Yahoo Autos 2023 Mazda CX-50 is fast, fun and affordable. Just don’t expect an off-roader
Mazda may be the world’s most frustrating automaker. Not because it builds bad vehicles, but because it builds good vehicles and consistently undermines them with muddled brand communications and stubbornly inconvenient controls.
The new 2023 CX-50 is no exception. It’s an attractive, affordable and sporty compact SUV that will eventually replace the popular CX-5. The striking CX-50 offers more power and improved features — everything you would expect from the next generation of a successful vehicle.
But Mazda couldn’t leave well enough alone. In the grand tradition of people and brands who aren’t quite certain who they are, it couldn’t resist a little embellishment. It’s not a mortal sin; we’ve all done it at one point or another. The fish we caught. The witty comment we thought of just after the perfect moment. The rock-crawling capability other SUVs offer. The likelihood our owners will drive more than 50 feet off the road in the Sonoran Desert.
But why? There are plenty of reasons to buy a CX-50 without playing those games.
Offroad-ish
In painstakingly crafted sentences, Mazda promises the CX-50 enables “drivers to venture further into the outdoors and off road” and has “expanded off-road capability, allowing drivers to be closer to nature” than its previous vehicles.
I’ve felt close to nature watching hummingbirds from my patio. Does that count?
Based on Mazda’s voluminous photos, performance claims and the CX-50’s technical specifications, the CX-50 is perfectly at home on dirt roads and two-tracks through relatively level forests and fields.
The CX-50 is bigger and more powerful than the CX-5. It has up to an extra inch of ground clearance and standard all-wheel drive, but no low range of gears for rugged territory.
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It is marginally more off-road capable than other Mazdas, with selectable drive modes that were created not to expand its envelope of operation, but to make driving on dirt feel as similar as possible to driving on pavement.
That should be more than enough to please CX-50 owners, as long as they don’t expect capabilities Mazda hints at but wisely doesn’t promise.
Safety and driver assistance features
Lane departure warning and assist
Blind spot alert and assist
Cross traffic alert
Automatic high beams
Driver attention alert
Automatic low-speed braking with pedestrian alert
Automatic reverse braking
Collision alert and automatic front braking
Adaptive cruise control
360 view monitor
Traffic sign recognition
How much?
Prices for the 2023 CX-50 start at $26,800. All-wheel drive and a sporty six-speed automatic transmission are standard equipment. The base models have a normally aspirated 2.5L four-cylinder engine that produces 187 hp and 186 pound-feet of torque.
Upper models get a turbocharged version of that engine that produces 227 hp and 310 pound-feet of torque or 256 hp/320 pound-feet, depending on whether you use 87 octane gasoline (regular) or 93 octane (premium). Curiously, Mazda recommends 91 octane, generally called midgrade, but doesn’t list output figures for that.
Turbo CX-50s start at $36,400. All prices exclude a $1,225 destination charge. ($1,270 in Alaska.)
I tested a loaded CX-50 2.5 Turbo Premium Plus that stickered at $41,945, excluding destination charge.
CX-50 prices compare well to other compact SUVs, few of which match its handling, style and the turbo’s power.
Competitors include the Chevrolet Equinox, Ford Escape, Honda CR-V, Hyundai Tucson, Kia Sportage, Nissan Rogue, Toyota RAV4 and VW Tiguan.
2023 Mazda CX-50 prices and trim levels
CX-50 2.5 S: $26,800
CX-50 2.5 S Select: $28,200
CX-50 2.5 S Preferred: $29,500
CX-50 2.5 S Preferred Plus: $31,940
CX-50 2.5 S Premium: $34,400
CX-50 2.5 S Premium Plus: $36,400
CX-50 Turbo: $36,400
CX-50 Turbo Premium: $39,550
CX-50 Turbo Premium Plus $41,550
All prices exclude $1,225 destination charge ($1,270 in Alaska).
