Four minus two equals brilliance
0 Comments | Waikato Times, Sep 2, 2010 | by Dave LEGGETT
It could have been a recipe for disaster – a bargain basement two- wheel-drive CX-7.
The CX-7 was originally introduced as a premium model in Mazda’s range. It was a performer with a turbocharged petrol engine and all- wheel-drive. And the price reflected it.
So it was never going to appeal to the lower end of the market – it was too expensive for that.
However, while the top end model carries on with its high level of technical sophistication there is now also a new model without the fruit – but with a price tag some $10,000 cheaper.
It doesn’t have some of the key features that made the CX-7 stand out in the range. It is front-wheel-drive and it has a naturally aspirated four cylinder engine. And it loses some of the high specification in the cabin too so on paper it really could be the poor relation, the cheapiemodel designed to fit a price.
However the CX-7 GSX isn’t like that at all.
And in many ways it even feels better than the more sophisticated all-wheel-drive Limited model.
The logic was always there for the vehicle. The New Zealand car buyer has finally accepted that although a vehicle might look like a sports utility it likely or not won’t be used to go off- road and doesn’t necessarily have to be all-wheel-drive.
And there are big advantages if it isn’t. There is less weight to pull along, it costs less to build and the two-wheel-drive vehicle is likely to be more economical. The GSX is a substantial 263kg lighter than the flagship model. And only 64kg heavier than the equivalent Mazda6 wagon.
And in the case of the CX-7 if you replace the high output turbocharged unit with a more conventional engine you’ll make even more savings.
Suddenly the cheaper CX-7 GSX becomes much more attractive and more accessible.
The new model comes in just as the car gets its mid-life facelift.
Both CX-7 models now get more of a family look. They share many of the styling features of the Mazda3 and Mazda6 and there is a larger grille and the whole thing has a bolder looking front end than the original car.
But the design elements of the original CX-7 are still all there. And it’s one of the more aggressive looking of the current range of soft crossover style vehicles that have come to the market in the past couple of years.
The junior member of the CX- 7 range doesn’t get those wonderful big 19-inch alloys though.
They remain a feature only found on the Limited. But that’s understandable. There has to be some variation between the two models – and some sort of signal that the larger car has another $10,000 worth of value to it.
The GSX does get 17-inch alloys and they don’t look too bad. But the bigger ones are still better, more aggressive and more complementary to the overall design of the car.
The engine in the GSX is a variation on the 2.5-litre unit in the Mazda6 and in the Mazda3 SP25.
In the CX-7 it doesn’t produce exactly the same performance – there are some changes to the breathing – so power output is down from 125kW to 120kW and torque reduced from 226Nm to 205Nm.
But the bonus is that peak torque does come in lower in the rev band at 2000rpm so it’s a little more usable and the engine doesn’t have to be pushed so hard. In the Mazda6 it’s doing its best at twice that engine speed.
Of course it’s nothing like the turboed unit in the top CX7 – there’s 175kW of sports car performance.
The engine in the GSX has a completely different level of performance. It still needs the revs to let it show its stuff and because of that it’s a little slow off the mark. But over 2000 and it starts to pick up and it is best over 3000 rpm.
The vehicle gets a five-speed automatic transmission which makes for easy operation and it does offer a sequential shift option for manual changes if that is wanted. Expect 0 to 100kmh to come up in around 11.5 seconds which shows that the GSX isn’t the fastest car on the block.
But Mazda quote fuel economy figures of 9.4 litres per 100km in a mix of town and country driving. By contrast it suggests a figure of 11.5 for the turbocharged Limited.
If performance is un- spectacular the GSX’s general driving abilities and handling are much more impressive
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