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| I was provided a car free for 7 days to do a review, all opinions are my own. |
As you all know, I like to take the 6 1/2 hour drive to Memphis because flying there is way too expensive, even though the flight is only about an hour from Atlanta. I was checking out the prices and flights were going to be about $400 a piece, rip off!
The car I drove to Memphis was 2016 Mazda CX-9 Signature AWD Crossover vehicle. Now, I'm not a fan of crossovers and the reason for that is it reminds me of a station wagon. Crossovers, look wise, seems so ugly to me. But not the 2016 Mazda CX-9, it looks just like an SUV, my favorite cars to drive.
The exterior is tough, masculine, cutting edge, I love the sharpness of the body frame. Makes you want to be seen in this car. The Machine Gray exterior color gives the CX-9 a fantastic look.
And the awesome looks department doesn't stop there, open the door and I was wowed by the color of the leather interior seating called Auburn. The color gives the inside a luxurious sex appeal.
The seating with some adjusting was comfy for our long ride to M-Town. With these burning up hot days, I didn't have to worry about the leather seats burning my skin; seats stayed cool throughout the day.
Like I always say, space is the most important when it comes to me picking a car I want to drive, and this CX-9 had plenty of leg room and storage in the back. It even had 3rd-row seating for extra guest (7 passenger seating) and even they had enough leg room. I piled in a bunch of my family in the car, and they loved everything about it.
The CX-9 was fully loaded with some new features Mazda introduced like the Active Driving Display. While I was driving, I could see how fast I was driving, what was the speed limit, blind spot monitoring, and lane departure all in my front driver side window! It shows a lot better at night. This helped me while driving to know when to slow down because this car drives so smooth I didn't realize how fast I was going, but with the mileage and speed limit displaying right in front of me, it helped me to maintain my speed and stay in my lane.
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| Can you see that 0 mph by the first tree? Sorry it came out blurry. |
There are a few things that I wish the CX-9 had or needed to improve on.
I didn't like the fact that the CX-9 didn't have cooling seats, yes I did mention that the seat are not hot when you sit in them, but still it's a nice feature that people would like to have.
Another thing, the navigation system is not user-friendly. I couldn't figure out how to use it, so I had to use my cell phone for driving directions. I even had help from my brother to try to understand the system, and he too couldn't figure it out. Now this is a big problem here, and this happened to me in other Mazda vehicles too.
The CX-9 is considered a luxury car, I don't like the fact that the automatic sunroof door opens manually. Mazda should have both door and sunroof open by a push of a button.
Now here is the kicker that needs significant improvement, the gas mileage. This car drinks gas like it's drinking a glass of water. On the highway, it's okay, but when I was doing city driving, I went through gas quickly. During my trip, I gassed up like four times, not good at all; that's almost getting gas every day. My wallet is not happy. (Fuel Economy: 23 MPG combined city/hwy 21 city and 27 highway)
For this big beast of a car with all the bells and whistles, the total MSRP is $45,215.00. To me, for what the car has and do not have, the price is a bit too much.
Even with the stuff that needs improvement, I had a great time driving this car. I felt safe, comfortable, and super cool driving it. When people pulled up beside me, they were checking me out as well as the car; it's a show stopper.
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