2025 Mazda CX-70 PHEV: Fun and efficient but a rough ride
Cool temperatures left the power train shivering. But drivers tired of touchscreens and other attention-stealing “upgrades” will find reasons to love it.
2025 Toyota Land Cruiser 4WD Wagon Hybrid vs. Mazda CX-70 PHEV vs. Subaru Outback: Battle of the divergent price points.
This week: 2025 Mazda CX-70 PHEV.
Price: $59,275 as tested. Gray paint added $450.
Conventional wisdom: Car and Driver liked the “loads of cargo space, good looks inside and out, CX-50-rivaling economy,” but not the “clumsy PHEV power train, unavoidable mass, CX-90-matching price.”
Marketer’s pitch: “Electric for short trips. Hybrid for longer journeys.”
Reality: All new, but not so new as to be annoying.
What’s new: The new-for-2025 CX-70 is actually almost a CX-90 without the third row. That’s not a bad ancestry.
Competition: In addition to the Land Cruiser and Outback, there are the Chevrolet Blazer, Ford Bronco, Honda Passport, Jeep Wrangler, and Nissan Murano.
Up to speed: The CX-70 moves pretty aptly from 0-60 as a plug-in. Car and Driver got it to 60 in 5.9 seconds, and I actually still find that number to be a tad optimistic. I floored it a couple times from red lights and just didn’t get that yeehaw feel; the model is rated at 323 horsepower.
The 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine and 68-kW motor suffer from a distressing amount of hesitation and rough starts when it’s cold. I’d probably be paying my dealer a visit to look into the situation, and they’d probably tell me I was stuck with it.
The hesitation does remain ever so slightly a feature in normal mode even after the vehicle is warmed up. But just to note, I had the CX-70 in about 50-degree weather, so cold was not exactly coooold. I’d want to test it in January.
Shifty: The shifter handle starts with P up and left; push to the right for R-N-D, a setup that seems to work for keeping you from accidentally changing gears. It’s an 8-speed automatic, unusual for a plug-in, and may be a factor in the stumbly performance.
On the road: Handling in the all-wheel-drive CX-70 is kind of nice, especially in Sport mode. Mazda has managed to keep up with the Zoom Zoom aspect it made its name with 10-15 years ago, and it’s gotten them some good press because it’s a real thing.
Driver’s Seat: Traditional drivers who like to handle most of their work by feel will appreciate Mazda’s old-school touches. The infotainment knob-and-button setup on the console remains, and it works as well as ever. Mr. Driver’s Seat’s aging iPhone (complete with home button) doesn’t cooperate as well as it used to, but then neither does Mr. Driver’s Seat.
The interior gets the full Mazda treatment — minimalist, heavy on sharp colors, firm leathers, silver accents. The seats feel hard at first but they never leave you aching.
Friends and stuff: The CX-70 is sort of a 2½-row vehicle. It looks as if there’s room for a hideaway third row, but readers know how I’d whine mightily about how tight and uncomfortable it is if Mazda actually put one there.
Just focus on the extra space. This younger generation can’t afford to have as many kids anyway, paying for tariffs and such — and they might have to travel farther to stuff the vehicle tighter with non-Chinese goods. Which all varies according to whim.
Cargo space is 39.6 cubic feet in the back and 75.3 with the seat folded.
As expected, legroom is quite generous, as are headroom and foot room. The center seat has a small hump and slightly intrusive console to contend with.
In and out: Easier than the Land Cruiser, that’s for sure.
Play some tunes: Sound from the system is pretty much perfect; I’ll call it an A+. Bose features aid the reproduction a lot.
Operation can be through the touchscreen or the knob and buttons, and it’s not hard at all.
Keeping warm and cool: Same as it ever was for Mazda. A row of silver buttons just over the console controls almost every function, and there’s a fairly reasonable pattern to them. Strange toggles control the temperature.
The temperature and fan source display in the tiny blue-light graphical screen, but not so tiny that 55-year-old Mr. Driver’s Seat can’t see it.
Fuel economy: The electric motor is rated to provide 26 miles of driving.
The trip computer said the vehicle averaged 23.6 mpg, but I couldn’t figure out how the motor factored in. So a Mazda product specialist explained that this probably ranged on the low side and that the maker trained to keep things simple. The computer said I was averaging about 4 miles/kWh, which is the best rating I’ve ever gotten.
Where it’s built: Hofu, Japan. None of the pieces comes from the U.S. or Canada; 90% come from Japan.
How it’s built: Consumer Reports rates the CX-70 PHEV as a 1 out of 5 for reliability, but they’ve been notoriously hard on electric-powered vehicles. The CX-70 gets a 2 out of 5, not much better.
In the end: In light of the power train issues, the CR rating gives me real pause. It’s been years, but I’ve had Mazda issues of my own. Your mileage may vary.
Next week: Subaru Outback