Having owned sports-cars, 4 bangers, SUV's and trucks at various point in my life, the CX-50 makes no sense.
For me the CX-50 makes no sense unless you need extra towing power.
But at that point, you just get a truck.
Looking at the CX-5 side by side with the CX-50 at the dealership, the CX-50 looks like crap.
The thing that got me into a CX-5
( before they had a CX-50) was the driving experience, the exterior aesthetics, and the sweet interior.
All that with a gas saving 4 cylinder that could still go off-road.
The CX-50 with it's wide stance and it's plastic cladding is a hot mess. And lower to the ground instead of higher( make it more rugged looking but less able to handle rugged terrain with a lower stance makes no sense.
CX-50 completely missed the mark on form and function. Form and function is diverging. Form is going more rugged looking while function is going more sporty(lower to ground, etc).
You have to wonder who's half baked idea it was to add crappy looking cladding and lower ground clearance??? They should have raised the ground clearance and if they were gonna add cladding, at least paint it to match the whole vehicle.
Most ladies I know have opted for new Toyota RAV4, Ford bronco or Jeeps, etc. as they wanted a car that looked good and had some off-road ability
Men, either prefer sporty/racy or rugged looking. Although not a muscle car, the CX-5 fits sporty(looks/drive) for me with the ability to off-road. For rugged looking, a truck will do.
There will not be a large market for the cx-50. If they replace the cx-5 with the cx-50, customers will move to other brands. Some may stay with Mazda but more than likely move to a completely different model away from the cX-50.
I myself, would move to a Ford Maverick or any new small truck that is hybrid electric/gas for main vehicle.
And if the customer really wanted these CX-50, they would be sold out instead of sitting on the lot. Ask someone how hard it has been over the past year to find the new ford bronco.
No, these will not increase exponentially on sales.