With acronyms abound for sports utility vehicles (SUVs), and car-based SUVs becoming CUVs, the Mazda CX-7 should be a RUV (rocket utility vehicle.)
The CX-7 is really a sporty car with a long, long roof. The front fenders have sports car-like bulges, the windshield is steeply angled, and that long roofline sweeps gracefully.
It’s nimble and agile in traffic. The turbo-charged 2.3L four cylinder kicks out 244 spunky horsepower, which gets the four-door to 60 mph in around the 8 second mark. That’s only part of the acceleration story.
The turbocharger kicks in a lot of startup boost so the Mazda feels lively off the line. CX-7 starts to fade a bit, however, when approaching the 60 mph mark
Aside from its few diversions, the six-speed automatic transmission goes through the gears flawlessly. The current gear is repeated in an instrument panel readout and sometimes that’s the only way to know what gear the transmission has selected. Manual automatic shifting can be performed as well, but why?
The three-spoke racing style steering wheel is a gem. It’s thick enough to hold onto easily and the surface has the right feel – neither too slick nor too sticky.
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