2023 Mazda CX-50 | Compact SUV Family Review

The 2023 Mazda CX-50 is an all-new compact SUV that competes with the Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, and Ford Bronco Sport. In this video, we drive a CX-50 to review its positives and negatives from a family perspective. #MicahDrives

We’re driving a 2023 mazda cx-50 mazda claims that this is a trail-worthy vehicle we’re going to test that claim in just a little bit but first information explosion do the mazda cx-50 is all new for 2023. let us begin with interior what i’m feeling about the interior is it’s hulkish what do you mean you know how when bruce banner becomes the hulk he grows

In size but his shirt stays the same size i feel like that’s what’s happening in the interior like this feels very tiny and then there’s this one little bit so you’re struggling with a sense of scale yeah but like now that i’m imagining that way it’s fun i hadn’t even thought about it now i can’t unsee how small this is versus the rest of the stuff i was more

Focused on the material quality which i think is excellent in here this is the absolute highest trim so it’s not surprising but i think there’s a really strong style component here and that sophistication comes through not only material quality and in sort of the simple but elegant design of the interior but also little things like when you turn the little knobs

Here there’s like a nice little clicky thing and it just feels good to interact with the vehicle this particular one we’ve got the terracotta leather interior and i just love color in an interior there was a time when it was all just gray black and tan and this feels so lively to me and the stitching is extremely bold it looks like the interior was injured and

Then it was repaired in stylish fashion in terms of space i’m very comfortable in the front seat and behind my preferred front seat position there is plenty of room for me to sit i do prefer a reclining second row seat which this does not have but the static recline position i think is very comfortable i would happily sit in the back seat of a mazda cx-50 if i

Were not a control freak how was it getting kiddo aboard the doors open super wide the car seat is very easy to install thanks to the um latch covers which remove very easily although you’re definitely going to lose them yes yes you’ll definitely lose the latch covers but yeah it’s easy to get kiddo in and out she climbs the board no problem easy to lean across

And get her buckled up and then any thoughts about the cargo area i really liked the bag hooks that are located in the cargo area and the deep wells on either side when i got groceries i had some things that were glass and i did not want rolling around and those really came in handy overall size is uh smaller than you’d find let’s say like in a rav4 but um i

Think there’s plenty of space and i like the little releases in the back area that let the rear seat backs just flop down without having to go around to the side assuming the front seat is far enough forward one issue i have with the interior is right here all of this black plastic and this metallic trim right here can be uh if you’re at the right sun angle if

Only i had some flying eyes sunglasses easily available to protect these beautiful eyes from any inadvertent reflections i better put them on just to be safe that’s good brand integration we’re in the shade now we’ll take them off from a safety perspective the nhtsa has not raided the mazda cx-50 but it does have eight airbag standard including knee airbags for

Both you and me oh and then there’s a complete suite of active driver assists automatic emergency braking lane keeping assist though i will say that the lane keeping assist for my tastes is a little late to intervene i’ve noticed on a few occasions that i’ll actually be across the line before it will pull me back in so a little snappier i’m very incompetent but

Overall what do we think is the mazda cx-50 family friendly family friendly yes kiddo you think it’s family friendly yes very except for this one except for the smell we’ll have to bring our own odors to help get that new car out i’m working on it kiddo rear window test is that it high five anyway arm rest test in my comfortable eight and four driving position

I can keep both elbows on the armrest uh it’s a little bit of a stretch but not so bad even when i do this oh yeah that is a real advantage to having this divided center console cover outboard very soft uh soft inboard yeah i’m gonna go 75 of the inboard and full marks on the outboard hey have you subscribed to our channel yet if you haven’t please do at 100 000

Subs we’re going to review a windowless white van style child do you like how this car looks on the outside oh that’s great yeah that’s zircon sand paint it cost 400 and i think to keep our kiddo happy it would be well worth it that does lead me to a point i was going to make though which is that paint there are only two free paint choices for the mazda cx-50

All the other ones are 400 or 600 but i do overall like the style of the cx-50 even though it’s pretty um heavy with the body cladding but how else do you convey that sense of adventure without black plastic body cladding also roof rails come standard and we noticed that on the rear those things that look like little vents are not vents though how often do you

Spend time like really getting up close to the butt of your car if you do no judgment but i also noticed that the black plastic below the front headlights is so pronounced that it creates a kind of shelf that you can use it’s a sports shelf what would you put on it yeah i threw it out to instagram and you guys had some really good ideas to me the cx-50 looks

