Have you ever played the game Secret Hitler? It’s a deduction game where players have to determine who the fascists are playing the game. There are variations of this type of game style, but the point is each player has to use deductive reasoning to determine the person who is not as they seem.
In a lot of ways, this deduction-style game is applicable to the 2025 Mazda CX-50 Hybrid. Not because the car is secretly Hitler, but because the car is hiding a secret. Driving the CX-50, in a lot of ways, is determining what the secret is. Confused? Allow me to explain.
When I picked up my test CX-50 Hybrid from the airport, it was the first time I had experienced the car in person. Yes, I remember Mazda announcing that it was coming, but it had been a few months and quite frankly not at the top of my mind. It’s an attractive-little crossover, with butch black fenders and trim pieces offsetting the white paint. It doesn’t look expensive, but it wears the black fenders better than something like the Subaru Outback.
Inside, it feels like a modern Mazda. The trim pieces are all black, but the touch surfaces are all soft. The steering wheel has a premium feel to it. The digital instrument cluster shows you everything you need to know but could be a little better at showing me things I want to know. The high-mounted center touch screen is controlled by Mazda’s rotary dial system on the center console, but if you’re using Apple Car Play you can reach up and touch the screen.
No matter how much I use this interface, I can’t quite seem to get the knack of it. Sometimes the back button moves me out of a menu the way I’d expect, while other times it just moves up a menu and I still don’t know where I’m at in the interface. It could be oh so very worse, but I wish it were a little better.
As I pull out of the parking spot at the airport parking lot and head out onto the highway, things start to feel familiar. They almost feel too familiar. After a long day of travel, I don’t usually use my brain much other than to ensure the car I’m in gets me home safely, and I don’t use this time to evaluate a vehicle I’m reviewing, but it’s almost like I’ve driven this car before.
This car is the secret spy! I just know it. Of course, it all feels familiar, because underneath the skin is the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid. It’s the same hybrid system from Toyota, and the transmission and other components also carry over. It’s a secret Toyota in a Mazda badge.
It’s important to this review that I kind of, sort of forgot that this car was sporting Toyota running gear. Because I think it brings home the point of how much of a Toyota this car feels. The acceleration is similar. The drone from the CVT feels much more Toyota than anything I’ve driven from Mazda. The fuel efficiency is similar to the RAV4.
All of the things I like about the RAV4 Hybrid are here, along with all of the things I don’t like.
Let’s start with the former. The Toyota RAV4 Hybrid is rated by the EPA to get 41 mpg in the city, 38 mpg on the highway, or 39 mpg combined. Mazda claims the CX-50 Hybrid should get 38 mpg combined, though the government website hasn’t been updated yet with official numbers. A 1 mpg difference for a car that, I believe, is more attractive than the Toyota is a worthwhile tradeoff.
Another similarity is the price. The Hybrid Preferred trim of the CX-50 Hybrid starts at $35,390 with delivery. The RAV4 Hybrid starts a bit less at $33,120 with delivery, but you get a few more premium options as standard on the Mazda. All-in-all, they are priced very similarly.
The RAV4 Hybrid doesn’t currently ship with Toyota Safety Sense 3.0, but rather 2.5. I find the lane-centering system in that version to be far less enjoyable, and the same applies to the CX-50 Hybrid. I was hoping for the excellent system in the CX-70 and CX-90, and hopefully, it’ll be updated as Toyota updates its system.
So why should you buy the Mazda over the Toyota if they are both so similar? Well, for starters the looks are different. You’re going to see a ton more RAV4 Hybrids on the road than you’ll see CX-50 Hybrids. You’re also giving up a tiny bit of cargo volume for what I think is the better looking vehicle.
The main reason to get the Mazda is for the Soul Red Crystal paint, which always looks excellent and makes every Mazda appear even more premium than it already is.
At the end of the day the two cars are very similar, and the Mazda CX-50 Hybrid is just as competent and just as solid of a performer as the RAV4. It’s also smart for Mazda to reach out to Toyota, a company they’ve partnered with before, to bring hybridization to more of its lineup. Sure, it might be more similar to the Toyota than maybe I’d care for, but has anyone said that being too much Toyota was a bad thing?
