July 31, 2006

It's My Minivan! It's My SUV! It's My Minivan: Forget It, Ford, It's Wagontown.

So Ford's got a whole slew of new vehicles for hauling people and gear. They're all based on the same Mazda-derived platform, they're roughly the same size and capacity. There's one thing we know for sure, though: they're all-new, not like those tired, old, uncool cars of yesteryear day.

mazda_cx-7.jpg

That means they're not wagons [except when they are], SUV's [except when they are], or minivans [except when they--OK, that's another thing Ford wants you to agree on, that they're definitely not minivans].

  • There's the Mazda CX-7, marketed solely to people who haven't been an accident with an SUV as, "The SUV you never saw coming." It's compact, sporty, and cheap, and yet it has rear safety cameras so you don't back over the kid. [Actually, allcarsallthetime says the CX-7's a different platform. He also has pictures of a cargo ship bound for Vancouver with 4,700 Mazdas--including around 1,200 CX-7's--getting all sideways in the water. Check with your dealer before you take delivery, yo.]
  • The Mazda CX-9 is definitely a crossover, in the sense that it only looks like the CX-7, only bigger and luxer. As the name clearly indicates, the CX-9 accommodates 7 passengers, while the CX-7 takes only 5. Jalopnik just posted some spy-shots of a pre-production CX-9 in Orange County. Maybe they were testing the backup cameras in the Disneyland parking lot.
  • The Ford Edge is a non-minivan non-wagon due out this year as 2007 models. Ford calls the Edge a "CUV," aka a Crossover Utility Vehicle. From this rendering, I call it a Pacifica.
    lincoln_mkx_jalopnik.jpg

  • The Lincoln MKX, though, I'll call a Mark Ten, since my grandfather used to get a new Lincoln every year whether he needed it or not. It, too, is a CUV, but Jalopnik calls it a "car-based luxobox." How tall does something need to be before it stops being a wagon?

  • 6 Comments

    I've been calling these things "fat wagons." Although I hope the term catches on, I have a poor record with term coinage.

    More and better pics and info on these "cars" is up at Ford's media site:

    MKX

    Edge

    CX-7

    But, since none of them can be had with a manual transmission, all of them are just as boring as any Country Squire from the bad old days of yesteryear.

    A better choice is the Volvo V70R, which has 300 hp, 6 gears, and seats 7 (sort of).

    If I must have a (non-minivan) minivan, I'd like one of these, please: the Ford S-MAX


    [holy moley, that S-MAX is sweet. -ed.]

    You would think that they could do better than 18/24 milage in this day and age...there are actual SUVs that beat those numbers considerably.

    [exactly what I was thinking. A 4-cyl engine, too. -ed.]

    Rented a Pacifica this week in Vegas. (Not what I wanted, but that's what they gave me.) When you stand next to it, it looks like a minivan. It feels like a minivan. It's a minivan. And the AC sucks.

    The CX-7 is actually derived from the Mazda3/5 platform and some of the Mazda6 platform (engine and front suspension) and really not similar to the Edge/MKX in terms of architecture.

    However, the CX-9 which will be out later this year, does share the Mazda6 platform that the Edge/MKX used as their foundation. Although they have common architecture, the CX-9 has a longer wheelbase and has seating for 7 passengers in 3 rows.

    The CX-7 is actually derived from the Mazda3/5 platform and some of the Mazda6 platform (engine and front suspension) and really not similar to the Edge/MKX in terms of architecture.

    However, the CX-9 which will be out later this year, does share the Mazda6 platform that the Edge/MKX used as their foundation. Although they have common architecture, the CX-9 has a longer wheelbase and has seating for 7 passengers in 3 rows.

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