Mazda6 Diesel Sports 2009 Review

Price Guide: $44,840 (recommended price before statutory and delivery charges)
Options fitted to test car: Floor mats $178
Crash rating: Five-star (Euro NCAP)
Fuel: Diesel
Claimed fuel economy (L/100km): 5.9
CO2 emissions (g/km): 156
Also consider: Honda Accord Euro (more here); Volkswagen Passat (more here)

You'd never mistake the Mazda6 for anything other than a Japanese car. That said, of all the Oriental midsizers it's the one that most closely resembles its competition from the Continent... And not just because it's available with an excellent turbodiesel drivetrain.

Where its archrival, the Honda Accord Euro, has a dash that's all buttons and knobs (in the best tradition of Japanese household appliances) and Toyota's Camry presents a swathe of metalised plastic, the 6 has a considerably more resolved interior. The dash itself is simple rendered and there's been remarkable restraint used in the design of the controls and combating the proliferation of lights and buzzers.

The detailing on the leather-surfaced seats is simple and there are no screaming MAZDA details or decals on the dash, mats or headrest... For some consumers it might even be a touch too understated.

But not for this writer... Though the minimalist approach means some mod-cons like Bluetooth connectivity and a multi-featured trip computer are conspicuous by their absence in the $40K-something Mazda 6 Diesel Luxury Sports Hatch we tested, what yours truly appreciated was the clean cabin, simple classy detailing and appropriate use of textures on the seats and other surfaces.

The 6 followed an extended stint in a high-end luxury car (that didn't come from Germany). And though there were obviously differences in the final cabin execution and fit and finish, the Mazda didn't present as a car that cost around a third of the price.

Even with the turbodiesel drivetrain, cabin noise levels were commendably low and the general weighting and tactility of its controls were more to my liking. It's in these areas that Mazda has kicked goals of late. The new 3 is a hard act to follow in the affordable small car segment -- the 6 is at least as good when compared to its peers.

We've now driven both petrol and turbodiesel versions of the latest 6 (for our launch coverage see here) for extended periods. Though not back-to-back, the time behind the wheel of each was within a short enough 'window' to allow us to confidently state the oiler's the pick.

True, you're not offered an automatic gearbox option in the case of the turbodiesel Mazda6 (manual six-speeder only), but were that the case, the 'battle' twixt spark and compression ignition engines would be even more one-sided. You see it's a question of torque. Or in the case of the 2.5-litre petrol-engined 6, the relative lack of it...

As cars like the 6 have got bigger and heavier (the Euro exhibits the same ills), its powerplant, though marginally stretched from 2.2 to 2.5-litres, has seen horses and torque added, but not at the around-town revs many of us use most of the time.

Where the petrol 6's peak torque of 226Nm arrives at 4000rpm, Mazda's new generation turbodiesel engine delivers 400Nm from 1800-3000rpm. In truth, torque levels matching the petrol's peak are available from the diesel almost off idle. On the road -- though there is some lag as the oiler's turbo spools up -- 90 per cent of the time there's instant urge available.

Until Mazda adds a low-boost turbo to its midsize petrol engine, it has no hope of matching the usability and drivability of the diesel four -- even if you consider the manual gearbox a chore. Honda is in the same boat... Witness the move from the Volkswagen Audi Group and companies like Fiat to build smaller capacity turbocharged petrol engines instead of two-point-something-litre fours.

The power delivery of the Mazda turbodiesel is at least a match to the best from VAG and approaches BMW's brand-new 2.0-litre turbodiesel in terms of overall performance.

Like the Beemer engine, it's also a relatively free-revving diesel and with well-matched gearbox and final drive ratios the result is a sprightly drive. Unlike some other diesels it doesn't 'hit the wall' at 4000rpm either. While it is very clearly a diesel to attuned ears it's a very polished one. Indeed, if oilers can ever be defined as a sporting drives then this is one of them.

Economy is not the key quality of this engine, but it delivers nonetheless. Mazda claims a combined figure of 5.9L/100km for the 6 turbodiesel; not quite a match for the super frugal prestige euros but substantially better than, say, Holden's 7.0L/100km-plus 2.0 turbodiesel Epica.

In real world conditions and happily (ab)using every one of the 400Nms, the writer noted a fuel figure of 7.5L/100km after a week of predominately stop-start commuting. Count in the fact any sort of highway mileage will quickly drop that figure into the sixes. By way of comparison during our stint the petrol 6 hatch was 1.0-1.5L/100km thirstier.

The 6's overall chassis balance seems unaffected by the heavier diesel powerplant. That this middle-of-the-road car has middle-of-the-road chassis dynamics is not intended to damn the 6 with feint praise. Steering is predictable, as are the car's overall dynamics. It's far from a dull drive, but it's no MPS either.

In theory and in practice, it's the diesel engine that separates this hatch from the rest of the medium car pack. Dare we say it, it also injects that indefinable quality of character, and that is far from a bad thing.

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