The CX-80 – Mazda’s biggest and most expansive car yet – is a worthy flagship model, writes James Stinson
Hardly a week goes by without a new electric car being launched. From small city cars to MPVs, SUVs and sports tourers, EVs are now available in every shape and size, and at lower prices than ever before.
But despite all this, they still only account for around a quarter of new cars sold and the vast majority of those are company cars. There’s still plenty of life in cutting edge petrol and diesel motors. They can be very economical and exceedingly practical especially for towing and longer journeys.
Mazda is moving into battery power but still sees plenty of potential in petrol and diesel. So perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised about this new Mazda CX-80, a large seven-seat SUV that comes as either a plug-in petrol hybrid or a conventional six-cylinder diesel.
If you’re buying as a company car, the plug-in petrol hybrid makes more sense thanks to the generous benefit-in-kind tax (BIK) rates but it’s the good old diesel that’s the pick of the two.
Built on the same platform as the smaller CX-60 but with larger proportions, the CX-80 is the biggest and most expensive Mazda ever sold in the UK and it’s a worthy flagship model.
It’s very refined, has plenty of space, four-wheel drive and is competitively priced. It goes head-to-head with other seven-seaters like the Kia Sorento and Hyundai Santa Fe and stacks up well against pricier rivals from Volvo, BMW and others.
The 3.3 litre six-cylinder diesel engine pumps out a hefty 251bhp and takes 8.4 seconds to reach 62mph from a standing start. The plug-in hybrid (PHEV) mates a four-cylinder petrol engine with an electric motor and a 17.8kWh battery. It offers 332bhp in total and registers an even more impressive 0-62mph time of 6.8 seconds.
It will travel up to 38 miles (officially) on electric only power. The diesel for its part delivers impressive economy of around 50mpg. Of the two, it’s the richer, smoother engine as the four-cylinder PHEV can be noisy under hard acceleration. Both are fitted with an eight-speed automatic gearbox and have an excellent 2500kgs towing capacity.
At first glance, the Mazda’s interior feels a bit retro but there’s plenty of tech on offer. There’s a neat 12.3 inch driver’s display and a standard-fit head-up display, which projects vehicle speed, cruise control settings, navigation directions and other info straight on to the windscreen.
Infotainment is on a 12.3 inch central screen, which is navigated by a handy rotary controller between the front seats. Mazda deserves extra brownie points too for retaining a row of physical buttons for controlling the air conditioning and heated seats.
DAB radio, wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay smartphone integration, Google Maps and Google Play Music apps are all standard, as is Google Assistant voice control and Amazon Alexa.
The front seats and driving position are excellent as is space in the middle row of seats. The third row of seats will accommodate kids with ease and all but the tallest adults too with the middle bench slid forward. One intriguing option allows you to order a six-seat version, which replaces the middle row with two armchair sized seats.
There are five trim levels, with the base Exclusive-line featuring a notable range of standard equipment. This includes black leather interior trim, a heated and leather-trimmed steering wheel, three-zone climate control, 18-inch alloy wheels, front and rear parking sensors, and a rear-view camera.
Other trim levels add things like plusher leather, fancy wheels, a panoramic sunroof, rear privacy glass and a Bose 12 speaker sound system.
Prices start from £49,780 and £52,475 for the entry level PHEV and diesel versions respectively with the ranges topping out at £56,530 and £59,845. BIK rates are just 13% for the PHEV compared with 35-36% for the diesel.