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Got to drive this along with a number of other vehicles this week (including an Alpina XB7, Grand Cherokee 4XE, Bronco Raptor etc, will try to get quick spin write ups done soon).
Not sure if this is specific to the PHEV, but the ride and handling was borderline terrible. Quite shocking for a Mazda product. Larger bumps and mid corner events crashed through to the cabin and up through the steering wheel. Almost as if the chassis was not properly set up to accommodate the added weight of the PHEV. Power from the PHEV was quite smooth and well done, but the ride was a deal breaker.
I didn't feel that way about the Inline 6 model that I drove, it was firm but I thought it felt composed and "BMW-like"...I have not driven the PHEV.
In person it doesn't look slab sided or hunchbacked, it really looks great in person.
I'm just going by what I see from 20 feet away from this angle. The vertical door lines are straight down, making the doors look tall.
I like things that look good in photos, because I know it's gonna look good in person.
In architecture design, there is the concept of reducing building mass.
that's what other brands do in their car design.
I like when designers break up the door panels into something 3 dimensional. creases, bulges, etc.
like what aston martin does to make the DBX door appear less tall.
Aston also uses the body lines to reduce the mass of the D pillar, which just looks odd in the cx90.
Even the old CX9 did a better job with the D pillar.
The only other car I remember that suffers from hunchback is the older honda CRV.... similar effect. Granted, Mazda is a little better.
horrors of Mazdafication ..... .....
It would have been better to keep most of the CX9 and give it RWD proportions.
blocking off the front, it just looks plain and cheap.
There are actually a lot of cars that I don't love in pictures that I love in person, this is one of those cars, it looks much better in person IMO. To be fair that is a base model CX-90 in your "cheap" picture.
I don't think the upmarket car looks cheap, and there is actually a really complex shape and stamping to those doors that doesn't come across in that picture
I'm just going by what I see from 20 feet away from this angle. The vertical door lines are straight down, making the doors look tall.
... blocking off the front, it just looks plain and cheap.
agree 100%. perhaps mazda designers were trying to make it look bigger than it is.
Both CX-60 and CX-90 feature negative/inverted surfaces on the doors which do not photograph as well unless the light hits it properly. Doors are not flat at all.
.....
