Inside The Messy Suv Launch Mazda Wants You To Forget

Mazda has admitted that the CX-60 arrived before it was truly ready, a product shaped under the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic, when remote development and restricted testing became the norm. The company now concedes that the SUV’s rushed gestation left marks that couldn’t be ignored once it hit the road.

Since launch, Mazda has already issued two rounds of mechanical revisions in an effort to correct what time and circumstance initially compromised.

Review: Mazda CX-60’s Hybrid Drivetrain Spoils Premium SUV Newcomer

Although the CX-60 isn’t available in the United States, it has been criticized in some of the markets where it is sold for having firm suspension, transmission issues, and, in PHEV guise, a poorly calibrated hybrid system.

What Went Wrong?

Speaking recently with Australian media, Mazda Europe’s senior manager of product development and engineering, Alexander Fritsche, said the company felt pressured to launch the model quickly.

“We had some, let me say, quick start with one product, I admit, that actually was not 100 per cent,” he told Drive. “We had… in Europe a couple of issues in this vehicle in the market. All the resources available in Mazda really tried hard to rework, and now the car is, I think, well done.

“Also [for] the bigger vehicle we have… in Europe here. There were big, big, big learnings… It came together with corona[virus], all [those] things together made the story for an international development even [more] complicated,” he explained.

Hampered by Limited Testing

Fritsche said the lack of on-the-ground testing in Europe proved a serious handicap. “We understood that for the European market at this time, we couldn’t make local testing in Europe so well, because of corona[virus] limitations,” he said.

“So things had to be done in environments which, maybe, [did] not completely represent the [customer] situation. There were some other things happening about the drivetrains where, actually, it was difficult to implement measures quickly, as the pressure came from the market to have the product in the market.”

According to Fritsche, Mazda now better understands just how important it is to ensure a new model is perfect before being launched. “Learnings were done, believe me – there were heavy, heavy discussions, and heavy consequences, to make sure that products satisfy the customer from the first moment,” he said.

Can It Redeem Itself?

After initial criticism of the CX-60’s suspension, Mazda fitted new rear shock absorbers to models built from October 2023. However, in late 2024, it announced that another suspension change was in the works. The suspension has again been tweaked for the 2025 model year after it was criticized for being too harsh.

While it’s refreshing to see Mazda admit mistakes were made with the CX-60, one could argue that an experienced legacy car manufacturer shouldn’t have made them in the first place.