Mazda6 2013 Long-Term Test - 1

Price: $37.500 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol
Output: 138kW/250Nm
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Fuel / CO2: 6.6L/100km / 153g/km
Safety: Five-star ANCAP/Six airbags

Long-Term Tests
motoring.com.au aims to make your choice of vehicle easier. Our Editorial section does this via our mix of news, international and local launch reviews as well as our seven-day tests.

From time to time we also take the opportunity to spend more time in a vehicle. These longer-term tests can be as short as a couple of weeks, but more recently we've settled on a six-month period as indicative of 'normal' ownership.

Long-term tests give our staff writers and contributors a chance to get to know a car as an owner would. While the car is with us, we pay for fuel, pay for the servicing and generally use and live with the car as a new owner would.

We believe long-term tests give car buyers an added insight into the vehicle on test, but also the qualities behind the brand and nameplate. The extended period also allows us to touch base with the dealer networks in question.

It comes as no surprise that manufacturers tend to have a love-hate relationship with long-term tests. Six months is plenty long enough to fall out of love with the latest and greatest, and start to nitpick -- just like real owners do.

Mazda Mazda6 Touring sedan
Somehow, despite a protracted international and national launch campaign, and numerous motoring.com.au road tests and comparisons, until very recently I have managed to miss the opportunity to drive the latest generation Mazda6.

Actually, that’s not exactly true. I did drive one of our early test cars for an afternoon, but that was hardly enough to qualify and as a proper test drive. Thus I approached the arrival and first kilometres of our latest long-term test car with some anticipation.

The Soul Red Metallic Mazda6 pictured hereabouts joined the motoring.com.au fleet over a month ago (Okay, I’ve been slack!). It’s a petrol-engined sedan and was supplied in Touring trim grade. The selection is based on Mazda Australia’s estimations of what will be the most popular choice for private and user-chooser Mazda6 buyers.

We won’t regurgitate all the facts and figures here, save for some basic specs. The 2.5-litre SKYACTIV-G petrol four-cylinder engine that powers our tester is rated at 138kW and 250Nm. It drives the front-wheels only, via a six-speed automatic transmission which also draws on Mazda’s SKYACTIV suite of new efficient technologies.

Mazda makes much ado about the efficiency of the autobox. Where in the past autos have typically been less efficient than manual or dual-clutch trannies due to power (read: fuel) sapping torque convertors, the new generation epicyclic autos (of which this is an example) feature lock-up facilities that at very low speeds sidestep convertor loses and approximate the mechanical efficiencies of a manual box.

That they also deliver a more engaged, responsive drivetrain is almost a (very) happy coincidence.

The Touring grade sits one up from entry-level in the Mazda6 model walk. Mazda lists the RRP of the vehicle at $37,500. Our long-termer wears metallic paint (as noted above) a $200 option. That’s it though – with the 6 there are limited boxes to tick.

Mazda also offers the Touring sedan in a turbo-diesel version. The oiler commands a $2850 premium over the petrol. Offsetting the dollars in some manner is the fact the turbo-diesel is more fuel efficient. Mazda claims the turbo-diesel Touring returns an ADR Combined fuel figure of 5.4 – just 1.2L/100km better than ‘our’ Touring.

This writers ‘history’ with the new generation 6 goes back to early drives in Berlin in 2010. Then Mazda cut and shut an existing 6 body to fit over the longer wheelbase new generation car’s pre-production mechanicals. The so-called ‘mule’ cars were diesel only, but impressed in terms of their power delivery, gearbox functionality and overall performance.

When the production cars were released three years later, they too impressed. There’s good reason the Mazda6 is a benchmark in the medium car marketplace.

We’ll drive our 6 for the next couple of months and report on aspects of ‘ownership’ including real world fuel economy, drivability and reliability.

Initial fuel economy monitoring suggests that the 6.6L/100km rolling road test figure can be achieved on the highway but around town (in normal use) that figure is closer to 8.5L/100km. That figure compares well to other midsize petrol cars but also suggests the real world advantage the Mazda6 turbo-diesel has over the petrol is greater than the 1.2L/100km ADR margin.

First impressions of the car, its cabin design and roominess have all been positive. Our car features an attractive light coloured leather interior which, with contrasting darker panels, lends a Euro ‘air’ to the décor.

There’s close to large car space in the rear – at least when the front seats are set for normal height driver and passenger. In reality, it’s only in width that one of Australia’s iconic large sedans would comprehensively gazump the 6.

The Touring features a Tom Tom powered satnav system, that is already a generation out of date – at least when compared to the technology that will debut in the new Mazda3 late this year and early in 2014. One of the crew might choose to talk a little more on the pros and cons of the system in a later update.

My only negative at this stage relates to design – or more to the point the result of one aspect of the new 6’s exterior design. In Mazda’s haste to define a new look for itself (the company calls the 6 and other new cars’ design language KODO) it has created a car without an obvious front bumper.

No prizes for guessing what the first casualty of our 6 was? Barely a week or so after taking delivery the 6’s nose was bruised by unidentified culprits (we’re thinking a SUV with towbar) in the local supermarket.

Good design and handsome styling are not always the same thing, it seems…

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