Test drive Mazda CX-7 2007-2009 SUV

All photos of Mazda CX -7 2007 - 2009

The final fight Mazda CX-7 VS BMW X3

Having won the previous match with Mitsubishi Outlander XL, Mazda CX-7 reached the final. Now the decisive battle with the BMW X3. At first we agreed that we would write an article together with Igor Gubrem. For more drive, I signed up to destroy BMW, and he promised to fill up Mazda.
Do we pay for the breed?
I still do not understand why the sparkling Bavarian crossover is such a thick steering wheel, created specifically for male hands, and why since 2003 it was impossible to update the clearly outdated dashboard. Otherwise, the BMW X3 is so good that you don’t even want to stutter about the difference in price. I don’t want to, but I have to. Because in Internet conferences you can find two particularly vivid types of battles. In the first, in addition to the name of causal places, the words of the Chinese car are found. True, it is impossible to understand whether the commentators of Asian goods or haw. But they swear well and would love to blame each other in the stomach with a cursor. In the second type of virtual battles, the owners of Japanese and German vehicles participate. The purpose of these friendly conversations, whose participants sincerely love each other in a perverted form, is to prove: Mercedes, BMW, Audi cost (or are not worth) of their money.

The second floor of the dashboard is very convenient to regulate the climate without interrupting control over the road situation

The rear sofa Mazda is less convenient. Short seats pillows. Passing

The trunk of the Mazda CX-7 is more modest in volume, but the chairs are half-automatically

By the way, the question is legitimate. You can buy a Chinese car for the difference in price between the BMW X3 and Mazda CC-7: it is 400 thousand rubles, or 17 thousand dollars. Interestingly, if you take Great Wall from BMW, will we get Mazda? I don’t know, but only I would not take anything from BMW. Unless to throw out the plastic salon rattling on the cracks of asphalt, but I still hope for a fast restyling that will solve this problem. Otherwise, you will have to come to terms, not so much he thunders.
But with CX-7 but non-casual
Comparing the test participants not in sensations and money, but in terms of technical characteristics, you find that the capacity of X3 by 34 liters. With. more. But the CX-7 has 35 nm more torque, and it is available with much lower revolutions. But BMW is faster for 1.1 seconds in acceleration to 100 km/h. At the same time, in the city and on the Mazda highway, 1.1 l and 1.6 liters, respectively. By the way, the comparative fuel consumption is one of the BMW skates. However, all these are only numbers of paper and ink, kilobytes and pixels. Life speaks another language.

They say I have thin hands. And I reply that there is a thick bagel here! And also disgustingly tonsured control buttons

The rear seats are on the catwalk. Passengers open a good review for the road

BMW trunk is more practical. Less loading height, higher opening
Putting aside the table of characteristics and sitting behind the wheel of the BMW X3, you very quickly understand that other crossovers simply do not have a suspension. You can love Mazda SC-7, but in every turn it is affected by many centrifugal, centroting forces ... At critical speeds (about 170 km/h) it can even endure the turn. But on the BMW x3 nothing acts. In the bowels of his chassis, insufficient and excessive rotability disappears at once. It remains transparent, like water, neutrality. In a bend, you can press the gas pedal, as if you are going in a straight line! Acceleration along the highway is also amazing: clean as alcohol without third -party impurities. The motor can be twisted to infinity. High turns his element. And the sound, this restrained, but promising velvety roar? DAST IST PHANTASTISH, you can’t say otherwise.
What is Mazda? Unlike an opponent, it is almost impossible to buy it. And I all thought: where did the turn go in the Mausoleum? She is now standing for SC-7. Buyers like that the Japanese car is pleasantly and not boring inside. Its plastic, although hard, does not rattle on bumps, and ergonomics is much more thought out than that of Bavarz, in which all buttons are made under a carbon copy. Mazda has an expressive appearance, while the BMW X3 is simply absent (yes, we do not like Chris Banlo and his concept of flaming design).

Material: BMW X3

Matter: Mazda CX-7

BMW goes to the gap
Is it worth the perfect German handling and the magical backup acceleration of the very 17,000 dollars? Given the outdated (or, if you like, conservative) interior? But wait, we have not yet been off -road! In a sandy career, through the unsteady parapet, far beyond the clearance of BMW went into a gap with such force that not only Mazda envied, but also any SUV, not equipped with inter -normal locks.
Small weight and powerful X3 motor is supplemented with the best than the CX-7, geometric cross-country ability. The front bumper is quite short and tall. All this is flavored with exceptional anti -tuxe electronics. Even in winter, on a single dough x3, we felt that it was not easy to find a limit for the Bavarian SUV in the snow. The tests on the sand again confused his abilities.

The BMW electronic collar is created for off -road. He allows the necessary slip in the sand, allowing the wheels to confidently pave the way in loose ground. Mazda CX-7 among crossovers is also one of the first in quality of the anti-boom system, but compared to x3, its collar is too strongly strangled by the engine and is not removed. We have to practice the ride, which with such a long and low as Mazda, front -line overhang is impractical. Despite the fact that Mazda is equipped with higher -profile wheels, BMW practices the irregularities of asphalt better, it is more confident and more comfortable. The energy intensity of rivals is approximately the same, but the Mazda CX-7 compared with the BMW X3 reacts to cracks more cardboard.
It is interesting that both cars have no forced intericosa blocking, which many other crossovers are so proud of. This once again confirms that the multi -mode transmission on cars of this class is more likely to be a marketing move than a vital necessity. Modern couplings are already doing it.
Occupying the top of the cross -over world, the BMW X3 costs its money. This car goes easily and quickly, not noticing that under the wheels asphalt, snow or sand. And Mazda CC-7? She will tear any of the Japanese or Americans, and this is also worth something.

Author: Dmitry Leontyev, photo of Alexander Ortnova-Baranov