This post was originally published on Autocar
Mazda has launched a rear-wheel-drive, six-cylinder diesel SUV. Mad or brilliant?
Diesels. They’re falling like flies now. Vauxhall’s Astra and Ford’s Focus no longer sup from the black pump, and even BMW has killed off much of its diesel range. But Mazda likes to do things its own way, and it’s continuing to do so with this Mazda CX-60.It seems that the CX-60 diesel comes about 20 years too late, but Mazda says it demonstrates a “commitment to a multi-solution approach to sustainable mobility and the principle of the right solution at the right time”. The idea is that the CX-60 also offers plug-in hybrid and petrol options, but that there is still a place in the range for a torquey, frugal powerplant to satisfy high-mileage private buyers, and people who need to tow.That makes sense in theory, but the reality is that diesels always used to be the darlings of the European fleet market, which has now switched more or less wholesale to plug-in hybrids and electric cars owing to incentives and rising diesel prices.The other problem is that although the CX-60 PHEV impressed us on the launch, we subsequently ran one as a long-term test car and found it wasn’t very efficient, the gearbox was clunky, it felt nowhere near as quick as the figures suggest and the ride and general refinement were poor. Can the diesel version save the CX-60 range?