Mazda’s all-new 2016 CX-9 three-row crossover is about to arrive in the U.S. Mazda says that the 2016 CX-9 will be here late spring and it the timing is perfect. Crossovers of all types are now the de facto family vehicle in America having passed car sales as a segment. Toyota’s Highlander, Honda’s Pilot, and Nissan’s Pathfinder are all selling well Mazda has been missing out on sales.

The CX-9 has yet to be listed at the EPA's official site, FuelEconomy.Gov, but Canada’s equivalent, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), has tested and certified the 2016 CX-9. Mazda Canada is reporting a whopping 35% increase in fuel efficiency. To be accurate, the press release said “fuel economy”, but we will hold off on confirmation of that until we see what the fuel recommendation from Mazda is. The outgoing 2015 CX-9 used regular unleaded fuel. If the new vehicle uses premium, much of the MPG gain could be negated due to the higher fuel costs for premium fuel.

Mazda's "SKYACTIV" technology and a new small four-cylinder turbo in place of the V6 the current CX-9 uses are the reasons the new vehicle is expected to do better.

Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) uses the metric system of course, so its fuel economy figure of 10.1L/100km may as well be coulombs per furlong as far as U.S. consumers are concerned. We also have the convention of reporting fuel “mileage” in terms of units of distance per volume of liquid consumed (many countries do the inverse). Then, of course, the testing protocols are also different

For the new 2016 CX-9 AWD to have a 35% fuel economy increase over the 2015, it will have to improve the 18 MPG combined by about 6 MPG and also use regular unleaded. Or it will have to increase the MPG by about 7 MPG if Mazda recommends premium. We will report the U.S. results once they become available. We are skeptical in case that is not apparent.