Test drive Mazda CX-7 2007-2009 SUV

Tamed

The fashion for dislike for American politics does not pass - and, in general, it appeared from scratch. However, there is a category of citizens around the world who are not supposed to love America. If you earn cars in the production of cars, to feel negative for the largest market in the world somehow illogical. So the path to the buyer of the Mazda crossover began in the States. And only now she comes to Europe and Russia.
 
From a certain point of view, any SUV and even just a station wagon is a sports car. Actually, in the American language, they began to call their Sport Utility Vehicle about fifteen years ago. This is a machine for people leading an active lifestyle. To load some snowboard or, for example, a dog and guns, and roll it somewhere where increased cross-country ability. And this image of people who are ready to overcome something there is very important for owners of SUVs. Maybe sometimes not less important than the possibility of overcoming in itself. And then, you know, all things, we have no time to ride in bear corners - so at least dream ... Therefore, it is difficult to wonder that comfortable vehicles of high cross -country ability were quickly added to the classic high levels of comfort. To deal with terminology once and for all, they are now called crossovers - that is, roughly speaking, a cross. And what is the percentage of such a definition - it does not matter.
 
Mazda in all this bacchanalia of love for nature by driving in this very nature until recently participated quite limited. And, we can say indirectly: its all -wheel drive pickups of the series B and those who have replaced them are made together with Ford. Like the only model that can be called an SUV - Tribute, as you know, had direct relatives in the person of Ford Escape and Maverick. Therefore, taking up the crossover, the company from the city of Hiroshima decided the issue in full accordance with its image. That is, I chose for a car as a sports style as possible. In this connection, in the spirit of fashion trends to CX-7, it would be quite possible to apply the term five-door coupe, no matter how perverted it sounds from the point of view of a purist.
Everything is telling us about speed here: both protruding wings and narrow ones (as a former purist, I note that it would be more correct to say low) windows, and a tilt of windshield of 66 degrees. The hood, however, is shorter due to this glass itself, which contradicts the classic canons of sports. But honestly: people tried so hard to make the power unit compact that it would be wrong to hide their achievements in this regard. Honesty does not refuse designers to decorate the hood and front: you think a ledge on the hood in our time is generally a decorative element? No, here it was needed, because the CX-7 engine is the same as on MPS, that is, it is equipped with a turbocharger with an intermediate cooler, and now for the latter you need an additional place from above.
 
Swift forms gave another useful effect: despite the relatively modest sizes-in terms of dimensions it is a little more than other compact SUVs, but it seems much larger. Due to its impracticality, the sports style is generally pleased to consider a sign of something elite. Because to drive and just enjoy the process of driving is such an activity that does not have time for the middle class in the broad sense of the word - that is, people whose daily work there is this world, salt salts and so on. They buy cars to carry and move.
 
In fact, everything is not the case for a long time. And even the notorious cars for $ 10,000 are already choosing from the controls. And even, we are not afraid of this word - according to the image. They are meticulously compared, and participants in the Internet survey indignantly reject Chinese cars. Supposedly for quality and safety. And they discuss whether Logan is beautiful, and whether its ugly appearance is compensated for by decent characteristics and the spaciousness of the cabin. So no car can be considered good simply due to the presence of four wheels and their roundness.
 
Mazda CX-7 This applies to the full. After all, just for the very middle class. Well, let's say so - just above the average, because even now that it appeared with official dealers, the CX-7 costs about $ 45,000 (less than a million two hundred thousand rubles, if in the units that are officially recommended now). Last year, when only gray cars from the States were available, prices reached $ 75,000.
  
Of course, not only the price has changed. The main difference from the American version is a mechanical transmission. Although, there are several other innovations: bumper, lighting devices and suspension. The CX-7 European suspension has become more rigid, and the car is more likely reminiscent of the same MPS or MX-5. It is so clearly controlled that you forget about the height and other off -road features. Perhaps, thanks to the active all -wheel drive system, which takes into account the speed of each wheel, the engine speed, the angle of rotation of the steering wheel and the forces acting on the car.
 
Europeanization was mainly engaged in Germany - on autobahns and the highway in Nurgburgring. However, the Russian version is even more special: to sell an SUV without an automatic box with us is cooler than trading air conditioners in Antarctica. And in Russia it is planned to sell five thousand CX-7 from European eight. Therefore, we will get an intermediate option - with a European appearance, but by an American transmission.
  
The interior fully corresponds to the Sport Utility title: expressive forms with round devices and a rather pragmatic finish. One must think so as not to divert a sports car and simplify cleaning the utilitarian. Impressive depths of the box between the front chairs in the European version received an insert bottom - apparently, in the old light they are used to doing smaller trifles. But a very convenient system for folding the rear seat has been preserved: so that the back falls forward, just pull the handle near the trunk door. This is the Karakuri system: a hundred years ago in Japan, mechanical dolls, which were called that were in fashion. Well, in Mazda CX-7, this drive helps to cope with loading what you need for active life even alone. Sports car - it is usually separate from family values. A five-door compartment is still a rather correct term for such a machine.

Abstracts after
1 CX-7 engine is the same unit with a turbocharger and an intermediate cooler that is placed on Mazda6 MPS.
2 The Sport package includes an audio system from Bose with nine speakers, xenon and leather salon. Outside, it can be recognized by chrome door handles.
3 European CX-7 differs from American increased hardness of the body, changes in the suspension and setting the steering. Other tires are installed on it.
4 torque is distributed between the front and the rear axes fully automatically. Electronics controls the speed of each wheel, the forces acting on the car, the angle of rotation of the steering wheel and the operating mode of the engine. From 50 to 100 percent of the torque is supplied to the front axis.
 
Mazda CX-7
Engine with direct injection of gasoline and turbocharged
Working volume (cubic cub) 2261
Power (L.S. at rpm) 238 at 5000
Moment (nm at rpm) 350 at 2500
The drive is complete
Gearbox automatic, 6-speed
Length/width/height (mm) 4680/1870/1645
Equipped mass (kg) 1695
Maximum speed (km/h) 181
Acceleration to 100 km/h (c) 8.3
Fuel consumption, medium (l/100 km) 11.5
The price in Moscow from 1,141,000 rubles. (about $ 44.5 thousand)
 
Text Valery Chusov
Photo by Mazda Motor
 

Source: "Autopilot"