2024 Mazda CX-60 review: petrol vs diesel (inc. 0-100, braking & autonomy!)

CarExpert

The all-new 2024 Mazda CX-60 is here, but should you buy the petrol or the diesel? Paul Maric gets behind the wheel of both to figure out which Mazda CX-60 variant is best!  Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE  More Mazda content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/mazda More Mazda CX-60 content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/mazda/cx-60  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior: 01:12 Interior: 04:16 Infotainment: 05:53 Safety Tech: 07:28 Practicality:08:35 Driving (petrol): 13:01 Driving (diesel): 27:12 Verdict: 33:33  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #mazda #cx60 #review #comparison

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. Mazda is going upmarket and one of the first cars to launch in Australia with that new upmarket feel is the CX-60.

00:08 You're looking at two of them here. It's a little bit different to what we would normally do in a review, but

00:12 this is the petrol and this is the diesel and they're both the exact same specs.

00:16 I thought, let's just bundle all of this into one comprehensive review.

00:20 Now, Mazda going upmarket is because it's increased in price, but also the engine as well.

00:25 These debut a new inline six-cylinder engine, so I'm really keen to have a drive of it and see exactly what they feel like.

00:30 These two are the top spec Azami model. They're both priced around the

00:33 $75,000 mark. There is a plug-in hybrid available that we will review at a later date,

00:38 but today we're just going to keep it to these two. If that's too expensive though, the entire range kicks off at just under

00:43 $60,000 and that comes with a

00:46 turbocharged six-cylinder engine as well. So today we're going to do a detailed review of this car,

00:51 but we're also going to do driving impressions of the diesel as well to give you an idea of what it feels like. If you

00:56 do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review,

00:58 you can use the time codes that are on the screen. If you're on YouTube,

01:01 you can scroll down and use the chapters below and if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon

01:06 so you can find out every single time we review a new Mazda.

01:10 Now let's talk exterior design. You've got several colors to pick from. Your premium colors are around $1,000.

01:18 Look at this in terms of the size of the vehicle.

01:21 So it's slightly longer than an X3, 200 mil longer than a CX-5.

01:26 So it is reasonably sized, but it's not enormous and we do have the CX-90 coming to Australia.

01:32 We actually reviewed that as a pre-production car. You can click up here to watch that, but that is actually bigger than this again.

01:38 So you are actually getting a lot of value for money when you look at the size of this vehicle.

01:41 Now there are a couple of different design options here.

01:43 So this particular one and also the other car that we have here both have the SP pack.

01:47 So that actually blacks out a lot of these elements and removes chrome and I think this looks sensational because the chrome one looks okay,

01:53 but this blacked out look is very sinister, especially on the wheels there. So big open grille here.

01:59 So you've got three different engines to choose from at the moment.

02:01 So two six-cylinders, a petrol and a diesel and also a plug-in hybrid that is a four-cylinder.

02:06 There is apparently also a smaller naturally aspirated four-cylinder coming as well down the track. Inside that big grille,

02:12 you'll also notice some variable shutters so they can open and close depending on the cooling requirements of the car.

02:17 Big radar sensor here, camera down the front there for the 360 camera,

02:21 LED running lights built into here, full adaptive LED lights as well.

02:26 A little bit of aero there too. And then if we whip around to the side here.

02:29 So this is sitting on a set of 20-inch alloy wheels.

02:33 So the design here is specific to the SP pack,

02:35 but you can actually get a darker wheel regardless whether you get the SP pack or not.

02:39 I'm a bit concerned by this being on 20s because when I drove this at the International launch,

02:43 I thought that the ride was a little bit firm. That was a plug-in hybrid.

02:46 I'll be interested to see how this feels here in Australian conditions and whether it has improved. No sort of

02:52 body cladding here. It is all-wheel drive with a rear bias, but it isn't built for off-roading.

02:57 It's only got a ground clearance of like 175 mil. So this is very much an on-road vehicle. Up here

03:02 you've got inline six insignia. So that is obviously telling you this is the six-cylinder whether it's the petrol or the diesel.

03:08 There's another badge at the back of the car there that tells you exactly which drivetrain it is. Up the top here

03:12 you've got black on that wing mirror indicator built into their camera on the side there as well.

03:17 These are the other bits that are typically chrome on the CX-60 that I black out with that SP pack.

03:23 You've got a panoramic glass roof there and then come to the back with me. So around here full LED taillights.

03:30 So this is how you're going to be able to tell the diesel from the petrol. E, sky active, G.

03:36 So G is for gasoline, D is for diesel.

03:39 Mazda logo here and then CX-60 all-wheel drive. The rest of the design is pretty straightforward.

03:45 You have a pair of exhaust outlets, which are fake.

