On January 15, 2021, sales of the new Mazda CX-30 started in Russia. This is the most compact crossover of the brand and today, taking into account the departure from our market Mazda 3, the smallest car in the company’s lineup. Our compatriots did not particularly appreciate the latest generation of the Mazda 3 sedan and hatchback, although the car was interesting, it turned out to be more expensive than its competitors, so sales did not go much, and the dealership stopped delivering the car to the Russian Federation last year. But this situation with the Mazda 3 has made room for the company’s new urban crossover, the Mazda CX-30.

The Mazda CX-30 is a compact urban crossover that is similar to the Mazda 3 hatchback, which is not surprising given that the cars are built on the same platform. Despite the external resemblance to a passenger car, the novelty is still slightly different, the designers of the Japanese brand have completely redrawn the stern of the crossover, so that it is now not as heavy as that of the Mazda 3 hatchback, and the overall appearance of the car has become more harmonious and visually light. Yes, if the front of the SUV can still be confused with the passenger version, then you can immediately see the differences from the side and rear. In general, the Mazda CX-30 turned out to be pretty, I liked it the most in the corporate red color, dark colors make the car visually smaller, which is not good for an already compact car. To emphasize that the model belongs to crossovers, the manufacturer added a skirt made of unpainted plastic at the bottom, so it’s not scary to storm the snowdrifts, and also increased the ground clearance to 180 mm. It is clear that no one will climb off-road in an urban crossover, but at the same time, you can not be afraid of snow-covered roads in a car, and it is possible to drive off the asphalt without much fear. The only controversial point is that the skirt is somehow very high, they would make it a little lower and look more attractive, although on dark colors it is not very striking.

Inside, the similarity of the Mazda CX-30 with the Mazda 3 is much greater than outside, even the landing in the crossover remained light. The interior design is fully consistent with that of the hatchback / sedan, the same architecturally complex multi-layered front panel with a far-out widescreen media system display, the same comfortable steering wheel with control buttons on it, even the same seats, hard, with the correct profile, but a short cushion. The differences lie in small details like smooth transitions from the front panel to the door and a slightly different front armrest with a large niche in it. I visually like the interior of the new Mazda, in addition, the Japanese manufacturer has changed its strategy and is now aimed at the premium segment, so the materials are only of high quality, these are soft plastic and leather, and all the details are neatly fitted. Yes, below the line of sight, you can already feel the hard plastic, but these are the places where the owner, if he climbs, only with the direct intention of feeling everything and everyone.

With a height of 187 cm, I calmly settled down behind the wheel, all the adjustments are enough with a margin, the only thing that I will once again complain about the short cushion and too slippery leather on the seats, although this is the prerogative of the maximum configuration, in the initial upholstery will be fabric, there this moment is irrelevant. In a crossover, you sit like in a passenger car, there are no advantages in the form of a high seating position in the CX-30, and the fact that the car is taller than the same hatchback, you can feel only when you get out of the car. Getting in and out is no problem, and the doors completely close the sills, so you don’t have to worry about trousers, even in bad weather. The seats are comfortable, moderately hard, with the correct profile and developed lateral support, you won’t get tired in them even on a long trip. The maximum configuration Supreme boasts an electrically adjustable driver’s seat with electrically adjustable lumbar support in one plane and a position memory for two people, but the front passenger seat will be mechanically adjusted anyway. Visibility from the driver’s seat in the CX-30 is good, the struts are narrow, and the midsize side mirrors set aside give good rearward views.

I can hardly squeeze through myself, I won’t be able to sit down freely, although someone smaller, perhaps, will be able to accommodate there comfortably. The Isofix mounts are located at the back of the sofa and are easily accessible, so there is no problem installing a child seat. True, the child can no longer sit behind me, he has to sit behind the front passenger, slightly infringing on the latter in the free space, but not critical.

