I’ll ask you to indulge me for a moment. You don’t come to Kelley Blue Book for technical discussions and engineering diagrams, so I won’t bore you with them. But I have to get a bit technical to explain why the 2026 Mazda CX-90 is weird.
Like most professions, car design has some standard practices.
If you’re designing a midsize SUV for a mainstream brand, you give it either a turbocharged 4-cylinder engine or a V6, and you mount that engine transversely (side to side) to keep the hood short so it’s relatively easy to park. You probably build in all-wheel drive (AWD), but you keep it biased toward the front wheels to maximize fuel economy.
Pretty much all affordable midsize SUVs work like this.
If you’re designing a midsize SUV for a luxury brand, the design brief is different. You can give it an inline-6-cylinder engine even though that’s a little costlier, because it will vibrate less and feel smoother. You can mount it longitudinally (front to back) for smoother operation, even though that stretches the hood a bit. A longer hood has more presence, anyway. People want that in a luxury car. And you can bias the AWD rearward for better driving dynamics, because luxury buyers want a little sporty feel even in a 3-row car.
The technical discussion will end now, I promise. The point of it? I’m in a 2026 Mazda CX-90 3-row SUV. It’s priced to compete with Chevrolets and Toyotas. But it has bones like a BMW or a Mercedes-Benz. An inline 6 mounted front-to-back. Rear-biased AWD. This thing is built a little like a luxury car.
Does it pull off the trick? Is this the best-driving affordable 3-row? I spent a week driving it around the Washington, D.C., suburbs to find out.
Which Trim Level
Mazda offers the 2026 CX-90 in six trim levels, excluding the plug-in hybrid (PHEV) version. The operative difference is the engine. Four get a 280-horsepower 3.3-liter turbocharged engine. Two get a 340-hp version of the same powerplant. Mazda loaned me the Turbo S Premium Sport, the least expensive model with the more powerful motor. It gets Nappa leather upholstery in the first and outboard second rows, heated and ventilated seats, and a few other luxury trimmings.
New 2026 MAZDA CX-90 Prices
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Retail Price
|
Fair Purchase Price (58102)
|
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
$40,330 |
$39,300 |
|||
$44,480 |
$43,300 |
|||
$48,510 |
$47,100 |
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$51,800 |
$50,400 |
|||
$55,470 |
$54,000 |
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$58,900 |
$56,900 |
Favorite Feature
The CX-90’s description, on paper, reads like that of a luxury model. It translates to the driving experience.
That rear-biased AWD, combined with Mazda’s Kinematic Posture Control system (more on that in a moment), makes this perhaps the best-handling 3-row SUV outside luxury price ranges.
What It’s Like to Drive
The 330-hp engine in the CX-90 is one of the most powerful available in a mainstream family SUV. Power delivery is remarkably smooth (that longitudinal mounting again). In truth, the 280-hp model is more than enough for most families. The extra 50 horses are purely an indulgence and not worth the money for all of you. But if you care enough to spend extra, the added power gives you confidence.
The car has improved since I first drove it. When Mazda introduced this model for the 2024 model year, its 8-speed transmission bothered some of our editors. It tended to hunt for the right gear between 15 and 20 mph. If you live in a city or the suburbs, you probably spend a lot of time between 15 and 20 mph.
But Mazda seems to have fixed the issue, with shifting now smoother and more decisive.
That rear-biased AWD, combined with Kinematic Posture Control, creates a car that is remarkably stable when you corner a little harder than you should. The latter system applies a subtle braking force to the inner wheels in turns to point the car more aggressively. It’s a sports car feature in a 3-row vehicle.
It won’t make the CX-90 feel like a Miata. But it will make it feel better on a tight highway cloverleaf than most of its family-hauling competitors.
Interior Comfort and Technology
The BMW imitation carries over into the cabin a little. Nappa leather is softer than more common grades, though I’m amused that Mazda saved a few dollars by using a cheaper grade in the second-row middle seat and the third row.
That’s new for 2026, and perhaps I should be thankful for an effort to keep costs under control.
The seats are comfortable, with both heating and ventilation. Second-row passengers get plenty of space, and while the third row is tight (typical for this class), passengers back there get their own vents and USB-C ports.
The central screen is mounted high where we like it, so you don’t look down from the road to use it. But it remains an oddity in its class. You operate it with a puck controller most of the time, but it turns into a touchscreen when using Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.
Cargo space is slightly limited behind the third row.
The design has a certain flair that’s hard to quantify. Open-pore wood trim in lighter colors than typical and elegant visible stitching on the dashboard (Mazda says it’s a traditional stitch from Japanese bookbinding) feels a touch more artisan than you might expect at this price.
Limitations
The CX-90 may be the best-looking mainstream 3-row SUV, but its sleek body comes with trade-offs. Just 14.9 cubic feet behind the third row leaves you with less luggage space than some of the competition.
Key Considerations
I enjoyed the added power of the 330-hp engine, but I likely wouldn’t pay for it out of my own pocket. The 280 hp of other trim levels is more than enough, and the fun of this car is in its handling, not its acceleration.
And get it in red. Mazda’s Soul Red Crystal Metallic is one of the most lustrous paints available in 2026. In a year when the competition is betting on boxy SUVs and greyscale colors, a curvy CX-90 in glassy red looks special.
