BIGGER BUT BETTER?

IT'S THE BIGGEST, MOST EXPENSIVE MAZDA YOU CAN BUY, BUT IS CX-90 A WORTHY FLAGSHIP?

- ALEX INWOOD

MAZDA CX-90 D50e GT

Price as tested $85,550

This month 798km @ 6.5L/100km

Overall 798km @ 6.5L/100km

AMAZING HOW quickly your priorities can shift, isn't it? Not so long ago, in the relaxing, carefree and golden-hued dreamland before children, shopping for a new car was wonderfully selfish. How it steered, what it sounded like, and how worn are the sticky Pilot Sport tyres were all genuine concerns.

Having kids, however, sends all of that tumbling into the ether of irrelevance faster than an ousted opposition leader. Suddenly, instead of calling up mates to discuss steering feel and whether the 1.6- or 1.9-litre engine is the one to go for, you find yourself creating spreadsheets that compare boot space litreage, rear knee room, crash-test percentages, and whether or not the middle row slides on rails.

So here's a reality check for anyone about to cross the threshold into parenthood: no matter what your significant other might tell you elsewhere, when it comes to the domain of sprogs, prams and travel cots, size does matter.

Which is perhaps why the Mazda CX-90 you see pictured here is looking so smug. A biggun' isn't it? If this were a rugby match, you'd slot the CX-90 in as a replacement for the mighty John Eales. Or perhaps, given it weighs a gargantuan 2241kg, as a super-sub for the legendary All Black winger Jonah Lomu.