Imagine this: You're looking for a crossover with a pinch of sportiness. None of the current crop of two-rows in the upper $30K to $50K range are doing it for you. You like the swoopy Mazda CX-90 but it's too big for your wants and needs. You hear the phrase "zoom zoom" whispered by unseen forces. You get to your Mazda dealer and see that a new contender has emerged. Enter the 2025 Mazda CX-70.
The all-new CX-70 shares a lot of its bones with the CX-90, though it's smaller and its exterior duds aren't just a shrunken-down copy. It's less curvy and a bit more slab-sided, with a more-aggressive grille. The CX-90 is meant to give off a luxury vibe, while the CX-70's design leans more heavily, at least on the outside, into the oft-real perception that Mazda bakes sportiness into all of its vehicles.
Full disclosure: Mazda flew me to New York City for a night and put me in a fancy hotel and paid for meals so that I could take photos of the CX-70 and chat with the PR team about it. The vehicles I photographed are pre-production Canadian spec and American-spec models will have some minor visual differences, depending on trim/packaging.
I didn't get to drive the CX-70 -- hopefully that comes later -- in Manhattan. But I was able to shoot a bunch of photos and crawl around the interior.
I can't fairly judge material quality on early builds like these, so I won't. What I can say is the cabin looks a lot like what's found in the larger CX-90, and that's a good thing. It's an attractive design.
Mazda has put some clever storage options into the rear, and the cargo area seemed to easily swallow some luggage that the brand had on hand for demonstration purposes. There's an upscale look and feel here -- especially if you get the red Nappa leather that's exclusive to this model.
It's easy to praise a vehicle when it's standing still, so all early opinions should be taken with a bit more salt than I put on my French fries. This could all fall apart when I drive it, but the CX-70 looks, at first glance, to be at least competitive.
Speaking of driving it -- buyers will have two powertrain choices. Just like with the CX-90, you can get a 3.3-liter turbocharged inline-six with a mild hybrid boost or a plug-in hybrid pairing a 2.5-liter, naturally-aspirated four-cylinder to an electric motor. I don't see power numbers in the press materials Mazda provided, but in the CX-90 that the 3.3-liter makes 340 horsepower and 369 lb-ft of torque while the PHEV, which has a 17.8 kWh battery, makes 323 ponies and 369 lb-ft of torque. The mild hybrid in the 3.3 has a 48-volt setup.
I don't expect to see the base inline-six from the CX-90, and I do expect that the CX-70 will use an eight-speed automatic and have all-wheel drive available if not standard.
Mazda will officially unveil the vehicle right around press time, so we will update with specs as we get them.
We don't have pricing yet but I'd guess a high-$30K starting point with loaded models checking in around $50K or maybe a tick under.
Key available features not previously mentioned include 21-inch black wheels, black interior accents, remote-folding rear seats, cargo hooks, sub-floor storage in the cargo area, a driver-assist system that stops the vehicle should the driver become unresponsive, and Amazon Alexa integration.
We're barely scratching the surface here -- Mazda is probably going to give us more detail at launch, as automakers often do. For now, my initial take is that the CX-70 looks good -- though I prefer the curviness of the CX-90 -- and has, on paper, the proper bonafides to be a sporty two-row crossover with the type of utility features crossover buyers need.
Now, let's drive the dang thing.
[Images © 2024 Tim Healey/TTAC.com]
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