2019 Mazda CX-9 vs Toyota RAV4

What's the difference?

The previous CX-9 was excellent and now the new one fills in many of the gaps which were missing such as the addition of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, the safety tech standard across all grades and great ride and handling. You'd be hard-pressed to find a better large seven-seater all-rounder without stepping into the $100K prestige territory.

The Touring is the sweet spot in the CX-9 with its leather seats, 8.0-inch display and good price.

This new RAV4 has converted me. I didn't like any of the previous ones, with varying levels of displeasure. None of them were bad, they were just dull transport wrapped in what Toyota thought was fun.

The fifth-generation RAV4 joins the C-HR and new Corolla as genuinely likeable cars. Toyotas have always been 'good cars' - solid, dependable and could take a pounding few others would even contemplate. But that's not enough anymore and the TNGA platform is delivering cars that aren't just good transport but really very good cars.

The only problems with the Edge are that it costs too much and isn't a hybrid. Both of those things will probably have you saving a few bucks and buying the Cruiser hybrid.

Nothing has changed to the exterior of the CX-9 in this 2018 update – but that's a good thing, because this is a striking and beautifully styled SUV. More a tall, sleek wagon than upright boxy SUV, there's that in-your-face grille, the long nose the set-back cabin and the hatchback rear end. The only element which irks me are the taillights – they seem a bit small for that big bottom.

All CX-9s look almost identical on the outside, but you can tell the higher grades form their larger-sized wheels and LED fog lights.

There's not much in the way of a body kit, but there is that subtle roof top spoiler, that sculpted front bumper and the little shark fin antenna.

The cabin is a premium feeling place (have a look at the images) – this is Mazda flagship after all. Materials feel soft to touch even on the dash and door sills back and front, while there's a high-quality fit and finish throughout. With big interior dimensions this is also a roomy place, despite that sloping roofline.

The Azami LE is by far the most decadent grade with its nappa leather upholstery and real wood trim. Mazda was not able to tell me what type of wood has been used and could only go as far as confirming it was real wood, however, in the United States the top-grade CX-9, known as the Signature, uses a similar looking material and officially calls it rosewood.

Mazda also told me that the adhesives and materials used in the cabin were also chosen to minimise bad smells – not from the people in it but from the leather's plastics and glues. If only all car companies would care enough to do this – some new car smells make my eyes water.

At almost 5.1 metres long, nearly 2.0m wide and getting onto 1.8m tall you'll need a pretty big garage to house the CX-9.

I do feel a bit sorry for Toyota's designers. We moan about dull cars - the previous RAV4 was mostly pretty dull - and say, "Be more interesting." Then they pop out the new RAV4 and people like me say, "No, not like that."

While the overall look is pleasingly chunky and blocky, some of the details are less so. That weird black strip that joins the rear quarter window to the tailgate looks unaligned with anything else on the car. The Tiguan rear lights look a bit stolen.

The Edge looks like a ruggedised RAV4. It has its own bumper and grille treatment and chunky, unpainted wheelarches, along with its own exclusive colour palette.

The new cabin is a pleasing step up from the old car's. Here in the Edge there are some fun splashes of what looks like McLaren's Papaya Orange and even more splashes of rubber.

Some of the switchgear and grab handles are finished in rubber, harking back to the idea of a hose-out interiors of early Land Cruisers (do not hose out your RAV4).

That's about it for adventure, though, but that's okay. It's an interior that will take a family and its stuff without fuss.

There are a stack of reasons to buy a seven-seater. You may have a big family and really need the third row, or you're just a small family that likes to pack a truck-load of gear for holidays while having a couple of extra seats just in case you're put on the spot after picking the kids up from karate and end up with more ninjas to drop home.

There are other seven-seaters where those third-row seats are just a bonus – the Santa Fe is a bit like that, but SUVs such as the CX-9, Kluger and Sorento offer much better room back there.

Even at 191cm tall I can sit in the third row comfortably, with just enough head and legroom. That said, I wouldn't want to be there for an epic road trip, but it's fine for kids and shorter adults.

Legroom in the second row is excellent – I can sit behind my driving position with about 10cm of space between my knees and the seat back – headroom isn't as generous as the Kluger or Sorento but there's still plenty, even for me.

