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Prices Paid: Buying & Leasing Experiences Mazda CX-7 Prices Paid and Buying Experiences
492 messages, Last post on Sep 05, 2008 at 5:18 PM
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Quick Glance: - Visually Stunning - Great Interior - Good overall acceleration / performance for an SUV - Con: Requires 91 octane gas!! - Con: AWD has poor gas milage (city: ~12, highway ~14, way off the advertised! - Con: Rear bumper isn't very strong - Con: Some dealers won't budge from MSRP (some over) Advice: WAIT! Dealers will be overstocked soon. Dealer admitted close to 30 people test drove the CX-7 in 4 days, and nobody wanted to buy it. Why? 91 octane requirement was a big big problem for a lot of people with the gas prices, especially when the dealer won't budge from MSRP. I got the opportunity to test drive the CX-7 yesterday. I didn't pre-order because I didn't want to sacrifice my 2003 Mazda 6s, if the CX-7 performance wasn't good. I own another SUV with a 3.4l V6, and it can accelerate pretty well, so I was hoping the CX-7's 2.3l turbo would be half-way decent. The CX-7 is a visually nice car, its not as tall as I expected and the front is at a much steeper angle than it looks in the photos. The interior style is clean, there is a good command of the road, and the view from the drivers seat is pretty decent. Performance wise its good. It accelerates well from a stop. It seems to struggle a bit when accelerating (foot down) once in motion in 2nd / 3rd gear. Its extremely quiet. Sales guy tried to say it was as good accelerating as the 6s, 6i yes, 6s, no way. Would I sacrifice the 6s performance for the bigger vehicle more family functional vehicle, maybe. I'll have to see if the lighter FWD Sport gets better gas milage. Considering the gas milage issues, I would definately wait. I called around a couple of dealers in the state to see if anyone had the FWD model, and I'm going to test drive one later today. Before the test drive the dealer's sales guy was like: - Nobody has these - We won't budge from MSRP - 6-8 week minimum on orders - Everyone is coming to look at this - Everyone wants the AWD sport model (which is why the one they have isn't sold) - Gas milage on FWD and AWD is the same Now the gas milage thing seemed off to me. I bought the 2WD model of my SUV with traction control in 2001 because the gas milage was 4-6 miles off on the 4WD model. This seems on par with lots of other car manufacturers. So I was interested in finding out why the AWD model had the same gas milage. Answer: IT DOESN'T! If you are driving it downhill with your foot off the gas, then maybe. But in a realistic drive around town, the CX-7 AWD got about 10 - 12 MPG. Due to some construction, one way streets etc, and the sales guy trying to make the sale, we ended up on about an hour long test drive. 91 octane is a requirement, at around $3.00 a gallon (was up as high as $3.25 around here a few weeks ago), that can get expensive fast. Compared to the SUV I have now, its pretty much double the gas costs. Something to keep in mind, and a good way to get the dealer down on the price. After the test drive, I was in a much better position. The dealer didn't evn try to sell me the AWD model, they started to talk ordering the FWD model and offering $600 over invoice, big change from the pre-test drive. Gas milage is the big issue here. Seems to me there are a few too many hidden issues with the CX-7, its early days yet. So things could get a lot worse. When I was calling around dealerships, I found one that had the CX-7 marked as used. Apparantly it was a pre-order AWD Touring model that someone had for 3 days, and then returned it, because of the poor gas mileage performance. Not a great start!!
