Mazda CX8, our next car?

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Malaysia government announced NO extension of SST exemption after 30th June 2022, hence everybody rushed to car centre to get their dream cars book. We are one of the many.

It is exciting buying a new car. I enjoy the process of research, study, viewing, watching youtube…etc. My wife wants a SUV, tall and spacious car. We have always like Mazda red, and I did some study and introduced the Mazda CX8 to her. Big, spacious, tall SUV. Price is within our budget.

Several other cars that fall under my radar are:

• Toyota Harrier
• Mercedes GLC300
• BMW X4
• Volvo XC90
• Mazda CX8
• Lexus RX300

However, since the incident of our Mercedes S300, my wife said no more continental car. The repair cost is simply too heart challenging.

Lexus RX300 is over RM400k new. Used is still RM350k. My wife said NO to used car now. So, this model is OUT.

High on my list are actually Toyota Harrier vs Mazda CX8. I like the taillight of Harrier, very the Porsche 911 new model look. One long thin line of LED. Sexy.

However, the front design of the Harrier is dull. Maybe I shouldn’t use the word dull, but for me it is just not as distinguishable as the rear.

There are rumors that Toyota will have a new generation of Harrier next year, so buying an already 2 years old model and later with a new update coming out soon will surely be really disappointing. New Harrier in Malaysia is RM250k.

Mazda Malaysia announced the new facelift of the CX8 model on the 29th June 2022, just a day before the last day of SST exemption booking. What a great timing, as the car is already 2 years old since launched in 2020. Similar to Toyota Harrier.

So, we went to see the car on the 30th June 2022. There were of course no new car or the latest facelift model for us to see or touch, but there is an old generation model for us to check out. There is also a CX5 for us to see in their showroom.

To cut the story short, like many others, we just put down RM500 deposit to “secure” the booking of the car with SST exemption. The dealer said the money is fully refundable if we decided to cancel it later at anytime. There are quite a number of varieties to choose from. Price starts at RM178k. There are quite a significant saying buying without SST.

Last week, the Mazda manager called me saying that new facelift models are available for viewing at their showroom now. We haven’t decided on the colour, and it is a good time for us to see the colours in person. Initially we book the new Platinum Quartz colour, when we viewing the car in person, this colour seems quite dull and pale. A bit of greyish feel, so my wife immediately dropped it from the list.

Then the White is not the milky white, the manager said is whiter than other brands. Too white and is dull. We would prefer pearl white with a bit of yellow tint. Mazda Snowflake Pearl White is too white. If you understand colour temperature, it will be more towards blue then yellow. High Kelvin type. Again, not to our liking.

Grey is out, as my wife doesn’t like grey.

Left with RED and Deep Blue. I find red to be too striking, while it is nice when first look, but I find it a bit too tiring after long staring.