If you're lifting babies and children into car seats you may find that coupe styling to the roofline makes the process a little harder – it did for me with our little one.

Also, this SUV is fairly high up. I've had my toddler do a face plant falling out of one while trying to climb in. Oh, don't judge me.

Entry into the third row is made easier by a 60:40 folding second row on rails. It's also good to see that the smaller foldable section is on the curb side of the car.

The CX-9's boot space with the third row down is outstanding at 810 litres (VDA) – the Kluger can only manage 529 litres and even with those back seats in place the luggage capacity is 230 litres, check out my video above where I demonstrate the size with a live human being.

Storage in the cabin is also excellent with six cupholders (two in the first row, two in second and the others in the third) and all grades above the Sport come with storage in the fold-down centre armrest, which also contains a USB port.

All CX-9s come with a USB port up front in the giant split-opening centre console bin and a 12-volt power outlet in the cargo area.

The orange bits in the Edge highlight a couple of very handy storage ideas. The dash shelf that I've often praised in the Kluger as being exceptionally useful is here, as well as a Qi wireless charging pad in the same vivid colour.

Both are rubberised so stuff doesn't slide and clatter about. There are USB ports everywhere, too - one for the media system, two in the central console and two for rear seat passengers.

Boot space is better than before at 580 litres with the seats up, an improvement of 33 litres. As is Toyota's wont, we don't have a seats down figure.

Given its likely use as a family car, the RAV's rear seat space is top notch. I had tons of room behind my driving position (I'm just under six feet) and number one son who is well north of six foot tall also had enough room for his knees and giant headphones.

The front seats are fantastic, which is becoming a trend for Toyota and the segment.

There are four cupholders and bottle holders, two up front and two in the back.

At nearly fifty large ($47,140), the Edge is, er, on the edge but it is loaded with stuff. You get 19-inch alloys, a nine-speaker stereo, dual-zone climate control, adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go, electric tailgate, leather wheel and shifter, keyless entry and start, front/side/reversing camera, active cruise control, electric driver's seat, sat nav, auto LED headlights, auto wipers, lots of synthetic leather, sunroof, power everything and space saver spare.

The nine speaker stereo is branded with JBL badges and has DAB. It has the awful user interface from the Corolla stretched across the 8.0-inch screen along with some cheap plastichrome buttons to operate it.

Toyota is promising us Apple CarPlay and Android Auto soon, but will want to do something about the washed-out colour on the screen

All CX-9s have the same engine – it's a 2.5-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol that makes 170kW and 420Nm. That's simple isn't it? Also simple is this: all CX-9 have the same six-speed automatic transmission.

Every grade apart from the Azami LE comes with a choice of front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive. The Azami LE is purely all-wheel drive.

Under the Edge's high, flat bonnet is Toyota's 2.5-litre (A25A-FKS) four-cylinder, delivering 152kW/243Nm to all four wheels. An eight-speed automatic transmission gets the power out.

No turbos, no obvious trickery, just a classic Toyota machine, but this time it has a bit more power than previous cars. Irritatingly, you can't get the 163kW hybrid powertrain here at the top of the range.

The all-wheel drive system keeps the power up front for the most part, but can send up to fifty per cent to the rear.

The rear axle also has some clever torque vectoring tech. It won't have you out mixing it with a Land Rover Defender, but the system should make the RAV4 pretty handy in the rough stuff.

There is a terrain select dial where you can choose three different modes (mud and sand, rock and dirt, and snow).

Big car, big drinker? The CX-9 used to be back when it had a V6, but not any more. The turbo-four is efficient, with Mazda saying that front-wheel drive version will use 8.4L/100km, while all-wheel drives will use 8.8L/100km after a combination of open and urban roads. You'll also only need to feed it 91 RON – that's the cheap petrol.

My testing on the launch saw me use 10.3L/100km, according to the car's trip computer, but I was really getting into those roads and stamping on that accelerator like it was a funnel web spider, so for it still to be that low is great.

The sticker on the windscreen will draw fuel from the 55 litre tank at a rate of 6.1L/100km, which would be nice if it happened. My week with the RAV4 cost fuel at a rate of 10.2L/100km.