03:48 Which is a great shame given there's four of them there. And outside of that you have a brake light mounted into here.

03:55 You'll notice there is no aerial on top of the car. They've actually integrated all of those elements here into the glass.

03:59 So that aerial services your digital radio and stuff like that. So yeah, it's not a bad setup there.

04:04 So let me know what you reckon about the design in the comments section below.

04:08 Do you like the look of this? Is it the right size? Do you think it's expensive?

04:12 Would you pay 75 grand for this? Let me know what you reckon in the comments section below.

04:16 Okay, so we are inside the CX-60. We will start off with the key. So you've got the Mazda logo there.

04:21 Buttons on the side. You've got lock, unlock, boot and then blank on the back. This is a proximity sensing key.

04:28 So once you're inside the car, you've got a push-button start here. By the way, see this little thing just here?

04:34 It's got some numbers on it.

04:35 This is actually a secret for locksmiths to tell them how to cut a key for your car.

04:40 So if you want to find out how people are using stuff like this to actually steal cars today,

04:45 we shot a video on this a little while back. So click up here to watch that fun video.

04:49 Now in terms of this cabin and what it looks like, I think it looks sensational.

04:54 Now keep in mind that this is now a $75,000 car in this spec.

04:58 So it absolutely does need to look sensational and I think this colour combo actually works quite nicely.

05:03 You've got this sort of suede-like material along the dashboard there and that tan colour continues down the side here.

05:09 This steering wheel reminds me of the Bentayga and other Bentleys where they've gone for the two-tone finish on there.

05:16 Yeah, outside of that, they've actually done a really nice job here with this interior to make it look and feel premium.

05:21 There is, as far as I can tell, no piano black around here, which is excellent news. Now, what about your touch points?

05:27 So nice and soft there and soft on the door as well. How soft are they? Well, we've got our durometer.

05:33 We've tested the main surfaces in this cabin.

05:35 If you want to see how this car compares to others that we've tested before, have a look at the link in the description below.

05:40 Now, what about your build quality? So, actually all feels really nice and solid.

05:46 It feels like they've actually focused on getting build quality right. This is what a door slam sounds like.

05:50 Now, let's talk infotainment.

05:54 So you've got a 12.3-inch display up the top here and another 12.3-inch display ahead of the driver,

06:00 along with a head-up display as well. Start off with the infotainment system.

06:04 So, it looks like it's not a touchscreen, but it is actually a touchscreen when you are in smartphone mirroring.

06:09 So, I'll show you what that looks like in a second, but you do get inbuilt satellite navigation.

06:13 It's all controlled here using this rotary dial in the center that allows you to whip through these different menus.

06:19 And then what you can do to get into your smartphone mirroring is pulse across like that.

06:23 That opens up wireless Android Auto, like you see there, and also wireless Apple CarPlay that I'll show you in a second.

06:28 But you can see there that becomes a touchscreen once you are in that smartphone mirroring mode.

06:33 Really nice, big, clear presentation. All works very fast as well, which is good.

06:38 On the radio front, you have AM/FM/DAB digital radio, 12-speaker Bose-branded sound system.

06:45 Really good sound system as well, which is very nice to see.

06:47 And this is what Apple CarPlay looks like. So again, full screen.

06:51 Very nice. Slightly laggy when you do use the touchscreen. You can see there it's sort of a tiny bit laggy.

06:58 And that's a little bit annoying because using this thing, sometimes it allows you to go to the side menu there,

07:03 and then other times it doesn't. So it is just a little bit clunky, and it means that you do really want to go for the hands-on approach.

07:09 But then that's also a little bit tricky as well sometimes. So I think that could do with just a little bit of work either way.

07:14 Head of the driver here, full digital display. Really nice and sharp graphics.

07:18 There isn't a great deal of customization to it.

07:21 You can just flick between like a full screen sort of assist view or just a sort of regular digital analog gauge view there instead.

07:28 Now what about your safety tech? There is actually a lot here.

07:31 So autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection.

07:35 You have front and rear cross-traffic alert. You have radar cruise control with a semi-autonomous steering function.

07:42 You have blind spot monitoring built into the wing mirror.

07:45 You also have front and rear parking sensors, a junction assist, and a 360 camera.

07:50 I'm going to show you what that looks like. So quality on that is fantastic.

07:53 So there's your top-down view. That's out the front.

07:56 You can then get a supersized view out the front there, and then a wide-angle view down the front as well.

08:04 It is quite impressive how they've managed to make that look.

08:07 So very impressive that. And I'll start the car as well so you can actually see out the back when it's in reverse.

08:14 Here it is there. So you can clearly see what's written on our suitcase as well.

