Mission Premium: Mazda Set Out to Take the CX-90 PHEV Upscale. Did It Succeed?

People seeing our yearlong review 2024 Mazda CX-90 three-row plug-in hybrid SUV for the first time usually make two comments: It’s a looker with its deep blue crystal mica paint and sporty silhouette; and it’s quite big for a Mazda. They also immediately want to see inside. Thankfully for those folks, Mazda has made a concerted effort to make its cabins more premium with richer materials. Nowhere is that more evident than inside our CX-90 PHEV Premium Plus.

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Fresh and Classy

The two-tone black and white interior of our long-term CX-90 looks fresh, modern, and airy. That is in part because there’s a lot more white than black. We appreciate the brightness in an age where black interiors have become ubiquitous. The top of the dash is black, but the main swath is white leather, broken up by only two buttons: start/stop and hazard.

Likewise for the doors: They feature strips of black bookending the top and bottom, but the middle section is white leather and there are lovely pieces of chrome and grained blond wood trim, giving it an air of elegance.

The front seats are white perforated Nappa leather with white stitching and a classy coppery-brown accent strip. They are heated, cooled, and—most important—comfortable. 

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Center Console Pros and Cons

Attractive wood trim wraps the center console, which features a small wireless charging pad, two cupholders, and a cigarette-lighter-style power outlet. For USB ports, you must go into the covered portion of the console for two outlets and tunnels for the cord when the cover is closed. It’s a shallow compartment, about 2 inches deep, with a felt lining. The two-piece cover is a nuisance—Murphy’s Law says the object you seek will not be on the side you open. Reaching over the lifted lid to the other side is awkward, and that’s when you are seated. It becomes almost impossible to grab items you forgot from outside the vehicle.

We’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating: more storage areas up front would be appreciated. Let’s face it, most of us jump into our vehicle loaded up with beverages—often a coffee and a water—a phone, keys, sunglasses, maybe a tube of Chapstick. It all has to go somewhere.

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Real Estate Around the Shifter

The CX-90 PHEV’s shifter has few fans among our staff. You slide left for park, but up and down for gears, passing through reverse to get to drive. Because reverse is located where many vehicles put park, it can be a recipe for a mishap. The good news: Neutral is easy to select in the heat of the moment, entering a carwash. With the CX-90 being my daily driver, I personally don’t mind it and have had no issues with its design.

There are some well-placed controls near the gear shift, most important being the drive mode button. There’s also a button to turn on the camera if it hasn’t already engaged automatically.

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Infotainment Screen

The CX-90 has a 12.3-inch infotainment screen that tilts slightly toward the driver, reinforcing the Mazda message that its vehicles are all about the drive and cater to the driver. There’s also a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster display with a setting that declutters what you see. Pressing the Info button on the steering wheel toggles through a choice of data displays that populate the center of the fuel and battery power gauge on the right. You can fill the space with power consumption data, engine and battery temperatures, active safety system status, or a compass. Or choose to keep it blank inside. Not everyone wants all the info all at once. Changing modes alters the overall appearance, with Sport and Off-Road getting a tachometer on the left, where other modes place a power/regen meter.

The heated steering wheel is wrapped in black leather, but Mazda didn’t splurge on padding to make it soft. It has infotainment controls on one side and cruise control controls on the other.

The main climate controls are laid out like piano keys below the air vents. One quibble: The buttons to set the temperature have arrows pointing in opposite directions, and logic says press the red one up to add heat and the blue one down to cool. Nope. You have to press down on both of them. Tell your passenger who has the same set of controls for their half of the vehicle.

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Pampering Passengers, Too

Unlike many family-focused crossovers, rear-seat passengers aren’t second-class citizens in the CX-90: They have the same leather seats, high-end doors, and thick-pile carpet. Second-row occupants have heated, reclining captain’s chairs, storage pouches on the front seat backs, a pair of USB ports, and a screen for the climate controls below air vents directed at your thighs. Mazda switched to a rear-drive platform for the 2024 CX-90, and with that decision came the hump of the driveshaft between the two bucket seats; the seats are also close to the floor, which means less leg support.

Beverages can go in the molded door inserts or you can pull out the double cupholder that flips up from the driver-side seat. It’s held up thus far, but it feels flimsy. Flip it back down when not needed to make it easier for little kids to scramble to the third row between the captain’s chairs.

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Getting to That Third Row

We appreciate the large rear doors that open almost 90 degrees. The second-row seats have manual controls to slide them forward and then use the shoulder-mounted latch to tilt the seat forward. The space it creates is tight and requires some nimbleness on the part of an adult. It isn’t the easiest third row to get into. Once there, you have to position your feet between the tracks to fit.

There are two more USB outlets for the three third-row occupants in our seven-passenger configuration, air conditioning vents, and built-in cupholders on each side of the vehicle. The space is tight, so putting three adults back there for any length of time won’t be a pleasant experience.

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Cargo Space

The second- and third-row seats fold flat, creating a large but below average-sized cargo area that does ramp up slightly, but the carpeting gives it a seamless load floor. One Detroit editor found the CX-90 had plenty of room for a family ski trip with a mix of ski and baby gear, as well as a large cooler.

Grab the tethers to pull the seats back up (no power folding mechanism), but it can scrunch up the carpet a bit. You must manually restore the headrests to their upright position, one of which keeps flopping down on us. There are light and power outlets in the back as well as a cargo net you can clip into place.

All in all, our Mazda CX-90 PHEV is a large vehicle that feels a bit smaller than it should in places, but the materials are rich, the choices airy and soothing, the seats comfortable, and the experience more pampering than not.

More on Our 2024 Mazda CX-90 Long-Termer:

• 2024 Mazda CX-90 PHEV Yearlong Review Arrival: Feeding My Mazda Habit
• A Cold Cross-Country Trek in Our 2024 Mazda CX-90 PHEV Gets Into Tire Trouble
• How Do Cold and Snow Affect Our 2024 Mazda CX-90 Plug-In Hybrid?
• Our 2024 Mazda X-90 PHEV’s Transmission Leaves Much to Be Desired
• 2024 Mazda CX-90 PHEV Yearlong Review: Who Decided This Stuff?