Mazda CX-60 – Month 3

On the road, you might almost describe the CX-60 as offering a somewhat old-fashioned driving experience. But I mean that as a compliment…

Quite rightly recognising that the current fad for downsizing engines to a three- or four-cylinder turbocharged unit with a cubic capacity around the one litre mark is all every well in the fuel consumption and emissions stakes, until you have to thrash the poor thing within an inch of its life to gain any perceptible movement whatsoever from a respectably sized SUV such as this Mazda, which weighs the best part of two tonnes. At which point the heavily perspiring powerplant becomes intolerably noisy and, yes, Ice Cold in Alex thirsty…

So Mazda has had the new entirely old idea of installing a big, fat lazy 3.3 litre straight-six diesel in the CX-60 with a choice of 197bhp or 250bhp outputs, the former boasting rear-wheel drive, the latter all-wheel drive. Mazda makes two noteworthy claims for this diesel: the first that it has the lowest compression ratio in the world; the second that is the lowest emissions diesel in the segment.

And it turns out that this engine is actually neither fat nor lazy; the less powerful engine still musters 332lb ft of torque, and its stronger sibling 406lb ft. In both models performance is boosted by a 48v mild-hybrid system that doesn’t allow you to drive so much as an inch under all-electric power, but does lob an extra 113lb ft into the equation for a short period of time.

What this equates to when you’re out and about is an engine that – via an eight-speed automatic gearbox – will schmooze you about in an entirely serene, under-stressed fashion until you call for some overtaking oomph, and then effortlessly deliver great gouts of torque, most noticeably in the 30-50mph range, for proper overtaking punch when required.

What’s not to like? Well, at idle the big diesel does clatter like a tug boat plying upstream against a dropping tide. And Mazda’s smart system for shutting off the diesel engine when coasting isn’t actually that smart at slower speeds: ask for acceleration from the snoozing diesel whilst pottering in an urban environment and there’s a perceptible lurch of retardation from the system before the engine fires up to deliver the goods – a distinct feeling of braking when you’ve just asked for throttle…

At cruising speeds, however, all settles down nicely. And if the smooth, unflustered delivery of plentiful torque on demand from a patently relaxed powerplant is today deemed old-fashioned, who cares? Even in this family of leadfoots we’re averaging over 45mpg and about 450 miles between visits to the oily end of the pumps.