Mazda CX-60 - long term review

Situated in the Lot area of France, Saint-Cirq-Lapopie is a medieval village dating back as far as the 15th century and sits 100m above the river Lot. It truly is one of the most stunning villages in France I have ever experienced. Originally selected as an area of defence it has now become an entire museum of itself and one that influencers will be scrambling to get their phone cameras out... once my 100 followers on Instagram cotton on. Equally as stunning is the drive there from Cahors where we were staying. But let's rewind a little - first we had to get there.

It's roughly a 14-hour door to door trip from Stamford, Lincolnshire to Cahors and one that covers almost 800 miles. Proper road test miles. Eye burning stuff. Thankfully European road trips are made far more pleasurable by the far superior roads. The Mazda swallows what seems to be an endless amount of kit, helped by the generous boot and Thule roof box from the accessories catalogue. We manage to bring two paddle boards, a fridge, enough clothes for five and even space for booze (and a tin of fois gras) on the way back.

The usual hold up at the ferry check in allowed me to play with all the settings and swap the dashboard to kph. Sadly no adjustable lights on this car so the AA route pack was raided for the silver light stickers. Which seem quite archaic these days. Phone plugged in, Apple CarPlay engaged, a 700km range predicted and the CX-60 set about eating up the autoroute miles, its softer more bouncer suspension liking the smooth autoroute roads. But it did feel heavy, because it was. I pumped in a few extra psi as it looked to be sagging a little but it didn’t worry the brakes, and actually the added weight managed to settle the suspension better. Cruising in the CX-60 can often be somewhat frustrating, with the i-stop kicking in regularly and the transmission holding in a higher gear for longer than necessary. Above all, comfort is its finest achievement over this 14-hour drive.

But it’s the roads around Lot that can be the true test of a car. There's everything - hairpins, swooping off-camber corners, long straights, tight twisty narrow single-track roads and stunning views. Which is exactly what we take in on the 45-minute trip from where we were staying to Saint-Cirq-Lapopie. The CX-60 performs OK here, not perfect and again the extra weight helping settle the car but there’s still far too much bounce which isn’t great for small children with car sickness.

And it can often feel big - too big sometimes round here. Citroen 2CVs are still a common sight which says it all. As we climb the mountain along and ride across, we approach the medieval village and I think to myself how incredible that it's still standing, but also how incredible some of the basic way of living still exists today, only in a much more sophisticated way.

Much like the CX-60 - the basics are all there, it just needs a bit more development to make this the premium and dynamic product Mazda wants it to be.