Very much like a mazda but somewhat more rugged that is literally what it is and that is what it looks like but what do you guys think do you like the style of the mazda cx-50 or do you not like it those are your only two options tell us in the comments child says maybe so we’re gonna give you a maybe option if you are curious what we’re doing between youtube

Videos you can give us a follow over on instagram in motion driving around the mazda cx-50 i think it is generally comfortable the ride quality is taut and when you hit a single bump that doesn’t feel abusive it feels controlled but you ever have the washboard that the the kind of uh road surface well i experienced that on the drive home and with that sort

Of surface it feels a bit much single hit’s not so bad multiple hits it gets a little bit tiresome the upside to that taut ride quality is that it feels very controlled in corners uh very settled very stable and that’s one of the interesting things about the cx-50 and mazda in general right now so what was previously a brand all about playful sportiness they’re

Really now about like predictability and control and you really feel that when you’re driving this thing and one of the big ways that that expresses itself is with the steering ratio it’s a fairly slow steering ratio in fact the steering ratio is slower than that subaru outback we drove a few months back that slowness takes away any of the nervousness you might

Have had in olden mazdas but it does also take away some of that kind of immediacy and that sort of playful spark but there are a couple of other interesting things happening with the cx-50 that i am fascinated by mazda has a system called g vectoring control and what it does is it reduces engine torque imperceptibly to put just a tiny amount of weight on the

Front tires when you steer and what that does it creates a more predictable steering behavior as a guy who liked mazda’s before i kind of miss the fun but there is definitely something to driving a car that goes exactly where you want to aim it and i would say that that is more in line with their aspirations to be a more premium brand as for the powertrain

One thing i really like about it is that there’s immediate response even though it is a turbocharged engine and it has only six ratios for the transmission which these days is not that many but it doesn’t feel like there’s major gaps and when you really get on it it pulls really hard now this is the more powerful turbocharged engine i’d like to drive the base

Engine just to see what it’s all about but moss has done a really good job tuning the powertrain in this one and i suspect that might carry over to the weaker engine well i’m having a predictable and stable drive but let’s see what sweeney thinks evie’s at the wheel question number one almost always visibility visibility over my right shoulder despite the high

Belt line is pretty good i think the windows are just wide this b pillar is rather intrusive and also this is one of those vehicles where the angle of the a-pillar kind of intrudes when i’m going through corners yeah it does sort of occupy that where you’re looking sort of space and visibility wise you’re right that high belt line it actually feels very much

Like you’re sitting in a hot tub you’ve got the black lower section and then the light upper section and it really creates a two-tiered vibe in here how do you feel steering this thing around our endless windy roads stable is a good way to put it i feel like when i turn i can predict the amount of steering i will get even though the amount of effort is higher

Than i’d like and then leave them from a stop here do you feel like you’ve got enough power yes well that was an easy one overall do you feel comfortable driving the mazda cx-50 i do okay i’m getting back at the driver’s seat yeah i think if you’re looking for a premium uh predictable and comfortable unless you’re on the 91 freeway kind of drive the mazda

Cx-50 is a great choice but you know what we need to do we need to go off-road we are driving off-road in a mazda mazda’s um eager to be a little bit more rugged as indicated by the fact that all of their suvs moving forward will have all-wheel drive standard on that note when i was driving on road i got an all-wheel drive warning and i thought could i possibly

Be driving so crazy as to have created that apparently the answer is yes but i thought that’s a little bit odd that’s the kind of thing i might expect when driving um you know aggressively off-road but anyways back on task here we are on dirt and you know what i mean i’m gonna put this in off-road mode oh good idea there we go so on the vehicle launch for mazda

Cx-50 i got to experience basically a 30 mile an hour curve on dirt using normal mode and then that same curve using off-road mode and it was fascinating because uh with normal mode you kind of turned in and then it turned a little bit too much and then you had to kind of take out some steering and make some adjustments and with off-road mode it was just completely

Consistent and predictable which is the whole mazda philosophy that you use the modes to keep the feel consistent in a variety of terrains and driving experiences okay we got a moment here where uh the right rear and the front left are not touching the ground very well let’s see if the cx-50 can get power to the ground by applying brakes to the tires that are

Slipping to transfer power to the ones that have grip slipping transferring powering through and it goes wow yeah it did a really good job there yeah this isn’t going to supplant our bronco for off-road capability but i think for uh going off on trails and doing a little adventuring it’s a great platform it’s doing better than i thought it would all right i