08:17 So yeah, pretty impressive setup. Very happy with that 360 camera.

08:21 Worth pointing out as well that you also have a driver monitoring feature.

08:24 So it uses a small camera to actually keep an eye on you to detect when you are getting drowsy.

08:30 All right, switch the car off. This is what the horn sounds like.

08:35 So what about your practicality? And we'll start off with connectivity.

08:39 So you've got a 12-volt outlet down the bottom here. You also have a wireless charging pad.

08:44 In this center console here, you have two USB-C ports along with an SD port as well for the mapping software.

08:51 In terms of storing things, your phone can live down there on the wireless phone charger, or you've got this slot here.

08:56 There's actually plenty of room for storing little odds and ends.

08:59 So little coffee cup that fits in there nicely with no risk of deleting.

09:04 Same story with the bottle. Fits in there without any dramas.

09:06 And then you've got teeth to hold it into place. Can fit the bottle inside the door as well for the small one.

09:12 We'll try our big one too. See how that goes. Yeah, no dramas there. Very impressive.

09:17 Now, other storage spaces. You've got this little slot here next to the driver's knee.

09:21 You've got this center console that opens up there.

09:23 You also have a glove box down here that is actually pretty reasonably sized as well.

09:28 And finally, a sunglasses holder up the top.

09:31 And comfort. So you've got dual zone automatic climate control.

09:35 You have heated and cooled seats up the front here.

09:38 You have a heated steering wheel. Seats themselves are pretty cool.

09:41 Have a look at this finish. You've got like that suede-y old Kantara type finish in the center.

09:45 Black stripe there. They hug you in quite nicely.

09:48 They have a fair bit of adjustment as well. Both the driver and front passenger are electric.

09:51 So you can go forwards and backwards. Your backrest can go forwards, backwards.

09:55 You can lift the front of the seat. You can lift the back of the seat.

09:58 You can also adjust lumbar support. Driver's side also has two memory functions as well.

10:04 Oh, almost forgot. You've actually got this feature as well.

10:06 If you go to settings, go down to driver personalization system, and then add a new driver,

10:11 you do this the first time you got into the car and got it all set up.

10:15 You select your height and then it will actually adjust the seat for you.

10:18 So I'm going to give this a shot. I've got this in my regular driving position.

10:21 Now I'm going to set it to 185 centimetres, which is my height.

10:25 I'll click on that. Hit start.

10:28 [laughs]

10:33 What the hell?

10:34 [laughs]

10:35 It has set up the vehicle like I'm driving a VL Commodore. I'm like all the way back here.

10:43 So yeah, not the ideal position to be honest, but you know, something fun nevertheless.

10:48 And then on our steering, you have both tilts and reach adjustment that is fully electric.

10:55 And on the reach test, all of this stuff is easy to reach,

10:57 but when you do have the smartphone mirroring stuff running and you do want to touch it,

11:01 you do have to lean in a little bit to actually access that as a touchscreen.

11:05 Okay, second row, CX-60. I'm a little bit surprised by this.

11:08 So my seat is in my regular driving position.

11:11 If I had have used the recommended one, it would have been even further back.

11:14 But yeah, knee room is kind of tight. Toe room's okay. Headroom is pretty good.

11:19 So I kind of recall this having a bit more leg room when we drove it at the international launch,

11:24 but there you go.

11:25 Back here, you do have air vents plus heated seats for the outboard seats,

11:29 two USB-C ports, and I love this. You actually have a power outlet, so 150 watt, 220 volts.

11:35 So great news on that front.

11:37 Centre armrest here with a couple of cup holders in there.

11:41 Little grips as well to hold your bottle in place.

11:43 Bottle can fit inside the door too.

11:46 You've got two ISOFIX points on the outboard seats and three top tether points as well.

11:50 I love the doors here as well. I've got my little girl's seat in the diesel version of this.

11:55 And the doors actually swing almost 90 degrees. It means loading her in is easy.

11:59 Getting the seat in is easy. So really impressed with that setup.

12:03 And then on our window test, so it's auto up and down.

12:06 Does it go all the way down? Oh, not even close.

12:09 Let's talk cargo space. What have you got to play with here?

12:13 So power tailgate.

12:16 Once that fully opens, you have a little under 600 litres of cargo space,

12:19 and it's actually a pretty reasonable space.

12:21 It's not too high off the ground, which means loading things in is pretty straightforward.

12:25 There is no lip though, so stuff will fall out if you're on a slight incline.

12:30 Beneath the cargo floor, you've got a space saver spare tyre, subwoofer for the sound system,

12:35 12-volt outlet off to the side, and then some hooks as well.

12:38 Show you what it looks like with our bags in there.

