It’s rare and admirable to see a bit of humility from a car company. That’s what we are seeing from Mazda in relation to its CX-60 SUV. Prices were initially too high – and the suspension and transmission tunes weren’t right. Customers weren’t happy, and now Mazda Australia has changed course.

Of course, Mazda’s motives are not entirely magnanimous. We’re quite sure the Japanese firm would like to see some return on investment from its costly large vehicle architecture that, so far, has not lived up to its potential.

This is a review of the , which ushers in a second suspension and transmission update as well as a substantial price reduction across the range – effectively downgrading the CX-60 from entry-luxury to upper-mainstream.

A brief rundown of this car’s unusual history provides the context as to why these changes has occurred.

During the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic, carmakers rushed to announce plans to go full EV – but Mazda made a contrarian bet, telling media it was developing a premium combustion platform with for rear-wheel drive layouts. A last stand for enthusiasts, of sorts.

Mazda’s move stirred excitement – but the risk was palpable. With a market cap of $6 billion AUD in 2025, Mazda is less than 10 percent the size of the Volkswagen Group, and the Japanese firm couldn’t afford to miss. The execution of the new platform had to be flawless.

Expectations were high, because throughout the 2010s the Mazda CX-5 and CX-9 had stood among the best SUVs in the midsize and large classes.

The CX-60, the platform’s launch vehicle, showed promise with a choice of inline six-cylinder engines in diesel or petrol, and a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) ‘four responsive to tax breaks of the time.

But its debut was marred by a rare failure by Mazda’s traditionally capable chassis team: brittle, out-of-sync ride quality clashed with otherwise capable handling, while a new, Mazda-developed automatic transmission shifted clunkily.

Launched in Australia in 2023 and priced as a premium rival to base model versions of the BMW X3, Volvo XC60 and Audi Q5, the CX-60’s compromised dynamics undercut its value proposition.

Customer and media feedback centred on the poor ride quality, and transaction prices fell well below the $59,800-$87,252 (plus on-roads) Mazda sought.

Chasing Cars ran a CX-60 as a long-term review vehicle throughout 2023 and sounded the alarm about the harsh and discordant damping. Mazda’s response came in stages: initial denial, then incremental fixes in new CX-70, CX-80 and CX-90 models that replaced the venerable CX-8 and CX-9.

Then, in 2024, CX-60 owners in Australia were offered revised rear shock absorbers and a transmission software update, which we argued improved general refinement by 30-40 percent.

Still, that wasn’t enough. Mazda Japan responded again, this time with deeper suspension revisions, a rethink of pricing, and a sharper value equation.

The 2025 update, now landed in Australia, represents Mazda’s clearest shot yet at making the CX-60 live up to its brief—and extracting some return on investment from this platform.

So, have the 2025 changes worked?

Yes—incrementally. It’s another 20 percent improvement for the CX-60. The ride quality remains a touch uncultured but it is acceptable, while the transmission goes unnoticed most of the time. The engines, handling and interior quality continue to sparkle, as ever.

Really, the biggest deal is how much cheaper the CX-60 now is. Mazda has modestly swept away its initial premium positioning, and has now positioned the CX-60 as ‘a lot of car for the money’, with the six-cylinder CX-60 now kicking off from just $53,990 driveaway, while even the plug-in hybrid starts at just $63,290 + ORCs.

While the ‘Pure’ entry CX-60 is fairly plain, sweet-spots like the Touring (from $58,240) and GT (from $64,240)—all with turbo-six power—mean plusher CX-60 grades is a genuine alternative to smaller four-cylinder SUVs like the Volkswagen Tiguan ($45K-$70K), Toyota RAV4 ($42K-$58K), Kia Sportage ($33K-$55K) and even Mazda’s own CX-5 ($36K-$55K).

By focussing its sights on high-spec versions of those familiar mainstream SUV names, the CX-60 also handily undercuts even the cheapest Euro-luxury midsize crossovers which start around the $74K mark for the Volvo XC60 and Audi Q5, or $86K for the new BMW X3.

Remember, Mazda wanted to take on those European cars, and the CX-60’s core architecture reflects that: the six-cylinder power, rear bias, and hushed, high-quality interior recall this car’s premium aspirations.

If you are a buyer that is OK with the fact the CX-60 does not quite match the refinement of luxury European SUVs – and you like a big SUV with a big engine – then the repositioned CX-60 represents impressive value for money.

