One of the most affordable and popular seven-seat family SUVs available in Australia is about to be pulled from the market.
The Mazda CX-8 is in runout after being discontinued and according to Mazda Australia, it will likely sell out completely by October this year.
Given Mazda has taken a step up into premium territory with its next-generation SUV models, this could be your last chance to get into an affordable Mazda seven-seat SUV.
The CX-8 is offered in petrol and diesel guise across four model grades and pricing ranges from $42,810 before on-road costs for the FWD Sport petrol and tops out at $72,160 for the AWD diesel Asaki LE.
That leaves only a handful of affordable seven-seat large SUVs – that are not based on utes – available to buyers.
The Kia Sorento and Hyundai Santa Fe have both increased in price recently, and the Toyota Kluger is now hybrid-only, which has increased the cost of entry.
The only mainstream seven-seat offerings to compete with CX-8 on price in the car-based large SUV segment are the Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace from $48,990 drive-away, or the Chinese-built Chery Tiggo 8 Pro Max from $41,990 drive-away.
Seven-seat versions of slightly smaller medium SUVs like the Nissan X-Trail (from $40,290 before on-road costs), Mitsubishi Outlander (from $39,540 BOC) and Honda CR-V (from $46,800 drive-away).
Mazda announced late last year that it would drop the CX-8 – and the unloved MX-30 crossover – from sale to make way for its new large SUV models.
Mazda will soon have four SUV models riding on the same ‘Large Product Group’ platform. The CX-70 and CX-80 will join the CX-60 and CX-90 before the end of the year.
Mazda had already discontinued the CX-9 seven-seat SUV and judging by its current sales numbers – Mazda sold 18 CX-9s last month – stock is very close to running out.
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The Japanese carmaker launched the CX-8 in 2018, filling a gap between Mazda’s top-selling model, the CX-5 medium SUV, and the CX-9.
The CX-8 is the same width as the CX-5 but closer to the CX-9 when it comes to length and height.
When it launched, the CX-8 was a diesel-only proposition, which was contrasted with the CX-9 that was only available in petrol guise.
Then in 2020, Mazda added petrol power to the CX-8 range, further enhancing its appeal. But while the CX-9 used Mazda’s excellent 170kW/420Nm 2.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine, the petrol unit in the CX-8 was the same naturally aspirated 2.5-litre 140kW/252Nm petrol unit found in the Mazda3 and 6.
In the end, the petrol versus diesel split wasn’t even close – petrol grades made up 88 per cent of CX-8 sales.
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At close to 5.0m long the three-row CX-80 is appreciably longer than its two-row CX-60 sibling.
In terms of the model grades, the entry-level and mid-grade Sport and Touring made up around 36 per cent of CX-8 sales apiece, while the GT SP (17%) and flagship Akari (11%) made up the rest of the volume.
To the end of May this year, Mazda has sold approximately 27,000 examples of the CX-8 since its 2018 launch. Its best sales year was 2021 when Mazda sold 6119 units.
So far this year it has found 2067 homes, which is a slight 0.3 per cent increase on the same period last year.
In contrast, Mazda’s newer, more premium models haven’t sold in the same volumes as the trusted CX-8 and CX-9.
To the end of May, the CX-60 has shifted 1278 units and the larger and pricier CX-90 has sold 361.
With the CX-70 and 80 landing in the coming months, it’s not yet clear if they will help make up the volume lost by the CX-8 and 9, or if Mazda Australia is willing to take a hit on sales as a result of moving upmarket.
Despite the expanding range of fancier large SUV models, Mazda has committed to replacing the ageing CX-5 with an affordable medium-sized SUV to continue to compete with the Toyota RAV4, Subaru Forester and Kia Sportage.
There is a chance the name could change to CX-50 to replicate the newer model names, but that’s yet to be confirmed.