Mazda CX-30 review 2020: An SUV for when a CX-3 is too small and a CX-5 is too big!

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When the Mazda CX-3 is too small and the Mazda CX-5 is too big, there's a car that perfectly squeezes in between them. It's the 2020 Mazda CX-30 and this is a review of the Mazda CX-30 G20 Evolve, which sits one up from the entry level. Is it premium enough to justify the price stretch above the Mazda CX-3? Paul Maric finds out.

Read the full review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/review/2020-mazda-cx-30-g20-evolve-review/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=review&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=single-car-review

Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 00:58
Interior: 03:40
Infotainment: 05:04
Features: 06:51
Practicality: 08:16
On the Road: 11:05
Verdict: 14:40

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#mazda #review #cx30 @mazdaaustralia @MazdaOfficial
Transcript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. I've always tried to steer people away from the Mazda CX-3.
00:04 I don't know, it's always just felt like a more expensive version of the Mazda 2.
00:08 It never really had any more premium feel to it, and you couldn't really justify the extra spend.
00:13 So, Mazda took that feedback on board and they've come up with a car that is more premium and is bigger,
00:18 but not quite as big as a CX-5. It's this one here.
00:21 It's called the CX-30, and what you're looking at right here is one up from the base model.
00:27 It's called the CX-30 Evolve, and it's priced at just under $32,000.
00:32 It competes with cars like the Toyota C-HR, the Hyundai Kona, and the new Nissan Juke as well.
00:38 Today, we're going to do a detailed review of the new Mazda CX-30,
00:42 and if you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review, you can use the time codes up on the screen,
00:47 or if you're on YouTube, just scroll down to the chapters below.
00:50 And if you haven't done so already, I'd love it if you could hit subscribe,
00:53 and also press the bell icon, because that's going to tell you every single time we drive something new.
00:57 Let's talk exterior. You've got eight colours to choose from.
01:01 Three of them are metallic, and they're going to cost you an extra $495.
01:05 This is one of the colours. It's called Soul Red. It's Mazda's signature colour.
01:09 I really like the look of this. It stands out beautifully. It's got a nice reflection to it.
01:13 It's a very deep colour, and it really, really suits their cars.
01:16 Let's have a look at this design. Look, it's actually really nice.
01:19 Where the CX-3 just really doesn't feel all that special, they've really gone that step above with the CX-30.
01:25 Just check out that grille. It is cool. If I had a 3D printer, this is the type of grille that I'd be printing.
01:30 It's like a cheese grater. You can go make some parmesan with it.
01:33 They've got the chrome down here. The thing that I never understood, though, with Mazda, is this join in the chrome.
01:38 It's sort of black, and you can see it really stands out.
01:41 I just wish they could make that one single piece. I'm not a designer. I don't know how that stuff works, but that'd be nice.
01:46 Big Mazda emblem there, and then the headlights over here. Full LED headlights.
01:51 There's an LED strip down here, but the daytime running light is halogen, and that sits in that little socket there.
01:57 It's not an LED daytime running light on this entry-level car.
02:01 Have a look at these wheels. 18-inch alloy wheels, and I think they look really nice.
02:05 It doesn't look like you've gone for the cheapest or the second cheapest car available.
02:09 At least it gives it that nice look. Have a look at this.
02:11 This cladding is just becoming bigger and bigger.
02:14 It's almost like the bigger the cladding, the less it can go off-road, and I think that applies here, because it's just growing.
02:20 Normally, it's like a small strip like this. It doesn't look out of place, but yeah, let's settle down with all the cladding.
02:25 Now, have a look at this. This is so weird. I noticed this on the other side of the car.
02:30 It's like they've built this panel and went, "All right, so what we'll do is just not have that meet any part of the body here."
02:36 So, I can lose almost an entire finger in there, because this panel doesn't crease over.
02:42 That just looks really crappy. I don't know why they've done that.
02:45 Now, let's talk sizing. I mentioned before that this car sits between the CX-3 and the CX-5 in terms of size.
02:52 It shares a platform with the new Mazda 3, but in terms of exact dimensions, it measures just under 4.4 metres long,
02:58 a little over 1.5 metres tall, which makes it about 70 millimetres shorter than a Mazda 3, and 100 millimetres taller.
03:05 Now, come around to the back here. I like this rear design.
03:08 They've gone with a similar shape to the Mazda 3, where it's highly stylised.
03:12 So, you can see these taillights, LED built into there and in the indicator, and it's all just nice and 3D.
