But it can still feel anachronistically clackety – a far cry from BMW’s silky alternative – and only modest isolation from road roar at cruising speeds doesn’t help its cause. For a car nudging £50,000 once you’ve gone for the middling trim with an optional pack or two, rolling refinement is lacking, and the diverse and tactile materials of the interior can never assuage that. More impressive is the chassis balance and the easygoing ebb and flow of the steering weight, which are better than the class average and recognisably Mazda. 

When it comes to guiding a mid-size SUV down a decent country road, few do it better than the CX-60, whose gearbox (with two wet clutches rather than a torque converter) is also well calibrated and helps rather than hinders progress. 

For all its coarseness at low temperatures, the engine is also reasonably fun to wring out, spinning freely up to around 4500rpm and with surprising effervescence. The petrol version in development could be sweet indeed. All of which makes the brittleness of the low-speed ride a considerable disappointment. 

The CX-60, on its coil springs and passive dampers, simply isn’t serene enough on town roads to concern the likes of BMW and Audi, whose pricing it only marginally undercuts.