I’m driving down the highway in a compact SUV from a mainstream automaker. So it’s not a luxury car, but it has heated and ventilated seats, a heated steering wheel, leather upholstery, a panoramic sunroof, and headlights that adjust their brightness to avoid blinding oncoming traffic.
Mainstream cars in 2025 can feel close to the luxury cars of, well, probably the last time you went car shopping.
This one is a 2025 Mazda CX-50, and it costs less than the average new car buyer paid last month. But it feels like more.
Mazda can, at times, seem a little like a teenager trying on personalities. We were pretty comfortable with its athlete phase a few years back (you can hear the whispered “Zoom-Zoom” now, can’t you?).
But last year, the company promised yet another “brand transformation” under the tagline, “Choose to be moved.” It led to some mixed messages, with ads for the new full-size CX-90 seeming like luxury car ads and the earliest marketing for this CX-50 seeming to emphasize off-roading skills.
However, piloting the CX-50 on an East Coast road trip helped explain the latest personality shift. This is no Jeep Wrangler rival, but it is an unusually composed, compact crossover well-suited to a road trip with a few luxury features at a bargain price.
About the Test Model
My tester is the top trim, Turbo Premium Plus, which gives it a more powerful engine than the model’s base options and some luxurious features like heated outboard rear seats. The asking price is $45,515, including $595 for Machine Gray Metallic paint and a $1,420 delivery fee.
That’s steep for a compact SUV from a mainstream automaker, but it’s less than the roughly $48,000 price of the average new car last month. You can get a CX-50 in the low-$30,000 range with some of the same virtues.
Handsome Looks
Mazda’s best-selling model is the CX-5 SUV — a similarly sized, similarly priced crossover that sits next to the CX-50 in the showroom. We’ve always liked that one for its crisp handling and curvy looks, even in an era when SUVs get boxier by the day.
Mazda hasn’t officially said the CX-50 is the CX-5’s replacement. Initially, the company positioned the CX-50 as an outdoor lover’s CX-5, more rugged and ready to get muddy. With a little time on the market, it’s become more apparent that this car is a slightly more refined take on the compact crossover.
Perhaps the CX-5’s looks have finally grown a bit dated. But I find the CX-50 refreshing. A longer, flatter hood and more pronounced fender flares with a bit of protective cladding do make it look more capable, but it hasn’t turned into a hiking shoe on wheels like many of its competitors.
Upscale Cabin With a Few Quirks
I won’t argue that Mazda kits the CX-50 like a luxury car. I will argue that, for a mainstream vehicle priced well under luxury car levels, it’s quite premium.
The Turbo Premium Plus model that Mazda loans to reviewers has leather-trimmed seats in an attractive two-tone pattern, with heating and ventilation in the front and heating at the rear outboard positions.
The audio system is a Bose 12-speaker system, not on par with what you’d find in a Mercedes-Benz or a Lexus, but for an affordable compact crossover, it’s impressive.
The cabin has a few quirks that remind you you’re not in an actual luxury car. Mazda persists in using a strange interface for its central screen. It functions as a touchscreen if connected to a phone through Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. If not, the driver operates it through a puck controller on the center console.
I have no idea why they don’t settle on a single way of interacting. The screen froze on me periodically as I paged out of CarPlay to adjust drive modes or other non-entertainment functions.
The driver’s instrument cluster houses old-fashioned gauges, not a screen. This choice isn’t much of a limitation, but some rivals give you a digital display in that place so you can configure the information you want to see in front of you.
The CX-50 does, however, lose the cargo space comparison to many similarly priced small SUVs.
Refined Driving Experience
Mazda may have dropped the “Zoom-Zoom” advertising tagline, but many Americans still associate the brand with spirited driving. The CX-50 can handle it.
I took the CX-50 on a long highway trip, gorgeous back roads around Lake Erie, and over muddy dirt roads after several days of rain.
It stays flatter than most similarly priced models in a hard corner, and the steering feel is not sports-car aggressive, but firm for a crossover. It’s no Miata, but you’d rather race this than a Toyota RAV4 or a Honda CR-V. Handling is sedan-like, but with the added grip of all-wheel drive (AWD).
When the CX-50 was new, Mazda advertised it as an off-roader. I wouldn’t go that far, but the i-Activ AWD system handled mud and gravel without much drama.
Opting for any model with “Turbo” in the name gets you a 2.5-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine making 227 horsepower with regular gas or 256 with 93-octane. In reality, most buyers would be fine with the less expensive 187-horsepower 4-cylinder in the models sans Turbo.