The Mazda CX-30 is one of those small SUVs that flies under the radar. It’s not until you actually look for them that you see just how many are driving around our streets.
Pete from DriveLife reviewed this very same CX-30 back in May, so this will not be a full car review. If you want to go through the whole review, including our usual comparison and specification tables, go and check Pete’s review.
At the recent launch of the all-new Mazda CX-80, Mazda offered us the CX-30 to do a roadie back from Auckland, to Wellington. Never one to turn down a road trip, I was in. It’s all so familiar in the CX-30; after getting out of the CX-80 models, the centre console, switchgear and AC etc controls are almost identical. It makes it so easy to switch between cars.
Hitting the road south, I was determined to stay on SH1 to get some photos of iconic locations along our main highway. What I didn’t know then was that it would add 3.5 hours extra to my trip.
Cruising on the southern motorway, I checked out the SP25’s interior. There are no heated seats in the CX-30 SP25, and the seats are manually adjusted. But, the car has a heads-up display (HUD). This was really unexpected, but so good to have. One day, I hope all cars have a HUD, they are a great safety feature – not to mention a license-saver.
It’s also cool the CX-30 SP25 continues with Mazda’s tradition of having a physical volume knob, right there on the centre console. It doesn’t just control the volume, you can use it to skip tracks/stations by flicking it left or right. The knob is surrounded with real alloy, and feels fantastic to the touch. I realise this is a whole paragraph on a volume knob, but it’s worth giving credit to it in this non-review. I often found myself using it instead of the steering wheel controls.
Hitting some coarse chip seal on the motorway, the tyres started to sing. I see Pete mentioned this in his review too. A change of tyre brand might resolve this.
As far as that 2.5-litre engine goes, cruising on the motorway means almost silence, and there’s plenty of power for overtaking too. I sometimes found myself flicking the car into Sport mode to pass slower traffic on the open road, even if I didn’t need Sport mode. The engine can seem a little noisy sometimes, especially when under load, but it’s never terrible.
South of Tokoroa and SH1 was closed, meaning a long, long detour around some back roads. Once back on SH1, I hit roadworks and stopped…for a long time. After 15 minutes, the traffic was backed up as far as I could see behind me. Eventually, we moved on following a roadworks truck at 3km/h for an hour – so, we drove 3km. It was at this stage I was so happy for adaptive cruise control. After these roadworks were numerous others, all before getting to Taupo. At Taupo, SH1 was closed on the bypass, sending all traffic around SH5 instead.
Back on SH1, I continued using adaptive cruise control for my drive, but need to mention that it does have a feature where the car will slow down for corners, when using adaptive cruise. Like many other brands, it’s a little too cautious and slows down quite a bit. Often I’d turn off cruise for a series of gentle bends in the road, then turn it back on again. Not ideal, but Mazda isn’t alone in this respect.
Arriving in Turangi for a coffee stop, it had taken me 6 hours to drive 330km. That’s not a great average speed, and I was hoping for a better run from here on. On hitting the Desert Road and not too much traffic, it was time to test the CX-30 out on some decent corners. I absolutely love the Mazda CX-5 with its GVC system for suspension; for what it is, the Mazda CX-5 handles brilliantly. How did the CX-30 compare? Very close to the CX-5, actually. You can really chuck the car into tighter corners, and while it may not be all-wheel drive, the grip is there – as is a bit of Fun Factor.
While driving on these windy roads into Waiouru, I flicked between using the steering wheel paddles to change gear, and the gear lever. I have to point out that the gear lever in the CX-30 falls to hand perfectly, and it’s an old-school gear lever, so no fancy buttons or dials here. If you want to old-school it and pretend you are driving a manual, the CX-30 gear lever is perfectly positioned. The gearbox is a 6-speed too, so no constantly variable transmission (CVT) here. I hope Mazda sticks with ‘normal’ gearboxes and doesn’t go down the CVT route; if you enjoy driving, it makes the car a much better drive.
After getting some photos at iconic State Highway 1 locations, I cruised towards Wellington and for the first time, hit the 110km/h zone of the ‘new’ motorway. This gave me time for reflection on the CX-30; my takeaway is that it is all about the driving experience. We’ve had quite the range of Chinese-built cars through for review lately, and some of those make you wonder why you would buy a Korean or Japanese car, when the Chinese cars are so much cheaper. Then you get into something like the CX-30, and it clicks. The driving experience is so much better – the car feels different, better, tighter and more engaging.
I made it to Wellington on a single tank of gas, driving 648km and having around 30km left in the tank. That’s not a bad range for a 2.5-litre car. I ended up commuting in the CX-30 for a few more days, and clocked up just over 1,000km in it, at an average of 6.7L/100km. That’s a brilliant result. To put 6.7 into perspective, earlier this month I drove the Peugeot 2008 GT Hybrid for 1,000km, including a 600km trip away – so very similar use to the CX-30. The 2008 returned 6.2L/100km, and that car is a 1.2-litre, 3-cylinder hybrid. For the non-hybrid CX-30 with an engine over twice the size of the Peugeot to use only a little more fuel is outstanding.
Read Peter’s full review of the Mazda CX-30 here.
