Mazda's booth at the Philippine International Auto Show (PIMS) had the MX-5 Miata as its centerpiece, but its CX-8 all-wheel-drive Exclusive six-seater crossover stablemate piqued some curiosities.

This was because the family crossover has had minor changes to its exterior. The front grille (precisely the space behind the telltale wing-shaped Mazda logo) had redesigned slats resembling interlocked zippers. Additional chrome adorned the front bumper. A somewhat shiny silver (Mazda calls it Bright Silver) foursome of 19-inch rims went under each wheel well. Last, revised tailgate labels and big dual exhaust pipes finished the CX-8's exterior upgrades.

Retained was the nameplate's trademark luxury auto-level damping of noise, vibration, and harshness, wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay in-car infotainment and wireless gadget charging, Nappa leather seats, seating for six or seven Filipinos (depending on variant), a sunroof, and a 193 ps/252 Nm 2.5-liter inline four joined to a six-speed automatic drivetrain. The lattermost feature has a torque vectoring system Mazda calls G-Vectoring Control Plus. This puts light braking force on the outer wheels on corner turn-in (or initial motion on emergency lane change), with the end benefit being further stability on lateral movement.

The 2023 Mazda CX-8 is still infused with i-Activsense safety technologies that afford its passenger that extra peace of mind. These include warning chimes when the vehicle detects erratic driving (Mazda calls it Driver Attention Alert), an ability to automatically apply stopping force when the front or rear bumper detects obstacles (and the speed is in a five kph to 30 kph range), and automatic toggling between high and low beams on the headlights. All these improvements make the Mazda CX-8 AWD Exclusive on display tick the Php 2,490,000 mark

With this latest raft of upgrades, do you think the 2023 Mazda CX-8 crossover will keep its monopoly on luxury and comfort in the PPV-dominated seven-seater SUV segment?