SECOND ACT

MAZDA'S NEW U.S.-BUILT COMPACT SUV OFFERS MANY OF THE BEST TRAITS OF THE 10BESTWINNING CX-5 WRAPPED IN A NICELY SHAPED WAGON-ESQUE BODY.

- Joey Capparella

Mazda has never been short on original ideas. This is the company that is still trying to make the Wankel engine work and that stubbornly insists on selling a tiny two-seat roadster even as most other affordable sports cars have gone the way of Triumph, MG, or, well, pretty much the British car industry. So maybe that's why it seems unoriginal for Mazda to chase the exact same outdoorsy, rugged image that Jeep, Subaru, and many others have done to death.

Marketing images of the new 2023 CX-50 show the SUV plowing through the forest festooned with all manner of off-road and camping accessories. For this model Mazda even came up with a new exterior color called Zircon Sand, which is meant to make adventuresome shoppers think they can conquer the dunes or at least imagine doing so.

If we were to hazard a guess, we'd say Mazda is doing all of this to differentiate the CX-50 from its other compact SUV, the CX-5. The company asserts that there's enough room in this popular segment for two similarly sized vehicles, and Mazda won't be the first to double up: Jeep sells the Cherokee and the Compass, and Ford has both the Escape and the Bronco Sport.

In 2021, Mazda sold more CX-5s in the U.S. than all other models combined.

U.S. Mazda sales (all other models): 164,373 UNITS

We decided to ignore the outdoorsy shtick and instead found the CX-50 to have a pleasant on-road driving demeanor, an appealing design, and class-above refinement-all for about the same price as its mainstream competitors. If that sounds like a familiar refrain, it's because we've heaped similar praise upon the CX-5, which has won multiple 10Best awards and is Mazda's bestseller by far.