When I booked a flight into Sanford Flordia for our last Walt Disney World trip, I knew that there was an hour drive ahead of us. With my two boys, one can never tell how a car ride like that will go since they were amped up to go see Mickey and his friends.
Our time in the Mazda CX-9
Enter the 2017 Mazda CX-9 and it’s glorious 7 passenger seating. My troublemaker, youngest immediately called the ‘way back’ my husband and I quickly agreed. Our theory, was simple if our boys were separated, the ride from the airport to our final destination would be much more peaceful than if they were sitting next to one another.
We were right, as soon as we all got settled into the plush interior of the Mazda CX-9, my oldest relayed to us that our passenger in the 3rd row was asleep. Ya’ll! This never happens, seriously never.
The boys had enough room and were far enough apart that I didn’t hear the usual, “he’s touching me” complaints. I was sold.
As silly as it sounds the interior was so nicely appointed that I felt like it was sheltering us from the harshness of the outside world.
So, from the very beginning, my relationship with the CX-9 was true love.
Features of the Mazda CX-9
The model that I was fortunate enough to drive was the Grand Touring Edition.
Here are some of the things that we loved about the CX-9
- Plenty of USBs, in fact, there were 2 in the center console, and 2 in the center armrest on the second row.
- The second-row passengers had rear controls for the air and heat. This was both a blessing and a curse. My older son, could set the temperature and leave it alone. My younger son, that is a different story, because, buttons.
- Comprehensive Entertainment center. We drove another Mazda earlier in the year and it had a similar display. It takes some getting used to as far as navigating around the menu options, in my opinion, the passenger should be in charge of making the changes because it can be a bit distracting.
- The third row features a flat fold that is easily managed, so you didn’t have to wrestle with the seats.
- There was decent back end storage when the third row was up and tons of room when the 3rd row was flat.
- For a good sized crossover, the CX-9 provided just the right amount of get up and go. Merging onto the highway was no issue.
- The only downside that I saw was the air conditioning took quite a while to reach the 3rd-row passenger. The car had been parked at our hotel in the very warm Florida sun. When we got in to go to dinner we couldn’t seem to get the car cooled down enough to provide relief from the heat to my little guy in the back.
Mazda CX-9 Pricing
Perhaps the most surprising thing about the Mazda CX-9 was the price tag, and I don’t mean in a heart attack sort of a way. I was surprised that the vehicle that was stylishly getting us from point A to point B, clocked in at $41,000.
