2021 CX-9 Signature 5000 mile impression & comparison with 2018 CX-9 Sig

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2021 CX-9 Sig
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2021 CX-5 GT
Thought I would share my impressions of the 2021 CX-9 Signature with my previous 2018 CX-9 Signature. The car now has 5000 miles and I bought this car to replace my 2018 CX-9 that was totaled on January 1. My 2018 was grey with the auburn interior and the 2021 is white with the brown interior. The color and seats are two major difference. The 2018 seats felt wider and more comfortable. I much preferred the old auburn interior as well. The brown, while nice, seems too plain and on the dash and doors, looks almost black. The other major thing is the front seat in the 2018 went down lower. On the 2021, you sit up higher, which is fine but I liked the range of the old seats. I also find the plastics on the front to be softer on the 2021 and easier to scuff and scratch. The plastics in the 2021 overall feel cheaper in some ways.

The rear captains chairs are nice and as I now only have 2 additional rear passengers, the kids (older) like them a lot. They consider the rear to be a big upgrade over the old car and my son likes the rear set up better than any other car we tried (Volvo XC90, Audi Q7, MDX).

The other major differences are in the handling and AWD system, which seems improved in the 2021 vehicle. On the old 2018 CX-9, with stock tires, if you turned left or right on wet roads, you would get wheel slip. That does not happen on the 2021 model. High speed turns on the 2021 are better and there seems to be more rear wheel involvement overall.

The other big change is the exhaust note and engine noise. When you have to gun it, the 2021 sounds much better. Not sure what they did, but the exhaust note is throatier (not sure if that is a real word!) and the whole thing sounds really nice. Overall, the 2021 has a sportier feel.

The negative to this is that on the highway, there is a lot more engine drone and exhaust noise. On a 700 mile journey, it is kinda annoying actually. Because of this, the 2018 CX-9 felt more refined and better suited for long journeys. Part of me wondered if this engine noise was piped in.

I have not used the cruise control much on the 2021 (trying to vary speeds more till I hit the first oil change) but when I have, the adaptive system seems better - distances seem more logical and the distance is better managed.

Is the 2021 an upgrade over the 2018? In some ways yes but overall, I think not. For long distance journeys (which is one reason why I purchased the CX-9), I believe the 2018 was a superior vehicle. Quieter, and for the front passenger, more comfortable. Gas mileage seems the same to me. I do really like the camera and new screen - a huge improvement over the 2018 model. So overall, I think the 2021 takes a few step forward and a few steps back. For me, some things worked and other did not. Still highly recommend it.
 
Thanks for the comparison. As I also have an '18 Signature, it's nice to have an owners perspective of the differences. There's some changes I didn't realize happened. I was disappointed when Mazda dropped the auburn interior. Easily the best color IMO and really created a "signature" look for the CX-9. Mazda was so proud of it that it was the showcase color at launch and then they ditch it. Weird.

Hard to believe the seats feel narrower. The early seats were already the narrowest seats in the segment.
 
The other big change is the exhaust note and engine noise. When you have to gun it, the 2021 sounds much better. Not sure what they did, but the exhaust note is throatier (not sure if that is a real word!) and the whole thing sounds really nice. Overall, the 2021 has a sportier feel.

The negative to this is that on the highway, there is a lot more engine drone and exhaust noise. On a 700 mile journey, it is kinda annoying actually. Because of this, the 2018 CX-9 felt more refined and better suited for long journeys. Part of me wondered if this engine noise was piped in.

The 2020+ CX-5 advertised that they added Bose's "Engine Harmonic Enhancement" a.k.a. fake engine noise playing through the speakers. I wouldn't be surprised if they did it with the CX-9 as well. The noise is relayed and so even if the sound system is on mute or off, it still plays through the speakers regardless; it's always on. I was hoping that Mazda would have put an option to disable it through the settings, as Hyundai's give an option to disable it through the infotainment settings.


Edit, Bose moved the content to another section, scroll down to "Engine Harmonic Enhancement" :
 
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Just picked up an AWD 2021 Grand Touring. Does premium fuel make a huge difference over Regular as indicated? HP, Torque, etc..

With the engines tuned for 250 hp and 310 tq, the torque curve looks like this, which shows that the difference in performance is only realized above 4k RPMs.

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With that said, I'm not sure if the torque curve has changed much for the newer 250 hp 320 tq engines. It's likely very similar.

Basically, in regular driving you won't notice a difference. But if you need to pass someone on the highway or accelerate to merge into traffic on the freeway, it will be a little easier with 93 in the tank (and the car in Sport mode to keep the RPMs high).
 
Car now has over 11,000 miles on it. Had one issue at the first oil change - they had the time set at 7500 miles and the oil was right above the low circle on the dip stick. Should have done it at 5000 most likely. Going to keep an eye on it just in case. The only other thing is that the front dash plastic is really soft and my daughter scuffed (scratched) it already. Does not seem to come off and bother me a bit! I would also say I much preferred the older auburn color dash as it hid dust much better. Everything shows on the black dash. But overall, everything else is great.

Have taken it on road trips and just recently into the mountains on dirt and gravel roads. The AWD system worked great and there was zero drama. We had to go up a very steep dirt and gravel road with big ruts and water bars and the CX-9 went right up with no issue. Very happy at how well it performed.

Gas mileage is still good and I am averaging ~24 MPG - which is very similar to what my 2018 averaged. The cooling seats are a really nice feature and the new larger screen and infotainment system works tons better. Can say that I am really happy to have stayed with the CX-9. A quality vehicle.
 
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