Mazda6 wagon 2010 Review

Mazda6 Classic hatch manual and Mazda6 Luxury Touring wagon auto

Road Test

Price Guide (recommended price before statutory and delivery charges): Mazda6 Classic Hatch $32,750
Options fitted to test car (not included in above price): Nil
Crash rating: five-star (ANCAP)
Fuel: 91 RON ULP
Claimed fuel economy (L/100km): 8.5
CO2 emissions (g/km): 201
Also consider: see below

Price Guide (recommended price before statutory and delivery charges): Mazda6 Luxury Touring $38,120
Options fitted to test car (not included in above price): Nil
Crash rating: five-star (ANCAP)
Fuel: 91 RON ULP
Claimed fuel economy (L/100km): 8.9
CO2 emissions (g/km): 211
Also consider: Ford Mondeo, Honda Accord Euro, Subaru Liberty, Suzuki Kizashi, Volkswagen Passat

Overall rating: 3.5/5.0
Engine/Drivetrain/Chassis: 3.0/5.0
Price, Packaging and Practicality: 3.5/5.0
Safety: 3.5/5.0
Behind the wheel: 3.5/5.0
X-factor: 4.5/5.0

About our ratings

Mazda isn't resting on its laurels when it comes to its mid-sized model, the Mazda6. Recently upgraded, the 6 caters to a broad spread of buyer demands, even when judged against significantly newer rivals.

The two cars tested here were significantly different in character, considering they share so much hardware. Both are powered by the same 2.5-litre four-cylinder engine, but the Mazda6 Classic hatch had a six-speed manual transmission and the Mazda6 Luxury Touring wagon came to us with its standard five-speed automatic. 

Coupled to the manual transmission in the Mazda6 Classic hatch, the engine demanded a few revs. It's not the sort of powerplant to trickle away from a standing start with zero revs in hand, unless you ride the clutch a little. From 2500rpm up, the Mazda6 will provide a clean or even brisk launch.

Use the available power (let the engine spin up in other words) and the Mazda6 will occasionally stir the traction control into action. With the electronic nannies switched off, the Mazda6 will reach its redline fast -- while channelling enough power through the front wheels to overcome traction in a short series of axle-tramp thumps. It's a car not short of power, in other words.

With the automatic transmission in the Luxury Touring it's a whole different ballgame. The torque converter allows a little slip from the engine and the car with this drivetrain combo is easier to launch, as you'd expect. What is unexpected from the automatic variant though, is it feels virtually as quick as the manual in a straight line.

In the way it delivers its power and torque, the Mazda6 is much like the Honda Accord Euro, but the engine in the Mazda sounds a bit sportier than the Honda's and is more composed higher in the scale.

The Mazda, when not being called upon to deliver green-light grunt offers good mid-range performance and the power delivery is linear up to around 5000rpm, at which point the engine pulls something extra out of the hat and accelerates faster up to its rev limit. Use the extra performance the engine has to offer and you'll find the Mazda6 can be a real screamer of a car; much more capable, point to point, than its looks suggest.

The refined but powerful engine only lets the driver down at revs around or below 2000rpm (with the manual transmission). Driven gently in the lower rev range, it does impart a subtle but discernible vibration. In any other circumstance, the engine is either sporty-sounding or inaudible (on freeways for example, where the dominant sound to be heard is the wind).

Road noise seems more apparent at lower speeds and persisted on the freeway, although as mentioned already, wind noise is more prevalent at open-road speeds.

In a mix of mostly around-town driving over the course of the week the Mazda was in our possession, its trip computer posted an average fuel consumption figure of 9.6L/100km in the auto Touring wagon. More time spent on the open road and that figure would come down, of course. It has to be said, the fuel consumption figure might have been better too, if the car had been driven more sedately.

While the manual transmission in the Mazda6 invites spirited driving, the otherwise excellent shift quality is hampered by the electronic throttle set-up of the engine, holding revs high during gear changes and slowing the process down.

It's a long-standing problem with matching manual transmissions to clean, lean engines. But it's why you, the Mazda6 driver, might feel more inclined to hold gears longer and use more engine speed for faster, smoother gear changes.

Either that or option up to an auto box. Certainly, the auto transmission in the Touring wagon avoided any of that malarkey, but if you are using the Mazda's slushbox in an enthusiastic manner, bear in mind that you'll find the ratios in the auto are fairly high.

This is most apparent if you manually select second for a typical street corner. That said, we found the auto box to be willing to change down swiftly enough and was one of the better epicyclic boxes around for manual shifting -- particularly in this price bracket.

The Mazda6 is a real pleasure to drive by virtue of its handling and steering. Front-end grip is most impressive for a relatively strong performing front-wheel drive.

Power applied will break traction, but there's negligible torque steer or power-induced understeer. The Mazda barely changes its line through a corner as the driver feeds in power on the exit and we did take the Classic hatch out on a night when the roads were damp.

If and when the '6' changes its attitude in a corner, it's likely to be at the rear. If the tail steps out, the stability control will catch it quickly -- and more importantly, neatly. The car is tidy and predictable in the way the stability control has been calibrated to match the handling and steering.