There is no way to make a 5.1m long, 2.0m wide, two-tonne SUV feel small in a supermarket car park and you'll feel its size particularly in multi-storey ones as you navigate the HMAS CX-9 up through the levels. I've lived with a CX-9 and I'm not ashamed to admit that I find it tricky to manoeuvre in tight spaces. But you have AEB, rear cross-traffic alert, parking sensors at the back and good visibility to make it as easy as it possibly can be.

Get the CX-9 out on the street, though, and it feels a lot less cumbersome. And on the open road the CX-9 is brilliant. Not only does it just much up miles in comfort, it has such great handling ability that it defies my logic.

In this update Mazda says it has refined the driving experience while making the SUV more responsive though suspension and steering changes. A thicker material behind the headlining in the ceiling has also been used to keep the cabin even quieter, too.

The result? A ride that's knocking on the door of German prestige SUVs and great dynamics.

Even on the 20-inch wheels and 50-profile tyres fitted to the Azami LE I tested at the launch, the ride was outstanding while the handling was excellent. Pushing the Azami LE hard in the corners should have had something of this size and weight leaning on its door handles, but a moment after entering the turn the CX-9 was able to compose itself, hunker down and hold its line in a controlled and planted way.

The Azami LE is all-wheel drive only, but the front-wheel drive version for the base grade Sport and the FWD Azami I drove felt just as composed with great body control and impressive handling ability for the class. In some ways the Sport being lighter and on smaller wheels and higher profile tyres meant the ride was more comfortable and acceleration a bit better.

That engine is a good thing, although part of me misses the old V6 from years ago for its smoothness and torque. The 2.5-litre four-cylinder turbo has enough grunt and it's fuel efficient, but to me a six-cylinder suits this big flagship better.

I came in to the RAV4 expecting good things. Underneath the chunky body is Toyota's Next Generation Architecture (TNGA) which is also under every good Toyota I've driven in the last couple of years - Corolla, C-HR and Camry.

The RAV is quite different to all of those cars. It rides higher and Camry excepted, is heavier. I also had reservations - the new RAV4 is chunkier than the old car by a fair margin and that rarely brings good news.

The first bit of good news before I even got going was finding out that the 2.5-litre engine is paired with an eight-speed automatic.

Getting underway, it felt slushy but is still preferable to a CVT. It may also have felt a bit slow because the engine makes quite a racket, especially compared to other cars in the segment.

A Tucson of the same grade packs a quiet, smooth 1.6-litre turbo and you can have a 2.0-litre turbo-diesel unit. You have to rev the RAV to get it moving, which partially explains the gap between claimed and real-world fuel usage.

Enough of the complaints, because the RAV4 is good. Very good. Quiet once you hit the cruise and super comfortable front and back, this thing will destroy road trips. The stereo will drown out the road noise, too.

Around the suburbs the ride is firm on the big alloys and even on 55 section rubber, it's a bit jumpy on sharper bumps like expansion joints. The chassis handled bigger bumps and depressions quite happily.

I am very pleased to report that it's good fun to chuck around. Despite that high-riding weight, it changes direction really well and it takes a lot to get to the eventual gentle understeer when you're really pushing.

The old car was a wooden duffer, with no steering feel and a deeply ordinary set of numbers when it came to performance.

On top of all that, the tech works pretty well and the lane keep assist doesn't try and break your thumbs or pierce your eardrums to keep you in your lane.

The RAV4 arrives with seven airbags (including driver's knee), stability and traction controls, forward collision warning, AEB (with pedestrian detection and daytime cyclist detection), lane keep assist, reversing camera, high beam assist, road sign recognition, blind spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert.

There are also three top tether anchors and two ISOFIX points.

The fifth-generation car scored a maximum five ANCAP stars in May 2019.

The CX-9 is covered by Mazda's five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty. Servicing is recommended at 12 month or 10,000km intervals. Servicing is capped and switch from $329 for the first visit, $371 for the next and then back to $329 for five services.

Toyota is close to leading the pack with warranty these days with a five year/unlimited kilometre warranty, and that can go up to seven years for the engine and transmission if you keep the car properly serviced.

If you return to a Toyota dealer every 12 months/15,000km, you'll pay $210 per service, which is absurdly reasonable.