Mazda CX 50 Final Impressions Pros and Cons

This is going to be our wrap-up video on the Mazda CX-50 Turbo. We've had this for just over a year now and put on just about 20,000 miles. It's returned just over 23.2 miles per gallon. It's had several regular services which have all ranged between $100 and $200. It's burned zero oil and other than a small checkup for some rattles and squeaks that this car has developed, nothing has gone wrong. This has proven to be a very reliable, usable family CUV SUV. This is our second long-term Mazda product as well. The only thing we've added to this car during our time with it is a set of Bridgestone Blizzac DMVT winter tires which have very much so helped this car in the winter months. These factory tires that come with this vehicle are not great in snow conditions. Other than that, everything you need to know about the CX-50 has been discussed in our other videos. We have an original video when we first got this thing walking you through some of the technical changes to the latest update to the CX-50. We discuss all the interior usability, exterior styling, and of course we have other update videos to walk you through our current thoughts at that moment. So with that, Mark and I are going to go take you for a not-so-quick drive where we walk you through our long-term thoughts on the CX-50. You're gonna get me emotional, Mark. I've spent almost 20,000 miles in our long-term CX-50. Oh, I forgot to turn off i-stop too and i-smart and i-drive. Show me what turbocharged CX-50 can do. It's too much. Yeah, she's a mover and you may have spent 20,000 miles but I only spent about 500. It's about all I need. Yeah, because you're now BMW ix. Oh, in the wet. Look at her. Look at her composure on these bridge stones. We're still on bridge stones, right? Yes. Okay. I can feel Dave Coleman through this. Yeah. I'm one with Dave Coleman when I drive the CX-50. All right. So 2020K, we just did a video about kind of like where we're at. I hadn't really put my two cents in because I hadn't driven it. So now you're at the end of the line. So tell me, what are the pros and cons? The pro of this vehicle is something that I have now re-learned to appreciate after spending time in a Chevy Equinox along with some other vehicles is that what this thing does well is what you're about to experience. For a two-row non-premium CUV, it handles exceptionally well. Drivetrain calibration is good. Steering for a CUV is great. There's lots of grip, high levels of composure. And as far as actually driving goes, it's a very good driving two-row CV SUV. They've accomplished the task that they set out to do, which is to engage you a little bit in a non-engaging car. What they haven't done well is the ride part and some of the general refinements of this vehicle versus something like a CR-V or a RAV4 or one of the Hyundai or Kia vehicles. They all are better riding, a little bit more isolated than this vehicle is. I think that's the con. That's the pro and the con of this vehicle. I think if you don't have a fun car to drive and you want to have some joy or joy engagement behind the wheel of your non-engaging car, this is your option. Do you disagree with that or do you agree with that? I mean, I mostly agree with it. I think you mentioned the Equinox because I think that's the polar opposite of this car and the truth is somewhere in the middle. So in terms of like what you said, engagement, there's cars so I can't get too engaged. But the one thing that it does really well in terms of driver engagement compared to the other animals in this segment is they really do have steering directness sorted out. So it's that ability for it to when you get to that point where you could feel like you would understeer off the road, the way that the steering is calibrated and the front suspension is the front end really bites well. It really turns in very, very well and you feel input and linearity through the steering. That's where this stands out and a lot of the other SUVs in this segment don't. There's this wallowiness and softness to the front end that this does not have when you're actually driving it aggressively and that makes it, you know, way more fun to drive compared to like let's say the Equinox which just terminally understeers, has this floppy front end, no directness. That is a pure isolation chamber. Yes. So where this, to your point, where this is not good like the other vehicles where you spend 90% of your life is straight lines, vertical compliance, right? Like that up and down motion is, it needs the rough edges refined off this thing to be a better daily driver and, you know, unless you live in like twisty undulated pavement all the time, you're not going to appreciate what this thing does. So, and I've driven this car where I, my fiance's driven this car everywhere. It's gone to Pittsburgh, Omaha, throughout Michigan, I mean throughout Iowa, I mean it's been everywhere and she came from around four when she's driving this vehicle and her general thought process is like, while I enjoy driving this, when I turn left and right, she's a perfect example of what most people are doing. She works in the medical side of things to and from hospitals all the time and in her case, you know, she's just driving the straight line and the ride part really ended up bothering her. It is, it starts to grate on you after a while as much as it is fun to just rip it around, you're just not doing it. The other thing that I feel in this car and it could be a combination of factors, I don't know if the global and local stiffnesses of this are up to where it needs to be. Versus in a CRV. Right, and the torsion, torsion beam rear end is definitely noticeable and the some of the the sound, the airborne noise that comes into here, it's kind of a buzzy, it feels fragile. That's the best way I can put it, is this car's body structure feels more fragile or weak, there's a lack of solidness to it. Like a TNGA product. Yeah. And it could just, I mean, who actually, I don't know what the actual global stiffness is. Yeah, right, we don't know that, they're never gonna say, tell us what that is, but just that perception of it and some of it could be the sound isolation, trying not to isolate you out from the outside environment enough. Some of it is the vibration that's transmitted through this car in not a good way. We brought it up in the last video, you like, you constantly hear this like creaking from the back, whether it be plastics or it could be body panels, you know, we're not going to take this whole thing apart to find out, but