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Adding room to the zoom

Wheels Magazine
September, 2007

"Hang on there, Bob, I just picked myself up a 'rabbit'." With that, our Newfoundland guide, Jason Brake, dropped his phone, and nailed the CX-9's gas pedal. The Mazda's six-speed auto shuffled effortlessly back two gears, sending the tacho rushing to the business end of the dial. The previously innocuous note from the 3.5-litre V6 edged up to angry as the big wagon pinned back its ears and began clawing back the gap between us and the speeding Mustang that had just overtaken us. From the passenger seat I could just glimpse the speedo as it passed through 140-150, then 160km/h, and I idly wondered where it might top out. Jason answered that question moments later, exclaiming breathlessly, "That's 180!"

For a while there I thought the Newfoundland land-speed record - for a red CX-9, on a Thursday afternoon - may have been ours for the taking, but Jason rolled out of it, allowing the Mustang to pull away, explaining that this stretch of the Trans Canada Highway was a known haunt of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. And despite their flamboyant dress sense, the 'Mounties' are reportedly every bit as humourless about nabbing speeding drivers as our own boys in blue.

Later, back at the wheel, I watched and waited for my own 'rabbit', and wondered how the rest of our convoy were getting on, without the local knowledge of the inappropriately named Brake. You could certainly do a lot worse than having the gregarious former fisherman, and commercial diver turned restaurateur as your guide to this wild, windswept outpost of Canada. For the past three days the ninth-generation 'Newfie' had led us on a rollicking road trip around his island home, regaling us with tales of 90-foot waves, killer whales, icebergs the size of buildings, and the sinking of the Titanic, all of which form part of the fabric of Newfoundland's rich maritime history.

But while I was already sold on the wit, charm and hardy, independence of the locals - as well as the rugged beauty of the place - I still had no idea why Mazda had brought us halfway around the world to drive the CX-9 wagon here. It wasn't because of the awesome off-roading, though I'm sure there are trails aplenty in the wide open spaces of a place that's half as big again as Tasmania, yet home to less than a half million people. No, the closest we got to off-road was the occasional gravel-road detour. And it wasn't because Newfoundland played a crucial role in the car's development - it didn't, although having shivered my way through what masquerades there as summer, I can recommend its cold-weather test credentials. And it certainly isn't because the place is steeped in motorsport history - most of the people I met there knew more about tides and lobster pots than tuning or lateral g. Although, having said that, Targa Newfoundland is growing in profile and popularity.

No, the only link I could establish between Newfoundland and the CX-9 is that you can actually buy one there, whereas it'll be December or January 2008 before you can get your hands on one in Australia. So, if we had to go somewhere to drive the CX-9, why not the Canadian version of Tassie?

Designed by Hedeki Suzuki, who has nothing to do with Newfoundland either, but did pen the Mazda 3, there are obvious styling similarities between the CX-9 and the smaller CX-7. But where the latter is RAV4-sized, the former is a full class bigger, packing seven seats into a body that's longer and wider than a Pajero, and only 113kg lighter. For Mazda Australia, the flexible third row makes it a logical replacement for the now discontinued Premacy, but where the Premacy competed with Taragos and various other people-movers, the CX-9 targets Toyota's Kluger and Ford's Territory, among others.

Given that these major rivals are powered by a 3.5-litre V6 and a 4.0-litre inline six-cylinder respectively, it certainly won't hurt that by the time the CX-9 lands in Australia it will have received an engine upgrade to 3.7-litres. Unfortunately, the Canadian cars we drove ran the smaller, and about to be superseded, 3.5-litre V6, but the extra 200cc, 14kW and 35Nm can only improve the performance of what was, nevertheless, a fairly impressive powerplant. The extra torque will likely be most beneficial, as the 3.5-litre didn't feel overly endowed with bottom-end, tending to give its best in the mid- to upper rev reaches. Still, it's a smooth and willing engine, with no hint of harshness even at its 6500rpm redline.

With its estimated engine outputs of 200kW and 360Nm closely matching those of the new Kluger, and having a similar kerb weight to the Toyota, the extra cog in the Mazda's excellent tiptronic-style Aisin six-speed auto gearbox could prove a decisive advantage between them. Even when hitched to the harder working 3.5-litre, the gearbox delivered crisp, seamless shifts and consistently found the right gear for the driving conditions. This showed up in fuel consumption figures - gathered over about 600km of mostly highway running, on standard grade fuel - of 12.8L/100km. The official city-highway claims are an optimistic 9.7 and 14.5L/100km, with Mazda estimating near identical consumption for the 3.7-litre V6.

Somewhat surprisingly, there are no plans at this stage to offer the slightly-more-efficient two-wheel-drive version in Australia, a decision which will place the CX-9 at a disadvantage to the Kluger and Territory, which do. Mazda's conservative sales targets of 350 per month appear to acknowledge this, when you consider the roughly 1200 (anticipated) Klugers and 1500 Territorys finding homes each month.

Depending on your chosen spec level, the CX-9 rides on either 18- or 20-inch wheels, and in each case the suspension set-up is reasonably firm. Mazda is promising a unique suspension tune for Australia, but we're guessing the sporty orientation will remain. That's no bad thing, as the ride is not overly stiff-legged, and there are tangible benefits in the form of disciplined handling and good road-holding. Cornering grip levels are surprisingly high, and there's enough feedback through the tiller to indicate this Mazda will be at the pointy end of its competitive set for driving dynamics. On the downside are the occasional jarring hits transferred through to the cabin by sharp-edged potholes.

Aside from this, the attractively designed interior is well laid out and nicely isolated from road, wind and engine noise. It's also very spacious. Mazda claims best-in-class accommodation for the standard third row of seats, which fold neatly into the floor of the cargo bay when not in use. The seats managed my 182cm, 95kg frame, while still providing enough luggage area for a pair of suitcases (stood on end) between seat and tailgate.

As with the CX-7, the CX-9 comes with one drivetrain and two spec levels. There'll be a luxury version with leather, Bose sound system, xenon headlamps, rain-sensing wipers, and a sunroof for under $60K, and a lower spec cloth-trim version costing about $55K. Standard safety features include stability, traction and roll-over stability control, plus dual front, side, and side-curtain airbags.

The CX-9's price, refinement and above-average dynamics present an attractive alternative to anyone wanting a roomy, good-looking, AWD wagon. And though it may not have the boat-ramp cred to convince salty old Newfoundlanders to ditch their rusting Chevy Trailblazers, Jason Brake reckoned it'd look the biz parked beside his favourite salmon stream.

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