By Paul Gover.
The glaring gap in Mazda’s SUV line-up has finally been filled with good news for buyers.
The all-new CX-30 sits between the undersized CX-3 and the family-focussed CX-5, giving the Japanese brand the ‘just right’ package so familiar to anyone who knows Goldilocks.
It’s a late arrival, as Kia and Hyundai have been making the pace with their non-identical Seltos and Kona twins, but it is turning lots of heads.
The design of the CX-30 is lovely, from the headlights through the cabin to the boot, and manages to make the most of its boxy basics.
Under the skin it picks up the mechanical package from the top selling Mazda3, finally giving the size and class that buys have expected – but never received – from the Mazda2-based CX-3.
So it’s calm and refined, nicely finished, and sits where more and more SUV shoppers are looking.
But it’s not cheap, and the boot could still be bigger, and rear vision is poor, and there is not much space for teenagers in the back.
That’s becoming a familiar story at Mazda, where design has taken top priority as it looks to separate itself from the mainstream pack.
The design work on the CX-30 is good, and it’s a lovely relaxing drive, but there are still buts.
The biggest one is the pricing, which starts at $29,990 for a front-drive car at a time when the similarly-equipped Seltos and Kona are around $5000 cheaper. That might not sound like much, but it’s 20 per cent of the Koreans’ price-tags.
The new name game for the CX-30 is not related to the car, although brands like Audi and BMW are using a slight twist on their Q-series and X-cars to mark their new SUV coupes, but only comes because it already has the CX3-5-8-9 models.
Using the Mazda3 platform gives the G20 versions of the 30 a very solid chassis as well as front-wheel drive and a 2-litre petrol engine. There is all-wheel drive and more power in the G25 models, but they can also hike the price all the way to $43,490.
The car performs well, with solid sprinting and fuel economy around 6.5 litres/100km, and it is very quiet and relaxed at highway speeds.
Corning is good with no protests from the tyres, it stops well, and there is plenty of safety equipment and good headlights.
Some of the safety tech can be intrusive than its class competitors, particularly the jerky operating of the radar cruise control and the annoying buzzer that sounds if you have feet on the brake and accelerator pedals at the same time.
The CX-30 is definitely a winner for Mazda, and a genuinely impressive newcomer that’s likely to be a contender for Car of the Year awards at the finish of 2020.
It’s not perfect, and it’s not cheap, but it’s good.
THE BASICS
Mazda CX-30
Price: from $29,990
Power: 114kW/200Nm
Transmission: 6-speed auto, front-wheel drive
Position: compact SUV
Plus: plush feel, great design, has a boot
Minus: poor visibility, too expensive
THE TICK: Yes
