German luxury SUVs are a trap. When it comes to first-year depreciation, they lose value quicker than yesterday's donuts. A decade in, it might be worth a quarter of what you paid for it. And they're incredibly expensive to own, from premium fuel costs to insurance to basic maintenance. It's not that Benzes and Beemers are unreliable, per se, but when something does break, it's very expensive to fix.All of this adds up to a high cost of ownership, which is why we have a hard time recommending luxury cars to anyone who doesn't have the cash to support a car that might cost you more each month than another kid. But, there are exceptions like, for instance, the Mazda CX-70. The Mazda CX-70's Straight-Six Engine Is Built To Last Mazda First of all, if you want to debate whether Mazda qualifies as a luxury brand, we've already covered it. We've argued that an overhaul to the brand's design philosophy over the years, improved build quality and interior materials, and a sense for tactile feedback in everything from the steering wheel to the physical buttons, make Mazdas like the CX-70 more refined than many of their upmarket competitors.Of course, a big part of that is how it feels to drive a Mazda, and that starts with smooth, confident power delivery, something that the CX-70's inline-six engine enables with grace.When we reviewed this car, we were impressed by the near-perfect synthesis of upscale comfort and deft handling, with our own Ian Wright naming it "by far the best SUV the brand has to offer" after an enjoyable test-drive.The straight-six turbo-hybrid in particular, found in the Turbo Preferred model, actually rates lower than the 2.5-liter inline-four PHEV model, when it comes to pure horsepower, estimated to shave a little over a second off the 0-60 mph takeoff. But, we found that the turbo-six in the turbo-hybrid was more than punchy enough for the price, hitting well above its $42,250 MSRP. The Mazda CX-70's Entry-Level Cabin Is Impressive, And Not Just For The Price 2025 Mazda CX-70 A Mazda CX-70 is essentially a Mazda CX-90 without the third-row seating, trading that in for a little extra cargo space, with up to 75 cubic feet of storage if you fold the back seats down. Inside the entry-level Turbo Preferred, you'll find a pretty solid suite of features. Heated and ventilated leather seats, front and rear 8-speaker audio Power liftgate Analog gauge cluster with 7-inch LCD Tri-zone automatic climate control Heated leather-wrapped steering wheel Leather-wrapped shift knob Mazda radar cruise control with stop & go Blind spot monitoring One-touch up/down power windows Power-sliding glass moonroof with tilt feature There are more options available in the higher trims, but the entry-level Mazda CX-70 starts you off with an impressive enough cabin that the upgrades quickly get into diminishing returns territory. Do you really need to spend $50,000 on a CX-70 with four extra speakers when the base model has heated leather seats and a power moonroof?The $45,100 Acura RDX doesn't have a heated steering wheel as a standard feature, and the $44,300 Cadillac XT5'sleather seats are synthetic.Some cars that are much more expensive don't even match the CX-70's features list. The BMW X5 starts at $67,600 for 2026, and the back seats aren't even heated in the entry-level model. If money is no object, and you can add all the goodies you want, it may be another story, but, at the entry level, the value-for-your-dollar comparison isn't even fair. The Mazda wins, hands-down. The Mazda CX-70 Is Cheaper To Own Than Its German Rivals Mazda Okay, so the whole point we've been trying to make here is that the Mazda CX-70 is a cheaper car to buy, and a cheaper car to own, than its German rivals, right? So let's make a direct comparison and see how these cars tally up.For our maintenance costs, we're going with RepairPal. Car insurance estimates come courtesy of CarEdge, assuming a 40-year-old driver with good credit and a clean record. FuelEconomy.gov bases its estimates on 15,000 miles driven annually, split 45/55 between highway and city driving. There Are Some Things The Germans Do Better BMW If you have a taste for BMW or Mercedes-Benz, we won't tell you that the Mazda CX-70 is "just as good". Rather, the Mazda CX-70 is a more practical, affordable, sensible luxury purchase than the $50,900 BMW X3, or the $49,550 Mercedes-Benz GLC. For a $10,000 discount, you're getting a car that's cheaper to maintain, cheaper to refuel, cheaper to insure, and which delivers a refined driving experience with a comfortable ride.When we last reviewed the GLC-Class, we found the steering to feel a bit remote, but communicative enough, and we liked how it felt on sweeping bends. The BMW X3's sharp, responsive steering may offer the best feel behind the wheel out of all three, though, with nothing about it feeling like an afterthought. The X3's confident grip around corners and rear-heavy all-wheel drive just makes for a solid GT-like driving experience.On the other hand, we dinged the X3 for its noisy engine and found the ride to be a little less comfortable than you might expect for the price. All three cars have their strengths and weaknesses, and we recommend test-driving at least one competitor before making a purchase, no matter which of these cars you've got your heart set on. Mazda Couldn't Have Picked A Better Time To Launch The CX-70 Mazda A report from the Energy Information Administration, published last year, saw hybrids taking up around 12% of all new vehicle sales, with EVs lagging behind at around 8%, and plug-ins at just 2%. In other words, the CX-70, launched for the 2025 model year, really picked the right time to strike, and that's not even getting into gas prices.Mazda sold 13,833 of these cars in the US last year, which is pretty impressive for what is essentially a niche vehicle that has to share market space with its own three-row sibling. We have no doubt that the attractive price has a big part to play in this momentum.The average price of a new car is more than $50,000 this year. If you want a luxury SUV, you could be spending somewhere in the low six figures with taxes and financing. So here comes the Mazda CX-70, not only selling for less than a typical luxury SUV, but selling for thousands less than the market average overall. The CX-90 Does All That, Plus Extra Seats Mazda Perhaps unsurprisingly, the three-row Mazda CX-90 has actually turned out to be the more popular SUV, moving 55,156 units in the US last year. The Turbo Preferred CX-90 only costs a little more than its two-row sibling, at $42,950, and it's essentially the same SUV. So, anything nice we've said about the CX-70, consider it applicable to the CX-90, as well. We can give both SUVs the same glowing recommendation.If there's a reason to recommend the Mazda CX-70 over the CX-90, it's the $700 you're saving versus the CX-90, and the fact that the CX-70 offers more cargo space. Beyond that, the number of seats is all you really need to worry about.
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