My honest opinion of the Mazda CX-30

The week I left for lake Garda is the week when this car was officially revealed at the dealership where I work. I have now had the chance to see it up close and drive it. So here are my thoughts.

Looks

When I saw the official reveal images provided by Mazda (image above) I thought; “oh god, why?”, but it might be the spec’s fault. Don’t get me wrong, soul red is a gorgeous colour, but I have yet to see the CX30 in this colour, in person. In the spec that our demo car is in, I think it looks gorgeous. It looks kind of like a Jaguar i-Pace, if it were styled by Mazda. Needless to say; it looks better in person.

The interior

It has the same interior style as the new 3, with a few minor tweaks. Mainly the centre console, and a few things around the edges of the dashboard which makes the carve into the doorcards (which are the same as in the 3). The steer also doesn’t look as rediculously big as it does in the 3. I don’t know if they enlarged the spokes, or just made the steer smaller, but it definitely looks more… properly proportioned, compared to the 3’s wheel.

The transmission

As you can expect from Mazda, the manual is superb (I haven’t yet driven the later automatics, but if I know Mazda at all, I know it’ll be a fairly slow box). Short throws, wonderfully shaped knob and the clutch feel is great. If you choose to throw it into the gears, you’ll notice that you need a bit more force to get it in gear, and if you do it slowly, it just slides into place. So depending on how hard you throw it in gear, it can feel like the smoothest manual you’ve ever felt, or almost as sporty as an MX5’s gearbox.

The driving experience

The steering feel is great, the seating position is fully adjustable (so is the steer), great visibility, a smooth ride even when doing 50 on a tiled road. Not much to say other than “it’s typically Mazda”, it’s fun to drive, comfortable and practical all at the same time. It has some decent go to it as well, Mazda’s engines are all pretty torque-ey on the low end, and condering the car encourages you to do 45km/h in 4th, you’ll be at the low revs pretty much all the time when cruising to you destination.

The verdict

Would I buy it?

Considering my opinion on cars that are either big or high off the ground… I hate to say it, but I actually would, though I would prefer the SkyActiv-X, rather than the -G, which is the one we have (because the SkyActiv-X isn’t available yet). It’s more spacious than the car it’s based upon (the new 3) despite having a shorter wheelbase. It’s just as comfortable and as fun to drive as it, the interior is gorgeous, it has more available options than the 3 (360deg. parking cam, luxury ed. with white leather among other things). It might be a lifted Mazda 3, but it is treated (by Mazda) as a car that’s in the same class as the 6 and CX5. It might be the spec it’s in, but I think it looks gorgeous in person, especially in the spec we have it in.

I thought, “we know what the reviewers have said, but what if some random dude who works at a Mazda dealer gave his opinion?”. So here you go. It is a bit of a read, and the pics are taken on a Galaxy S7 Edge, which has endured quite a lot. But it was fun making this, and I hope you had fun reading it.

• MH