12:41 So laptop bag there, suitcase over here, sort of pretty reasonably sized.

12:45 Now, if you do want to expand the space a little bit more, you can drop the second row

12:50 just by pulling these levers here, and then you can actually also just drop them individually.

12:55 So it's a 40/20/40 split fold.

12:57 That expands the space to a little over 1700 litres.

13:01 OK, so we've just hit the road in the petrol CX-60.

13:08 Now, this is going to be a little bit confusing, but what I'm going to do is talk about

13:12 all the stuff that's common to both the diesel and the petrol and platform in general

13:16 right at the start of this section, and then later on,

13:19 you can actually skip ahead if you do want more information on the petrol or the diesel.

13:23 Or you can just watch both of it. You'll probably learn a fair bit between those two anyway.

13:27 So it is interesting, the philosophy Mazda's taken with this is they've gone down the path

13:31 of making these all-wheel drive or all-wheel drive capable.

13:34 It's a new platform that is rear-wheel drive oriented,

13:37 which means that this is a predominantly rear-wheel drive car that then sends torque to the front axle.

13:42 And that means that you get completely different driving characteristics as well.

13:46 A lot of the previous generations of these cars, like the CX-5, are very much front-wheel drive oriented

13:50 and only pulse torque to the rear when the rears slip.

13:53 So it is a new thing for Mazda, and I am really keen to see how this feels

13:57 when the speed picks up and we drive it as a sporty vehicle.

14:01 So how does this all feel behind the wheels?

14:03 So the one thing you will notice across both of these vehicles is how quiet the drivetrains are.

14:08 Even in the diesel, it is really quiet when it's just motoring along.

14:11 Part of that is thanks to not only the noise insulation from the engine bay,

14:15 but also the stop-start system.

14:17 So it's a 48-volt mild hybrid system on both of the six-cylinder engines.

14:22 And that means that it uses an electric motor between the engine and the transmission.

14:26 And that electric motor can provide assistance at points in time where it's inefficient

14:31 for the internal combustion engine to be operating.

14:34 So that's situations like low load, and you'll notice here the car is currently switched off with I-stop.

14:39 If I roll onto the throttle, it's using that electric motor ever so slightly to power the car,

14:43 and then a bit more throttle kicks it back on again fairly seamlessly.

14:46 And I say fairly, I'll explain why that's not quite the case in just a second.

14:50 And that'll do that at speeds of up to around 100 k's an hour.

14:53 It will actually switch the vehicle off.

14:55 The whole purpose of a 48-volt mild hybrid system is that it has enough current to run

14:59 all of the vehicle's ancillary systems with the engine being switched off.

15:03 Now that's all great in theory, but here in this application, it really isn't very good at all.

15:08 And I say that because it's not exactly the smoothest system in the world.

15:13 So Mercedes-Benz is an example. In the GLC we drove recently,

15:16 they use what's called an integrated starter generator, and that is imperceptible.

15:20 So when it does switch on and off, you cannot feel it happening.

15:23 This, on the other hand, it is constantly switching off and on to save fuel,

15:28 and every time it switches back on, you get a braking effect as the engine fires up

15:32 because it is then sort of coupling the system up again, and it can get quite frustrating.

15:37 And you can also catch the system getting into a very clunky mode.

15:40 So when you're doing around sort of 40 k's an hour and you're slowing down for something like an intersection,

15:44 it will go into I-stop mode, and then when you get back on the throttle,

15:48 it can sometimes not know that you're about to do that, and it has a really clunky response.

15:52 And I've had that happen to me a couple of times now.

15:54 It just feels like they haven't really put a great deal of effort into refining this system

15:59 and making it work as seamlessly as some of the German competitors do.

16:02 But put those things to one side.

16:04 The petrol version of this is a 3.3 litre turbocharged inline-six.

16:08 It makes 209 kilowatts of power and 450 newton-metres of torque,

16:14 and it's all mated to an in-house eight-speed automatic transmission.

16:17 So what does all that feel like behind the wheel?

16:19 Let's sink the boot in here.

16:21 Yeah, nice.

16:23 Ultimately, it actually gets along really nicely.

16:26 This weighs around 1,900 kilos, so it is on the heavier side,

16:30 but ultimately that's what you get from an inline-six.

16:33 But it does feel nice and punchy behind the wheel,

16:35 and that's both from a standing start and also once you're up and moving.

16:38 It really sort of pushes you in the back and gets the whole package up and moving,

16:41 so I think they've done a great job with that.

16:43 And it sounds good when it's going as well, which I think is really important too.

16:46 Now, what does all that mean for fuel economy?

16:48 Well, one of the things that Mazda boasted about with these engines

16:51 was that they were able to incredibly reduce fuel use and make them really efficient.

