The Mazda That Offers Something Most Toyota And Honda Buyers Don’t Get

8 minutes reading

Thursday, 24 Sep 2026 09:00 0 15 autotech

For years, Japanese car brands have been able to offer customers exactly what they need and want from their everyday driver. Affordability, fuel economy, and family functionality out of SUVs and even their sedans. The fourth-generation Honda Accord was one of the most bought and sold cars in the continental US in the early 90s. It has great visibility from the driver’s seat, unique interiors, and frugal engines.

Affordable Crossover Compromises

Front 3/4 action shot of 2026 Honda CR-V Sport Touring Hybrid driving on road

Honda

Budget Traps

There’s also a subtle trapping that goes on when you look at the base models of these vehicles. The Honda Pilot might start at a reasonable $43,890, but they didn’t upgrade from the base seven-inch screen until this model year. Additionally, even though they have focused more on off-road adventures with the Trailsport, they still haven’t offered a hybrid variant for this popular vehicle.

Toyota, on the other hand, for their midsize segment, originally had the Highlander, which is a good option, but it’s pretty spartan for the base trim. That is why they went ahead and made the Grand Highlander. While the hybrid Max does offer more power, they don’t really advertise any kind of “off-the-beaten-path” capability, and it’s not the best handler around corners.

Style Or Price?

Front 3/4 action shot of 2026 Toyota Grand Highlander Hybrid driving on road

Whatever happened to whimsy and fun? A lot of these crossovers are bland copies of each other and don’t offer a lot of pizazz or panache. At one generation or another, these start to look the same no matter the angle you look at them. This is especially apparent in standard and luxury offerings, like the Grand Highlander and the TX, which are based on the same platform and don’t really have a ton differentiating them from one another. The Honda Pilot is at least squared off and a bit more angular than the rest. Sleek and angular styling with near-90-degree A-pillars is within reach.

The Mazda CX-90 Is Different

Front 3/4 shot of 2026 Mazda CX-90 parked on driveway

This is made possible through vehicles like the Mazda CX-90. This is Mazda’s mid-size offering that debuted for the 2024 model year to replace the Mazda CX-9. Looking back at the CX-9, it fell victim to the same trappings that 2010s mid-size crossover SUVs did. Boring, bubbly, and bulbous-looking. It offered some nice features like a Bose premium sound system, but also, like a lot of three-row family SUVs from the 2010s, it lacked ample legroom in the third row for passengers.

Rear-Wheel Drive Architecture

The biggest difference between midsize SUVs like the Honda Pilot, the Toyota Highlander, the Toyota Grand Highlander, and the Mazda CX-90 is the way that the architecture of the engine layout is designed. It’s built a lot like a German luxury midsize SUV. In the sense that it is built longitudinally from tip to tail. It also has a rear-wheel-drive platform and a straight-six engine to start. While most of these SUVs offer front-wheel-drive layouts as a starting point, the Mazda offers a rear-wheel-biased, all-wheel-drive platform.

Luxurious Sizing

This type of platforming also lends itself to giving it a more luxurious proportion. The Mazda CX-90 has a wheelbase of 122 inches, which is bigger than both the Grand Highlander and Honda Pilot. We will get into how that helps the cabin out a bit later, but it does, from a form standpoint, give it a sleeker and more stylish appearance, as opposed to the more stout and stern competitors. Plus, the biggest wheels that you can get on the Honda and the Toyota are 20 inches, while you can get 21-inch wheels on the CX-90.

Powertrains Not Even Conceived By Honda Or Toyota

Rear 3/4 action shot of red 2026 Honda Pilot driving on road

In fairness, the Honda Pilot does come with a fairly robust single engine. It’s powered by a naturally aspirated 3.5-liter V6 that outputs 285 horsepower. However, there is no hybrid powertrain as of right now. Toyota, on the other hand, has a smattering of powertrains to choose from for the Highlander and Grand Highlander. To not make it confusing, we will just stick with the Grand Highlander. You either get a turbocharged four-cylinder, a less powerful hybrid, or the flagship hybrid that does output an impressive 362 horsepower. These Toyota engines, though, while still powerful, don’t offer the same raw oomph that the Mazda’s does.

An Inline-Six And A Side Of PHEV

As was stated earlier, this is built on a longitudinal platform. It’s then powered by three different offerings. The first two engines are the same turbocharged 3.3 L in-line six-cylinder engines. The base engine outputs 280 horsepower while the Turbo S outputs 340 horsepower. The plug-in hybrid variant is the most powerful, with 323 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of total torque. This employs the use of a smaller four-cylinder engine, coupled to an electric motor. No matter the powertrain, it can get to 60 mph in between 6.0 and 6.5 seconds.

This number does beat out the Honda Pilot but does not beat out the Grand Highlander Hybrid Max. What this SUV has over the other two is the rear-biased AWD drivetrain standard that helps keep torque on the back wheels to keep it more planted around corners. It also comes with a brake-actuated limited-slip differential in this all-wheel-drive system, which in and of itself is a hallmark of a sportier SUV.

Luxurious Cabins And Final Thoughts

The competitors do come with nice features when you get to the top of the line. The Toyota Grand Highlander, for example, comes with genuine leather and a panoramic moon roof to name a few. The Honda Pilot comes with leather seats as well, along with a heads-up display and a premium Bose sound system. The Mazda CX-90 further sets itself apart by offering Nappa leather, suede dashboards of varying colors, as well as a dedicated second-row center console. Plus, all the other features that were mentioned for the other offerings. This is how Mazda plants itself as a more premium offering.

It’s Just Not Selling

A 2021 Mazda MX-5 Miata and a CX-90 going around the track

The unfortunate reality of the Mazda CX-90 is that, even though it is giving “pick me” energy with how much it offers over its standard counterparts, it’s still not selling at nearly as high volume as its competitors. Sales for the Mazda are in the tens of thousands, while the sales of the Grand Highlander and the Pilot far surpass it in the hundreds of thousands. The fact is, the Mazda is designed with the sports-minded family in mind, which is a much smaller niche. Most families just want something that can get them from A to B, not cut corners like a serrated knife.

If we could further try to persuade the reader, the Mazda CX-90 won IIHS’s Top Safety Pick Plus for 2026. NHTSA awarded it five out of five as well. Unfortunately, though, on the reliability side of things, it’s not winning any awards. It received 76 out of 100 from JD Power, as opposed to the Honda Pilot’s and Grand Highlander’s scores of over 80 each. Even more concerning, the quality and reliability section scored 70 out of 100.