03:18 They've gone to a lot of effort to give this a futuristic-looking design,
03:22 a spoiler built into the roof there that kind of adds a depth of style to it, and overall, it just looks really nice.
03:28 And again, it's that whole image of, you don't have to spend big money for this car to look good.
03:32 No one really knows that this is very much at the bottom end of the range.
03:36 There's no badges on here to tell you that you haven't spent a great deal of money.
03:40 Let's talk interior. Now, you may have noticed that I look completely different and I'm four days older.
03:45 That is because the weather turned terrible when we were filming last time and we had to stop.
03:49 It's now sunny, we're back in the car, and that's why later on you'll see me transforming back into my other clothes,
03:54 that is the magic of cinema.
03:56 Let's get into the interior and look at what Mazda's done here with the CX-30.
04:00 This is a big step forward in terms of the premium feel.
04:03 You may have seen inside the CX-3, it's pretty basic, it's based on the Mazda 2 and there's a lot of cheap parts to it.
04:09 This, on the other hand, is really nice.
04:12 They've gone for a differential in colour here.
04:14 You can't really notice it, but that's actually a dark blue instead of a black,
04:17 and it's all just really nicely laid out and makes the car feel like it's more expensive than it is.
04:22 But, how soft is all of this soft-touch material?
04:26 We have our hardness tester here.
04:27 This is for us motoring journalists to see how soft a soft-touch dashboard is.
04:31 It measures from 0 to 100, where 0 is super soft and 100 is super hard.
04:35 Let's try it out.
04:37 Okay, that's not too bad.
04:40 So, let's try this centre console.
04:42 Wow, that's really impressive.
04:46 So, there you go. This car does have a measurable increase in premium feel inside the cabin.
04:52 What is the build quality like?
04:53 Let's have a look.
04:55 It actually feels really good.
04:57 Everything's nice and solid.
04:59 Generally, with Mazdas, they feel really well put together, and this one is no exception.
05:04 Let's talk infotainment.
05:05 Mazda has a brand new infotainment system called Mazda Connect.
05:08 It replaces MZD Connect, which has been out for about a donkey's years,
05:12 and they did recently update MZD Connect to include Apple CarPlay and Android Auto,
05:16 but now this new Mazda Connect system has everything.
05:19 It's an 8.8-inch screen, and gone is the ability to use this as a touchscreen.
05:24 It's now exclusively used by this sort of iDrive-esque controller down here with shortcut buttons either side.
05:30 Today, I'll take you through a really quick overview of Mazda Connect.
05:34 If you want to see a detailed review, you can click up there, but let's have a look.
05:38 So, on the home menu, you're presented with a number of different options to choose from.
05:42 I'll take you through each of these.
05:43 So, information is all about fuel efficiency and any status messages on the car.
05:47 You then have entertainment, which is AM/FM, DAB plus digital radio,
05:51 plus the ability to stream over Bluetooth and connected devices.
05:54 Jump over to communication. This is for your telephone.
05:57 You can choose from previous call history, or you can just use the voice recognition function.
06:02 This works particularly well. It'll find names that are hard to understand,
06:05 and you can also do full navigation addresses as well with a single click of that.
06:09 It also comes with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, but you have to connect it with a cable.
06:13 It's not wireless.
06:14 Then we'll jump over to navigation. This is really easy to use.
06:17 It's quick as well, so you can zoom in and out easily.
06:19 It's a big step forward from MZD Connect.
06:22 Entering addresses is a little bit time consuming.
06:25 They've kind of copied BMW here with a circular wheel instead of actually having the ability to type things in
06:31 or use it as a touchscreen, which is a little bit funny, given, you know, they're copying it from the best.
06:36 But anyway, and then the final menu there is settings, and this is just where you'll find all of the car's settings.
06:41 There's actually quite a lot of detail here in terms of everything you can configure,
06:44 everything from the heads-up display and what is in there through to what the car does when it switches off.
06:48 So it is a really comprehensive infotainment system.
06:51 Let's move on to the rest of the features that come standard in this specification of CX-30.
06:56 You get dual-zone climate control, paddle shifters behind the steering wheel,
07:00 autonomous emergency braking that works at both low and high speeds.
07:03 You get a blind spot built into the rear vision mirror, rear cross-traffic alert,
07:07 rear parking sensors with a pretty decent reverse view camera.
07:10 You can get a 360-degree camera that's part of a $1,500 safety pack that also adds front parking sensors.
07:17 You get a head-up display and then in front of the driver an 8-inch TFT display that has the speedometer
07:22 and it also has other trip computer functions.