Think we’re duly impressed with the mazda cx-50s off-road chops for what it is let’s get back on road all right we went off-road moving on emotion factor there’s a premium quality to the materials there’s attractive exterior styling the driving quality isn’t super emotive but i think the other factors make up for it yeah and i would say too that perhaps the

Driving portion of the emotion factor is elevated in the off-road capabilities which while not outrageous i think could take you places and that has an emotive quality overall i think there is an emotion factor but what do you guys think if you’re emotionally drawn to buy a mazda cx50 of your very own click the kelly blue book listing link in the description

Below for real listings in your area remarks let’s talk about infotainment we have the optional 10.25 inch display that that smaller screen by the way only comes on the base model this is a really interesting setup so it’s high and wide which is actually my preferred setup because it’s not too far from your gaze when you’re driving mazda has been a little bit

Peculiar about which screens they will let you touch so they really want you to use the little control knob down here among many systems using the control knob it can be baffling this is a very simple system and it makes using the control knob much more palatable i totally agree i really struggle when it’s not a touch screen but i found myself able to use this

One interestingly mazda does let you touch the screen if you’re using apple carplay or android auto it’s so far away i probably wouldn’t use it that much but if you’re like getting the vehicle started or trying to like pull up navigation instructions or something like that i could see using it because sometimes it’s just like there’s the thing i want to touch

Just touch the thing so i like that they give you that option while we’re talking about the screen this one has the optional 360 degree camera system only comes on the absolute highest trim the area devoted to the 360 cam is actually pretty small but because it’s so high-res you can still see what you’re looking for you know like squirrels behind the car or

Anthropomorphized bears up front singing a song while they eat your trash you know how mountain life works i like too that you can use it while you’re off-roading and that it automatically pops up whenever you get too close to something as for engine choices there’s a naturally aspirated 2.5 liter and then there’s a turbocharged 2.5 liter which is the one that

We have here if you want the maximum power out of the turbocharged engine you have to use 93 octane and i’m not even sure where we find that around here oh another good reason to get the turbocharged engine is that uh it bumps tow from 2000 to 3000 pounds and it adds a tow mode so when you put in an off-road mode as we used previously it keeps it consistent with

How it should drive on-road when you put it in tow mode it uh uses an enhanced version of that g vectoring control to give you very similar steering feel to when you are not driving with a trailer also it changes a few other things like it’ll hold gears longer and stuff so you can tow more easily we’ve entered the complaint zone uh when we got into this vehicle

Uh first thing i noticed there’s some slight distortion in the glass here now it’s a pressed vehicle who knows what this has been through before if this was a prompt repair where the deal is that little distortion in the glass would drive me crazy and that leads into a complaint that you had about that same glass i really dislike a head-up display it just always

Feels like it’s distracting me and making me nauseous and when i attempt to turn this one off every time i turn the car back on again it’s back up which leads me to another complaint when you get in the car and turn it on if you haven’t put your seat belt on it beats at you incessantly this car is entirely too focused on safety i’m the only one who can complain

Incessantly about safety yeah that job has taken mazda cx50 can i make a trim recommendation please do quick reminder the trim recommendation is which vehicle gives you the essentials you’d want in a car at the cheapest possible price i’m going to suggest moving it from the base trim to the 2.5 s select package that package costs three thousand dollars versus

The base model but it adds rear vents smart key access an extra pair of usb ports the 10.25 inch display that we like and 60 40 split folding rear seats that seems like money well spent as for the competitors geez there are so many jeep cherokee kia sportage honda crv toyota rav4 bronco sport from ford there are a lot of alternatives did we miss any remarks if

So leave them in the comments section synopsis in thinking about the essence of the mazda cx-50 it is predictable it is stable it still has some capacity for fun to me it is the 20-year marriage of compact suvs can you think of a better synopsis if so tell us in the comments section if you’d like to see what we’re doing between youtube videos give us follow

Us over on instagram and if you’d like to see more of these kinds of videos we review new cars occasionally we talk about our bronco and every once in a while we do some stuff in our helicopter if you’d like to see any of those videos feel free to subscribe family i think we’ve done a good job driving and reviewing the mazda cx-50 may i have a five i’ll give

You a punch ow and a five i’ll just give you a five and you come get your high five you

Transcribed from video
2023 Mazda CX-50 | Compact SUV Family Review By Micah Muzio