Mazda Murano? Not Quite... In today's fuel-conscious cities, large SUVs are a dying breed. Once the rulers of the road, traditional truck-based SUV herds were massive, and could be seen everywhere from the local soccer field
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| The new Mazda CX-7 bears an uncanny resemblance to the Nissan Murano. (Photo: Mazda Canada) |
to the commuter byways and highways of our great land. But rising gas prices as well as increased environmental awareness have begun to reduce their ranks as another breed steps in to fill the family-carrier void; the crossover utility vehicle, or CUV.
There are three kinds of crossovers on the road: the less-UV, the modern iteration of the station wagon, and the cool minivan. Mercedes' R-Class is the epitome of a cool-minivan style crossover, while Chevy's retro HHR is defined by GM as a "raised wagon," so you can probably (hopefully) guess what category it belongs to. Finally, Nissan's Murano is a pretty good example of a less-UV, which is exactly what the
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| Most certainly an attractive crossover vehicle, the CX-7 makes no claims to off-road capability. (Photo: Mazda Canada) |
name implies: an SUV, but less of it. All are capable of seating a whole family in relative comfort, and all make pretty good inner-city family haulers, but the Murano, despite being near the end of its current lifecycle, is still head and shoulders above the other two in popularity, making it a prime candidate for some other automaker to copy. That carmaker is Mazda, which has tried to do something extremely similar with its latest SUV/crossover, the CX-7.
Even the CX-7s chief designer Iwao Koizumi (who also penned the popular Mazda6) coincidentally alluded to a Nissan when he defined the design as an "advanced frontier." He may not have meant it that way, but it's incredibly ironic that he should choose what could be translated into "Advanced Nissan
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| Extensive aerodynamic work both on top and on the bottom with ribbed airflow-smoothing undertrays make this the most aerodynamic car in its class. (Photo: Mazda Canada) |
Pickup Truck" to define a vehicle that bears an unmistakable likeness to another Nissan product, but we shouldn't be too hard, after all, imitating the Murano is the vehicular equivalent of a guy trying to look like Brad Pitt; it's probably not a bad idea. And as much as the CX-7 resembles the Murano from the front, it does have a few of it's own styling traits that go a long way towards revealing "a clear Mazda family identity."
The fender flares, for example, definitely have some MX-5 and RX-8 overtones, while the headlights and front air dam look similar to those found on the RX-8 and Mazda6. But for all its sports car styling, the CX-7 just doesn't scream "MAZDA!" at you, and that is a disappointment,
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| The CX-7 has decent aerodynamics, in fact it actually achieved the lowest coefficient of drag in its class. (Photo: Mazda Canada) |
especially given that the MX-5 and RX-8 are both such interesting cars to look at.
But don't despair, there is an upside to all the sports car lineage: the CX-7 has decent aerodynamics, in fact it actually achieved the lowest coefficient of drag in its class, which is pretty impressive. Even more impressive is that the low coefficient figure is helped out by a little bit of supercar technology: undertrays. Ribbed covers that are affixed to the underside of the car, Mazda quickly points out the most obvious benefit of these little aerodynamic marvels (lower drag), but we wouldn't be surprised if they also make the CX-7 somewhat quieter on the highway.
