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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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In the world of eccentric Japanese car manufacturers, the maker of this car, the new Mazda CX-80, is perhaps the most unpredictable and wilful.

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. The funny thing is that 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 oil-burner from scratch, then launching it into Europe amid the continent’s prevailing, puritanical anti-diesel sentiment, is a perfectly normal thing to do.

Its 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 longitudinal motor, though. Depending on driveline, it came with either 197bhp and 332lb ft (RWD) or 251bhp and 406lb ft (4WD) – both modest outputs given the displacement, in return for easy drivability and efficiency. It duly delivered both.

That car now has a bigger sibling in the form of the CX-80 tested here. It's a seven-seater designed to take on the likes of the Skoda Kodiaq and Hyundai Santa Fe, and has come in for some chassis tweaks, to make it more refined on the move. Has it worked? Time to find out.

INTERIOR

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So the purely four-wheel-drive CX-80 is the CX-60’s bigger sibling, with space for a third row of seats courtesy of an extra 25cm being inserted into the wheelbase, which is now longer than that of BMW’s leviathan X7.

There are a few seating layouts to choose from, including separate ‘captain’ seats for the second row, which can be slid fore and aft 12cm whether you go for the individual berths or the bench. It works too. Three people of your tallish tester’s height can sit one behind another, and although leg room in the third row is undeniably snug, head room is mostly fine.

It’s a charming cabin as well. Prise open the tall door for the first time and, if the CX-80 in question is of top-ranking Takumi specification, you will wonder why Mazda has stolen trim from a 33-year-old – and once hideously expensive – Lexus limousine. But then you realise that it is all, actually, rather lovely. I can take or leave the fabric dashboard cladding but the cold, polished metal elements and the bleached maple are successfully counter-cultural in a world of staid interiors.

Equally, note that lesser trim levels come with only dark upholstery – either Mazda's standard leather or a nappa – and more ordinary materials elsewhere. The cockpit is still well sorted ergnomically, and you still get USB-C ports even for the third-row seats, but the CX-80 won't feel as different, as interesting or frankly as likeable as it does in Takumi guise. 

As ever with Mazda, there’s also a good degree of physical switchgear. You can adjust crucial infotaiment and climate controls without having to take your eyes off the road – yes, really. 

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.

The CX-80's manner is, for the most part, appropriately easy-going and on its passive springs it floats and rolls quite elegantly, though I suspect it will still be somewhat clatter-prone in the UK compared with slick rivals such as the Skoda Kodiaq. Not to the extent of the CX-60, mind.

There were moments on the German launch event when the suspension failed to smother sharper edges in the road with quite the insoucience you'd expect from a large-ish SUV intended for prosaic tasks like the school run or, with the 3.3-litre diesel in mind, endless motorway miles, dispatched efficiently.

That said, the Mazda is more engaging to drive than most. It has a surprisingly pedigree 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, but they are very Mazda, and this is a quietly satisfying car to drive.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

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Company car drivers will gravitate towards the PHEV, which combines a 17.8kWh drive battery with a 2.5-litre naturally aspirated engine and with 323bhp is quite a bit more powerful than the 251bhp turbo diesel. It's also a lot cleaner on paper, achieving 36g/km of CO2 compared with the diesel's 148g/km.

Real-world fuel economy is likely to be a different matter. We know from the CX-60 that the unstressed diesel can be very economical indeed, returning more than 50mpg without much trouble. It's officially rated at 49.6mpg combined, while the PHEV, with its 37 miles of electric range, manages 176.5mpg. However, if you're short of battery charge, the PHEV's vocal petrol engine will need to be worked fairly hard and is unlikely to get close to the everday economy of the diesel.

Both models can tow up to 2500kg 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 and the Kia Sorento. Neither offers a powertrain as likeable at the 3.3-litre diesel of the Mazda, and nor do they offer as much space in the third row, but they are cheaper.

 

VERDICT

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We'll revisit the CX-80 in a short while, once we can get our hands on one in the UK. Only then will we be able to see for sure whether Mazda's tweaks to the chassis, and in particular the back axle, have mollified the reactivity of the smaller CX-60 with which the new seven-seater shares its fundamentals.

In the meanwhile, know that Mazda's new flagship model is rather an effective take on the seven-seat SUV. We'd plump for the diesel instead of the PHEV, and it's that engine's easy, economical nature, along with the CX-80's excellent head room in the third row, that makes it worth considering.