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I think you are confusing the two posts. The second posted said he was doing 90% highway, and got 23 mpg. When I test drove the Grand Touring model on Friday, it was mostly in and around town, in the height of rush hour. It didn't perform well.
I did get a voicemail from the dealer yesterday (Saturday) saying that when I test drove the car, they had filled it with 87 octane gas and not 91 octane, and this was the reason for the poor mpg.
Like I said I went to test drive a FWD model at a different dealership. The big difference here is that this dealership is a Mazda "presidential" awarded dealership. I got a price about $300 over invoice, they held the vehicle for the day and gave me top dollar for my 6s. I went in around 4.30pm, and was out with the vehicle around 6pm. They had set the price up for me for the day before I even left my house.
Considering the price difference of almost $10k between the FWD Sport and the AWD Grand Touring I test drove on Friday, I must admit, I'd be hard pressed to justify the price difference. The FWD Sport handles extremely well, got about 26 mpg on my way home (180 mi drive), and it was raining heavily the entire time. Having driven both, the AWD seems a little heavier and a little slower to accelerate than the FWD. The AWD model feels like your in more control. The FWD Sport seems to have a little more of a mind of its own. A couple of times in the rain from a stop, I had it lunge to the right unexpectedly around 20 - 30 mpg.
I've very happy with the FWD Sport, the only thing I miss is the ambient temp sensor, but ist definately not worth the difference between the FWD Sport and the Grand Touring!! The climate controls on the FWD Sport don't seem to suffer the horrible "fog ups" that the 6s has.
Thanks for clearing that up. I almost tossed the CX-7 as an option (almost) when under the imperession it was getting mpg in the low teens in mostly hwy driving.
Today I drove the CX-7 GT w/tech pkg (wife insists on rear view camera) for the second time. The main test was the wife (petite) and two kids (15 mos & 5 yrs) in safety seats in the rear, and it was a tight squeeze - okay for 30 minutes or less, but not long trips. That alone might be a dealbreaker, but the dynamics are great. Secure, firm handling suspension (Very safe), but it's not as quiet (road & engine noise) as I'd like in a $30,0000+ car.
I obsess when it comes time to but a car because such times are so infrequent. Can't decide yet.
Regards,
Deanie
Just a bit of a background on my situation...
I have a wife and two small children (7 & 2 yrs old) and looking for a family carrier....wife would be primary driver.....
I test drove two CX-7's the other day....first one was an an AWD Grand Touring model....the other was a FWD Sport model.....
Both drove about the same.....one just had more bells and whistles than the other.....
They both drove fairly nice, slight underpowered in my opinion, espeically off the line.....but handling was crisp and clean.
Nice interior, nice leather, nice stereo, roomy....not bad.
Here is the deal breaker for me.....the A/C is just unacceptable, period! I live in Central Florida....it was about mid-day 2pm, 95 degress, sticky, normal Florida weather.....anyway, the salesman started the car and let it run for about 3 minutes, A/C set at 60 degress....the fan was blowing hard, and on re-circ.....
When we got in to take it for a spin I expected the air to be blowing frosty air....I did not expect the entire car to be cold, but at least the air coming from the vents should have been blowing frosty air by now....but no go on that! Did not say anything to the salesman, we left for the test drive.....a good 15 mintues later after we got back to the dealership I put my hand right up against the vents to feel how cold the air was, and it was luke cool at best....now remember, the A/C had been set at 60 degrees and still blowing full blast the entire test drive.....still nothing, no cold air.....
To be fair, I said lets check another one to see if it does the same thing.....maybe the one we drove the first time had an issue......well we did the exact same thing in the second one (sport model) as we did in the first one....A/C was set the exact same, test drive was the exact same route.....but the results were the same! And here in FLorida, A/C is everthing! May not be as big an issue up in the northern states, but I know it can get quite warm up there in the summer time as well.....
Mazda has been having A/C issues in its car for a while now....like in the Mazda3....since 2004 they have had this issue.....have read numerous complaints about this....I just thought that coming out with a brand new model they would have solved this issue.....it's obvious they have not! So the CX-7 is now off my list.....buyers be ware!
Just my .02 of course....
I live in the DC area and just bought an AWD GT last week. It's not Florida, but the summers have many days where the temp is in the 90s and muggy (DC is essentially a filled in swamp, after all). With some of the worst rush hour traffic in the country, AC is going to be important for me.
On the way home, I'll try to remember to see how cold the air blowing out is, and set the AC to manual with a low temp, and see if that changes it.
