Test-Driving The 2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid
The all-new 2025 Mazda CX-50's outstanding feature is its 38 MPG city-highway combined hybrid mileage and its relatively low starting price of around $33,000. It also looks Mazda-sharp. It's also one of the least interesting vehicles to drive I've had so far this year, for a variety of reasons we'll get to.
2025 Mazda CX-50
The hybrid trim is new for 2025. It's not a Mazda-developed hybrid, though—under the skin, it's a Toyota system. Small software and interface updates are on deck for this trim.
It's handsome indeed - tougher than a typical small SUV with squared-off wheel arches, a lower and wider stance, raised roof rails and available off-road appearance packages. It gives off an "active lifestyle" vibe and looks like it should be more rugged than it is when you drive it.
2025 Mazda CX-50
It's signature Mazda with its horizontal layout, stitched trim and tasteful, practical materials. Cargo space is around 38 cubic feet behind the second row. The infotainment system offers either a 10.25-inch or optional 12.3-inch display.
2025 Mazda CX-50
Mazda uses a rotary knob-based interface, which I quite liked. The sound from the optional Bose 12-speaker upgrade is satisfactory. Dual-zone climate control is standard, as are rear seat vents.
2025 Mazda CX-50
It uses Toyota's 2.5-liter four-cylinder hybrid with an electronic CVT and electric AWD. Total system output is 219 horsepower. AWD is electric at the rear axle - there isn't any driveshaft. EPA estimated fuel economy is 38 mpg city, 35 mpg highway, and 37 mpg combined.
The base price is around $33,000. Fully loaded with Premium Plus trim, options, and destination charge (around $1,375), it tops out around $41,000.
2025 Mazda CX-50
On road, it's smooth and quiet but not especially fun or engaging. The CVT drones under hard acceleration, and throttle response is soft. Steering is light and handling is fine, but the car lacks feel. Off-road, it's limited to light-duty trails—gravel, snow, dirt roads. There's no real off-road hardware or underbody protection. It does have drive modes for Normal, Sport, and Off-Road, but they make only minor changes.
It's boring to drive, plain and simple. The CVT and hybrid powertrain feel muted and uninspired. It looks sporty and rugged but doesn't drive that way. I also found the driver's seat uncomfortable after less than a mile.
2025 Mazda CX-50
All trims include the full Mazda i-Activsense safety suite - forward collision warning with automatic braking, blind-spot monitoring, lane departure warning and lane-keep assist, rear cross-traffic alert, adaptive cruise control with stop and go, driver attention alert, and traffic sign recognition. Optional features include a 360-degree camera system and parking sensors.
Conclusion: It's not a 'bad' vehicle, and Mazda has a great reputation for safety and reliability. In coming years, if certain issues are addressed, it'll be right up there with the CX-5 and Mazda's other quality vehicles.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Miami Herald
9 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Subaru Just Dropped a Teaser for a Sporty New Model – Could it Be the STI Successor?
Subaru's iconic rally-derived sport sedan, the WRX STI, has been absent from the market since 2021. Although its slightly less potent sibling, the WRX, is still available for purchase from your local Subaru dealer, Subaru loyalists have long been awaiting any sort of news about an upcoming replacement for the hotter, Subaru Technica International-developed model. That lengthy wait may almost be over, according to Motor1, which reports that, "During a media session surrounding the Super Taikyu series at Fuji Speedway, Subaru Executive Managing Director and Chief Technical Officer, Tetsuro Fujinuki, confirmed a new performance model for this year's Japan Mobility Show." Although no official details have been announced yet, we can expect to learn more come October when the 2025 Japan Mobility Show begins. For the time being, however, we're left wondering what exactly Subaru might have up its sleeve. When looking at Subaru's teaser image, it seems pretty clear that whatever Subaru is planning on unveiling in November, it'll be heavily based on the current VB-generation WRX, as made evident by its distinct forward fascia, C-shaped LED headlights, and, of course, its signature hood scoop. Notable differences that set this teaser apart from the standard WRX are its aggressive front bumper splitter, its widened wheel arches, and perhaps most curiously, the blurred rear end. What's most intriguing about the rear of the car's roof is the obvious tailgate hinges, which might suggest that a hatchback variant of the Subaru WRX STI might return after a long hiatus–something that many Subaru and hot hatch fans alike will be extremely excited about. Despite the hatchback hints, the image also seems to suggest a large spoiler could be present on the rear. Keep in mind that this is pure speculation, but it seems like the details on the rear of the vehicle in the image might suggest that both four-door sedan and five-door hatchback variants of the WRX STI could be made available. Only time will tell, but we remain extremely hopeful that the beloved WRX STI Hatchback makes a glorious return. Using generative text-to-image artificial intelligence and Adobe Photoshop, we imagine what a tarted-up, STI-branded variant of the VB-generation Subaru WRX could look like. Although the render pictured above depicts a two-door coupe body reminiscent of the iconic Subaru Impreza 22B STI, an actual WRX STI would likely retain all four of its doors, or perhaps gain a fifth door in hatchback guise. Despite its coupe appearance, the above render gives us a glimpse at possible styling alterations for the STI model, such as facelifted headlights for a more aggressive look, larger grilles for increased cooling airflow, wider wheel arches with contrast painted overfenders, and, of course, an extra aggressive rear spoiler for enhanced aerodynamics. Although not many details have been officially confirmed yet, we're eagerly awaiting more information to be revealed in October of this year. We'd love to see a hatchback return to Subaru's iconic WRX lineup, so hopefully the tailgate hinges on the teaser image turning out to be a clue and not just meaningless speculation. Regardless, we're glad to see Subaru working on something sporty and exciting rather than yet another crossover. Now, if only Mitsubishi would get the hint... Copyright 2025 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Car and Driver
11 hours ago
- Car and Driver
View Exterior Photos of the 2025 Toyota 4Runner Limited
Although more powerful hybrid models are available, our 4Runner had the base turbo 2.4-liter four, making 278 horsepower and 317 pound-feet of torque.