The repositioned CX-60 range is based around three engines and five trim grades. Options and complexity has been reduced compared to last year’s version but this is still an expansive lineup. All prices mentioned below are before on-road costs.

First, choose an engine. There are two six-cylinders and one PHEV four-cylinder, while a non-hybrid four-cylinder will be added to the range soon:

The starting prices of the six-cylinder petrol and diesel are very competitive. The PHEV, on the other hand, is cheaper than before but is a vast impost over the mild hybrid engines.

Second, choose a trim grade. Below, we set out the standard features in each of the five variants.

The CX-60 Pure ($50,240 six-cylinder petrol, $52,240 six-cylinder diesel, $63,290 PHEV) is a new entry-level trim for 2025. The six-cylinders remain standard but the level of interior appointment appears mainly geared to fleet buyers. Inclusions take in:

It costs $5000 to step up to the CX-60 Evolve trim ($55,240 six-cylinder petrol, $57,240 six-cylinder diesel, $68,290 PHEV), which adds the following features:

The next upgrade is $3000 to the CX-60 Touring ($58,240 six-cylinder petrol, $60,240 six-cylinder diesel, $71,290 PHEV), which is a new grade for 2025. For that additional outlay, Touring adds some interior luxury while retaining the cushier 18-inch wheels:

After Touring, the cosmetic appearance of the CX-60 is stepped up, with larger alloys and body-coloured cladding. An extra $6000 slots buyers into the CX-60 GT ($64,240 six-cylinder petrol, $66,240 six-cylinder diesel, $77,290 PHEV), which gains: 

A final $4200 ascent into the CX-60 Azami ($68,440 six-cylinder petrol, $70,440 six-cylinder diesel, $81,490 PHEV) purchases the following items:

The Azami can be personalised via packages—each priced at $2000. The Takumi package extends the bright aesthetic, with pure white nappa leather seat upholstery, a stitched cloth dashboard panel and white maple wood interior trim. The SP package darkens the theme with tan nappa leather, suede trim, black wheels, and an extended exterior black pack.

Eight exterior colours are available: Sonic Silver Metallic, Platinum Quartz Metallic, Deep Crystal Blue Mica and Jet Black Mica are all included in the price of the CX-60, while premium hues Rhodium White Metallic, Soul Red Crystal Mica, Machine Grey Metallic and the new Zircon Sand Metallic attract a $995 upcharge.

The Touring and GT specifications strike us as the clear sweet spots in the range, equipped with either of the six-cylinder engines—though the diesel is stronger and considerably more economical in the real world.

What’s missing? No CX-60 has full connectivity in Australia (or access to the MyMazda smartphone companion app) as yet, so air conditioning cannot be activated from your phone, while luxuries occasionally found elsewhere like massaging seats or built-in rear sunshades are unavailable.

There is no question that the latest iteration of the CX-60 is better to drive with holistically more comfortable suspension and smoother transmission operation, while still delivering good power and sporty handling.

The CX-60’s ride quality is certainly competitive with the top-spec mainstream SUVs it is priced similarly to, even if it is not the match of the likes of a BMW X3 on adaptive dampers or even a Volvo XC60 on that car’s passive suspension.

While Mazda is particularly proud of the extent of its 2025 changes, the bigger fix was arguably delivered in 2024 with revised rear shock absorbers, which eliminated the 2023 CX-60’s alarming vertical pitching and pogoing—its biggest dynamic vice when new.

While the 2024 fix largely calmed the up/down porpoise feel, this year’s changes are about wholly softening the way the CX-60 strikes bumps while also relaxing its previously tightly-wound body control in the corners.

To that end, Mazda has revised the spring rates front and rear, altered the geometry of various suspension knuckles, and also removed the rear anti-roll bar—the latter the largest and most controversial change.

As a result, the CX-60’s cornering attitude is marginally less focussed, though this SUV remains a sportier and more entertaining drive than most crossovers in the bends. The softer front suspension tuning has also reduced terseness over square-edged bumps.

We’d now say the CX-60 rides 50 percent better than when it was new—admittedly off a fairly uncultured baseline. The current ride quality is not perfect, and there is still the occasional jarring moment as the front dampers run out of compliance over an expansion joint, but it’s all quite bearable.

That said, Mazda’s generosity in retrofitting suspension upgrades for existing owners has now run out. Original owners received the 2024 damper swap free of charge but the 2025 changes are more extensive and will not be fitted to existing cars. It’s a running change.

