Talking Cars 359: Driving the CX-50, Mazda’s Answer to the Subaru Outback

Keith Barry
·2 min read

Plus, what does it mean when you say you “rent” cars from an automaker?

By Keith Barry

Main theme: Mazda is taking on the popular Subaru Outback with its new CX-50 compact SUV. It’s a companion—not a replacement—for the CX-5, and it’s built at a new factory that Mazda opened with Toyota. Is there room for this in-betweener to fit into a crowded SUV market? We’ll share our impressions from the time we spent in a top-of-the-line CX-50 that we rented from Mazda. We also just bought our own midrange model for our test program.

Audience question: When CR says it rents cars from manufacturers, what does that mean? Some of the cars you’ve rented aren’t even on sale yet! What gives?

"Talking Cars" panelists Mike Quincy, Keith Barry, and Emily Thomas.

Consumer Reports

As with other “Talking Cars” episodes, this one is available free through Apple Podcasts. (Subscribe to the audio or video.) You’ll also find the audio on Spotify (log-in required) and video on YouTube.

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