Mazda’s SUV secrets revealed

WITH the release of the CX-7, Mazda has revealed a fresh SUV strategy, as it explores avenues of maintaining growth and prosperity in Australia.

The $39,910 to $45,560 CX-7, which is classified as a compact SUV even though it is longer and wider than typical car-based rivals such as the Toyota RAV4, will slot above the continuing Tribute SUV range.

In the near future Mazda may introduce Tribute versions that undercut the $34,990 list price that the current base model starts at.

Mazda will maintain up to a $10,000 or so price gap between the CX-7 and Tribute, which is possible due to, among other things, the more favourable exchange rates that the latter has enjoyed since production switched from Japan to Taiwan when the facelifted model arrived in the middle of the year.

"The CX-7 will attract a different type of buyer to the Tribute," believes Mazda’s marketing manager Martin Benders, claiming that the older vehicle has a more utilitarian appeal.

The company also predicts that Tribute buyers, attracted by its keen, low-$30,000 pricing, will gravitate towards the base four-cylinder model, rather than the 3.0-litre V6s that have traditionally made up the lion’s share of sales.

Just how long the 2001-vintage Tribute lives on a tightly held secret within Mazda, but its replacement should carry the CX-5 nameplate when it is finally unveiled, probably within the next 12 to 18 months.

In a reversal of current trends, this vehicle is expected to be smaller than its predecessor, in order to eliminate the uncomfortable size similarities that now exist between the Tribute and the CX-7.

Another reason why the CX-5 will be smaller concerns its chances of making an impact in Europe, where buyers there overwhelmingly prefer more compact SUVs than the Tribute.

In fact, both the Tribute and its fraternal twin, Ford’s Escape/Maverick, have failed to find an adequate customer base in Europe, especially in SUV-favouring Britain, due to their relatively large size.

Mazda is expected to be developing the CX-5 off the C1-plus platform, and it may even share more than a little hardware with the new-generation Land Rover Freelander that was unveiled in Paris in September and is due here in the middle of 2007.

For some time now, the rumour mill has been suggesting that Mazda’s strategy with the Tribute replacement calls for a more capable off-roader than the resolutely on-road biased CX-7, so the Freelander II connection seems a natural.

At the other end of the SUV scale, Mazda is set to maintain a smaller price differential between the CX-7 and the recently announced CX-9.

Due in early 2008, the seven-seater SUV should retail from about $45,000 to $55,000.

It will be classified as a medium-sized SUV, and will be Mazda’s true competitor to vehicles such as the Subaru Tribeca, Ford Territory and upcoming Hyundai Vera Cruz.

As reported on GoAuto earlier this month, Mazda will re-engineer the CX-9 for right-hand drive production exclusively for Australia.

Among other things, the vehicle’s child-seat restraints must be modified in order to meet the stringent Australian Design Rules in this area.

The CX-9 (left) is considerably larger than the CX-7, coming in at 5071mm long, versus 4680mm.

Motivation comes courtesy of a joint Mazda/Ford 3.5-litre variable-valve V6 powerplant delivering 186kW and 325Nm. It is mated to an Aisin six-speed ‘Activematic’ automatic gearbox.

It is unclear whether Mazda’s active torque-split AWD system will be the sole drive format on offer in Australia, since the CX-9 – like the CX-7 – is to also be sold in the United States in front-wheel drive guise.

Mazda says it already rejected the front-drive CX-7 on the grounds that the 4WD import duty savings that the AWD version enjoys means that any price saving between the two would be "next to negligible." Like the CX-7, the CX-9’s front suspension set-up is a MacPherson strut-type coil-sprung, with a multi-link configuration employed at the rear.

However, despite their extremely similar styling and proportions, the CX-9 is built off an entirely different platform to the CX-7. The new-generation MPV people mover, unveiled recently in Japan, serves as the big SUV’s base.

On the subject of the MPV, Mazda rejected this third-generation model for Australia for the CX-9, since it figured that the market for seven-seater 4WD wagons is far larger than that for seven-seater people movers.

Meanwhile the CX-7 may become available with the six-speed manual gearbox earmarked for European consumption.

"We may put our hand up for it," says Mazda Australia managing director Doug Dickson.

Pumping out 190kW/380Nm, the 2.3-litre DISI turbo-charged four-cylinder engine from the Mazda3 and 6 MPS models boasts a 15kW and 30Nm upgrade in power and torque respectively.

According to the CX-7’s program manager, Shunsuke Kawasaki, the lower torque availability of the less powerful engine better suits the automatic gearbox.

In the future a small capacity V6 petrol engine may also become available, of between 2.5-litre and 3.0-litre configuration.

Conversely, a 2.2-litre four-cylinder common-rail turbo-diesel unit may also make it into the sleek SUV, as well as the CX-9.

Mazda has deemed the existing 105kW/360Nm MZR-CD 2.0-litre engine, as found in the newly released Mazda6 Diesel, as insufficiently powerful for the CX-7 as a result of its 300kg-plus weight deficit compared to the ‘6.’ Mazda is acutely aware that raising its SUV profile in Australia over the next three years is vital if it is to raise its market share.

Currently it has about 6.8 per cent of the total new car market here. With around 66,000 sales predicted by year’s end, this makes Mazda our biggest-selling importer.

"If Mazda is to grow, it needs to get into the SUV market," says Mr Benders.

"It is the second biggest segment after small cars," he adds.

Mazda's SUV timeline:
CX-7	December 2006
CX-9	March 2008
CX-5	2008