Power from the turbocharged four-cylinder engine builds smoothly, with impressive torque at low engine speeds. It's worth noting here that the CX-7 develops more torque at significantly lower engine speed (258 pound-feet at 2500 rpm) than the Toyota RAV4 V6 (246 pound-feet at 4700 rpm) or Honda CR-V (161 pound-feet at 4200 rpm). That's worth noting because it's torque, not horsepower, that propels you from intersections and up steep hills. More torque sooner is always better.
However, the CX-7 pays a price with the poorest EPA fuel economy estimates of the group.
Underway, the mechanical tones from the Mazda's engine compartment are decidedly low-key, more buzzy than throaty.
The transmission shifts well and adapts well to different driving situations, quickly learning a driver's preferences and holding lower gears longer and adjusting shift points to match. That's in Drive. Shift into the Sport mode and it executes manually directed shifts smoothly, up or down. To change gears manually, slide the shifter into the Sport slot, which is conveniently placed on the driver's side of the primary shift gate. Then simply push the lever forward to downshift, pull it back to shift up. This is similar to the way it works on many race cars.
There's some torque steer (where the front tires pull one way or the other, most commonly to the right) under hard acceleration, and we've noticed it in both the front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive models. It's somewhat less in the latter, which redirects up to 50 percent of the power to the rear wheels in extreme conditions. Next Page