairly robust system.

13:50 The thing I love about this car is for big families,

13:53 especially for big families with kids that are still in baby seats,

13:57 you can actually fit five baby seats in here.

14:00 So these two outer seats work with an ISOFIX clip-in point,

14:04 but the rest of the seats have a top tether point that's on the back,

14:08 and then the third row also has top tether,

14:10 so you could in theory have five baby seats strewn throughout this car,

14:14 which is a really impressive setup.

14:16 Now, speaking of the third row, I'm going to show you how to get in and out in a second,

14:20 but it's worth noting that this row slides,

14:22 and then if you want to go original gangster, you can throw that all the way back as well,

14:27 giving you a bit more leg room if you are stuck in the third row.

14:30 But let's see how that third row works.

14:32 Getting in and out of the third row is sometimes a little bit tricky with these cars,

14:37 but Mazda has come up with a good system.

14:39 I'm going to walk you through all the controls on the seat.

14:41 So if you are loading lots of things into the boot and you need a flat floor,

14:44 you go for this lever here, give that a pull, the seat drops down.

14:49 Same on the other side, and you have a flat load floor

14:52 so that you can get all long items in.

14:54 But if you do want to start loading passengers in,

14:57 you can release the seat manually using this from the back,

15:00 and that is for your third row passengers if they need to get out in a hurry.

15:04 But there is an electronic system, so you push and hold this,

15:06 it then releases the seat, it drops down at the base,

15:11 and then it allows you to slide it forward.

15:13 So that means then you can actually get adults in really easily.

15:16 Watch this.

15:17 Sorry, you're going to see my bum here,

15:18 but I'll climb in anyway.

15:22 So you can see there for an adult, it's pretty straightforward to get in.

15:25 I've just noticed some wires and stuff down there, a little bit daunting,

15:28 but I'm going to put this back in.

15:30 We'll see how much legroom I actually have as I slide that.

15:33 Gee, that's not too bad actually.

15:36 So you can see here that I've got knee room,

15:39 toe room's a little bit cramped, but it is fairly spacious.

15:42 If I get my water bottle here, I've got a little cup holder there.

15:45 Plus, love the fact that you've got two USB ports back here for charging your devices,

15:50 two and a half amps, so that's another fast charger,

15:52 but a little bit concerned that there's no air vents back here.

15:56 I reckon this will get pretty stifling in summer if you're all the way back here

16:00 and your closest air vent is down there on the floor,

16:03 your second row passengers are going to be hogging it.

16:05 Also, you're going to know if the kids haven't put their seatbelts on

16:07 because of the warning up the front there.

16:09 So while I'm wedged in the back here, I've noticed as well there are handles here.

16:12 So this is especially handy for kids because they're going to be climbing in.

16:15 I mean, for me, this is easy, but for a kid, this is like a giant car.

16:18 So there's little grab handles here so you can pull yourself in.

16:21 I love that and that is such a clever system.

16:23 I've got a question for you all.

16:25 How important is it to be able to get child seats in the back here?

16:28 Because this is one of the few SUVs on the market that actually has the ability to put

16:32 baby seats in all five of these seats, including the third row.

16:35 A lot of cars, you cannot fit baby seats in the third row, including the Land Cruiser.

16:39 The Land Cruiser is massive, but you cannot have baby seats back here.

16:42 So let me know in the comments below,

16:44 how important is it to have an SUV with baby seats everywhere?

16:48 What you'll find with a lot of SUVs that are based on dual cab utes,

16:51 so stuff like Everest, Fortuna, Mitsubishi Pajero, Sport, there is no room behind the third row.

16:56 This is a little bit different though.

16:58 Wait for this to come up.

17:00 Oh, now let me show you this.

17:01 So see how low that is right now?

17:03 You can set the memory on this with just the button.

17:06 So it has a motor there that opens and closes this, but if you prefer a higher or a lower

17:10 setting, all you do is set it to your desired height, push and hold this, wait for the beeps.

17:16 So what it's now saying is that the next time I open, I'm going to be that high,

17:20 which is pretty handy.

17:20 So here you have 230 litres of cargo space available.

17:24 So that is that slot there, plus these inside bits here,

17:28 but that expands to 810 litres when the seats are folded.

