D8| Saturday/Sunday, March 21 - 22, 2020 **** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
near-premium? I’m not sure
they can. But I recognize in
the CX-30 an appeal similar
to many of Volkswagen’s lat-
est products, which add
loads of peripheral content
to compensate for the
brand’s slowing innovation
under the hood.
Built from the same pal-
lets of parts as the CX-3, the
CX-30’s one-and-only engine
option is Mazda reliable, a
well-sorted 2.5-liter and nat-
urally aspirated DOHC inline
four with variable valve tim-
ing (186 hp) just like mother
used to make. With all-
wheel drive the CX-30 Pre-
mium gets an EPA-estimated
25/32 mpg, city/highway, on
unleaded regular.
This is not Mazda’s most
advanced engine. But the
high-compression, dual-cam
gasser definitely gets the job
done, summoning a maxi-
mum 186 lb-ft at 4,000 rpm,
its eagerness rising on swells
of midrange rpm. Snurring
along in traffic in (a paddle-
shifter selected) second gear,
the Mazda feels downright
frisky, coltish. Naturally aspi-
rated, don’t you know.
With Sport mode acti-
vated, the six-speed auto-
matic hangs on to revs lon-
ger and shift-points come at
higher rpm. Peak horse-
power arrives at a fairly
woolly 6,000 rpm. Motor
Trend spurred one such as
ours to 60 mph in 7.8 sec-
onds. I bet that was raucous.
Still, by many measures,
the CX-30’s propulsion sys-
tem combo is dated. The in-
line four is a bit soft, a little
thirsty, a lot loud.
The thing is, all these
matters may be of supreme
indifference to those roam-
ing this space (small, fine,
fun, under $30K). Could
most consumers tell the dif-
ference between a naturally
aspirated and a turbo-
charged engine? Or between
an independent rear suspen-
sion and an artfully tuned
torsion bar, such as the one
under the bum of the CX-30?
Could I?RUMBLE SEAT/DAN NEIL
Is Mazda’s Oddly Monikered
CX-30 the Goldilocks SUV?
IF YOU HAVEthe time—and I
think many do these days—
search out the famous 1955
correspondence between
Ford marketing researcher
Robert B. Young and the
poet Marianne Moore. Mr.
Young asked the poet to sug-
gest names for new models.
Moore submitted dozens of
wonderful, wondrous cogno-
mens, includingMongoose
Civique,Regina-rex,Aerot-
erre,Dearborn Diamantéand
the deathlessUtopian Tur-
tletop. These are names wor-
thy of gods.
Car makers struggle with
naming new models, agoniz-
ing over the alphanumeric
vs. the imagistic (Mercedes-
Benz S 560 vs. Lincoln Conti-
nental) and navigating trade-
mark claims in a century-old
global industry. None more
so than Mazda. In the past
quarter-century Mazda’s
marketers have tried what
the poet Moore would have
called enjambment: Mazda6.
They have tried high-sound-
ing, phoneme-based English
words:Millenia.
These days they are back
to using hyphenated alpha-
numerics, sort of. Our guest
this week—a compact cross-
over dimensionally between
Mazda’s CX-3 subcompact
and its midsize CX-5—would
seem to beg for the name
CX-4. Alas, Mazda already
sells a vehicle by that name
in China, and apparently
Mrs. Rosenbaum was taken.
So here they call it the
CX-30. Howdy.By any other name, it’s an
intriguing consumer propo-
sition. The seductions start
with an attractive price for
the well-equipped base
model ($21,900), including
most of Mazda’s driver-as-
sist technologies, as well as
an 8.8-inch infotainment
screen and rear air-condi-
tioning outlets. The four
trim levels top out with the
bounteous Premium package
($28,200 before options),
which includes leather-
trimmed seats, powered
sunroof, powered liftgateand more. All-wheel drive
costs an additional $1,400
on all trim levels, which
helped push our test vehi-
cle’s price past the psycho-
logically significant $30,000
threshold.
The bulk of CX-30 sales
will likely come at the ex-
pense of tartly styled rivals
such as Toyota C-HR or
Honda HR-V. But with its
luxe-lite furnishings and
equipment list, the CX-30
Premium could be plausibly
cross-shopped against the
relevant Lexus, Acura or
even BMW (X2). It’s a buy-
ers market.Styling: Other crossovers
in Mazda’s paddock are
sweet, svelte urbanites. The
CX-30 wants to be the littlest
SUV, a country cousin. But
with 0.8 inches more ground
clearance than the CX-3, the
styling has to carry most of
the aspirational freight.
Which brings us to the
car’s most striking feature:
the under-cladding. Or is that
over-cladding? To signal its
intrepidity, the exterior styl-
ists added a torpedo belt of
chip-resistant plastic, reach-
ing up the rocker panels and
spilling out of the wheel
arches. I’m not a fan. At
standoff distance, the wheel-
arch cladding, the voids of
wheel clearance and tires
merge into strange negative
space, an optical illusion that
dwarfs the 18-inch alloys, like
they came off a lawn tractor.
That. Looks. Terrible.
The car’s beltline, the
window sill, is also high,
making the window opening
relatively low and narrow.
Sporty, if you like. Rear-
quarter visibility is particu-
larly Lamborghini-like.
Once in the driver’s seat,
my first thought ran in the
direction most people’s do, I
imagine: Mazda interiors
punch well above their
weight, in layout, materials
and general classiness. Our
tester’s innards were fully
upholstered, with multit-
iered dash wrapped in white
topgrain leather and more
French stitching than the
Folies Bergère.In the Mazda’s center
console, gleaming like an
obsidian hockey puck, lives
the rotary selector for the
infotainment/navigation
screen. The spin-click style
controller is agreeably fluid
in operation, and the info-
tainment system’s brain
keeps up nicely. The screen
is secured in a leather-lined
recess in the dash top.
That’s nice. In lots of cars
the display just hangs therelike a rec-room TV.
But it’s not a touch
screen. Owners will need to
acquire a certain specialized
dexterity before they can
fully bond with their car. In
my brief experience, I kept
missing my icons and over-
running my menu options,
requiring eye-time I needed
for driving. I suppose I
could be trained.
How can Mazda afford to
be so price-competitive andByanyothername,
it’sanintriguing
proposition—the
CX-30’sseductions
startwithitsprice.GEAR & GADGETS
FITTING TRIBUTE
In size, speed and features
the CX-30 carves out a
comfortable spot among
Mazda’s roster of SUVs.Base Price$21,900
Price, as Tested$31,370
Engine and DrivetrainNaturally aspirated, di-
rect-injection 2.5-liter DOHC inline four-cy-
clinder with variable-valve timing; six-speed
automatic with manual-shift mode; on-de-
mand AWD with front torque vectoring.Power/Torque186 horsepower at 6,000
rpm/186 lb-ft at 4,000 rpm
Curb Weight3,408 pounds
Length/Width/Height/Wheelbase
173.0/70.7/62.2/104.5 inches
EPA Fuel Economy25/32 mpg, city/highway
Max Cargo Capacity20.2 cubic feet2020 Mazda CX-30 Premium
The Wall Street Journal is not compensated by retailers listed in its articles as outlets for products. Listed
retailers frequently are not the sole retail outlets.MAZDA
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