On the subject of the steering, it's rare indeed to find a system that provides the power assistance the Mazda does, without feedback suffering as a consequence.

The steering in the Mazda is communicative to a degree that would likely place it in the top three of the VFACTS medium-car segment, but the weight through the wheel is icing on the cake for buyers who don't like their steering too heavy. Add to that the Mazda's responsiveness through the tiller and you have a car that's to be highly praised.

Unfortunately -- yes, there's always a con for any pro -- the Mazda's all about its 'zoom-zoom' cornering... at the expense of ride, in the case of the Mazda6 Classic. It's a fairly firm-riding car for a family hack. It will absorb heftier bumps, like speed humps, with reasonable equanimity, but what give there is over smaller irregularities seems to be the preserve of the tyres.

If you really like the Mazda's handling and steering, you'll probably live with the ride, which is adequate for well-made suburban streets and freeways.

By contrast, the Luxury Touring wagon is an altogether better riding machine. If you enjoy driving but have to cart a family around also, dare we say spend the extra for the better-equipped car with more luggage capacity and the more comfortable ride?

The driving position in the Mazda6 is good once you get there, but the view of the instruments through the steering wheel only just makes it. Mazda has used all the available real estate through the wheel for the driver to monitor the large, conventionally-styled instruments. Compare the Mazda6 with the way Subaru has tackled the same issue in the Liberty and Outback to see how the Mazda could be better.

As for seating and reach for the steering wheel or proximity to pedals, this reviewer had to set the seat on its lowest setting, with the backrest upright for the optimum sense of security behind the wheel. Even then, the accelerator pedal felt a bit close. This is not a problem with the automatic set-up in the Touring Wagon, since plainly there's no clutch pedal to be pushed to the floor in that variant.

Headroom and legroom in the rear of the car are on a par with that of the Mondeo liftback. A taller adult may find his or her head brushing the headlining, but the accommodation is adequate for those of average height. Knee room is plentiful in the rear, but there's not a lot of space under the front seats for rear-seat passengers to place their feet and stretch out.

The boot space is abundant, even with a full-size spare (on an alloy rim, too) occupying the well under the floor mat. By the VDA standard, the wagon provides only nine litres extra luggage capacity over the hatch (519 litres vs. 510), but put a cargo barrier in the wagon and you can load it up significantly more than that.

Mazda has placed hand-pulls either side of the luggage compartment to unlatch the split-folding rear seats for them to fall forward and fold flat. The rear seat base moves forward slightly to leave room for the backrest to deploy flat out -- flush with the floor of the luggage compartment.

Also, the three-point seat belts retract and withdraw from within the seat backrests, making the whole exercise of lowering and raising the seats much, much easier than has been our experience in most other liftback/hatchback cars. There's no mucking around with the seatbelts to ensure they're not snagged on the wrong side of the seat or between the seat and the latch.

We tend to be used to even moderately-priced cars coming with reversing cameras and parking sensors these days. The Classic grade, the mid-range level of trim in the Mazda6 family, is not so equipped. Fortunately, the field of vision to the rear is good enough and you can back the car on the mirrors with ease.

The Mazda also makes up for the lack of parking aids with features such as an external source connection for the six-disc in-dash CD audio system, Bluetooth connectivity, dual-zone climate control and multi-function leather-bound steering wheel.

The Touring wagon does come with reversing parking sensors and acoustic guidance for easier parking. Our one gripe there is that unlike similar systems in other cars, the Mazda's won't reduce the volume of the audio, so the acoustic tones while backing can be swamped if the audio system volume is set a little high.

In the storage bin under the armrest of the centre console, there's an auxiliary jack to plug one's MP3 player into the audio system. Mazda designers have specified a small conduit between the lift-up armrest and the console so that you can run a lead from the jack through to the cupholder or your lap -- wherever you want to place the MP3 player, should you want to skip through tracks.

The Bluetooth system was fairly easy to use and intuitive. Pairing the mobile to the car was accomplished quickly, merely by following voice prompts -- and you weren't waiting around forever while the system decided you needed assistance. Good system.

In most respects then, the Mazda's packaging and interior layout just plain make sense. Exceptions would be the handbrake, located closer to the front passenger than the driver, and the map pocket in the rear of the front passenger's seat without a counterpart in the driver's seat.

Having driven this car, the Accord Euro and Ford's Mondeo, this reviewer firmly believes that these three cars are crying out to be compared. And throw in Subaru's Liberty for good measure. How would the Mazda6 stack up against the other three? It’ll take a back-to-back drive to separate them.

But here's why this reviewer would seriously consider the Mazda -- the Touring wagon in particular. It offers real-word fuel consumption to compare with the Mondeo, but goes harder; it's ultimately more enjoyable to drive than the Honda and it's cheaper and better looking than the Subaru.

Just two things to remember, get it with the automatic and make sure the ride's cushy enough to suit in the variant you're considering.

Images: Mazda6 Limited hatch model shown

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