Car and Driver
11 hours ago
- Car and Driver
2025 Toyota 4Runner Limited Test: New Dog, Some New Tricks
The existence of the Toyota 4Runner is up there with other universal constants, like the speed of light in a vacuum. It exists beyond time and space. When we all become dust in the wind, the 4Runner will still be there, offering up its anachronistic blend of truck-adjacent versatility for whatever buyers still wander about the wasteland. After an impressive 15-year run, the sun has set on the fifth-gen model. The new 2025 4Runner brings some much-needed improvements to the table, but the general formula remains the same—not always to positive effect. That's particularly true in a trim like this Limited that presumably will spend most of its days on pavement. Exterior and Interior The fifth-generation 4Runner's design wasn't bad by any stretch, but looking at it for so long got a little tiring. Since everybody likes their SUVs as macho as humanly possible, the new 4Runner's style leans heavy on the chunk. Even in our test example's mall-crawler Limited spec, the 4Runner has an imposing silhouette. The edges are a little more rounded off than on its Land Cruiser sibling, but it's clear the two are cut from the same rectilinear cloth. View Interior Photos Andi Hedrick | Car and Driver Inside, the 4Runner finally gets a cabin that was designed with modern tech in mind. The Limited sports a honkin' 14.0-inch touchscreen that dominates the dashboard, but there remains a healthy assortment of physical switchgear to manipulate. The controls are big and chunky enough to be used with gloves on. In fact, everything in here has a kind of low-polygon vibe to it, something Toyota has been relying on in recently revised models to good effect. The 4Runner is a little tall, but our model came wearing power running boards, a $1005 option that made ingress and egress a little easier, even if deployment isn't very quick. Ours also had the $1330 optional third row; these jump seats are best left to children, but they will hold adults in a pinch, both literally and figuratively. Things feeling a little cramped in the back? Don't worry, the rear window still rolls down, giving the wayback some much needed breeze. Andi Hedrick | Car and Driver View Interior Photos Andi Hedrick | Car and Driver New Powertrain The 4Runner's powertrain was also modernized, though it doesn't always feel that way. Toyota's 4.0-liter V-6 is finally free to cash its Social Security checks on a Fort Lauderdale beach. In its place is a turbocharged 2.4-liter four-cylinder producing 278 horsepower and 317 pound-feet of torque, and an available hybrid boosts output even further but can't be combined with the third row of seats. Our three-row Limited was thus equipped with the base engine, which produces a note that lands somewhere between "coarse" and "unpalatable," though its pronounced turbo whistle is kinda fun. The eight-speed automatic may have more gears than its predecessor, but it feels no smoother. HIGHS: Modern interior, beefy looks and the capability to match, roll-down rear glass still rocks. With the base engine, motivation is ho-hum. At the test track, this 5111-pound SUV needs an unimpressive 7.5 seconds to reach 60 mph; from a 5-mph roll, it takes 8.2 seconds. Breaking into triple digit club requires 20.2 seconds. The brakes are decent, taking 170 feet to stop from 70 mph, but the pedal is squishy and builds little confidence in around-town driving. It feels like the first couple inches of pedal movement are for display purposes only. After that, you need to apply so much pressure that you might wonder if you forgot to option power brakes. View Exterior Photos Andi Hedrick | Car and Driver On-Road Driving We've taken the 4Runner off-road alongside its fancier Land Cruiser relative, and while it remains eminently capable in the dirt, the new 4Runner also remains a task to daily drive. It is large, it is heavy, and it is ponderous. While the new model does steer better than its predecessor, the steering still feels a smidge lazy. Ride quality over pockmarked pavement is mediocre at best. Even though our test example has adaptive dampers, it still suffered pronounced body-on-frame jiggle; its softest Comfort mode doesn't quell