16:56 They're claiming a combined average of just over 7 litres per 100 k's here for the petrol.

17:01 It's currently sitting at 10 litres per 100 k's.

17:04 So it's a far cry from 7 litres per 100,

17:07 and I do find with this that once you do get up it and start wanting to drive a little bit quicker,

17:11 that climbs pretty quickly, and that is exactly what you would expect

17:14 from a turbocharged six-cylinder petrol engine.

17:17 So a little bit disappointed there with that fuel economy,

17:19 and when we jump into the diesel, we'll see if that is better,

17:21 and hopefully it will be significantly better,

17:23 because I think their claim for that is under 5 litres per 100.

17:26 Now, let's talk about one thing that I immediately noticed,

17:28 and something that followed on from my drive at the international launch of this,

17:32 and that is the ride.

17:33 It is so firm, and I just can't understand why they've dialled this much firmness into it.

17:38 I think they've tried to replicate what BMW does with their vehicles,

17:42 but the difference is BMW offers adaptive damping here.

17:44 It's not an adaptive setup, and as a result of that, it is constantly firm.

17:48 It actually reminds me of my Tesla Model Y,

17:51 where it is just way too firm and just built for sportiness as opposed to ride comfort.

17:56 When you think about it, this is going to be predominantly driven by people that have families.

18:00 I just don't know why they've made it so firm, especially here on the 20s.

18:04 So I am keen to drive one of the entry-level models with smaller wheels to see if that makes a difference,

18:09 but at this stage, it is really unimpressive in terms of its ride in and around the city.

18:13 Okay, so sine wave time.

18:16 Let's dial up 130 k's an hour.

18:18 It's the maximum speed limit in Australia,

18:20 and also the speed we attack our sine waves at.

18:23 These are designed to give you an idea of what the car feels like when you're overtaking or doing anything at higher speed.

18:29 Okay, here we go.

18:31 Actually, it feels really good, and look, that is one of the benefits of the firmer ride.

18:37 It does have better body control over things like the sine waves there,

18:40 but ultimately you pay the penalty when you are driving in and around the city.

18:45 Time for the dodgiest road in Australia, so we do this at 90 k's an hour.

18:49 This is basically a highly corrugated road with a condensed sine wave on it as well.

18:54 It gives us an idea of what the vehicle is going to be like if you go attack some country roads.

19:00 Okay, so yeah, look, it is firm, but what I am noticing is that body control,

19:06 even on this condensed sine wave section, is excellent.

19:10 So it's sort of softly sprung but firmly damped,

19:14 and that's the sort of feedback you're getting here, where it still has a bit of degree of movement,

19:18 but when you hit potholes and stuff like that, it really smashes through the cabin quite a lot.

19:22 Okay, so let's go for a bit of a sportier drive.

19:25 I'm going to switch I-STOP off because it is getting a little frustrating now.

19:28 We'll pop it into sport mode. You've got sport, normal and off-road.

19:32 So instantly it sort of starts picking up a bit of pace here.

19:36 Alright, let's see what it's like around our track. The brake pedal feels good.

19:40 Tip it in here, give it a little throttle.

19:43 Now this is interesting because it actually, it's tuned to feel a bit like an SUV version of the MX-5.

19:55 So it still has a degree of body roll, but it definitely feels rear-biased

19:59 because when you get on the throttle, you can feel the torque at the rear trying to sort of pull the car around.

20:04 It's nice and progressive and all feels really in control,

20:08 and it's from behind the wheel here, actually feels damn sporty.

20:13 I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that certainly within its traditional competitor set,

20:18 this is certainly the most dynamic, but I'd actually like to test this back-to-back with an X3

20:24 because just the way this is getting around our circuit here

20:29 kind of tells me that they have spent a lot of time focusing on ride and handling.

20:34 Yeah, it is absolutely hoofing along.

20:37 Like it's not, you know, it doesn't sit dead flat,

20:40 but it sits flat enough to give you all the communication that you need.

20:44 It does float around a lot on the sections mid-corner where you do have bumps,

20:49 like here onto our straight with the sine waves, but it all feels fairly in check and controllable.

20:54 So I think they've done a great job here dialing in sportiness into this chassis.

20:59 This feels really fantastic to drive, and I'm hoping the diesel feels as good as this to drive as well.

21:04 Now what's noise like? It feels like they've gone to a fair bit of effort to reduce road noise,

21:09 and it is one of those things where Mazda in the past has had fairly raucous cabins with tyre noise and road noise.

21:16 Here though, it seems like the focus has been to really hone that back in

21:20 and add a lot of quietness to the platform to make sure that that doesn't intrude into the cabin.