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Replying to: jbuswell (Jun 10, 2006 12:27 am) |
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Replying to: jbuswell (Jun 10, 2006 12:27 am) The CX-7 (GT AWD) is on my list along with Infiniti FX35 AWD, and Infiniti G35AWD sedan (nixed Odyssey & Murano). I'm shopping these cars for all around safety, acceleration, handling, braking but not neccessarily in that order. I have a short term need (for a year and a half) to seat a small adult (mother-in-law) in the rear w/my two kids (age 15mos and 5yrs) for weekend drives. Fuel economy was not high on my list because safety & handling is so important to me b/c my family is a far more precious resource than petroleum products. That notwithstanding, I find it hard to believe you got 12-14 mpg with 90% hwy driving (I'm not saying you didn't). Did you floor it from stop sign to stop sign and/or floor it at every red to green light transition??? I know a car's fuel efficiency is not optimal before the engine is broken in, but your mpg was atrocious - if you measured it correctly. Another poster got over 23 mpg on his first tank. Hopefully others will post their numbers & we'll get a better idea. I agree w/you on holding off on a purchase at anywhere near MSRP. Unless you have an immediate need and no option to wait as supply catches up to demand (and prices approach $1000 above invoice or less), money is too precious to overpay. Mazda has no cachet, the warranty has been downgraded to 3yrs from 4yrs, reliability is unknown, and it hasn't been crash-tested yet. The CX-7 is somewhat of a bread-and-butter commodity car like the 6 and 3, not some limited edition high performance vehicle like the Mazdaspeed 6, which isn't doing well by the way, and need I say that Mazda resale value is not particularly good? I could go on and on as to why this is not the car to buy at MSRP, but if the fuel economy is that bad, then add that to the list. Be patient everyone and the prices will drop for us all - sooner rather than later. Regards, Deanie
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Replying to: deanie (Jun 10, 2006 10:01 pm) I think you are confusing the two posts. The second posted said he was doing 90% highway, and got 23 mpg. When I test drove the Grand Touring model on Friday, it was mostly in and around town, in the height of rush hour. It didn't perform well. I did get a voicemail from the dealer yesterday (Saturday) saying that when I test drove the car, they had filled it with 87 octane gas and not 91 octane, and this was the reason for the poor mpg. Like I said I went to test drive a FWD model at a different dealership. The big difference here is that this dealership is a Mazda "presidential" awarded dealership. I got a price about $300 over invoice, they held the vehicle for the day and gave me top dollar for my 6s. I went in around 4.30pm, and was out with the vehicle around 6pm. They had set the price up for me for the day before I even left my house. Considering the price difference of almost $10k between the FWD Sport and the AWD Grand Touring I test drove on Friday, I must admit, I'd be hard pressed to justify the price difference. The FWD Sport handles extremely well, got about 26 mpg on my way home (180 mi drive), and it was raining heavily the entire time. Having driven both, the AWD seems a little heavier and a little slower to accelerate than the FWD. The AWD model feels like your in more control. The FWD Sport seems to have a little more of a mind of its own. A couple of times in the rain from a stop, I had it lunge to the right unexpectedly around 20 - 30 mpg. I've very happy with the FWD Sport, the only thing I miss is the ambient temp sensor, but ist definately not worth the difference between the FWD Sport and the Grand Touring!!  The climate controls on the FWD Sport don't seem to suffer the horrible "fog ups" that the 6s has.
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Replying to: jbuswell (Jun 10, 2006 11:24 pm) Thanks for clearing that up. I almost tossed the CX-7 as an option (almost) when under the imperession it was getting mpg in the low teens in mostly hwy driving. Today I drove the CX-7 GT w/tech pkg (wife insists on rear view camera) for the second time. The main test was the wife (petite) and two kids (15 mos & 5 yrs) in safety seats in the rear, and it was a tight squeeze - okay for 30 minutes or less, but not long trips. That alone might be a dealbreaker, but the dynamics are great. Secure, firm handling suspension (Very safe), but it's not as quiet (road & engine noise) as I'd like in a $30,0000+ car. I obsess when it comes time to but a car because such times are so infrequent. Can't decide yet. Regards, Deanie
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I throw my impressions out there for what its worth on this new vehicle. Just a bit of a background on my situation... I have a wife and two small children (7 & 2 yrs old) and looking for a family carrier....wife would be primary driver..... I test drove two CX-7's the other day....first one was an an AWD Grand Touring model....the other was a FWD Sport model..... Both drove about the same.....one just had more bells and whistles than the other..... They both drove fairly nice, slight underpowered in my opinion, espeically off the line.....but handling was crisp and clean. Nice interior, nice leather, nice stereo, roomy....not bad. Here is the deal breaker for me.....the A/C is just unacceptable, period! I live in Central Florida....it was about mid-day 2pm, 95 degress, sticky, normal Florida weather.....anyway, the salesman started the car and let it run for about 3 minutes, A/C set at 60 degress....the fan was blowing hard, and on re-circ..... When we got in to take it for a spin I expected the air to be blowing frosty air....I did not expect the entire car to be cold, but at least the air coming from the vents should have been blowing frosty air by now....but no go on that! Did not say anything to the salesman, we left for the test drive.....a good 15 mintues later after we got back to the dealership I put my hand right up against the vents to feel how cold the air was, and it was luke cool at best....now remember, the A/C had been set at 60 degrees and still blowing full blast the entire test drive.....still nothing, no cold air..... To be fair, I said lets check another one to see if it does the same thing.....maybe the one we drove the first time had an issue......well we did the exact same thing in the second one (sport model) as we did in the first one....A/C was set the exact same, test drive was the exact same route.....but the results were the same! And here in FLorida, A/C is everthing! May not be as big an issue up in the northern states, but I know it can get quite warm up there in the summer time as well..... Mazda has been having A/C issues in its car for a while now....like in the Mazda3....since 2004 they have had this issue.....have read numerous complaints about this....I just thought that coming out with a brand new model they would have solved this issue.....it's obvious they have not! So the CX-7 is now off my list.....buyers be ware! Just my .02 of course....