BTW, Deanie, I've enjoyed reading your posts, not because you're the biggest CX-7 fan out there, but because you're honest and open minded.
Anyway, for those that are in the DC area, it looks like most of our dealerships got about 3 CX-7s in 2 weeks ago, with additional vehicles trickling in since then.
I purchased at Whitten Brothers in Richmond VA, and when I picked mine up, I was surpised to learn they had around 10 when my area dealers only had 3. I think they must have a history of higher volume to have such a better selection.
Double the gas cost??? What do you drive now? I highly doubt you get over 20mpg in an SUV unless you have a dinky old RAV4 or a CR-V. Also, are you paying a $1.50 for gas???
- Con: Rear bumper isn't very strong
It is plastic! So is most of very car made!. Also, there are NO crash test ratings out on it yet. I would think your assumption is a bit premature, don't you think?
But in a realistic drive around town, the CX-7 AWD got about 10 - 12 MPG.
If you do not own one, how did you come to this? 10-12 mpg is way off all other reports I have heard.
Current tank of gas (18.4 gallons) lasted 290 miles, the bulk was a trip from Cincinnati to Athens, Ohio, mostly highway some 55 mph winding roads down route 50. Thats about 16 mpg on average. I'm going to fill it up with premium 91 octane BP tomorrow, and I'll let you know how that tank goes. Its very easy to depress the accelerator on the CX-7 and end up at 60 mph in a few seconds (eg. not flooring it), I'll try to drive it a little more conservatively and see how that helps the mpg.
In terms of safety the thing is awesome, I took it for a short run down State Route 550 and 690 here in Athens, road veers back and forth, and plenty of hills that change direction just after the peak. I was able to take the turns on that road at 60 mph without any problems, one I probably shouldn't have but the Dynamic Stability Control kicked in and kept me on the road
The CX-7 is definately more spacious and cooler than the Mazda 6s. However, there is absolutely no room in the back seats with one infant and one toddler car seat back there. I don't know how petite your wife is, but our 11 year old nephew is about the only one who can sit back there comfortably between the two car seats.
Having said that, our daughter's toddler car seat fits much better in those rear seats than it ever did in the 6s. She looks far more comfortable in terms of the angle the seats at than she ever did in the 6s. One other thing, I'm glad the front head rests pop out, my daughter likes to be able to see out the windshield when nobody is in the front passenger seat, which she can't do with the head rests in place.
I only paid around $23,200 for the FWD Sport, to be honest with you, having driven both the FWD Sport and the AWD Grand Touring, I just don't see the justification in the price difference unless you've got money to waste. I thought I'd miss the fancy climate controls that are in the 6s, and the Grand Touring but not in the Sport. The front windshield defroster was always a PITA on the 6s anyway, and it never worked right on a cold foggy morning. I was happy to see that the manual climate controls work very very very well. The only downside to the FWD Sport is that I didn't get the Cargo Tray, which I've now got on order. After three shopping trips around town with it, the groceries just go everywhere regardless of how careful you take the turns.
One thing to keep in mind with the rear view camera, its part of the GPS package right? Check with your insurance company, make sure they don't charge or plan to charge higher premiums for cars with navigation systems. I was talking to my insurance agent, and she told me that something like 8 out of 10 owners of GPS enabled cars don't set the trip BEFORE they leave, and end up getting into the habit of trying to set the trip while driving, which sooner or later results in some kind of accident as a result. So they are looking to charge a premium for cars with GPS enabled features, and since most cars they are in the $30k or higher range, people will pay it.
Hope that helps.
btw. one real issue with the car is the speedometer. After driving it for a few days, didn't really notice in while test driving, its difficult to hit 5 mph increments and know that you're not doing 58 or 59 instead of 55. I guess its partly due to the fact you barely have to touch the accelerator and you go faster
Yes pretty much double the gas costs. My other SUV is a 2001 Pontiac Aztek GT, people poke fun at the exterior from time to time but I think it looks way better than your generic RAV4 or CRV. The interior on it is awesome, its a very useful vehicle, and gets awesome gas mileage. It averages about 26 mpg, considering its a 3.4l V6, and about the same size as the CX-7. It can also seat an adult between the two car seats in the back.
The only downside to the Aztek, is that GM didn't do a great job with the powertrain. I've gone through three GM transmissions at this point, after the last one broke just outside their warranty, I had it completely rebuilt from high-performance after market parts. That not only improved the performance and power, but I seem to be getting on average about 28 mpg out of the thing. I know this because both the in-dash computer and the old fashion way come out with the same numbers. I've got almost 80,000 miles on the Aztek, and its always given between 24 and 28 mpg since the first day I bought it.