the jiggling but does allow it to wallow more. There are also two different Sport modes, both of which are uncomfortable and make precisely zero sense on a truck-based SUV. Real-deal pickup trucks with empty beds and passive dampers handle better than this thing. Unsurprisingly, the 4Runner doesn't exhibit a lot of grip, orbiting around our skidpad with 0.74 g of stick. The 20-inch Dunlop Grandtrek PT5A all-season tires might not produce a ton of grip, but they do loudly clomp over expansion joints and potholes. When the wind picks up, it slaps against the 4Runner's many flat surfaces, also contributing to the in-cabin din that seems noisier than the 69 decibels we recorded inside at 70 mph. LOWS: Uncomfortable ride, ungainly handling, rough-around-the-edges powertrain. During the fifth-gen 4Runner's extremely long life, it enjoyed a spot all to itself in the lineup. But now that the Land Cruiser has been redesigned as a smaller but no less versatile unit, there's some overlap. The $58,850 Limited is the fanciest nonhybrid 4Runner trim on offer, and our test truck tacked on a few options, bringing its total to $62,875. Its pre-options price is in line with the $58,150 base Land Cruiser 1958, and our as-tested price isn't far from the fancier Land Cruiser's $62,920 window sticker. View Exterior Photos Andi Hedrick | Car and Driver If you're willing to throw a few more dollars at your monthly car note, you do get a bit more from the Land Cruiser. A hybrid is standard there, whereas it's an extra-cost option on the 4Runner Limited and other trims. The LC might be a bit less capable off-road in certain aspects, given it can't be had in the 4Runner's available TRD Pro and Trailhunter setups, but that trade-off results in a bit more on-road placidity. Neither would be considered a bargain, though. As has been the case in the past, attempts to tame the Toyota 4Runner's rough-and-tumble nature with on-road-oriented trims like the Limited have done little to make this body-on-frame SUV feel less out of place in the Target parking lot. In that sense, the 2025 model is much like its forebears. But at least you know what you're getting into. VERDICT: A truck-based SUV that doesn't stray far from its past. Specifications Specifications 2025 Toyota 4Runner Limited 4WD Vehicle Type: front-engine, rear/4-wheel-drive, 7-passenger, 4-door wagon PRICE Base/As Tested: $58,850/$62,875 Options: third-row seating, $1330; power running boards, $1005; gloss-black roof-rail cross bars, $420; Tow Tech package (trailer reverse assist, interior rearview mirror display), $400; LED liftgate light, $200; accessory-ready LED lantern, $160; retractable black cargo cover, $135; 4Runner carpeted cargo mat, $130; TRD panel air filter, $90; bright-chrome wheel locks, $90; towing-ball mount, $65 ENGINE turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 16-valve inline-4, aluminum block and head, port and direct fuel injection Displacement: 146 in3, 2393 cm3 Power: 278 hp @ 6000 rpm Torque: 317 lb-ft @ 1700 rpm TRANSMISSION 8-speed automatic CHASSIS Suspension, F/R: control arms/live axle Brakes, F/R: 13.4-in vented disc/13.2-in vented disc Tires: Dunlop Grandtrek PT5A 265/55R-20 113V M+S DIMENSIONS Wheelbase: 112.2 in Length: 194.9 in Width: 77.9 in Height: 73.1 in Passenger Volume, F/M/R: 56/44/36 ft3 Cargo Volume, Behind F/M/R: 84/45/12 ft3 Curb Weight: 5111 lb C/D TEST RESULTS 60 mph: 7.5 sec 1/4-Mile: 15.7 sec @ 90 mph 100 mph: 20.2 sec Results above omit 1-ft rollout of 0.3 sec. Rolling Start, 5–60 mph: 8.2 sec Top Gear, 30–50 mph: 3.9 sec Top Gear, 50–70 mph: 5.2 sec Top Speed (gov ltd): 115 mph Braking, 70–0 mph: 170 ft Roadholding, 300-ft Skidpad: 0.74 g C/D FUEL ECONOMY Observed: 18 mpg EPA FUEL ECONOMY Combined/City/Highway: 21/20/24 mpg C/D TESTING EXPLAINED Reviewed by Andrew Krok Managing Editor, Reviews Cars are Andrew Krok's jam, along with boysenberry. After graduating with a degree in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2009, Andrew cut his teeth writing freelance magazine features, and now he has a decade of full-time review experience under his belt. A Chicagoan by birth, he has been a Detroit resident since 2015. Maybe one day he'll do something about that half-finished engineering degree.