The trunk for an urban crossover is quite ordinary, 430 liters, and by folding the back of the rear sofa from the passenger compartment separately, which forms an almost flat floor, it can be increased to 1406 liters. The trunk, in the underground of which the dock is hidden, is for the most part convenient, except that one can complain about the large loading height. The car has a mechanism for automatically opening the tailgate; when closing, it is possible to completely close the car.

Of the pleasant features of the Mazda CX-30, it is worth noting that already in the initial configuration of the Drive, you will receive a media system with an 8.8 ”display and control with a convenient washer similar to BMW, support for Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, 8 speakers, as well as a dashboard with a large color screen and projection display. Also at the start there are 7 airbags available, all major electronic driving assistance systems and good LED headlights.

Mazda also did a good job on the interface of the media system of the new Mazda CX-30, here it was clearly a benchmark for the European market and alignment with German manufacturers. If in the majority of Japanese cars the interface is boring, without special design and with ugly fonts, then in Mazda it is completely different. Just a perfectly matched font, thin, beautiful and readable, and the menu icons are well drawn.

The speed of the new media system is also at a good level, nothing slows down. The only thing, probably, is that the 8.8 ”widescreen display, it seems, with HD resolution, is not touch-sensitive in the car and all control rests on the washer and shortcut keys on the central tunnel. And if navigation through the standard menu does not raise questions, since the manufacturer has configured it specifically for this type of control, then in the same Android Auto or Apple CarPlay it will be a little more difficult. Also, due to the lack of a touch screen, it is difficult to enter the address in the navigation, the manufacturer suggests using a carousel menu for this, which is long and difficult, or using voice input. The Japanese should have borrowed the idea of ​​a touch pad for text input from the Germans, then there would be no questions. On the other hand, voice input works at a good level, so it becomes easier to hammer in the address of the object you need. In the standard navigation, HERE maps are used with the latest updates, so they already have fairly fresh roads and junctions. The regular navigation builds the route well, but it seems that it does not work with traffic jams in Russia, at least I could not enable their display.

For the entire cabin, the Japanese manufacturer only offers two USB ports, both at the front of the vehicle. The main one on the center console and an additional one in the armrest, both quite quickly charge modern smartphones. Despite the fact that the car was clearly created with an eye on the Germans, the Japanese did not install the Type-C, although it is already in full use at BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi. Connecting smartphones via Bluetooth is straightforward, the standard speakerphone works just as well. To work with the phone, only the central display is used, information on calls on the large screen of the dashboard is not available.

It’s nice that in all Russian trim levels of the Mazda CX-30, a high-quality head-up display is already installed, which displays both the speed and the hints of the standard navigation system. The Japanese did not make the dashboard completely virtual, but it seems they really wanted to be in trend, so they installed a display in the center of the dashboard, and put a plastic ring on top, so that the screen can simulate a classic speedometer, if this display option is chosen. There are only two choice of display styles for the speedometer, classic or digital; in the second case, it also displays information about the operation of the cruise control and other driver assistants. Along the edges of the speedometer, additional information is highlighted, these are hints on the speed mode, fuel level indicators, as well as information on open doors, the latter is also duplicated in the form of an indicator on the right side, on the analog part of the dashboard.

The driver assistants in our top-of-the-range Supreme were a complete set. There is adaptive cruise control, combined with the Start & Go system (first installed in Mazda), allowing the car to move in the stream even at low speeds, to stop and continue on its own. This also includes a system for monitoring the lane marking, which can independently return the car to the lane, and if the marking is unavailable, the system will be guided by the vehicle in front. The driver assistant works quite well and allows you to relax a little in traffic jams, and on the track it makes life a lot easier.

