SAN FRANCISCO – The 2024 Mazda CX-90 SUV is a meticulous and daring gamble that the small Japanese automaker can lift itself from competing with brands like Chevrolet, Ford, Hyundai and Toyota and into a more profitable duel with upscale brands like Acura, Lexus and Europe’s titans of luxury.
It’s a daunting challenge, the kind that makes or breaks careers and companies.
Mazda’s a “small-batch” brand, chief marketing officer Brad Audet told me during my day driving sporty and luxurious CX-90s from the Bay Area to Sonoma and back via highways, city streets and backroads. His words echo the tactic of whiskey makers that develop premium products without inventing whole new brands.
Mazda no longer defines itself by its old “Zoom-Zoom” motto. Today’s Mazda aims to deliver performance, but also technology and next-level ownership experiences from U.S. dealers in the midst of major upgrades.
“We don’t build appliances,” Audet said. “We’re never going to be a 5-million sales a year brand.”
Some of what sets the CX-90 three-row SUV apart:
- It’s the first vehicle to use a new, rear-wheel-drive-based large-vehicle architecture Mazda developed specifically to challenge luxury brands’ handling and performance. Mazda engineers have been lobbying to build an architecture like this for years. Now that they have it, expect to see a smaller, five-seat SUV based on it — and just maybe one or more sporty cars, despite the market shift to SUVs.
- It’s the biggest and most expensive vehicle Mazda has ever sold in the U.S. At 201.6 inches long, it’s just over an inch longer than the CX-9 three-row SUV it replaces. Its wheelbase is a whopping 7.5 inches longer, but the CX-90’s turning radius is actually smaller, one of several benefits from the new architecture.
- Prices start at $39,595 and top out at $59,950. Neither includes the mandatory $1,375 destination charge.
- In addition to the new architecture, Mazda developed a new engine, a 3.3L inline-six cylinder powerplant. Called straight-sixes or I-6s, such engines were once common in luxury vehicles from the likes of BMW, Jaguar and Mercedes, but they became rare in recent years. Straight sixes, in which the cylinders are lined up rather than arranged in a V, are enjoying a renaissance: In the last couple of years, Mercedes and Jeep have introduced new ones. I-6s are powerful and run very smoothly, reducing the vibrations occupants feel.
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- The CX-90 plug-in hybrid, which has a smaller 2.5L four-cylinder engine, can go 26 miles on battery power, according to EPA ratings.
- The CX-90’s suspension design uses the same technology as the MX-5 Miata roadster
- A driver personalization feature lets up to six people program profiles with hundreds of settings for everything from seat and steering wheel position to climate settings, safety features, audio settings — even radio presets. It uses facial recognition to match drivers with their profiles.
Contact Mark Phelan: 313-222-6731 or mmphelan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mark_phelan. Read more on autos and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.