Mazda CX-70 PHEV Review

Mazda CX-70 PHEV Review

Mazda CX-70 PHEV
Grade: A
Teacher’s Comments: A nice ride. Plenty of space for all your golf gear.

Manufacturer’s Website

As a hopelessly addicted golfer, my main concern when purchasing a car is: how does align with my golf lifestyle?

Here’s what I’m looking for: a car that’s big enough to fit my clubs in their bag, my push-cart and a large hockey bag full of spare emergency clothes for a wide variety of weather phenomena. (What weather phenomena you ask? If you live in Michigan, you know. Fifty-degree temperature changes from morning to afternoon; rain from a clear blue sky; three major fronts in a three-hour period; snow in July — seriously. I’ve seen flurries in July in northern Michigan.)

I also want a vehicle that is convenient to take on the 8/10ths of a mile jaunt from GolfBlogger World Headquarters to Washtenaw Golf Club and yet comfortable enough for a major road trip. Or even a minor road trip. It is three and a half hours drive from GolfBlogger World Headquarters in SE Michigan to the satellite office in northern Michigan. That’s a minor road trip. A major trip would be like the one I took recently to Cragun’s Resort in Minnesota.

I recently had the opportunity to take a week’s test drive of the 2025 Mazda CX-70 PHEV, and found that it fits my criteria quite well. The SUV has loads of room in the back, was not too big for local runs, and was a comfortable ride on longer forays.

The rear storage space in the CX-70 is notable. My bag and cart were almost lost in its spacious cavern. There absolutely is room for a foursome’s worth of bags and some luggage on top of that. This might be the perfect vehicle if you have a buddy group that regularly takes trips to places within drivable distance.

From a size perspective, the Mazda CX-70 a foot longer than my Subaru Forester, but seems much larger than that in the back. It also sits quite high. I think people with some mobility or size questions might have trouble getting up into it.

At 200 inches, the CX-70 is eighteen inches longer than my Forester, and four inches longer than Mrs. GolfBlogger’s Subaru Ascent. Also for comparison’s sake, it is nine inches shorter than an F-150.

The CX-70 did not feel too big, though for an around-the-town runabout. and that’s where the PHEV (plug in hybrid) part comes into play.

Operating exclusively on battery power, the CX-70 PHEV consistently gave me a range of about 25 miles. As I am now retired and not commuting 25 miles each way to work, that was enough range for all of the about-town errands I might need to do during a day. I could easily get to the course, pick up groceries at the local Aldi and Meijer’s and head to a local board game meetup all on one charge.

Charging the batteries was a matter of plugging the included cord and power supply adapter into a garage wall socket. With that method, it took about ten hours to fill the battery.

That seems like a long time, but I found it wasn’t as inconvenient as I first thought. I just plugged it in when I was done going places for the day, and it was ready the next day. It is also possible to purchase an electrical upgrade for your home to charge it faster, and there are some power stations out that that will do it even faster.

(As a side note, the power plug locks into the car during use. It can only be removed by pushing the “unlock” button on the keyfob.)

One of the concerns I’ve had with all-electric vehicles is that few have the range (on paper) to make the trip from GolfBlogger World Headquarters in southeast Michigan to the satellite office (also called the lake cottage) in northern Michigan. It’s a drive of some 350 miles. I honestly don’t think anything of driving highways for an hour and a half to get to an interesting golf course.

Midwesterners don’t measure distances in miles; we measure it in time.

“How far is it to Mike’s house?”
“About two hours.”
“Cool, let’s go.”

The hybrid solution works pretty well. As soon as the battery is done — or when extra power is needed — the Mazda CX-70 switches over to good ol’ gasoline.

Within the space between electric and hybrid, there is a lot of room for fine tuning. One option is to set the CX-70 to start charging the battery while running on gas. There are options to set the battery to charge to a certain percentage while running on gas.

I am not sure what the impact on gas mileage of doing this is, though.

I also am not sure about the per-dollar economic value of the Mazda CX-70 as a hybrid. The hybrid has a 17.8 kilowatt hour battery that generates 25 miles of distance. A kilowatt hour in Michigan averages 19 cents. So charging the battery costs $3.32. That give me 25 miles. However, the car got me 27 miles per gallon driving on gasoline. As of this writing, a gallon of gasoline costs $3.32 in Michigan on average.

The question then, is how much of the environment are you saving by burning 17.8 kilowatt hours of electricity as opposed to a gallon of gas? I don’t know the answer to that question. I taught social studies, not math or science.

The Mazda CX-70 was fun to drive, though. I thought it was nimble for its size. It also has an insane “sport mode” that gave me as much kick as I would ever want merging onto a freeway. I was going from 40 mph to 90 mph before I realized it.

Insanely fast.

One of the neatest features of the CX-70 was the heads-up display. It projects your speed, the speed limit and even things like upcoming stop signs on the lower windshield. The lanes graphic in the center of the HUD show whether you are between the lines and also shows the locations of cars to your left and right. That really helps to make safe lane changes.

If you are using Google Maps on Android Auto, it shows the directions you need to follow (it likely does the same for Apple maps, but I’m an Android guy).

I thought it was brilliant that I never had to take my eyes off the road — even for an instant — to check my speed or directions. It also was quite comforting to know how the cars were situated around me on the highway.

As with most recent cars, the CX-70 has intelligent cruise control. It’s my single favorite thing about “modern” cars (such as my Subaru Forester). I just get into my lane on the highway, set the cruise and the spacing and can not drive with nearly as much stress as I used to.

Another safety feature I quite liked is the backup camera with “overhead” graphics. It not only shows what’s going on behind you; it also shows your care in relationship to other cars to the left and right.

Amazing.

The Mazda CX-70’s interior is quite nice, with what I thought was a well designed and attractive dashboard. The tech controls are quite intuitive, once you realize that the big button on the hump is a sort of master key.

The storage box between the seats has two USB-C ports, which is thoughtful.

The driver’s seat was very comfortable and had a solid lumbar support adjustment. I was able to make the three and a half hour drive to northern Michigan with nary a hit of back stiffness.

In comparison, in my Subaru Forester, which also supposedly has lumbar support, I need to use a lumbar support pillow.

All of the interior controls are nicely designed. The entirety is quite posh.

I also thought the exterior was attractive. With its sloped back and organic front curves, it manages to stand out in a world of SUVs that all look like Subaru Foresters.

Seriously, take a look. From the Mercedes to the Honda to the Toyota to the Hyundai, they all look a bit like the Forester. When I bought my first Forester almost two decades ago, it was described by some as cute-ugly. Nothing looked quite like it, and I had no problem picking it out in a parking lot. Now, I am frequently misled when picking out my vehicle among a dozen other similarly designed cars.

My only thought about the exterior is that I don’t understand the thougt process behind the two black grills in the lower left and right of the front.

I enjoyed my time with the Mazda CX-70 PHEV. If you are a golfer in the market for a new car, I’d recommend giving it a look.