07:24 It also has a camera that relays the speed sign information,
07:28 so it picks up all the signs on the road and shows them on a head-up display and in front of the driver.
07:32 But the only problem is that it picks up school zones, even when it's not a school zone,
07:36 and then if it misses any signs, it could be misleading you with the wrong speed sign.
07:40 So just make sure you're also watching where you're going and what you're doing.
07:44 Finally, you also get an 8-speaker stereo and radar cruise control.
07:48 What does the key look like? Well, here it is.
07:51 Mazda symbol on the back and it's plastic, a little bit of metallic chrome on the side,
07:55 nothing on the front end and then lock, unlock and that's it.
08:00 Now, the strange thing here is that this is not a proximity sensing key,
08:03 so you need to pull that out of your pocket to lock and unlock the car
08:06 and then you start the car with the key just in the car using the start button.
08:10 It's a bit confusing not actually having a proximity sensor on the door.
08:13 You can get that in upper models, but you're going to need to spend more money.
08:16 So what about practicality? Where are you going to store your stuff?
08:19 Let's start off with the phone. That easily slots up the front there.
08:24 It even fits in there. What about your water bottle?
08:27 Okay, you have two cup holders. It easily fits into there.
08:30 And then there's these little grip tabs as well, so it doesn't go anywhere.
08:33 In the door, you've got plenty of storage for a bottle plus other bits and pieces.
08:38 There's a giant centre console here and I love this.
08:40 It can slide forward and then also conceal that little entrance.
08:44 And then there is a glove box as well. Big size glove box too.
08:47 You can store lots of things in there. Plenty of room for activities.
08:51 And if you have sunglasses, you're going to whack them up here.
08:54 Now, what about comfort? These are very cloth-y looking seats.
08:59 They are very comfortable and the steering wheel is a nice size as well.
09:02 Sits good in the hand and yeah, just a nice place to be seated.
09:07 Okay, let's talk back seat. Hmm. A lot of leg room back here.
09:12 So, I have my driver's seat in my regular driving position, which is quite far back.
09:17 But as you can see, you're not going to be fitting an adult back here anytime soon.
09:20 My knees are well and truly inside that seat.
09:23 Toe room is good though, which is positive. So, I have to kind of get my feet around that.
09:28 In terms of other features back here, mat pockets in just the passenger seat.
09:32 You get air vents, a center armrest with two cup holders.
09:37 We'll see how that works. It's got little grip tabs on the side.
09:41 And then there is a little slot inside the door as well for the bottle and not much more else.
09:46 In terms of headroom, I fit okay back here and comfort is okay.
09:51 It's a pretty firm seat. I don't know. I just don't love the look of this cloth.
09:55 I think it just looks a little bit dull.
09:57 I would have loved to see a little bit more color or some other patterns here.
10:00 And you do get ISOFIX points on the outboard seats.
10:03 Now, back to four days ago.
10:05 Let's talk cargo space. So, because it's not a full-size SUV, you're not getting a full-size SUV cargo space.
10:13 There's just over 300 litres of cargo available here.
10:16 Then under the cargo floor, you have a space saver spare, but it looks a bit nasty.
10:20 It's like someone spray-painted it and forgotten to finish painting it.
10:24 And then over to the sides, you have a couple of little storage nooks and then hooks off to the edges.
10:29 And then an LED light. Let's see how our bags fit.
10:32 Laptop bag in first.
10:34 Give this one a crack.
10:36 Okay, so that's not going to fit in there.
10:38 That's going to go in that sideways and then it fits fine.
10:42 I'll show you how it folds as well and how that cargo blind disappears.
10:46 So, cargo blind, you just detach from the top.
10:51 There's no space to put that under the floor, so that's just going to sit on your cargo floor.
10:56 The seats then fold in a 60/40 split folding fashion to reveal a little over 1,400 litres of cargo space.
11:04 So, I've hit the road in the CX-30.
11:08 Under the bonnet is a 2-litre naturally aspirated four-cylinder petrol engine.
11:12 It makes 114 kilowatts of power and 200 newton metres of torque.
11:18 Look, it's not a great deal and you can go to a 2.5 litre in the CX-30.
11:23 And you can also get the 2.5 litre with all-wheel drive.
11:26 But, to be honest, I think it actually works well in this engine because it brings the fuel consumption down.
11:30 And the official figure is 6.5 litres per 100 kilometres.
11:34 We're currently doing around 8.5, which is a lot of idling, a little bit of city driving thrown in as well.
