Looking to Buy Cx7

[dlrtx]

Greeting to all!

I have recently considered a Mazda Cx7 as a trade for my '04 Fully loaded Chrysler Pacifica. We have had to Pac for almost 4 years and have LOVED every minute in it. We are looking at downsizing due to a recent relocation to a city with more highway driving, father distances to travel and the kids are getting older. We looked and looked and are serious about the Cx7. My biggest concern is that my wife has never driven a Turbo driven vehicle before. I have been reading the post about the Turbo Lag/Dark Smoke/and shut down waiting and I wonder how the transition is going to be. She is a very careful driver and does not like to "punch it" when it comes to pedal control. The test drives went well. It has a lot of pep but I worried that she may not understand pedal/thrust ratio with the Turbo.

Has anyone out there had the same thoughts or concerns but realize after, that the purchase was a good, sound choice.(uhm)

Thanks for your time,

DLRTX

 

[koala]

It's all up to the test drives really.

My girlfriend absolutely hates the way the CX-7 accelerates, where-as I just adapted my driving style and it's just fine for me.

Something tells me she wont like how it drives if she's a careful driver... my girlfriend is the same, she doesn't like to give a vehicle much more than 20-30% throttle under normal circumstances, so the turbo lag can be quite evident if thats how you drive.

 

[BlackCherry06]

Speaking for myself and turbochargers, I can testify that your right foot quickly learns what the engine is going to do with a given throttle input, so if your concern is that the car is going to run away without her, I can put your worries to rest. The advantage you have is that your turbo engine is coupled to an automatic, which is nearly foolproof. Mastering the turbo / manual transmission launch can be tricky until you learn it, but I can't imagine your wife having any trouble with a CX-7. And unless she's a very aggressive driver or routinely pulls out in front of fast-moving traffic, turbo lag isn't something she should notice.

 

[blkcherimika]

Speaking for myself and turbochargers, I can testify that your right foot quickly learns what the engine is going to do with a given throttle input, so if your concern is that the car is going to run away without her, I can put your worries to rest. The advantage you have is that your turbo engine is coupled to an automatic, which is nearly foolproof. Mastering the turbo / manual transmission launch can be tricky until you learn it, but I can't imagine your wife having any trouble with a CX-7. And unless she's a very aggressive driver or routinely pulls out in front of fast-moving traffic, turbo lag isn't something she should notice.

!. I agree with the above, 100%

2. Our CX-7 is really my wife's. From the minute she got behind the wheel, she adapted like a duck to water. After a few weeks, your biggest problem will be keeping her from collecting speeding tickets! (wow)

 

[Killer]

Speaking for myself and turbochargers, I can testify that your right foot quickly learns what the engine is going to do with a given throttle input, so if your concern is that the car is going to run away without her, I can put your worries to rest. The advantage you have is that your turbo engine is coupled to an automatic, which is nearly foolproof. Mastering the turbo / manual transmission launch can be tricky until you learn it, but I can't imagine your wife having any trouble with a CX-7. And unless she's a very aggressive driver or routinely pulls out in front of fast-moving traffic, turbo lag isn't something she should notice.

(mswerd)

 

[CX-7owner]

In the newer models all of the smoking & turbo lag kinks have been worked out, and there is Stability control to yank her back in if she gives it too much gas in first ( a very torque-rich gear ), it happened to me on the test drive, I went around a bin, floored it and snapped my neck, with DSC kicking in and keeping it civilized.

If she doesn't even punch it, she won't even notice the turbo lag.

 

[AWmustang]

As far as waiting to shut it down. If she doesn't drive aggressively she will probably never need to allow it to cool. The only exception would be if her destination was immediately off the highway and she'd been on the highway for a while (> 20 minutes).

But in most cases you'll idle for 30 seconds at stop lights before you get very far off the freeway.

I rarely let the car idle after getting to where I'm going and I do drive pretty aggressive. When I get to work, I'm puttering around a parking garage for a minute or 2 before it gets shut down. And on the way home I'm about a mile off the freeway and there are 4 stop lights and I get caught by at least one of them.

 

[vbbuilt01]

And one more thing to consider that is seldom discussed in these forums, is that the CX-7 drive train has adaptive logic - meaning it makes adjustments based on learned behavior. So if the driver is conservative, the transmission adjusts and if the driver is more aggressive, then the tranny works in that vein too.

Vince.

 

[07LiquidCX7]

All I can tell you is that my wife LOVES hers and we've had it now for 4 months. It has 11000 miles on already! LOL and I don't think we have ever let it cool down after driving it? No problems to report to you, other than my wife wants to take her car everywhere. Oh and it only gets 20mpg city no matter how you drive it. Lucky to get 25 highway.

 

[dlrtx]

Thanks To All

I just want to say, we went and picked up our Cx7 today.
Dark Metalic Gray/Touring AWD/Bose6CDCanger/Tint PinStrip/Cargo liner/MoonRoof/CompassMirror/and lots of Zoom Zoom

Got full trade on my 04 Pacifica and 2K under MSRP.

Wife LOVES it, kids miss indivudual seats.

All in all, the post that were left just made things that much easier to decide.

Oh, and birth date was 11/06. All bugs were worked out by then!!!

Thanks Again (cool)

 

[cruzdreamer]

Congrats on the ride....turbo is fun and not worrisome in any way....now my RX 8 that was a different story!!