I also stopped taking it to the GM dealer, and since then, no mechanical problems at all. Strange ?
In terms of the bumper. My wife backed the Aztek into the garage wall at our old house, big hole in the wall, but I just had to dust off the Aztek's rear bumper. She also backed it into a concrete wall at the same house, and it just had a minor scratch on the plastic bumper. My guess, the CX-7 would probably need a repair in the same situation.
I actually DO own one now, the FWD version, last tank got 15 mpg. I got the 10-12 mpg figure from the Grand Touring Model I test drove. The dealer said they filled the tank with 5 miles on the odometer, and it had been test driven close to 120 miles. I test drove it for about an hour with the sales guy. Which added about 30 miles to it, and the tank was below 1/2. To be fair to the dealer, they went out and tested the car pretty heavily after I pointed out the gas mileage issues. They got back to me the other day and said they weren't sure if they put 91 octane in it or not, and that might be part of the problem.
They're not the first dealer to say that either. There is no indication on the car, gas tank etc, that you should use premium fuel. The only two mentions are in the "getting started" booklet attached to the ignition, and the owners manual. With the high gas prices, I'd imagine most dealers would probably just dump 87 octane into them if they are unaware of the 91 octane requirement.
One thing I noticed that was interesting, I've gone to 4 dealers here in Ohio looking at these before I bought one down in Cincinnati. The first two dealers I went to had the AWD model window sticker showing 19 / 23 as the gas mileage. However, the last two dealers I went two, the exact same model vehicles with the same options had 18 / 21 as the gas mileage on the window sticker. My FWD Sport has 19 / 24 on it, the same as the 6s.
I'll keep you posted on how the mpg works out over time. Probably not too fair to judge it within the first 600 miles anyway as the engine is being broken in.
While the weather here in Ohio isn't quite Florida, it was 90 here the other day and fairly humid. The car was cold with the a/c on, and the fan set on 4 within a minute or two. The air was definately blowing freezing cold off the bat.
It sounds like you test drove the Grand Touring with the fancy climate control. I had the same fancy climate control in my 6s, and the a/c works fine in it. However, your complaint caught my attention because my mother in law complained about the a/c not working right in my 6s when she borrowed it, and my wife's aunt who borrowed it for a week complained of the same thing. They set the temp to 60, but never turned on the a/c, or in my wife's aunts case, she turned on the a/c but had the blower on low, so it took forever to cool the car down.
You probably should have mentioned it to the sales rep, they would have shown you how to set it correctly. Having driven the Grand Touring, I know the a/c works very very well. So I'd chalk it up to either user error or a faulty vehicle.
I don't know about you, but shelling out $30K on a vehicle is somewhat of a big issue with me.....when I want to buy....I compare.....it has nothing to do with cost! If you read some of the other posts it seems I am not the only one that has issues with it. My co-worker drives a mazda3 5 door and he loves it, but, he says his A/C stinks!
I have been in his car allot, great car, lousy A/C.
So think what you will.....that's your right.....and I was just throwing my .02 anyway.....by the way, do you wonder why Mazda has lowered it's warranty period? Hmmmmmmm....
Basic warranty was shortened but powertrain (turbo engine)
was greatly increased.
From a consumer's point of view....does that make sense?
Ask a sales rep why Mazda is doing this.....the answer they gave me made no sense.
But why would a company reduce it's other portion of it's warranty program? What signal are they sending to the consumers? We use to warranty for 4/50 but now maybe our product is costing to much in warranty work so we will reduce it to 3/36? 5/60 powertrain is pretty much industry standard as compared to the likes of let's say Honda and Toyota....Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Mazda are bad cars by no means....in fact I use to think that if Mazda was running neck and neck with Honda and Toyota their warranty would put them ahead.....not anymore. In my opinion they just took a step back. Ask any Mazda salesman why Mazda is doing this and see what they say? Then come back to this forum and let us know, I am real curious to see what they tell you. The answer I got from the salesman I talked to was "there is no reason for it that he can thing of".
by the same ammount. This will certainly cost them dollars. I'm assuming they increased their warranty to match the longer warranty offered by other car makers.
For all intense purposes Mazda is a good product, but by doing this they are sending a negative signal.
Thanks for your insights.
Oh, about that bit with the poor GM powertrain, I don't find that very suprising. American vehicles are known for poor tranny's.