21:25 So what's it like in terms of visibility? So, straight down the front there I can clearly see that.

21:30 The wing mirrors, they do the standard thing Mazda does.

21:32 They're enormous wing mirrors, but there's just no depth to the actual mirror itself.

21:36 It's very flat and a bit hard to see around.

21:38 I really would love to see them sort of add a bit of curvature to that so you get a bit more visibility around the edges,

21:43 but visibility through the rear is okay. It's a fairly narrow envelope.

21:46 Now the interesting thing as well, if you go for the petrol, the turbocharged six-cylinder petrol,

21:51 you get a towing capacity of two and a half tonnes with a brake trailer,

21:54 but both the plug-in hybrid and the diesel only have a 2,000 kilo brake towing capacity,

21:58 and it is also worth noting that you can only do up to 150 kilograms of down-bore weight,

22:03 so it kind of limits you in terms of what you can usefully tow with a vehicle like this.

22:07 Turning circle is actually really impressive. It comes in at under 11 metres,

22:10 so that is nice and tight for a vehicle this size, and I like the fact that they've actually gone to a bit of effort

22:15 to make sure that this is capable of doing U-turns and stuff in and around the city.

22:19 Okay, time to test the autonomous systems.

22:22 We'll only do this in one car because it'll apply to both of them, so there won't be much difference there,

22:27 but what we do is we get it up to 70 k's an hour and we test on the three outer lanes of our bowl here.

22:33 The whole concept is as we get to the furthest lane, it's basically going to need to apply more torque to the steering

22:39 to keep it within that lane, and it's typically a pretty good indication of how it performs out on the road.

22:44 So there's 70 k's an hour. Wait for the steering wheel to go green, which it's done, right up the top there.

22:50 Okay, so in this first lane it's doing well.

22:54 We're sort of staying within the lane without too many drums there.

22:57 Jump over to next lane.

23:00 Okay.

23:04 There it is, that's locked in. I'll just let go of the steering wheel.

23:09 It's veering very close to that line.

23:13 It's corrected itself, but it got very close to that line, and I wouldn't be entirely confident

23:19 if there was actually a truck or something there.

23:21 All right, let's try the third lane. We'll see how that performs.

23:25 Okay, we'll just wait for that to go green.

23:29 Okay, still waiting.

23:34 Still waiting. I'll try to go up a little higher.

23:39 Doesn't look like it kind of went green for a second there, but then stopped.

23:45 There we go, it's green now.

23:47 No, that's not going to hold that at all.

23:50 Yeah, look, just in general, when I was testing this over the weekend,

23:55 the safety systems are so annoying.

23:57 Like, it's got front and rear cross-traffic alert, but it's always going off,

24:00 even though there's sort of nothing around.

24:03 At one point I tried to change lanes, and it pulled the steering back into my lane,

24:07 even though there was no cars next to me.

24:09 It slammed on the brakes when I was coming into the car park at work,

24:13 because there was a car parked on the opposite end of the ramp.

24:15 I thought we were going to hit that when no car we've ever driven into the car park

24:19 has ever come close to doing that.

24:21 So, yeah, I think these systems need attention, because they're not really tuned enough,

24:26 and I think they probably need some revisions there and refinement on those systems.

24:30 Okay, time to do some performance testing, and before we get into that,

24:33 I just wanted to quickly tell you about Help Me Car Expert,

24:36 inspired by our friends at CarWow.

24:39 We are just a YouTube channel. We're actually a pretty big company here in Australia,

24:42 and if you do want to buy a new car, all you have to do is head to Google,

24:46 type in Help Me Car Expert.

24:47 We can then connect you with one of our vetted dealers.

24:50 Our vetted dealers are there to give you the best customer service and the best deal as well,

24:54 and we regularly test them to make sure that they are delivering all of that stuff.

24:58 So if you do want some help getting a car that is in stock,

25:01 just go to Google and type in Help Me Car Expert.

25:03 Okay, so what have we got here?

25:05 So, 0 to 100 time, the official figure is just under 7 seconds.

25:09 We're going to go all the way through to 120, and then we're going to do a break from 100 as well.

25:14 So I'll switch off traction control as well, just to give us a little bit more slip off the line there.

25:18 We'll dial up some revs, hit the throttle down, and we'll see how we go.

25:22 Alright, here we go.

25:23 It's pretty gradual off the line there.

25:32 So there's 70, 80, 90, 100.

25:38 And 120 k's an hour.

25:40 Alrighty, let's have a look at how that went.

25:44 So our number came in at 7.08 seconds, so ever so slightly off the official figure,

25:50 and a pretty impressive number, I reckon, 80 to 120, 4.2 seconds.

