Now that I've had her a few days, here are some thoughts:
Coming from a Genesis GV70, it's significantly larger (and yes, I was well aware it was larger). But it drives so smoothly and the power from the inline 6 is smooth, linear and a joy to experience. We went grocery shopping over the weekend and got everything we bought in the back, with space leftover, which couldn't have possibly worked in the GV70. The added space is welcome. And the back seats offer so much legroom which is very luxurious, plus the seats move forward/back and recline. NICE!
Tech is OK, not stellar and I've spent a great deal of time getting accustomed to how Mazda, does Tech. The all digital instrument cluster is nice, but lacks much customization. Mazda, could learn a thing or two from other brands on giving owners more freedom to choose a gauge design to match our preferences. You get Sport, Normal or Off Road. I'm never going off road, so I'm left with Normal or Sport. You can cycle through some things like mileage, iDrive (or whatever they call it), and Compass. Notably missing and really difficult to find is Tire Pressure. Turns out you have to dig into Information, then Service Reminders to find tire pressure. And you either get a traditional cluster or you can add a graphic of your car in the center, which is pretty nice as it shows cars on each side of you, so the option I'm using. There's enough real estate to have moved the car graphic into the center of the speedometer. And using the car graphic means you have a digital speedometer instead.
This is my first car with wireless Apple CarPlay and I thought it wasn't important, but it is honestly TERRIFIC! I don't have to push any voice button and just say, Siri, Call XXX and the call is made. PLUS and this is great, the CX70 comes with Alexa integration, which is Mazda's way of adding an intelligent assistant (think Mercedes MBUX). Setting up both Apple CarPlay and Alexa was a breeze. Now I can ask Alexa (again, no need to push the voice button on the steering wheel at all) anything I might ask Alexa to do, including I can ask Alexa to turn on my oven at home to a specific temperature. I asked Alexa where my package was today and she told me it was out for delivery and what time to expect it. Pretty cool tech in this regard.
I can't figure out how to adjust the brightness of the gauges incrementally. It's either all the way bright or it uses a sensor to choose the brightness level it thinks is right. I'd prefer to choose the brightness level myself. But bright is bright and that's good.
It took me some time to figure out how to program favorite stations, but it's actually pretty easy once you do figure it out. And just a quick tap of the favorites button brings them all up, including how to reorder them if you want, which works well. I didn't think Mazda offered a split screen option for such a large infotainment screen. Turns out I found out it does. It just doesn't do it very well. If you have maps up, it will place a box over part of the map with your station details, hiding the part of the map you might want to see. I won't use it. The controller is very easy to use, to change from Maps, to Music, so I just bounce back and forth there. What I would have expected with a split screen is that the map section would be in its own area and the music in another. I wouldn't expect music to cover (and not even fully cover) part of the map.
Sonically, the sound system is far nicer than I expected. There's a honking huge subwoofer inside the opening for the spare tire and when I say that thing pumps out bass, IT PUMPS OUT BASS. You can only adjust treble and bass. You can't adjust midrange, which I find odd for a premium system. Then there are two settings for surround, which I don't understand from their names, but by trial and effort are quite effective. Bose has never been a name I associate with premium sound, like I would with Bang & Olufsen, and some others, but again, I think the system is outstanding, so who cares what's in a name.
Even though you can turn off the easy entry/exit system and you customize the car to your face, which recognizes you when you enter the car, the steering wheels still moves up and back down a wee bit, which it really shouldn't do. Even the service advisor at Mazda, could not understand why it does that.
The seats: They're OUTSTANDING. The Premium Plus comes with quilted Napa Leather and I find them supremely comfortable. They don't hug you like a sports seat, but they cradle you in comfort which you can sit in for hours without fatigue.
The My Mazda App, is so so. Not that most people spend a lot of time using the app. It does work, but it's supposed to show tire pressure, and that doesn't work. You can do most of the simple things you'd want like lock, unlock, start the car or the climate system. Coming from the Genesis app, Mazda has some learning to do on how a good car app should work. My service advisor said the app is brand new and still in development, so maybe it will get better with time.
All these things aside, what really matters is how a car drives. This is my first Mazda. I had read Mazda is about driving dynamics and I have to agree. Once I figured out the tires were over inflated at delivery by a LOT and had them adjusted to the correct tire pressure, the car corners amazingly well, with almost no body roll at all. It gobbles up bumps and imperfections with aplomb and the smooth linear and abundant power is awesome. I don't need a car to go any faster than this, that's for sure.
There is one odd omission and maybe that's just a Mazda thing, but this is a nearly $60K SUV and there is no Ambient Lighting system in the car. The Premium Plus does include Ambient Lighting in the footwells front and rear, but most cars in this price range have Ambient lighting in the dash and doors, with color choices. Not that it's a big deal, but I kind of enjoyed the Ambient lights in the Genesis and before Genesis, Mercedes cars.
I have to say, I am EXTREMELY HAPPY with the CX70. As soon as we can get out from the other GV70, we'll be getting a CX50 Premium Plus as that's the size car the other half wants.
I'll update this as things go on. I'm not much into modifying things. i did replace the valve stem covers with nicer color matched ones. And my car came with the weather protection package, which includes all weather mats, mud guards and this massive cargo area protection package (which is now folded and stored in the garage).
EDIT: In case you missed my post below, I woke up this morning to find the MyMazda App has now been updated to show the tire pressure for all 4 tires. What I'm amazed at is I contacted Mazda just two days ago to let them know it wasn't working. And two days later, it's been fixed. I had an issue with the Genesis App for my GV70. It's been 2 months since I asked them to resolve the issue and no one. I repeat - NO ONE from Genesis EVER followed up, nor did they fix the issue with my car in the app. WHAT A DIFFERENCE going from Genesis to Mazda has been so far!