There is an all-round camera with a high-quality picture and a cross-traffic warning system with visual and sound information, the latter helps when leaving parking lots or adjacent roads with poor visibility. Of course, there is also a blind spot monitoring system in the maximum configuration with visual indication not only in the far corner of the mirrors, but also on the dashboard screen and head-up display, which is very clear. There is also an adaptive lighting system with an automatic light flux control function, as well as correctly functioning light and rain sensors. If the car is equipped with a standard navigation system, which costs 55 rubles, then the buyer also receives a traffic sign recognition system, but it works very strangely, not always reading the information correctly, so you should not rely on it completely. But in general, I was pleased with the set of the driver’s assistant in the Mazda CX-000, there are many pleasant options, plus they work correctly, and information on some of them is well visualized and easy to read.

The dual-zone climate control unit is compact, with convenient temperature control knobs and its own screen. In this regard, it is good that Mazda did not copy the newfangled solutions of the German car industry, but made classic climate control, for me personally, all these sensor solutions and control from screens do not seem very convenient. There are no questions about the operation of climate control, it does its job well, but since there is no autonomous heater, it takes some time to warm up the cabin in winter. For cold weather, a three-level heating of the front seats is useful, which, however, heats up for a rather long time, as well as a heating of the steering wheel, which works quickly, but heats up only the sidewalls of the steering wheel. All heating buttons are located on the climate control unit and have free access from the driver’s seat.

In terms of sound insulation, the car was pleasantly surprised, for its price segment it is quite quiet and, unlike the Mazda 3, the wheel arches are better insulated in the CX-30. Although I note that aerodynamic noises appear on the track, due to which you have to slightly raise your voice when communicating with passengers. On the road, the car can be called comfortable, it copes well with small and large irregularities, but medium-sized potholes and sharp-edged protrusions are still noticeable in the cabin.

In Russia, the urban crossover is presented with one petrol two-liter SKYACTIV-G engine with a capacity of 150 hp. The car comes in a version with front or all-wheel drive, with a six-speed manual (only for the initial configuration) or a six-speed automatic. Our top-of-the-line Supreme was all-wheel-drive, with only an automatic transmission available, accelerating to 100 km / h in 10.2 seconds. The engine-box connection is set up quite well, the car is responsive to pressing the gas, and the box quickly and without any jerks engages the desired gear. If you want more, you can switch to Sport mode, where the accelerator sensitivity is sharpened, and the transmission holds the gear for longer. But this mode is not for every day and not for everyone, most will prefer the standard mode of movement, which is enough in most cases. There is a slight lack of power on the track, but not critical, so that even at a speed close to the maximum allowed, you can easily overtake.

The four-wheel drive car showed itself perfectly after a recent snowfall in Moscow, it was relatively easy to break through the snow, sometimes the car drove a little, but not much, and perhaps this is due to the relatively low weight and small track of the crossover (1565 mm front and rear). The ground clearance of 180 mm was enough to calmly walk along the deep rut without scratching the bottom, and storming the snow-covered parking spaces on the CX-30 was relatively easy. The city crossover is controlled like an ordinary passenger car, it obediently reacts to steering wheel deflections and follows a precisely set trajectory, and the rolls in turns are very small. But, however, it is not worth waiting for that transparency and drive, as in previous generations of “treshki”, in the CX-30, as in the case of the new Mazda 3, all the enthusiasm is stifled by the electronics that controls every driver’s action, which for the layman, probably for the best.

Fuel consumption in cold weather for our version of the car was in the region of 12 liters in the city, on the highway I got at least 9 liters, which is not bad, but, of course, it differs in a big way from the manufacturer declared. There is also a start-stop system in the car, which seems to be designed to save fuel, but I constantly turned it off (it turns on with each new trip), since the car starts for some reason with a tangible jerk, which is not very pleasant.

Prices for the new Mazda CX-30 start at 1 rubles, it will be a front-wheel drive car with a manual transmission and in the initial, but well-equipped Drive version. The average Active equipment, on which the Russian representative office of the company relies, starts from the mark of 683 rubles for front-wheel drive and automatic, the version with all-wheel drive will cost 000 rubles more. The top grade Supreme with the maximum additional equipment package costs 1 rubles in the all-wheel drive version, this is already with the metallic color, which costs 937 rubles.

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