Mazda now feels its CX-60 ride and handling nightmare is over. Avoiding this situation in future is now the priority, and to that end, there are various strategies in place. The first is more detailed customer research to properly understand the feel buyers want in cars like this.

Secondly, Mazda is now considering adaptive dampers for future vehicles. The brand has decided against them in the past, preferring one ‘good’ ride tune favoured by engineers.

There is still a diehard group of Mazda chassis gurus that prefer the original tune – which, with adaptive damping, could form a future ‘sport’ setting with the cushier 2025 setup becoming a ‘comfort’ mode.

We hope Mazda doesn’t fall for making too many steering modes available to customers, though, because steering feel is one thing the engineers got right in the CX-60 from the get-go.

A little heavier than most SUVs, the steering rack has an intuitive ratio that delivers great road feel, delivered through a lush, thin-rimmed leather tiller.

The handling posture of the CX-60 remains one of light oversteer when pushed on (which we like) while inherent balance to this chassis makes the Mazda quite brisk and rewarding to drive quickly on a country road, especially as the suspension is no longer trying to chuck you off it.

Aside from steering, the other clear highlight to the dynamics remains the six-cylinder powertrains. Both 3.3-litre units are solid, with the powerful 209kW petrol making a good (but cabin-enhanced) sound and generally feeling flexible beyond piddly turbo four-cylinders found in midsize rivals.

But the girthy turbo diesel ‘six reminds us of why big oilers are such a good fit for Australia. It delivers mile-munching efficiency and fuel range (of about 1000km) with superb low-end torque. The CX-60 diesel is just so driveable.

By comparison, the PHEV still feels like a fish out of water. With a full battery charge it’s quite convincing, but the matchup between four-cylinder petrol, transmission-mounted electric motor and the eight-speed auto itself remains a troubled and clunky marriage.

When the PHEV’s traction battery is dead you’re left with a modestly powered petrol pulling the hybrid’s relatively lardy 2111kg weight (+150kg on the diesel, thanks to the battery). That makes us a little worried for the incoming non-hybrid, probably non-turbo four-cylinder petrol base engine, which will be even slower.

A major upside to the initial premium positioning of the CX-60 is that its interior was built to rival the Audis and BMWs of the world– and that remains the case now, with cabin hushness and build quality well beyond many mainstream rivals.

Given the reduced costs of the 2025 model, CX-60 buyers in Australia are benefitting from an interior that is much better than the price suggests.

That said, while the core build quality is superb across the range (no rattles or squeaks in any of the test cars we’ve driven), there are some traps. You will want to opt for a Touring, GT or Azami trim to make the CX-60 feel as special as it should.

While the CX-60 Pure looks very temping at its $53,990 driveaway launch price, hard door skins, manually-adjustable cloth seats and smaller screens than the other variants reek of cost-cutting…because that’s precisely what has happened!

Evolve steps up to what we’d consider the bare minimum when spending more than $50K: artificial leather, a power tailgate, 360-degree camera and bigger screens, but while the front seats themselves are comfy and supportive, families sharing the big Mazda might be vexed by the manual driver’s seat.

Touring, which retains the Pure and Evolve’s country touring-spec high-profile tyres, solves the everyday usability problem by adding front seat electric adjustment—crucially with driver’s memory, so two people sharing piloting duties can quickly resume their preferred positions.

The front seats also gain real leather, and heating—nice in winter.

GT gets 20-inch wheels which don’t ride as well but everything else steps up bigtime: a crisp and clear Bose stereo, big panoramic opening sunroof, power-adjustable memory-linked steering column, larger 12-inch touchscreen and heated rear seats catapult the CX-60 into properly premium family car territory.

In fact, you no longer need the posh Azami, we don’t think. While nappa leather and cooled front seats are nice-to-haves, the circa-$70K driveaway GT represents a great blend of value for money and luxe-SUV appointments.

So many new cars we review go backwards compared to older vehicles in both quality and usability: the CX-60 simply isn’t one of them. As mentioned, these SUVs are built properly, but they are also intuitive to use, with hard buttons retained for key media and climate functions—including a rotary dial to help control the central screen on bumpy roads.

Wireless smartphone connectivity (both CarPlay and Android Auto) works flawlessly although we wish the Mazda’s digital instrument cluster had greater customisation. Storage up front is also a bit on the thin side for such a large and wide vehicle.

