![]() ![]() Our test vehicle sports the very white “Wind Chill Pearl” exterior color. The added bonus with the CX-50 is that you can feel (more) confident if you have to do a quick evasive maneuver to avoid an accident - you can whip the CX-50 around whatever fell off the truck in front of you. Hauling kids in the rear seat - to and from their activities - is pretty much just as comfortable in a sporty Mazda as it would be in a comparable vehicle. In the 2023 CX-50 Mazda has managed to balance their “zoom” with the comfortable ride we expect in our daily drive. Since most of us will only occasionally have the opportunity to safely try out the Mazda’s excellent driving characteristics, let’s put one worry to rest: No, you won’t be sacrificing your daily driving comforts. Dual exhaust pipes and the somewhat aggressive-looking rear lights of the Mazda CX-50 hint at the sporty turbo hiding within. As for the steering, you’ll notice that the steering wheel is a bit harder to turn, and you’ll “feel” more of the car and road through it compared to others. This means that your daily ride might feel a bit tight as well. What does that mean for us normal folks? Well, with a tighter - or harder - suspension, the car will be stable and lay somewhat flat when cornering, rather than the car leaning through corners. The suspension is tighter and the steering is “harder”, for example. To get the sporty ZoomZoom handling you’ll notice a couple of differences between the CX-50 and other vehicles in its class. I’m not sure what you’d have to do to get the rear to come loose - short of turning off the traction and safety systems. To get any understeer you’d have to be taking corners at a dangerous pace, probably on a wet road. The Mazda i-active all-wheel drive does a great job keeping you from flying off you desired track. The Mazda CX-50 feels very reliable and predictable - point your front tires in the direction you wish to go, and you’ll head that way. Really prominent 20-inch wheels make the Mazda CX-50 pop a little extra. They have very little truck-bounce, if any at all. Since your car is not bouncing, or at least the bouncing is minimal, neither are your passengers. If you take the same corner in a vehicle meant for tight corners rather than offroad ruggedness you’ll see that your passengers are only leaning, continuously, in one direction - they’re being pushed outwards by the centrifugal force of the turn. If you turn through an intersection in a pickup-truck a bit faster than normal - preferably one of those intersections with large gutters - you’ll see your passengers bounce back and forth multiple times (left-right or right-left, depending on which way you’re turning). Performance & Handling (The Zoom)Ī good way to judge vehicle stability is by how much passengers in your car get thrown around. The 2.5L turbo engine puts out 227 horsepower and 310lb-ft of torque - not huge numbers, but definitely enough to excite! And the handling is definitely all Zoom. The 2023 Mazda CX-50 most definitely adheres to the excitement and delight that ZoomZoom stands for. Sporty and rugged - together with awesome handling - what's not to like? Is There Zoom In The CX-50? The messaging, it’s said, aims to make an emotional connection, reminding of some of the joys of youth. It started with the wildly successful commercials in 2022, and is Mazda’s way of telling you that a vehicle has to do with more than just transportation - it should excite and delight drivers. Zoom-Zoom is Mazda's brand messaging from the early 2000’s, representing “the love of motion experienced as a child”. So, as a public service, here’s a link to one of the Zoom-videos: Seeing the puzzled expression on their face, I realize that they might not remember the Mazda commercials from twenty years ago (maybe they’re too young?). Sometimes I’ll be talking to someone about a Mazda product and I’ll make references to “Zoom Zoom”. It’s not as prominent nowadays - doing a search for the word “zoom” on the current Mazda website results in no finds - but in my mind Mazda is still so heavily connected with Zoom-Zoom that I mentally/manually insert that branding into anything Mazda-related. Mazda started using “Zoom-Zoom” in their marketing decades ago - in 2002.
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