• More spacious than the sleek looks suggest
• Bigger boot than you get in a Nissan Qashqai
• But visibility out the back isn’t great

How much space is there?

Mazda’s design ethos ensures that its interiors are uncluttered and clean looking. This means despite its compact proportions, it feels like there is plenty of space in the CX-30. Up front, there’s plenty of leg and headroom, with a decent amount left for shoulders and elbows, a boon on long journeys.

The story isn’t quite so great in the rear because of the sloping roofline and tiny rear windows. Thankfully, the low roofline doesn’t eat into rear headroom too much though, and passengers over six feet tall will fit in with a bit of a squeeze – but rivals such as the SEAT Ateca and Ford Puma are much better in that regard.

Boot space and storage

The boot holds 430-litres, with extends to 1,406 litres with the seats down. That’s more (seats up) than a Volkswagen T-Roc or Nissan Qashqai, but less useful with them folded. Despite that, it’s big enough to hold a buggy and a couple of plush carry-on bags, but not much else.

A folding boot floor was fitted as standard in 2020 to improve practicality, acting as a partition to stop objects rolling around. This works with varying degrees of success. There’s also a powered tailgate on mid-range models and above.

Is it easy to park?

The Mazda CX-30 feels more like a jacked-up hatchback compared to its full-size SUV rivals, so it’s not too bulky to manoeuvre. Poor visibility is this car’s biggest bugbear here, and although camera coverage is good, we’d like a little more visibility around the windscreen pillars to park more confidently without kerbing.

All CX-30s come with rear parking sensors as standard, while all bar the entry-level model come with front parking sensors and a rear-view camera as well. The camera is very useful, given the small rear window, although the sensor soon messes up in poor conditions, rendering it useless.

Safety

• Good safety credentials
• Ageing five-star Euro NCAP score
• Long list of safety kit available

The CX-30 was tested by Euro NCAP for crash safety late in 2019, scoring an impressive five stars and managing to achieve the highest score for adult occupant protection up until then. The test is considerably tougher today, so it would be good to see how it performs now, although the driver assistance systems it comes with still work very well. 

All cars come with a generous amount of safety and driver assistance tech as well, including:

• LED headlights (adaptive units are fitted on mid-spec models and above)
• Blindspot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert
• Driver attention alert system
• Traffic sign recognition
• Adaptive cruise control (with stop and go function on cars with automatic gearboxes)
• Autonomous emergency braking
• Head-up display

Higher-spec models also come with Smart Brake Support for the rear of the car and rear crossing traffic, as well as front cross-traffic alert. 

We’d best describe the adaptive cruise control’s reactions as cautious due to the time it takes to react to traffic conditions and build up speed again. This is great in wet weather when you want to take a bit more time in low visibility, but it can otherwise feel slow in normal dry conditions. The application of the brakes could be smoother as well, while the front radar sensor gets covered easily in heavy rain, disabling the cruise control systems altogether.

Watch: Mazda CX-30 safety testing by Euro NCAP