Gadgetory

now there's a misconception of the cx-7 is a mazda6 turned into a crossover not at all it's actually a completely different platform the last time Mazda had a midsize crossover was back when they made the Navajo which was paired up with the Ford what Explorer that each I don't remember but I think it's a really good-looking SUV especially for the price it looks a lot better to my eye than the MSRP would suggest let's check the tick yeah that's a really nice cabin inside this cx-7 too bad it doesn't have any tech at this trim level let me explain how this works if you get a Mazda cx-7 in the i' category which we have here it's kind of a lower trim if you go to the S category that's where you can get into the turbo motor all-wheel drive if you like and some really good tech options here you're really limited that's my LCD screen that's all I've got to work with you cannot option navigation in this guide this little helper screen on the left is fairly useful what does it show it'll show you various sorts of vehicle maintenance stuff your average fuel economy and speed and a pretty good music display it's nice to have also that's it over on the right is their renditions of the traditional Japanese eyebrow screen which gives you all the basics always there a persistent display always a good idea your media sources are a six-disc in-dash CD changer again you know if you load that up with mp3 or WMA discs which it will digest you need a lot of tracks in there so it's kind of a virtual iPod that's good because there's no iPod connector on this car not dedicated nor via USB the best you've got is a standard aux jack down here in the console aux brings you to either Bluetooth audio or that aux jack we saw in the console notice on Bluetooth audio I am getting my meta tags that's nice now here's an interesting feature they kind of took from the GM playbook see where it says push for play pause down here if you're on a radio station for example I can hit this guy for pause when I pause it it'll hold my radio playback I'm not sure how much of a buffer it's got and then it'll pick it up later when I push that button now all that stuff goes out of Bose audio system again we're at the Touring level on the I family of cx-7 this is really complicated over here your audio controls they have audio pilot which is the noise cancellation thing and of course bass treble fader balance that's about it there's no mid-range or anything like that now notice you also get a backup camera on that little screen which is interesting it's a nice feature again on a car where you can't even option navigation weird mixed messages here where you can't get an iPod connector where you can't get USB but you got pause play of audio and you got a backup camera hmm the camera is nice and sharp you know it's funny when screens get smaller they look better this is why your iPhone looks so great and it's hardly even trying small screens tend to look really sharp this one benefits from that but again I felt always like it was claustrophobic like do I really have a good idea what's back there in this case I'd rather have poorer resolution and more real estate for a backup camera and that of course is cut into our reverse gear of our 5-speed automatic the only gearbox available on this car pretty straightforward stuff back to drive and then over here for your slap stick for your forward for downshift back for up shift no paddles on the wheel and I don't like the way they've got the shifting arranged that's not intuitive to me for me an up shift is when you go up or forward and a down shift is when you go down or back they've got it flipped you get used to it if you buy this car but not if you're just driving it for a short while now as I mentioned we're looking at an eye trim cx-7 here that means we've got a two and a half litre inline-four naturally aspirated sitting sidesaddle across the front driving the front wheels only it's not a very impressive engine to be honest 261 horsepower 161 foot-pounds of torque you know kind of fair to middlin and more like fair this guy weighs 3,500 pounds and has the profile of a large loaf of bread so zero to sixty is our leisurely 9.8 mpg though is pretty good for a big heavy loaf of bread 20 28 if you get an S trim vehicle lots of things change the engine actually gets smaller 2.3 liters but turbocharged and probably pretty high-strung because they're ringing 244 horsepower to that guy you also have the choice of all-wheel drive should you want it and you get a six-speed automatic but that's another video okay what's it like driving a refrigerator its kind of appliance like I don't mean the undue respect it's a very pleasant vehicle off the line right off the gift they've got it geared right and they've got the software programmed right where you feel like you've got really good perky torque it's later on when you're really starting to force the speed above about forty or work your way up a grade at highway speed things begin to get a little bit crummy it starts to become a vehicle that's just underpowered the handling is is nice Mazda is always done a good job of having a tight yet not tiring suspension in my experience so this car would be a great long leg cruiser but at the same time never feels wallowy or loafie yeah it does it does nothing badly I'd like to consider that 2.3 liter turbo engine but my concern is in a 3,500 pound vehicle with big wind resistance that you're going to have a high strong very peaky motor that's small displacement they must be blowing the hell out of it to get 244 and sufficient torque to make a big difference so I don't know if that's gonna be more satisfying than this guy shifting helps a bit but lack of horsepower and torque is lack of horsepower and torque there's no way that and if you see back there lack of a third row of course you have a spacious two rows is kind of how I feel about this car and inside it's quite nice the light interior does help but nothing cramped about even though it's only a midsize okay let's price our 2011 mazda cx7 i Touring so again the I family is the bottom three cars I think touring is the top level of Vettes this is definitely the middle of the pack 27 - is your price includes just about all the tech I showed you which in many cases is missing some key parts and on the I family you can't even option into things like navigation that's where you're going to want to consider the s with the turbo motor and better overhead you can put a really dopey rear seat entertainment system in this guy it's 1,200 bucks don't do it it's one of those Center of the car ceiling mounts that drops down right in the way of your rear view mirror and looks real aftermarket from the shots I've seen just go buy a couple iPads and save money you