As far as some drivers are concerned, you may as well set fire to cash as tow with a petrol 4×4, yet touring with a Mazda CX-7 isn’t as mad as it looks. The official combined fuel consumption of 27.7mpg is identical to a diesel Land Rover Discovery’s.
Mazda markets the CX-7 as the 4×4 that thinks it’s a sports car, and with a 30-60mph time of 10.6 seconds you can see why. In practice, however, the engine needed to be worked hard to get the best out of it, and it felt a little laboured if revs dropped below 2500rpm.
Without a caravan the CX-7 handles remarkably well, but when towing it was slightly disappointing. It tackled the lane-change well enough, but wasn’t as secure at high speeds as expected.
By 4×4 standards, the hill-start wasn’t brilliant, either, needing lots of revs and clutch slip to tackle the 1-in-6 slope. Worst of all, the CX-7 can’t legally tow an 85% match.
The boot was big enough for all of our test load bar one bag, but the absence of a spare wheel suitable for towing put a big dent in the CX-7’s practicality score.