17:31 And then off to the sides here, you've got these hooks that will hold up to three kilos.

17:35 So that is good for your shopping.

17:37 And you also have a 12-volt outlet tucked in off to the side.

17:40 Beneath here is your space saver spare tyres, so no full-size spare here.

17:45 And the big Bose subwoofer hidden into the space saver spare tyre.

17:50 Is that going to be big enough to fit our luggage?

17:53 Let's see.

17:53 Not quite.

17:56 Yeah, not quite.

17:58 Okay, so that leads me to show you how all of this collapses.

18:02 It is very straightforward.

18:03 It's not an advanced system like a push button drop or a push button raise.

18:07 All you're doing is pulling this down, that drops the headrest and allows you to fold the seat

18:12 forward. Again, the same process there.

18:15 That is the bigger boot.

18:16 We'll mob that in.

18:18 Yeah, stacks of room there.

18:19 Make sure that fits as well.

18:21 Piece of cake.

18:21 So it is a very usable space and if you don't need that third row, you can collapse it all.

18:26 But if you do need it, you still have an ample amount of storage there without it all being

18:29 cramped up against this boot door.

18:31 By the way, have a look at this.

18:33 There is a secret button here.

18:35 So your standard boot release is this rubber button stuck under there.

18:38 But off to the side is another rubber button with your fancy Mazda key.

18:43 Keep it in your pocket.

18:44 Hit that button when you're done getting your stuff out of the car.

18:47 The car locks and then bobs your uncle.

18:48 So we're driving in the CX-9 now and I can't turn left.

18:54 Look at this.

18:56 This thing here, which is the centre armrest, it won't move and my arm, as you can see,

19:04 is literally wedged in between it.

19:05 So when I try and turn left, I can't turn beyond there.

19:08 That is really bad design.

19:10 Now, if you have a look at our Mazda 3 video review, which is up there, I had the exact

19:15 same issue.

19:16 So I don't understand why anyone that engineers a Mazda can't get the left-hand turning stuff

19:21 right.

19:22 Anyway, let's put that to one side because the rest of this package is fantastic.

19:26 Being such a big car, I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to see out of it.

19:30 The wing mirrors are nice and big.

19:31 I've got heaps of visibility out the front.

19:33 Visibility out the rear is good, except my only concern would be if you had baby seats

19:38 there because it's a little bit of a narrow window out the back and if you've got baby

19:42 seats in the second or even the third rows, it's going to be a little tricky to see out

19:45 the back.

19:46 But aside from that, it is a really quiet ride.

19:48 The ride itself, the quality is fantastic.

19:51 You can go over bumps at whatever speed you want and it is so settled and composed.

19:56 It's such a compliant ride and that is exactly what you want from a big SUV like this.

20:01 Under the bonnet of the CX-9 is a 2.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine, 170 kilowatts

20:07 of power, 420 newton-metres of torque.

20:11 Given it is such a big car, it is surprising, A, how responsive this is.

20:15 It gets up and moves really nicely, but B, also how efficient it is.

20:20 9 litres per 100 kilometres is the official combined cycle.

20:24 We've been driving mainly in and around the city and it's averaging 10.5 litres per 100

20:28 ks, which is really good.

20:30 When you do find yourself a nice little stretch of country road here, punch the engine, oh

20:35 man, it gets up and moves really nicely.

20:37 It has heaps of torque, so even if you do have the whole family in the car, there's

20:42 enough punch there to overtake.

20:43 And the most surprising part is how dynamic this is.

20:48 For such a big SUV, you can really throw it around a bit.

20:52 It's super playful, but very predictable in terms of the way that it drives.

20:56 So it's never going to do anything that's going to surprise you.

20:58 So what's the steering like?

20:59 Good news, because it's such a big SUV, it needs to be light.

21:02 It is perfectly light here, but it's not overly light, which is sometimes the case in these

21:06 SUVs.

21:07 It gives it quite an artificial feel.

21:09 This feels weighty enough to be sporty, which is kind of the underlying tone in this car,

21:14 but it's still light enough to do tight parking manoeuvres and get sort of in and around the

21:18 city.

21:18 You do have a sport mode, so you flick that up.

21:21 It holds gears for a little bit longer.

21:22 It makes everything a little sharper and more responsive.