25:54 So that's also a really good figure as well.

25:56 You've got to remember that if you go down the path of getting a four-cylinder vehicle in this segment,

26:01 it is often going to be hamstrung in that overtaking range,

26:05 whereas something confident like a six-cylinder is going to give you that extra bit of torque and leeway in that mid-band section.

26:12 So, some good numbers there.

26:14 Let's go back and do a break from 100 k's an hour.

26:17 Okay, let's dial up 100 k's an hour, and we will hit the anchors.

26:22 Here we go.

26:25 Alrighty, so let's have a look at how we went there.

26:33 100 to zero, 2.71 seconds and 37.78 metres.

26:39 Not a bad figure when you consider the size of this vehicle, so they've done a good job there with that braking system.

26:44 Hey, by the way, if you want to see how this car compares to others that we've tested before,

26:48 have a look at the link in the description below,

26:50 and I'll also leave a pinned comment in the comment section about the app that we use for performance testing,

26:54 if you are interested in that as well.

26:56 And now, our reverse acceleration test. Here we go.

27:00 Not bad. 58 kilometres an hour.

27:10 Okay, so time to chat diesel.

27:16 So, let me run you through the engine specs first.

27:18 So, 3.3 litre turbocharged inline six-cylinder diesel.

27:23 Such a fascinating combo because typically you're used to diesels being in a V configuration,

27:28 and so this is something a little bit different.

27:30 It produces 187 kilowatts of power and 500 newton metres of torque.

27:35 It's made it to that same transmission, the same rear bias set up as well,

27:39 and the same irritation with the I-stop feature that we noticed in the petrol spec too.

27:45 So, as we're rolling to a stop there and you get on the throttle,

27:47 it's just constantly on and off and frustrating, living daylights out of you.

27:52 But outside of that, it's actually really quiet for a diesel,

27:55 so that's the thing I found really surprising with this more so than the petrol,

27:59 that it is really quiet inside the cabin.

28:01 Even when you start getting on the throttle, you lean on the throttle,

28:04 you do hear a little bit of noise inside the cabin,

28:06 but it really isn't anywhere near as loud as some diesels in this segment,

28:10 certainly some four-cylinder diesels.

28:12 And then when you do sort of get stuck into it,

28:15 it gives you a really nice push in the back and it revs out nicely too.

28:18 Redline of around 5,000 rpm, so it's quite happy to rev out,

28:22 which is typically uncharacteristic of a diesel engine.

28:25 One of the big differences though between the petrol and the diesel is the claimed economy.

28:29 So, Mazda claims a combined economy of under 5 litres per 100 km.

28:34 We're currently sitting on 6.3, so not really close to that figure.

28:39 Well, it is close to that figure, but it's not quite the 5 litres per 100 km I thought it was going to be.

28:44 But still pretty impressed with that, so that was over about 800 kilometres

28:47 and predominantly highway driving with some spirited driving here this morning.

28:51 So, I think it isn't a bad figure and certainly given they're pretty much the exact same price,

28:56 if you are looking for economy and saving a bit of money on fuel,

28:59 this is probably going to be the better option.

29:02 Now, in terms of the ride, we're coming up to our sine waves here now.

29:05 It's really fascinating because it is firm in and around the city just like the petrol is,

29:09 but it's actually, it feels a little bit different here on the open road.

29:15 And when we get to our sine waves here, I'll show you what I mean.

29:18 Up to 130, it actually feels more settled over the sine waves than the petrol did,

29:25 which is a little bit surprising to me given they're virtually the same.

29:28 There is a 50 kilogram weight difference that's in favour of the petrol over the diesel.

29:33 This feels like it is just more planted and more sure of itself as well.

29:38 We'll go for a bit of a faster drive in a second, but I do think that there is some kind of a difference there

29:43 that perhaps isn't as noticeable on the surface.

29:46 Just for the sake of clarity, I'm going to drive this over our rough road section as well,

29:50 which we do at 90 k's an hour.

29:52 It just gives us a good indication of how this feels on this dodgy stretch of road.

29:59 I don't know, it feels kind of nicer than the petrol.

30:01 I don't know if it's just a perception thing, but certainly from a handling point of view,

30:05 it definitely feels better planted than the petrol does.

30:09 So, maybe there is some change there that isn't exactly obvious on the surface.

30:15 Now, I know that we already tested road noise in the petrol version using our calibrated sound meter,

30:21 but I thought we'd test it in the diesel as well just so we had a comparison,

30:25 just to make sure that they were pretty much the same on the road.

30:28 You can see the results on the screen now.

30:30 So, let's talk drive modes.

30:31 Same as the petrol, you've got three to choose from - sport, normal and off-road.