The back seats are where families gain a lot compared to the surprisingly tight CX-5. Legroom, toe room and headroom are all sufficient for six-footers; most trims carry soft touch materials to the back while air vents, USB-C ports and even a household power socket all make road tripping easy.

Mazdas often come up a little short in boot space and so does the CX-60, but while the 477-litre cargo area falls shy of some rival midsizers, it is a fairly usable space. Niceties like side netting, remote releases for the 40/20/40 folding rear seats and a space saver spare wheel add to the equation.

Yes—the Mazda CX-60 received a full five-star rating from ANCAP, Australia’s car safety and crash testing body. ANCAP translated the CX-60’s crash test results conducted by Euro NCAP in 2022. The five star result comprised the following scores:

The CX-60 utilises Mazda’s ‘triple H’ chassis design, which remains unchanged for 2025. The tuning of the CX-60’s various safety features is also unchanged for this year, though a number of safety features have trickled down to lower grades.

Standard safety technology across the CX-60 range includes:

• Autonomous emergency braking (AEB) that operates at city and high speeds, and detects cars, pedestrians and cyclists
• Junction AEB
• Lane keeping assist
• Blind spot monitoring
• Front and rear parking sensors
• Reversing camera
• Traffic sign recognition 
• Tyre pressure monitoring

Mazda’s tuning of the CX-60’s adaptive safety features is on the subtle side, and this does not appear to have changed for 2025. In our testing, the adaptive cruise control worked well enough—but the lane keeping is weak in its standard mode—although it can be bolstered when placed in Cruising and Traffic Support mode.

Variants equipped with a 360-degree camera are easier to park, but the CX-60 would benefit from blind spot monitoring cameras like those seen on Hyundai and Kia products.

The CX-60’s ownership costs differ depending on the powertrain you choose—and, in the case of the PHEV, how you choose to fuel your car. The six-cylinder engines are the simplest to understand. The petrol and diesel are mild hybrid engines but they are conventionally fuelled.

The 3.3-litre petrol is rated for a combined 7.4L/100km and in our testing uses around 10.0L/100km, while the 3.3-litre diesel is rated for 5.0L/100km and in reality, uses about 6.5L/100km.

For an average Australian who drives around 15,000km per year, the petrol would cost $3000 in fuel while the diesel would set you back around $2000—meaning the $2000 upcharge for the diesel would pay for itself in about two years.

Meanwhile, the PHEV is officially rated to use 2.1L/100km, but Australia’s fuel consumption rating system fails to properly explain how PHEVs work.

If you charge up the PHEV’s 17.8kWh usable battery (which takes around 2.5 hours from a wallbox or overnight from a regular power socket), the CX-60 can deliver about 50km of electric range in the real world.

Once the hybrid battery is exhausted, you’re looking at 8.0L/100km-11.0L/100km depending on how intensely you drive the vehicle.

In other words, buyers who can keep the CX-60’s battery topped up (particularly if they have cheap electricity tariffs or available household solar) the PHEV can be very cheap to run indeed.

That said, the major financial benefit to purchasing a PHEV in Australia was previously the waiver of fringe benefits tax on novated leases. However, this scheme has now closed to new PHEV buyers and is available only for purchases of battery EVs moving forward.

Warranty for the CX-60 is five years with unlimited kilometres—Mazda’s standard arrangement.

Mazda offers a capped price servicing program for the CX-60 that extends out to seven years. Service pricing was previously hefty at around $3360 total over the first five years. We are confirming whether any changes have been made to maintenance costs.

It is safe to say that the launch of Mazda’s large SUVs—including the CX-60—did not go according to plan. It is not normal or desirable for Mazda to have needed to update the CX-60 twice since its 2023 local launch, while also deeply cutting prices.

That said, the winner is the new SUV buyer. Australians are now presented with a better CX-60 than ever—an SUV originally intended to compete against luxury rivals and which packs an interior that is quieter, better-built and easier to live with than many mainstream vehicles that are barely cheaper than it.

Then there are the two impressive six-cylinder engines which provide grunt well in excess of SUVs that Aussie families might have been considering, while there remains a PHEV for those who want such a powertrain.

While this Mazda still isn’t perfect—the ride could still be more refined, and we’d like to see features like remote climate and other online connectivity added—the CX-60 is a lot of car for the money. Considerably sharper pricing is the icing on the cake.

The ambitious push to Mazda Premium might have been tempered by fickle customers, particularly in Australia, but what remains is great value for money in the CX-60 for those that want an SUV that is bigger, gruntier and more special than many midsize alternatives.