Video: 2024 Mazda CX-90 Review: More Than Mainstream

It's on an all-new platform, with longitudinal engines and rear-biased all-wheel drive, and it gets three new powertrains. We took a closer look at the interior features and the styling of the CX-90 in a separate video, so go check that out, because today we're focused on how these SUVs drive. We were able to drive two of the three available powertrains: the Turbo S, which features a turbocharged inline-six engine, and also the plug-in hybrid. We had both rain and shine on our drive, and this is how it went. So we're in the Turbo S right now. This is the inline-six-cylinder-powered model. It's rated at 340 horsepower, 369 pounds-feet of torque when using premium fuel. Mazda says it makes a little bit less, 319 hp on regular gas. And it works with an eight-speed automatic transmission and also a 48-volt mild-hybrid system to save fuel. We've been driving it for a bit now, dealing with a little bit of rain, you can see. But the power and smoothness from this drivetrain is really good. It has definitely enough power to get up to highway speeds easily and move this SUV well. It doesn't really have overwhelming power, which, this is a big vehicle so that's kind of be expected, but definitely enough. And one thing I was noticing about it is that the vehicle we're in has three drive modes, and when you switch to the Sport mode, you get a really different character from the setup. We're in Normal. Now I'm gonna switch to Sport. And you just get a lot more engine sound in the cabin, more responsive accelerator. It really changes the character of the drivetrain. And that's notable because in some vehicles, they'll have even more drive modes than this, four or five, and sometimes it's hard to really tell the difference between them. Whereas in the CX-90, it's clear which one you're in. Now, Sport mode might seem kind of silly in a three-row crossover SUV designed for families, but the switch to this new platform kind of gives it some legitimacy. This is now a rear-drive-based platform with longitudinally mounted engines instead of the old transverse setup that the CX-9 had. And that's a setup that's really characteristically used with sporty cars. And Mazda has that history with models like the Miata. This is no Miata by any means, but it drives well. It has nice poise in corners, and it has more of that connected feel you might expect than your normal crossover SUV, you know, even though it has that platform, there aren't rear-wheel-drive versions of the CX-90. All of 'em have all-wheel drive, though it's a rear-biased setup. Vehicles like this, they have a little bit different feel than your normal front-drive-based crossover. And you can feel that in the way the vehicle handles. The steering, you know, is direct and precise. It doesn't have a ton of feedback, but again, we're in what's a bigger family-oriented crossover SUV. One of the benefits though of going to this setup, though, is that the front wheels have more ability to turn. This has a tighter turning circle than the old CX-9, Mazda says, despite being a bigger vehicle with a much longer wheelbase. So one thing I like about the CX-90's turbocharged six-cylinder powertrain is that the mild-hybrid system is not intrusive. In some other vehicles with these 48-volt systems, there's indecisiveness, inconsistency in terms of just how the power is delivered, even in terms of how braking response is delivered. But here you have consistency and smoothness whether you're accelerating or braking. So it's predictable, which is nice. This vehicle is rated at 25 mpg in combined fuel economy, which, you know, that's pretty good for a big three-row crossover SUV. In terms of ride and handling quality in the CX-90, it is a firmly tuned setup with the wheels and tires on this model. You do feel a lot of the road imperfections when they exist whether it's little bumps or bigger cracks in the road, but there's a refinement when you cross over them; it doesn't linger on. The suspension will deal with the bump quickly and then move on. And the benefit of that is that you have some really, you know, decent poise when you're driving on twistier roads or when you're at highway speeds, there's nice stability. It doesn't feel unsorted at all. And even at higher speeds, it's fairly quiet in the cabin. In terms of driver-assist features, the CX-90 offers an available lane-centering, adaptive cruise control system, and that works at really low speeds, too. So, kind of takes a little bit of the stress out of managing traffic-filled roads. One thing I noticed about it that is something we've observed in other vehicles with this setup is that when the lane-centering feature is active, it really likes to kind of hug the right side of the lane. And you know, that's fine if you're in the right-most lane of a highway, but if you have another lane of traffic to your right, it puts you pretty close to other moving vehicles, which can be a little unsettling. So I kind of find myself constantly kind of tugging the steering wheel back to kind of move a little bit towards the left part of the lane where I was a little bit more comfortable driving. So now we're in the plug-in hybrid version of the CX-90 and we've caught a little sun, the rain has let up. Some of the details on this powertrain. It's rated at 323 hp on premium fuel, and it makes the same amount of torque, 369 pounds-feet of torque, as the inline-six-cylinder engine. In terms of the more plug-in hybrid elements of it, Mazda says it gets around 26 miles of range on a full charge before it works as a hybrid after that to extend your range. And in terms of charging, Mazda says it can charge on a Level 2 charger a little more than two hours. And on a 120-volt Level 1 household outlet, it could charge in a little less than seven hours. So the plug-in hybrid has a number of different drive modes, too, like the inline-six version. And each of the modes kind of dictate a bit how the plug-in hybrid powertrain responds. When you're in Sport mode, you're gonna get a lot of the gas engine helping to assist with acceleration even when you have battery charge. And when you're in Normal mode, it's more likely you're gonna be driving with electric power. Sometimes the gas engine will kick on when you really want acceleration. When you're in the EV mode, it really does try to stay in electric-only operation even to the point of having the acceleration that's left just be a little bit more modest because it's only operating with the electric motor that's part of the system. Now, if you floor it and hit the kickdown button that's underneath the accelerator pedal, then the gas engine will kick on. But otherwise it'll try and stay just running on electric power. Right now, we've completely depleted the battery at this point in the drive. But an interesting thing about the CX-90: It has a charge mode, so you can press a button and the gas engine that's part of the plug-in hybrid system will operate as a generator to recharge the battery and kind of give you some more electric range. In terms of fuel economy for the plug-in hybrid, it's rated at 56 mpg-e, and when it's just operating on gas power, it's rated at 25 mpg. And that's the same as the combined rating for the inline-six version of the CX-90. So this drives pretty similarly to the inline-six model. There are some differences, though. One of the things that stands out is the brake pedal feel. Being a plug-in hybrid, it has that kind of different, not quite as precise, not quite as linear feel as the regular gas model does. Most of the time when you're driving around in EV mode, you don't have the gas engine soundtrack in the background, and that kinda lets you hear other sounds that otherwise the gas engine might mask. But in terms of suspension tuning, in terms of how it feels and handles, it's a very similar experience to the inline-six version. Mazda's been trying to position its vehicles as upscale premium offerings for a while now, and the CX-90 continues that push. It really has the platform and layout that you might expect to see on a German luxury SUV. And while the CX-90 starts at a price that's similar to the outgoing CX-9, it can get much more expensive on uplevel trims. But those uplevel trims feel really nice. They feel worth it. So if you're looking for kind of that in between mainstream and luxury, the CX-90 might be an SUV for you.