Supersized '6' for North America

Mazda has taken a leaf out of Honda's book of marketing medium cars to the Americans. Just as Honda has two Accord models -- one for the US and the other for the rest of the world -- Mazda now has two Mazda6 models.

We first brought you spy pics of the American Mazda with the news that it would feature the same Cyclone V6 engine proposed for the post-2010 Ford Falcon (more here). At the time, it was not known that Mazda would build two streams of the '6'.

The American version goes on sale late in the northern hemisphere summer with larger dimensions than the newly-released model sold in Australia and everywhere else around the globe.

Power is supplied by the same 2.5-litre four fitted to the local Mazda6, but there's also the Cyclone V6 option mentioned earlier. Displacing 3.7 litres, it's the same engine fitted as that to the CX-9 SUV and will drive through a six-speed sequential-shift automatic transmission in the US-spec Mazda6.

AutoAlliance International, the joint venture established by Ford and Mazda, will build the new Mazda6 at the Flat Rock, Michigan plant where the Ford Probe and the Mazda MX-6 were built for Australian consumption during the 1990s.

The American Mazda6 is the third Mazda product to be developed in the US and specifically for the North American market, the other two being the CX-7 and CX-9. With both the SUVs sold in Australia -- and Honda selling both the narrower (global) Accord Euro and the US-designed Accord locally (more here) -- what are the chances that Mazda will sell the '6 and 7/8ths' here?

"The North American Mazda6? The chances are not good at all," says Glenn Butler, National PR Manager for Mazda Australia.

"It's not being built in right-hand drive -- and even if it was, I don't think we'd bring it in.

"Obviously we'd do the numbers at the time, but I think the price that it could come in at -- we wouldn't bring the 2.5, that wouldn't make any sense -- [in the case of] the 3.7, the price would probably put it out of the game.

"If America sells as many as they hope to sell, they won't have any production left to start doing right-hand drive and sending it around the world. This is an important car for them."

To comment on this article click here