Mazda stated they lowered their bumper to bumper warranty because they felt that their longer warranty did not entice buyers to purchase a Mazda over Honda, Toyota, Nissan, so, they made it equal to theirs. It is not worth the added cost of a longer warranty if they are not picking up addtional customers because of it.
But to me, if you have a product, and you have had the same warranty for years, and then you change it, that will send mix messages. Either your product is having issues going into it's fourth year of ownership and is requiring allot of money to fix, or your simple cutting costs anyway you can to keep your profit margins up? Whatever, I understand Mazda is like any other business, they need to make money, i.e. a profit, I say rock on! But if your going to do that, wouldn't you think it would be a good business practice to let your possible consumers know this, either through your dealer network or a press release. Like I said before, I was at the dealership and asked the car salesman and the New Car Sales Manager, neither one could tell me why they lowered it. At least they were honest, that a plus. Still makes me wonder.....
WHY HAS MAZDA LOWERED THE WARRANTY PERIOD?
Because it saves Mazda $$$. Ask any mechanic and he'll tell you the powertrain is one of the most reliable parts of the car, be it American, German or Japanese.
You can bet your bottom dollar that if you have a problem with anything on the car, it'll more likely be a non-powertrain item than anything else. To those of you who will complain of having had lotsa powertrain issues, you are in the vast minority. Mazda's diminished warranty isn't a dealbreaker, but it doesn't help, and may be a strike against it to some.
That "extra" 12K miles on the powertrain and reduction to 3/36 for the basic is money in the bank to beancounters. What they have not given enough weight to is the fact that Mazda's 4yr basic warranty was what swayed many a buyer into a 6 instead of an Accord or Camry. Time will tell.
Regards,
Deanie
i have the CX-7 sitting in my driveway, I can tell you the a/c blows icey cold within a few seconds of turning it on. my wife turned the a/c off several times because it was too cold (82 F out today) and the fan only set on 1.
did you have the windows rolled down or something ?
as for being underpowered, i haven't had any problems merging (eg. no hesititation at all), in fact, the thing accelerates so smoothly i've caught myself 5 - 10 mph too fast while merging and had to back off the accelerator quickly.
i'm not saying your wrong, i'm just saying that your generalization of mazdas is incorrect based on your limited experience. btw. if the manager said he wasn't impressed with the a/c he was just baiting you, typical car dealer tactic, gets on your side, makes you feel right, then still tries to sell you the car.
it sounds like that you would probably be more comfortable with another car, have you looked at the Chevy Tahoe ?
I think the dealership is partly to blame with the GM vehicle, they can't come up with a paper trail for the warranty replacement transmission, pretty sure they rebuilt it from extremely worn parts, possibly junk parts considering the amount of metal fatigue on some of the internal parts of the last transmission. The after market rebuild with new parts seems to be doing really well.. so far
Thanks
I could go on forever, I know my stuff! All I was doing was posting my opinions on this car. I didn't bash Mazda, if fact if you read my posts I rather like them....but I am not shelling out $30K on a car that I have an issue with....and whether I can afford it or not is not the issue.....I have yet to go to another dealership and try out another CX-7 to see if the issue is still there.....and I plan to.....before I make a final judgement. But as you, I reserve the right to compare other makes and models before making a decision. You made your decision, good for you, that doesn't mean it will work for me.....I'm glad you like your CX-7....but with my limited experience with Mazda as you say must mean I am out in left field....huh?
ZOOM ZOOM
The reason I took you to task over the A/C in the first place is
that your claim (while I'm not saying is wrong) cannot be used to classify all mazdas. The weather here in Ohio hit 95 F and was extremely humid, my CX-7 had no problems cooling down the entire car within a few minutes after it had been in the sun most of the day. Your original post set things up as if Mazda has some kind of chronic a/c problems, which since there isn't hundreds of posts on here claiming Mazda's a/c doesn't work simply isn't the case. Your post was misleading.
"Here is the deal breaker for me.....the A/C is just unacceptable, period! I live in Central Florida....it was about mid-day 2pm, 95 degress, sticky, normal Florida weather.....anyway, the salesman started the car and let it run for about 3 minutes, A/C set at 60 degress....the fan was blowing hard, and on re-circ.....
When we got in to take it for a spin I expected the air to be blowing frosty air....I did not expect the entire car to be cold, but at least the air coming from the vents should have been blowing frosty air by now....but no go on that! Did not say anything to the salesman, we left for the test drive.....a good 15 mintues later after we got back to the dealership I put my hand right up against the vents to feel how cold the air was, and it was luke cool at best....now remember, the A/C had been set at 60 degrees and still blowing full blast the entire test drive.....still nothing, no cold air.....