30:35 We'll pop it into sport mode.

30:37 We'll go for a little punch around the track.

30:39 Now, keep in mind, obviously you're not going to drive like this every day,

30:41 but we do test all of our cars back-to-back in the same way, just to make sure we can see how they feel at the limits.

30:48 Hmm, this is interesting.

30:52 The diesel actually feels better planted than the petrol.

30:56 Like, it's got less understeer as you push it towards its limits,

31:01 and it just feels like it has better road holding.

31:05 It doesn't feel like it's fighting me as much.

31:07 Yeah, I'm actually genuinely surprised how well this handles and how quick it is around here.

31:13 Typically, it's the vehicles that do have the outward sporty intent that are fast around our circuit,

31:19 but this actually feels like it's properly dialled in,

31:24 and they've actually thought about handling and getting the most out of this platform.

31:28 So, really impressed with what Mazda's done here,

31:30 and the thing that surprises me the most is that this is a diesel.

31:34 A diesel should not feel as ridiculous as this does at the moment,

31:38 even on our back straight here as we pile on pace.

31:40 It is absolutely hauling.

31:42 So, yeah, I don't know.

31:44 Mazda, you've done a sensational job with this from the handling point of view,

31:48 and I just feel like the diesel offers a slightly better handling package than the petrol does.

31:55 So, excellent job.

31:56 Okay, so performance testing time.

31:59 Mazda claims a 0-100 time of 7.3 seconds.

32:04 So, let's see how we go.

32:07 Turn traction control off.

32:09 I loaded up the throttle in the last one.

32:11 This time, I'm just going to stand on it.

32:12 We'll see what happens.

32:13 Kind of noisy inside the cabin.

32:22 It makes a bit of artificial sound, I think.

32:25 There's 100 and 120.

32:30 Oh, I've come to a stop.

32:32 Actually, it felt pretty strong.

32:33 It didn't feel any worse than the petrol, which is surprising to me.

32:37 0-100, 7.29.

32:39 So, it was like 0.2 of a second slower than the petrol,

32:43 which I think it is pretty remarkable.

32:45 80-120, 4.64 seconds.

32:47 So, again, only marginally slower than the petrol as well, which is good news.

32:51 So, let's head back and do a break from 100 kph as well.

32:55 Okay, our break from 100.

32:57 Let's see how it goes.

32:59 I suspect this is going to stop in pretty much the same distance as the petrol,

33:04 but only one way to find out.

33:06 All right, there we are.

33:09 100-0, 2.96 seconds and 38.31 metres.

33:15 So, pretty much the same stopping distance, ever so slightly different.

33:19 And now, time to do our reverse acceleration test.

33:22 Okay, here we go.

33:24 48 kilometres an hour.

33:32 So, Mazda CX-60, what do we think?

33:37 Look, I'm in two minds about this.

33:39 There's some parts of it that I really like, and then some parts that I really don't like.

33:43 And stuff that I don't like, I think the ride definitely needs work.

33:46 It's just way too firm for a vehicle that's predominantly meant to be driven in and around the city.

33:50 It helps when it comes to handling, but if you are going to be predominantly driving this with kids and stuff like that,

33:56 you're really going to get sick of the ride pretty quickly.

33:58 The safety systems need some work.

34:00 They are just so obtrusive and constantly in your face.

34:03 Thankfully, you can switch most of that stuff off,

34:05 but safety systems are pointless if you do need to switch them off because they just get too much.

34:10 So, I think that's something they need to fix with a software revision or something sort of pretty basic like that.

34:15 And then the final thing that I dislike is that stop-start system.

34:18 I think it is far too abrupt and just a bit too clunky.

34:22 That also needs a revision.

34:24 Outside of that, though, these engines are sensational.

34:26 They are such a big step forward for Mazda and this segment in general.

34:30 It takes what is typically pretty boring internal combustion engines into something that is quite fun and entertaining to drive.

34:36 Once you get stuck into these cars, they are so much fun to drive.

34:39 Like I said, it feels like a big MX-5, which I think is a good thing.

34:42 And if I had to choose between these two, given they are almost the exact same price, I would be going for the diesel.

34:47 I think the diesel is the better drivetrain of the two and certainly more efficient as well.

34:50 So, there it is. Let me know what you reckon about the CX-60 in the comments section below.

34:55 We are going to have a drive of the plug-in hybrid version as well pretty soon, so we will have that review come up shortly.

35:01 But let me know what you reckon in the comments section below.

35:03 Have you ordered one? What is it like to live with? Are you enjoying driving? And I am keen for your feedback.

35:08 If you did enjoy this video, please make sure you like it and you share it with your mates.

35:11 And if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon.

35:14 But until next time, take it easy.

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