Never change, Mazda. This is the firm that appropriated the British roadster, saving it from extinction, and that championed the rotary engine so dedicatedly that when it plumbed one into a Group C racer, victory at Le Mans followed. Quite incredible.
Yet 2023 might just bring the most iconoclastic move in its long history. While everyone else is rapidly downsizing and fitting transverse, hybrid powertrains, if not electric ones, Mazda has just come up with a new 3.3-litre turbodiesel straight six that natively drives the rear axle in the form of the Mazda CX-60 3.3 e-SkyActiv D AWD. Have we teleported back to 2003?
This is a contender for the most unexpected development of recent years, although as we found when we met the Mazda CX-60 3.3 e-Skyactiv D in February (in RWD guise, not the more potent 4WD form here), there are solid reasons for its existence beyond Mazda’s pathological need to do things its own way.
The first is that Europe isn’t the only place where Mazda sells cars, and other markets are on different regulatory trajectories. The second is more interesting: according to Mazda, in everyday driving, a highcapacity diesel will do everything a 2.0-litre four does but at lower load and temperatures.
Atypical combustion tech helps thermal efficiency surpass 40%, which is how a 406lb ft, 1950kg 4×4 can get 54.3mpg and emit 139g/km of CO2. Alfa Romeo’s 2.2-litre four-pot diesel Stelvio puts out 59lb ft less yet emits 20g/km more and is 15% or so inferior on efficiency.
It’s a similar story if you compare the CX-60 with BMW’s 2.0-litre four-pot X3. So the rationale does seem sound.
As for the reality, the picture is mixed. Cold-start this engine and for a moment the soundscape isn’t 2023 or even 2003 but 1983, at a bus stop. Matters improve markedly with temperature, and when you’re riding all that mid-range torque on a good A-road, the engine shows more of its likeable, rich character.