Making its European debut in Geneva, Mazda's facelifted CX-7 crossover enters 2009 with a mild styling makeover in and out but more importantly, it offers the option of a diesel engine for the very first time. On the outside, the 2009 CX-7 gains a larger grille with a more prominent badge, a new design for the front fog lamp bezels, a chrome bar on the tailgate handle, while a larger rear roof spoiler and newly designed 18- and 19-inch alloy wheels complete the changes.
Moving to the interior, the facelift CX-7 features a new steering wheel with integrated control switches, revised meters on the instrument panel, new materials and trim while the vehicle's unique double-roof instrument panel is modified as well.
Whereas the North American market CX-7 gained a new entry-level 160HP 2.5-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine, for Europe, Mazda wisely chose to equip the crossover with a new 2.2-litre common-rail turbo diesel engine that joins the 260HP 2.3-litre DISI turbo petrol engine.
Matted to a six-speed manual gearbox, the next-generation MZR-CD 2.2-litre inline four-cylinder turbocharged diesel delivers a maximum power output of 173-horsepower at 3,500 rpm of 400 Nm of torque from 2,000 rpm.
With the new turbo diesel under the bonnet, the revised CX-7 can sprint from 0-100 km/h (62 mph) in 11.3 seconds and go on to reach a top speed of 200 km/. That's compared to 8.0 seconds and 209 km/h respectively for the 2.3 petrol variant, but the CX-7 Diesel does return 31.3mpg US (7.5lt / 100 km) in the combined cycle, an improvement of around 9mpg US over the gasoline model.
