Why You Should Buy This Car: You like sitting up high, but need a semblance of sport from your car. You think "drug-addled catfish" is the new design chic. You're five-and-a-half feet tall and prefer just to step sideways to get in and out. You need to lug a few cases of wine home after the Thursday-night tasting.
Why You Shouldn't Buy This Car: The Subaru WRX Sport Wagon (shut up, Davey). Or for that matter, the Legacy GT Wagon. Or maybe best of all, the Mazdaspeed3.
Suitability Parameters:
· Speed Merchants: Yes
· Fashion Victims: Yes
· Treehuggers: No
· Mack Daddies: No
· Tuner Crowd: Yes
· Hairdressers: No
· Penny Pinchers: No
· Euro Snobs: No
· Working Stiffs: No
· Technogeeks: No
· Poseurs: No
· Soccer Moms: Yes
· Nascar Dads: Yes
· Golfing Grandparents: No
Also Consider:
Infiniti FX
Subaru Legacy GT Wagon
Vitals:
· Manufacturer: Mazda
· Model tested: Mazda CX-7 Grand Touring AWD
· Model year: 2007
· Price as Tested: $29,585
· Engine type: 2.3L 16-Valve 4-Cyl Turbo
· Horsepower: 244 hp @ 5000 rpm
· Torque: 258 ft.-lbs. @ 2500 rpm
· Redline: 6750 rpm
· Wheels and Tires: 235/60 R18 tires on 10-spoke alloy wheels
· Drive type: All-wheel drive
· 0 - 60: 7.5 seconds
· 1/4 mile: 15.8 seconds
· Fuel economy city/highway: 18/24
· NHTSA crash test rating front/side/rollover: 5/5/na
Related:
Jalopnik Reviews: 2007 Mazda CX-7 Grand Touring AWD, Part 1, Part 2 [internal]