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Replying to: mldj98 (Jun 12, 2006 6:49 am) I live in the DC area and just bought an AWD GT last week. It's not Florida, but the summers have many days where the temp is in the 90s and muggy (DC is essentially a filled in swamp, after all). With some of the worst rush hour traffic in the country, AC is going to be important for me. On the way home, I'll try to remember to see how cold the air blowing out is, and set the AC to manual with a low temp, and see if that changes it. BTW, Deanie, I've enjoyed reading your posts, not because you're the biggest CX-7 fan out there, but because you're honest and open minded. Anyway, for those that are in the DC area, it looks like most of our dealerships got about 3 CX-7s in 2 weeks ago, with additional vehicles trickling in since then. I purchased at Whitten Brothers in Richmond VA, and when I picked mine up, I was surpised to learn they had around 10 when my area dealers only had 3. I think they must have a history of higher volume to have such a better selection. |
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Replying to: jbuswell (Jun 10, 2006 12:27 am) Double the gas cost??? What do you drive now? I highly doubt you get over 20mpg in an SUV unless you have a dinky old RAV4 or a CR-V. Also, are you paying a $1.50 for gas??? - Con: Rear bumper isn't very strong It is plastic! So is most of very car made!. Also, there are NO crash test ratings out on it yet. I would think your assumption is a bit premature, don't you think? But in a realistic drive around town, the CX-7 AWD got about 10 - 12 MPG. If you do not own one, how did you come to this? 10-12 mpg is way off all other reports I have heard.
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Replying to: mldj98 (Jun 12, 2006 6:49 am) |
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Replying to: deanie (Jun 11, 2006 8:44 pm) Current tank of gas (18.4 gallons) lasted 290 miles, the bulk was a trip from Cincinnati to Athens, Ohio, mostly highway some 55 mph winding roads down route 50. Thats about 16 mpg on average. I'm going to fill it up with premium 91 octane BP tomorrow, and I'll let you know how that tank goes. Its very easy to depress the accelerator on the CX-7 and end up at 60 mph in a few seconds (eg. not flooring it), I'll try to drive it a little more conservatively and see how that helps the mpg. In terms of safety the thing is awesome, I took it for a short run down State Route 550 and 690 here in Athens, road veers back and forth, and plenty of hills that change direction just after the peak. I was able to take the turns on that road at 60 mph without any problems, one I probably shouldn't have but the Dynamic Stability Control kicked in and kept me on the road The CX-7 is definately more spacious and cooler than the Mazda 6s. However, there is absolutely no room in the back seats with one infant and one toddler car seat back there. I don't know how petite your wife is, but our 11 year old nephew is about the only one who can sit back there comfortably between the two car seats. Having said that, our daughter's toddler car seat fits much better in those rear seats than it ever did in the 6s. She looks far more comfortable in terms of the angle the seats at than she ever did in the 6s. One other thing, I'm glad the front head rests pop out, my daughter likes to be able to see out the windshield when nobody is in the front passenger seat, which she can't do with the head rests in place. I only paid around $23,200 for the FWD Sport, to be honest with you, having driven both the FWD Sport and the AWD Grand Touring, I just don't see the justification in the price difference unless you've got money to waste. I thought I'd miss the fancy climate controls that are in the 6s, and the Grand Touring but not in the Sport. The front windshield defroster was always a PITA on the 6s anyway, and it never worked right on a cold foggy morning. I was happy to see that the manual climate controls work very very very well. The only downside to the FWD Sport is that I didn't get the Cargo Tray, which I've now got on order. After three shopping trips around town with it, the groceries just go everywhere regardless of how careful you take the turns. One thing to keep in mind with the rear view camera, its part of the GPS package right? Check with your insurance company, make sure they don't charge or plan to charge higher premiums for cars with navigation systems. I was talking to my insurance agent, and she told me that something like 8 out of 10 owners of GPS enabled cars don't set the trip BEFORE they leave, and end up getting into the habit of trying to set the trip while driving, which sooner or later results in some kind of accident as a result. So they are looking to charge a premium for cars with GPS enabled features, and since most cars they are in the $30k or higher range, people will pay it. Hope that helps. btw. one real issue with the car is the speedometer. After driving it for a few days, didn't really notice in while test driving, its difficult to hit 5 mph increments and know that you're not doing 58 or 59 instead of 55. I guess its partly due to the fact you barely have to touch the accelerator and you go faster
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