The SUV market, like any other market, will have its winners and its losers. Car critics and review sites have chimed in on the Mazda CX-9, one of Mazda’s premier SUVs, and some of those critics don’t love the CX-9. But owners of the CX-9 don’t care, they still love their Mazda SUV.

What the critics say about the Mazda CX-9

There are many car review sites out there, and Edmunds is one of the most popular and trusted ones. Edmunds doesn’t hate the CX-9, but it’s clear that Edmunds doesn’t love it either. Edmunds gave the CX-9 an overall score of 7.9 out of 10. The review went on to say it does well when it comes to its handling and ride quality, but then follows that by stating the CX-9’s utility was worse than many of its competitors. 

That said, Edmunds did end its review of the CX-9 by saying that it was one of the best SUVs for families on the market. While that is a good award to have, it’s not something that’s easily noticeable in the review. Indeed, the 7.9 out of 10 score sticks out like a sore thumb and makes the CX-9 seem like a worse SUV than what Edmunds actually says about it in its review. 

A spotty history

Edmunds isn’t alone on this, though. Popular car review sites like Car and Driver, Kelley Blue Book, and CNET, all gave the CX-9 a 4 out of 5 stars rating. While that rating isn’t bad, it is mediocre compared to the competitors that get 5 out of 5 stars ratings. This is especially true when you consider the “Best SUVs for Families” award that Edmunds gave to the CX-9.

It doesn’t seem right that an SUV can get that award while car review sites say that there are plenty of other better SUVs than the CX-9. This can be explained by several reasons, but one of them is the fact that the CX-9 does have a spotty history when it comes to its older model years.

Indeed, according to Consumer Reports, for the 2007 redesign of the CX-9, its owner satisfaction rating was pretty bad. This redesign of the CX-9 was produced until 2015, and in those handful of years, Consumer Reports never reported an owner satisfaction rating higher than 3 out of 5. In fact, for the 2015 model year, Consumer Reports said that the CX-9 only got 1 out of 5 in its owner satisfaction rating. 

This long history of dissatisfaction with the old CX-9 may have had an effect on how review sites saw the latest CX-9, but the CX-9’s owners don’t care.

What CX-9 owners have to say

As CarFax mentions, current CX-9 owners actually gave the Mazda SUV the sixth-highest owner satisfaction rating of all SUVs on the market. Consumer Reports says a similar thing. After the CX-9 was redesigned in 2019, its owner satisfaction rating is now a 4 out of 5. 

This shows that despite the middling reviews that the CX-9 got both in the past and in the present, its current owners absolutely love the CX-9. Mazda may have had issues with the older CX-9s, but those problems seem to have been resolved.

Currently, despite what Edmunds has to say about it, CX-9 owners give their Mazda SUV a much higher grade than the 7.9 out of 10 rating that Edmunds gave it. 

To be fair to Edmunds though, 7.9 out of 10 isn’t far from the 91 out of 100 owner satisfaction rating that CarFax gave it. But it’s significant enough to say that CX-9 owners think higher of their SUV than Edmunds did.