To be fair, I said lets check another one to see if it does the same thing.....maybe the one we drove the first time had an issue......well we did the exact same thing in the second one (sport model) as we did in the first one....A/C was set the exact same, test drive was the exact same route.....but the results were the same! And here in FLorida, A/C is everthing! May not be as big an issue up in the northern states, but I know it can get quite warm up there in the summer time as well.....
Mazda has been having A/C issues in its car for a while now....like in the Mazda3....since 2004 they have had this issue.....have read numerous complaints about this....I just thought that coming out with a brand new model they would have solved this issue.....it's obvious they have not! So the CX-7 is now off my list.....buyers be ware! "
-juice
Loving every minute of it.
Live in NJ but bought in PA.
After 6 purchases they would be idiots not to take the deal on the CX-7...I don't know about the trade number since I don't know the car...but the CX-7 part should be easy.
Steve, Host
fyi....NADA wholesale is $11325
NADA retail $14,975
Galves wholesale $10,000
KBB in my area calls the car for $11,125
Other than that I love it and have no complaints.
I paid MSRP: 28,000 for the basic vehicle, 4,005 for the Tech Package, 175 for the autodim mirror, 430 for Sirius, and 95 for the splash guards and 560 for delivery, processing, and handling fees. 33,265 out the door. Was able to get financing for 4.4%
The sound system is AWESOME (also love how tightly integrated the NAV system is with the Sirius), the fit/finish is superior, the acceleration is FAST, and it hugs the road. It was 93 degrees yesterday and the A/C proved capable of cooling the car quickly. I also think the Auto-Lock feature is the neatest thing since sliced cheese!
Just checked their inventory, on their website - shows 34 CX-7's in stock. Don't know if they're all physically present on the lot or if that figure reflects a mixture of vehicles on-hand plus those in transit. When I picked up mine 6 days ago, they had 10 on their lot.
Vince.
My APR will be 5.95%
I'm not getting the car til August because I still have a month left on the lease of my current car.
They are offering me a 6 year/100,000 mile warranty for $1694. It covers just about everyhing imaginable. What are everyone's thoughts about this?
Also- does anyone have any input regarding paint sealant? They were pushing that really, really hard. The cost is $379. Worth it? A gimmick? If anyone's done this or has any feedback - positive or negative - I would GREATLY appreciate it.
I'm very excited to get the car. I feel like I'm getting a lot for my money and can't wait til it arrives! Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
So, I think I want the GT AWD (though FWD is fine, I haven't seen any of those on the lot) with tech package, and I'm hoping for the Black Cherry or Icy Blue, with sand leather.
Now, how much money is it possible for me to take of the MSRP? Edmunds is saying a thousand, but what about you other CX-7 owners?
Sorry if this has been discussed already, I was on vacation in Maui, no internet!
Thank you for any help!
For me, the CX-7 fell into the "must-have" category. In my humble opinion, there isn't another vehicle around that is as snazzy and gutsy, as the CX-7. Fortunately for me, a full-loaded CX-7 easily fell within my budget, so I really didn't have to struggle with my conscience about the decision.
Vince
1. I had to drive 100 miles to Richmond, VA to do it
2. I negotiated back in February
I doubt I could get the same deal today.
Where are you?
You are, indeed, very fortunate to pay invoice. You must've seen the earliest model in an autoshow, if you negotiated in February. I don't think they were in production at that point, cuz dealerships didn't get them until May.
Vince.
Essentially, I decided I liked the look, and that if it was as good in person as it was on paper, then I wanted one. I did the same thing with the Tribute in 2001, and never regretted it.
Back in Feb, Brown's Fairfax wasn't willing to budge, though Brown's Alexandria was willing to come down 500 off MSRP. Now that people can test drive and see how they handle, I imagine its much harder to negotiate.
It seemed like Whitten Bros in Richmond had more allocated to them then the dealers up here. When each dealer here had 3 in stock, Whitten had like 10 or so.
Anyway, I've definitely been enjoying my CX-7 the past month!
James
The other thing is, has anyone purchased the roof rack? I know it's going to a dealer installed option but I don't have a clue as to how much it is going to be. Salesman wasn't sure either and he said he would look into it.
I'm sure if I wanted another color besides the electric, I would be able to get a better deal than $800 over invoice. The local dealer, has four in stock, one light blue which has not moved since I went to see a month ago. Of course when I say $800 over invoice, that excludes tax, title, registration. Best of luck! I'll report again when I get a call.