Mazda CX-60 long-term test: report 2
The Mazda CX-60 is the Japanese brand's largest SUV and its first plug-in hybrid. Our consumer editor is finding out if it's a good alternative to a conventionally fuelled off-roader...
The car Mazda CX-60 2.5 Exclusive-Line | Run by Claire Evans, consumer editor
Why it's here To see if Mazda’s first plug-in hybrid should be on your shopping list if you’re after a well-furnished and frugal large SUV
Needs to Provide the practicality and luxurious ambience of a premium SUV, as well as good fuel efficiency and a comfortable ride
Mileage 2950 List price £45,420 Target Price £44,172 Price as tested £47,720 Test economy 52.2mpg Official economy 188.3mpg
18 January 2023 – Safety first
My Mazda CX-60 had an unusual job to do recently, taking me to Oxfordshire to take part in the video for the 2023 What Car? Safety Award – the winner of which will be announced as part of our annual Car of the Year Awards ceremony tomorrow. With a five-star Euro NCAP safety rating and a score of 344 out of 400, the CX-60 was shortlisted as one of 10 contenders for the award, and so it appeared in the video, filmed with Matthew Avery from Thatcham Research, which sponsors the award.
It’s reassuring to know the CX-60 is a safe place to be should I be involved in an accident; it scored 88% for adult occupant protection and 91% for protecting children. It’s also the highest-scoring model (89%) for protecting vulnerable road users. This is an impressive achievement for a large SUV, because it takes a lot of work to engineer such a heavy vehicle to do minimal harm to pedestrians and cyclists in a collision.
However, one of the features that most impressed the judges is the CX-60’s driver monitoring system, because it’s a technology of the future that will be vital for cars as we head towards autonomous driving.
In real-world driving, the CX-60’s driver monitoring system hasn’t been too intrusive, only advising me to keep my eyes on the road and hands on the steering wheel occasionally, rather than chastising me repeatedly, and that’s good because it means it’s a smart system that can understand what the driver is doing and use that information to make the car’s active safety systems work better.
There’s far more to the CX-60 than high-tech safety systems, though. The cavernous interior is proving useful for passengers, and for transporting our gang of seven cats to the vet for their annual check-up. It turns out I can get two cat boxes across the back bench and have room for my partner to sit in the back with them.
There’s good news on the fuel economy front, too. I’m managing to do most shorter journeys on pure electric power, so the car achieved 64.9mpg on its latest tank of fuel, taking the average since I took delivery of the car up to 52.2mpg.
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