that's where it's lacking the refinement as a daily driver. It's not the inputs, it's not the driving dynamics, it's that like last 15 to 20 percent that this needs more work on. It's funny because the drivetrain specifically, and this is the turbo charge premium, whatever, highest trim level, six-speed auto, while it sounds like old technology, works very well. Yeah. The 2.5, for what its intended purpose is, lots of torque down low, does a very good job, there's plenty of power. It's just, it's a little bit counterintuitive because an internal combustion non-hybrid like CR-V with their CBT is less refined than this, but the body structure and the driving ride quality is more refined. Right. Same with a RAV4. RAV4 has probably the least refined drivetrain. Oh god, yeah. Super buzzy, rattly, particularly as the internal combustion non-hybrid. This is far more refined, but the ride quality in that and the overall body structure refinement, not the way it handles, it handles horribly, but the way it just goes over bumps and drives around is much better than this. The last thing I will bring up is when you drive it, you know, most people who drive for very, very long distances like leaning on lane keep assist and everything else, like we just did a 800 mile drive or whatever it is to and from Michigan in our long-term GX, which we're going to start doing videos on, entirely different price point of vehicle, but that uses the Toyota suite of driver aids. And that thing does an excellent job with adaptive cruise, traffic jam assist. And you can trust it to do those things. This does not any of that. This definitely relies more on the human element. And if you're somebody that likes that, and there's plenty of SUVs that give you too much tech and like take too much out to, again, we're talking about the extremes, like Equinox is one extreme. This is kind of on the other end. I know where they need to do the work. I'm sure they need know where they need to do the work on this to get it up to par. But I know, you know, this is just feedback, right? It's a pro or con depending. And this is coming from literally 20,000 miles in a year driving. Yeah. This is not like an overnight quick drive. You and I have different views on fuel economy. Obviously I own a bunch of cars that are not fuel efficient. I think the Z06 gets like 12 miles to the gallon. The Camaro gets 18. Yeah. And now the GX long-term is like 14, 15. I got, well, I beat you quite by quite a bit in the 16s. Yes. So this gets 23.1. Is this acceptable in this kind of car? I mean, for the type of driving that you're actually doing in this? No. I mean, I think, you know, when you're doing like the point A to point B in a four cylinder economy, like affordable car like this, you know, when you're in the low twenties, to me, you're just, it's just frivolously wasting money on fuel, fueling this up for the amount of enjoyment you're getting out of the engine. Like this is not like some performance engine. To get this as a hybrid. I would, I would, I mean, I would rather see upwards of 30 at this, in this day and age, at this price point of what you're trying to do with this. It definitely is going to eat into your wallet a little bit, constantly filling this up Again, if we were talking about some engine that had a ton of engagement and just like, oh God, I love it. You know, that's not this engine. It feels very, you know, turbo economy, four cylinder. So why would you get this then? And why wouldn't you? Obviously, you know, there's not necessarily a right or wrong answer at the end of the day. Why would, why should somebody buy this? And why should somebody not? Well, I think the styling is one. I think it is a well executed interior and exterior style vehicle. It's very cohesive. It feels very Japanese and everything is ergonomic. You know, most of the things are very well thought out, better than some of the other brands. It doesn't feel like a super, super generic kind of like afterthought, like commodity, let's get a million of them out there for the maximum price point cutting as possible. That doesn't feel this way. And it's also the best feeling in terms of driving linearity in the front end, the way that it turns in, the way that you drive it and the drive train cohesion and all that stuff is great. So if you value that, those elements of an SUV, you're going to like it a lot. It's not somebody that wants the cheapest SUV on the market. That's going to be discounted like an Equinox or a Kia Hyundai thing where you can walk in with no credit and get a new car. That's not, this is not the car for you for that. Drive it on a good road and drive it on a bad road. Because if you live purely in an area where the roads suck, largely where we live, it's going to get old quick because I think we just drove a BRZ TS and I don't think this rides much better than an actual dedicated sports car. Well, I think a lot of that is, again, it's that vertical up and down motion, like compliance that this car does not have. I just don't feel like it could be damper tech that's in here. It's funny because the Mazda 3 doesn't ride as bad as this. No, it just feels more choppy and I think it's gotten worse with age, you know, and that's part of it. It just feels like, again, fragile, like it's just starting to lose its solidness and everything's kind of coming apart a little bit. Because I had this on Blizzac GMB2s, a Bridgestone snow tire, half the year and honestly didn't, like I thought it would radically improve the ride because you have a big, fat, soft tire with snow and it didn't, not really. But as a counterpoint, despite being an on-demand all-wheel drive system, great in the snow. Yeah, of course. So again, you know, we beat this dead horse of we drive all these SUVs. There's not really a right or a wrong one because depending on who you are, you're going to value different things. If you want the ultimate soft, plush riding car that you don't care about ever turning the steering wheel, this is not a car for you, you know. But again, it's drive them. Drive it, don't take our word for it. Find out what you want and what you like and make a better decision. Okay, so Mark, with that, let's wrap up our time in the CX-50. In the future, we will be doing a group CV test and we have some other long-termers. You bought an IX, we have a GX, we're getting an Odyssey and some other vehicles. So you'll be seeing more of the same as we try to put as many miles on these things as possible. So you get to experience what these cars are like before you decide to buy one yourself.