Mazda to hone its Large Product range

MAZDA stacked the deck against itself when it embarked on its most ambitious program to date: the creation of its Large Product range.

The anticipation and hype around the brand’s new flagship SUV family, spearheaded by the CX-60 and CX-90, was immense, but so was the challenge of getting the formula right on two paradigm-shifting models right from the get-go.

The reaction by the motoring press since those models launched has been largely tepid as a result.

Refinement and ride quality have been the most prominent criticisms of both models since they launched last year, with driveability qualms around the eight-speed automatic – the sole transmission choice in the range – being another oft-cited issue.

It is not just cantankerous Aussie journos either – overseas reviews are also consistent.

The good news is that those complaints are being heard in Hiroshima.

“There are open channels for feedback and the engineers, the R&D people, the program managers, they do take it in,” explained Mazda Australia’s managing director Vinesh Bhindi.

“What they do with (that feedback) I’m not privy to – but they’re always open to listen to it. For CX-60 and CX-90 in particular those engineers would have delivered on the targets they set themselves, but for any product it’s a case of constant evolution over its life.

“For the Large Products, I don’t see why it would be any different.”

Mr Bhindi was tight-lipped on whether adjustments were imminent for the CX-60 or CX-90 to address criticisms, but Mazda’s history with on-the-run improvements suggests that it can respond quickly when products do not measure up to expectations.

In 2017, barely a year after the second-generation CX-9 went on sale, Mazda wheeled out an updated model that featured a bevy of under-the-skin changes – chief among these being the addition of more sound-deadening materials to quell concerns about cabin noise.

To be fair to Mazda, the Large Product project had immense scope and required almost every core technology within it to be created from scratch – a challenge magnified by the company’s insistence on conducting all its engineering in-house.

Not only are the four Large Product models – CX-60, CX-90, the just-revealed CX-70 and the yet-to-be-shown CX-80 – built on an all-new longitudinally-engined architecture, they are also powered by clean-sheet inline-six diesel and petrol engines, utilise a brand-new eight-speed automatic transmission and offer a plug-in petrol-electric hybrid option that’s never been used in any other Mazda.

Many of these things are areas where Mazda has no prior experience.

It is rare for a vehicle program to require so much clean-sheet engineering.

Longitudinally-engined Mazdas have existed in the past, but inline sixes, plug-in hybrids and eight-speed autos are new territory for the brand.

Predictably, smashing so much ‘newness’ into the CX-60 and CX-90 has resulted in shortcomings, but it’s also worth remembering that the final stages of testing and validation would have been conducted during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Japan’s disruptive lockdowns would have no doubt impacted the crucial process of fine-tuning vehicles as complex as the CX-60 and CX-90.

Taking the above into consideration, it is no surprise that that there are teething issues. However, Mazda is, to its credit, not blocking its ears when the critics wail.