21:25 Obviously, it's not a sports car, but it gives you that added assurance and the big smile

21:30 factor behind the wheel.

21:31 In terms of the responsiveness of the engine, six-speed automatic transmission, you can

21:35 always lean on the throttle to access the torque band, but then if it needs to drop

21:39 down, it's quite fast and precise in the way it delivers torque.

21:42 The all-wheel drive system is an on-demand system, which means when the front axle loses

21:47 traction, it sends torque to the rear.

21:49 And that's especially handy, and I'm going to pull over to show you this, especially

21:52 handy if you've got one half of the car on something like gravel, and then you accelerate

21:57 away.

21:58 You get that wheel spin, but then it sends torque to the rear axle, so you instantly

22:02 get that little bit of extra traction.

22:04 That's going to come in handy if you're doing stuff like going to the snow.

22:07 Going to the snow generally doesn't require a full-time four-wheel drive system, so something

22:12 like this is going to be good if you've got the whole family in the car and you want to

22:15 have the added assurance of traction when things get a little dicey.

22:18 Find yourself a nice, long downhill stretch like this, start leaning on the brake pedal,

22:23 and you'll see this in action.

22:25 It's called IE Loop.

22:26 It's effectively a capacitor.

22:29 It's a system that allows the car to store energy, and then to use that energy later

22:33 to power things like lights, fans, radio, that kind of thing.

22:36 It means the engine isn't having to work to develop that power, and it's all free energy

22:42 effectively.

22:42 So, that is a really great system, and kind of like the first step before a mild hybrid.

22:48 Okay, so we've just come to a stop.

22:50 I-STOP is activated.

22:51 That's the stop-start system.

22:52 All works well, but I encountered an issue this morning on the way here, where the car

22:57 came to a stop and I had to really quickly get on the throttle, and it took forever.

23:00 So, I'm going to show you what I mean here.

23:02 That's a long time between drinks there, and if you actually catch it just as it turns

23:09 off, it takes even longer.

23:10 So, let me show you what I mean.

23:11 That is a long time.

23:16 There's almost a second and a half or two seconds there, and that can be really daunting

23:20 if you're in the middle of an intersection.

23:22 So, not a huge fan of that system, and certainly not the way that it works here.

23:26 In a lot of the modern cars on the market, it will actually activate as it's rolling

23:29 to a stop, which mitigates the lengthy amount of time this is taking to actually switch

23:33 back on and allow you to move off.

23:35 Finally, it's worth mentioning towing capacity.

23:38 So, 2000 kilos with a braked trailer.

23:41 That's about normal for something like a camper trailer or at the very small end of a

23:45 caravan.

23:46 You're not going to be towing like a horse flower or anything massive with this car,

23:49 so keep that in mind if you are shopping for a car that needs to be able to tow as well.

23:53 This is going to sound weird, but for someone that doesn't have any kids, this car kind

23:58 of makes you want to have five kids, so you have an excuse to buy it and then take them

24:03 places and use the third row and stuff.

24:05 It's weird because this, despite the fact it's the same size as a Land Cruiser, in

24:09 fact a little bit bigger, it's actually way more fun to drive.

24:12 It's surprisingly dynamic, the engine's really fun, and it is loaded with features.

24:16 Yes, the infotainment system is a little bit disappointing compared to the new versions

24:20 of Mazda's infotainment system, but I'm going to tell you the rest of the car is really

24:23 impressive.

24:24 So, if you do have a stack of kids and you need to move them around, please, for the

24:27 love of God, don't get a people mover.

24:29 Just get something like this.

24:30 It is really nice, it feels premium, and it gets my tick of approval.

24:33 If you found this review useful, I'd love it if you could hit the like button, and don't

24:37 forget to subscribe to us, and also hit the bell icon because that will tell you every

24:40 single time we drive a new car, which is very often.

24:43 I'd also love to get your feedback as well.

24:45 What are you liking about the videos?

24:46 What are you hating?

24:47 We want to improve based on everything that you guys want, and let us know what you think

24:51 about this thing.

24:52 Have you bought one?

24:53 What did you pay for it?

24:53 What's it like to live with?

24:55 Let us know in the comments below.

24:56 Thank you for watching, and I'll see you next time.

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