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Mazda will issue another round of changes to the suspension of its luxury-priced mid-size SUV, intended to address criticism of its firm feel over bumps.
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The suspension of the Mazda CX-60 family SUV will be retuned for the second time in 18 months, after criticism from customers and media of a "firm" and "bouncy" ride over bumps.
Mazda has already revised the suspension once since the CX-60 launched last year, fitting new rear shock absorbers to vehicles built from October 2023 – and subsequently making them available as a retrofit to examples built before that date.
But the company has announced it will return to the workshop for further changes, as part of a 2025 update in the first half of next year that is planned to add two new model grades.
It is yet to be confirmed if the latest suspension changes will offered to existing customers.
The improvements – including softer springs at the rear – draw on learnings from the larger Mazda CX-80, the stretched, seven-seat version of the CX-60.
Kohei Shibata, program manager of the Mazda CX-60 and CX-80, acknowledged to Drive through a translator that the company focused "too much" on handling over ride comfort.
"For the Large Architecture products, the responsiveness and the oneness with the car [you feel] when you are handling and steering, that's what we focused on for the models – and we got great feedback from customers. They said, 'really great driving feel'," Shibata-san said.
"But because we focused on the great driving too much, when a vehicle is driven on a road with big bumps or steps, when there's this impact and then a vibration afterwards, that's something that customers didn't feel [was] comfortable.
"While we maintain things already in the market, we also ... improve all those areas."
The 2025 CX-60 will fit softer rear springs, as well as tweak the shock absorbers – with increased rear rebound damping and front compression damping – in an effort to "improve comfort and offer a smoother driving feel," Mazda claims.
The power steering, all-wheel drive and vehicle stability systems will also be "recalibrated".
Changes to the transmission are also expected, following separate criticism from media and customers that it can be "jerky" and "clunky" at low speeds.
The Mazda Japan executive said improvements made to new models in Mazda's range of 'Large Architecture' SUVs – the CX-60, CX-70, CX-80 and CX-90 – will flow across the range.
"Those products are very important for us because we want them to keep selling over the next decade or so. So every improvement we make for one of them should be applied to the others continuously."
He appeared to suggest through a translator that the original suspension change for CX-60 involved "not a lot of improvements", and that "we improved a better improvement on CX-80 now."
"There's good improvement," Shibata-san said, "so we again incorporate it into CX-60 because it's one of the four Large Architecture [cars].
"Going forward, whenever we offer a better, improved version, so that's when we apply [it to] ... the overall four models."
It will mark the third suspension tune for the CX-60 in 18 months, after last year's retune of the original configuration added new rear shock absorbers, and revised transmission software.
Asked why customers should be confident Mazda has got the CX-60's suspension 'right' the third time around, Mazda Australia managing director told Drive: "It's not about being right."
"When you talk to the engineers who developed the CX-60," he said, "they had a mission in mind. Their view was they've met all the targets and they wanted the driving to be firm, direct, as they had intended.
"They have listened to not just the media, but also consumers, because it's not only about the driver, it's also about the other passengers, occupants and family members.
"And especially in Australia, where our roads are not as smooth as some other countries, where the feedback has been that a bit softer suspension is something they would prefer.
"The great thing is that the team, the R&D team, has listened to it, and they have designed it or tuned it in a way that what you drove in a CX-80 today is what we're going to get in the CX-60 as well."
Drive's first test of a CX-60 P50e GT plug-in hybrid in 2023 described the suspension as "hard-edged", "bouncy", "reactive" and "not the premium ride experience you look for in a family-oriented medium SUV."
The suspension changes will be accompanied by two new model grades – an entry-level Pure, and a middle-of-the-range Touring.
The former will sit below the current Evolve base model as the new cheapest variant, and mirrors the Pure variant of the new CX-80 which currently sees it undercut the CX-60 Evolve – despite being a larger car.
Prices for the CX-60 Pure will be confirmed closer to launch, but on equivalent grades of the CX-60 and CX-80, there is only a $400 difference in price.
There is a chance Mazda may use the 2025 update to lower the CX-60's price to create more differentiation between it and its larger sibling, which starts from $54,950 plus on-road costs in base Pure petrol trim.
Meanwhile, the CX-80 Touring is priced from $61,950 with a six-cylinder petrol engine, $63,950 with a six-cylinder diesel, and $75,000 as a four-cylinder plug-in hybrid, all before on-road costs.
Mazda has also confirmed the Vision Technology pack currently offered on the Evolve and GT will become standard equipment on these models, as well as the new Touring trim.
Priced from $2000, it adds a 360-degree camera with see-through view, lane centring assist, driver monitoring, front cross-traffic alert and, on certain trim and engine combinations, a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and/or adaptive LED headlights.
A number of these features – a 360-degree camera (without the see-through view), front cross-traffic alert and driver monitoring – are already standard on the cheapest CX-80 Pure.
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Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family.
