Hi all,
Firstly thank you for the opportunity to use this forum to seek feedback. I am 90% towards purchasing my CX7 and wanted to seek some feedback from current owners.

The good, the bad and the ugly and tips for a potential new Mazda owner. Are there any known problems I need to address with the dealer before I buy. Any changes, modifications, recalls etc. I need to ensure are done before I drive it away?

Also, some feedback on the wheels I intend putting on it, see the picture below. My thoughts are; the body and features of the CX7 are large, therefore I need a large simple wheel design to complement andno chrome.I am aiming for the Porsche or Mercedes SUV looks with these 5 spokers.

Cheers!



[IMG]local://upfiles/13036/97A6E28D021548EA8A5065AF053F147B.jpg[/IMG]

 

I love mine after 10,000 miles

But be sure you have all applicable TSBs done on it before you leave the dealer.
Throttle/transmission/door seals/gas cap/ A/C/

Expect 17/21 mileage.

If you have a heavier foot your mileage will be less.

Aftermarket wheels will need pressure sending units the car uses on the stock wheels

Get the bigger Intercooler, Cold Air Intake and aftermaket exhaust to boost 40hp and improve mileage.

 

Love Mine! Just over 4ooo miles, bought it around end of March / beginning of April,NO Problems what so ever. I live in Pittsburgh, PA - all hills - I get about 13 - 14 mpg city and 20 ish combined, my only complaint. I drive it easy, rarely do I wind it up. But I would not give up the power for better fuel economy. I love the handling and firm suspension. I was all set to buy a Toyota until I drove this thing. LOVE IT.

 

I bought mine in June and have had none of the problems with the earlier builds. Hopefully all that is worked out now.No buyers remorse. As for the wheels, I agree, no chrome. I have not seen anything that I like yet. Except ,the CX-7 prototypehad really nice 20" wheels with much wider tread. The wheel arches reallylook better with muchwider tread.

 

Hey Alpha Wolf,

Can you give more specifics on these parts? How much did they improve your mileage?

Thanks,

Greg

 

TMIC http://www.extremeturbosystems.com/M..._49/index.html

TMIC/Cold Air Intake/Muffler Exhaust http://corksport.com/store/category/...X7_Engine.html

Blow off valve http://www.turbosmartusa.com/index.php?id=48

 

My gf bought a '7' touring modelthree weeks ago. This is our first mazdaof any kind.We just made a 2500 mi road trip to Santa Fe,Golden, and Boulder. Car runs great and cruises very comfortably at 90-100 mph, very smooth and stable, tires offer excellent grip and ride very smoothly. Suspension feels great and seems to be firm enough for afast, quick handling that I prefer. I was very impressed with the car. This engine just pullsin any condition allowing me to blow by most vehicles that I encountered along our trip. Hills, mountain passes, and higher elevations didn't hinder performance of the car. This cars simply hauls *** and I hardly ran the engine over 4k rpm since its still new. Engine is turning about 3K rpm at apprx 95 mph. 1st, 2nd, 3rd gears are quite low and you have to use some foot control to keep from tearing up the asphalt. 6-speed will downshift frequently when you are cruising at 80+ and start climbing or pushing the car until you back off. But you can cruise all day long at 70-100running engine between just 2-3K rpm. If you must accelerate at a faster rate for passing, etc, trans will drop to 4th and engine will pull very strong until you back off throttle. I can only imagine how much fun the car will be once the engine is broken-inenough to run it up to 5K or6K. BTW, brakes work very well!

We put about 500+ miles on it around town before going on road trip. So I wanted to get oil changed before leaving town. I took the car to dealer because they offered 1 year of freeoil changes and they questioned me stating that oil didn't need to be changed until 5K miles. I believe in making the initial change early to remove any contaminants from mfring soI offered to pay for the oil change but dealer went ahead and honored the free change offer. We took off for NM a few days later and after arriving I checked oil level only to find that it was almost a qt low. I assumed that engine had consumed this amount since it was still quite fresh. I checked our invoice to see what oil they used so I hand some idea what to buy.It was odd to see that description of model showed that it had a V6. Under labor/parts for oil they showed that 4 qts 5w-20 'all climate' was used. So I went ahead and bought some Valvoline and we cruised on to Boulder. After driving around CO for a few hundred miles I checked oil level and found that it was still at the point where I had filled it so engine was probably under-filled by dealer.

While on trip I started digging around forums for this vehicle, began reading the owner's manual, and realized that dealer had used the wrong weight oil. I put in a couple of calls but Inever heard from service manager, oh well! I know there isn't much difference in a 20 or 30w oil but we live in S TX and it gets quite hot down here with as many as 30 100+ days during our long summers. I want as much engine protection possible in this heat, especially running a turbo so its important to me to run the min quality oil recommended by mfr. So this morning, after returning home from our trip, I went over to dealer with a few issues to resolve and one was the oil. Advisor stated that this engine required the 5w-20 and that it was fine for our driving conditions here but he stated that a heavier oil might be better for AZ or NM, lol, guess he hasn't lived in S TX long enough to realize just how hot itgets down here.So I pulled out owner's manual, and my receipt and insisted that the dealer used or at least showed the wrong oil on invoice. He decided to pull up mfr website and went through some bulletins and sure enough there was one on the 2.3 turbo which simply stated that 5w-30 is required. Turns out that the non-turbo engine runs the 20 wt. So we marched over to service/parts guy and he stated that they use 20wt on all vehicles.So they realizedthey had been running the wrong oil and parts guy stated that he needed to order in some of the right oil, lol, and neither one offered to change mine out. Guess I will pick up my own oil and go by there. The four or five people I have met at dealership seem so incompetent and uninformed of their product.

The few dislikes I have would be the cramped leg room for someone 5'10"+ , length is fine, but width is a little narrow so you are resting your knee against console which isn't cushioned. I am also suprised that the steering column isn't articulated to allow more room getting in and out of the car. It does raise up but not much. Sheet metal feels quite thin and there could be more insulation because road noise is definitely noticable. Also, the stereo/hvac control panel has an aluminum colored bezel around it and the darn glare is really bad when driving in bright sunlight. This isn't the car for you if you are looking for economy because fuel mileage sucks. I did get 24.5 mpg on a tank during the trip driving around town and adjacent communities, but on the highways at speed as mentioned above, mileage was about 20-21.

 

Thanks for the feedback, have just placed the order with the dealer... two week wait is going to kill me!