11:40 So, it's a pretty reasonable real-life indication of where your fuel economy is going to be.
11:44 So, the engine has made it to a six-speed automatic transmission.
11:46 It's a pretty smooth gearbox.
11:48 You've got paddle shifters on the steering wheel if you want to take control yourself.
11:51 But, for the most part, it shifts smoothly.
11:53 It's never really hunting for gears and, I don't know, just a good gearbox.
11:57 The entire 2-litre range is only available with front-wheel drive.
12:00 And this car shares a platform with the Mazda 3.
12:03 So, inherently, it's quite dynamic.
12:05 You do get a couple of drive modes to choose from.
12:07 So, in this normal comfort mode, if I give the throttle a punch, it's actually pretty responsive.
12:14 So, it gets along and goes okay.
12:16 Look, it's not a race car, but it feels fast enough for your city commute.
12:21 And then, if you ever need to do any overtaking or get out of a situation in a hurry, it's got more than enough guts to get you there.
12:26 If you do pop it then into sport mode, you can feel the gearbox go down a gear.
12:30 It's primed and ready for you to punch the throttle.
12:33 The throttle becomes sharper.
12:34 It's more eager to kick down through the gears.
12:36 I actually quite like the fact that there's decent feel through the steering wheel.
12:40 It is light, but it's not too light.
12:42 And you kind of feel everything that's going on there with those front wheels.
12:45 And then, in sport mode, it's engaging enough to make this car feel sportier than it actually is.
12:50 Part of the reason the car feels so dynamic and doesn't use a great deal of fuel is because of the weight.
12:55 It weighs under 1400 kilograms.
12:57 So, despite the fact that it's SUV in shape, it doesn't carry the extra mass that an SUV typically tends to have.
13:03 Not that I would recommend towing with this particular car, but if you do need to, for whatever reason, you get a brake towing capacity of 1200 kilograms.
13:11 Now, let's talk about ride.
13:13 This is the part that, I guess, impresses me the most about this car.
13:17 It is damn good.
13:18 The ride is fantastic in and around the city.
13:21 Out on country roads where you have rutted, corrugated sections of road that are poorly done, the car just soaks it up beautifully.
13:29 It doesn't feel overly sporty.
13:30 It doesn't feel overly soft.
13:31 It's at that happy middle ground.
13:33 So, you're getting that sporty demeanor behind the wheel without having to sacrifice the ride quality.
13:38 And unlike Mazdas of old, there isn't a great deal of road noise, so it is nice and quiet in here, even when you are on a coarse-chipped surface.
13:45 The only criticism I'm going to point out here about the driving is the brake pedal.
13:48 It's a really firm pedal.
13:50 If you step on it hard, the car stops.
13:52 It's not a problem, but, I don't know, there's just not really a great deal of confidence in the pedal feel.
13:56 Let's talk visibility.
13:58 It's quite a low-slung driving position, so you feel like you're cocooned by the car.
14:02 With having said that, I can see great out the front there.
14:04 The heads-up display is sort of perfectly positioned.
14:06 It's got decent-sized wing mirrors for a car of this size, with that blind spot monitor built into it.
14:12 Visibility out the side is okay, but this sill is quite high.
14:15 Visibility out the back isn't very good.
14:18 It's an extremely narrow envelope out the rear there, and then the headrests kind of get in the way of your vision out the back, so that is worth keeping in mind.
14:26 In terms of turning circle, 10.6 metres, which means it will turn on a dime.
14:32 There's no all-wheel drive system there complicating things.
14:34 So, that's going to have you doing U-turns in the city without having to do the additional 3-point turn.
14:40 So, that is the Mazda CX-30.
14:43 Really, really impressed with it.
14:45 It is a nice premium step up from the CX-3, and it's just a good size.
14:49 It doesn't feel as big as a CX-5 or as small as a CX-3.
14:53 They've bridged that gap just in the centre there.
14:55 The 2.0-litre could use a little bit more pep, but then you can step up to the 2.5-litre if you need a little bit more punch in the back.
15:02 On the side of that, I don't know, the seats maybe don't like the cloth on them.
15:05 I'd prefer to have leather or some kind of a leatherette material.
15:08 But let me know in the comments below, did you buy a CX-30?
15:11 What do you think of it?
15:12 What's it been like to own?
15:14 And let me know in the comments below whether you think that Mazda has gone down the right path by creating a CX-30.
15:20 And if you did enjoy this video, I'd love it if you could hit the like button, follow it up with subscribe, and also don't forget to press the bell icon.
15:27 Until next time, take it easy.

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