The 2025 Mazda CX-70 Has One Big Conundrum: Review

Ahead of last year’s NASCAR’s season finale in Phoenix, my friend and fellow car nerd, Bozi Tatarevic, asked Mazda to borrow a CX-90. I borrowed another Mazda for the weekend, the CX-70, which is the CX-90’s nearly identical stablemate. (Bozi wanted to see how the engineering of these cars differed. I just thought it would be funny to be twins.) As we walked into the parking lot with the pair of Mazdas, I saw them next to each other for the first time.

It was uncanny. From the outside, they looked exactly the same.

The

is one of five Mazda SUVs on the American market for 2025, and it also has the highest starting price—$41,900. The CX-70 comes in several forms, including a mild-hybrid option with anywhere from 280 to 340 horsepower, and a plug-in hybrid with 323 horsepower.

I drove the Turbo S Premium Plus trim, complete with a turbocharged 3.3-liter mild-hybrid inline-six mild-hybrid making 340 hp, paired to an eight-speed automatic transmission. The car starts at $57,325 with destination fees, and my loaner only had one option: $450 Polymetal Gray Metallic paint. I prefer vibrant colors, especially Mazda’s Melting Copper Metallic (rose gold) and the famous Soul Red Crystal. But if gray is your thing, Polymetal has a nice bluish glow.

Photo by: Alanis King / Motor1

I’ve driven the CX-90 before, but this was my first time in the CX-70. In alphanumeric car names, letters typically stand for something (like how Mazda’s “CX” means “crossover”), and numbers denote the size. The bigger the number, the bigger the vehicle, and the higher the price. Usually.

These two are a departure from that rule. They have the same dimensions and the same body, apart from a few styling tweaks. But the CX-70 has two rows (seating five), and the CX-90 has three (seating up to eight). Yet, the CX-90 is cheaper; it only costs $39,300 by comparison.

Before hopping into the CX-70, I knew there would be one big snag: People think it’s just a less logical CX-90, and their buying decisions reflect that. For every one CX-70 Mazda sold in America in December, the company sold four CX-90s. Although, to be fair to the CX-70, it hasn’t been on sale for nearly as long.

Photo by: Alanis King / Motor1

Pros: Excellent Interior Styling, Sublime Ride Quality, Abundant Driver-Assistance Features

The CX-70, like all Mazda SUVs, has a tame but classy exterior. Mazda’s design language hasn’t evolved much since the mid- to…