[Timgt5]

2016 Mazda6 a year later and more smiles to the mile

In May of 2015 I purchased a 2016 Mazda6 I-Touring, and have driven it just a hair over 12,000 miles, I thought I would give everyone an update on how I am doing with the car, and some knowledge for anyone considering purchasing one for themselves.

Highs: knockout styling, excellent fit and finish, refined and responsive powertrain, outstanding handling, great gas mileage, high safety ratings, faultlessly reliable (so far)

Lows: lacks a few pieces of the latest in-car tech (Apple car play) a bit louder than some of the competition, firm ride on the 19’s. No up-level engine or hybrid power options available.

First a little about the car.

Genealogy: The Mazda Mazda6 (official name) is a descendent of the Mazda 626 (aka the Capella in Japan) that was first sold here in the mid-1980s. Mazda marketed this car as an entry in the growing Japanese mid-size segment taking on the likes of the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry and Nissan Stanza. Over the course of a couple of redesigns the 626 became a bit of boring also-ran to its Asian and American rivals, the design and engineering were not particular distinct and the by the early 90s it was largely forgotten by most of the buying public. In 2004 Mazda decided to replace the flagging 626 with something entirely different. Though still a sedan the then new Mazda Mazda6 was given an aggressive look with a number of European-influenced design touches inside and out. The 6 came with an optional V6 but a couple of years later a higher performance version “MazdaSpeed” version with high output turbo 4 and all-wheel drive topped the line. Mazda positioned this car as sort of a poorer man’s Audi S4. As Mazda was heavily partnered with Ford, a mechanical twin emerged on the Ford side in the first generation Ford Fusion. The cars garnered a lot of critical praise for their driving dynamics and styling. The only major weakness was a compact car size interior and trunk space (in the case of the Mazda, the Ford had a longer body and wheelbase) In 2009-Mazda substantially overhauled the 6 creating a larger car with styling cues from the RX8 sport coupe, and adding more interior room and a larger trunk. The car still shared a platform and engines with the Fusion and other Ford products. In 2012 Ford sold off its stake in Mazda and the two companies began to separate their models. In 2013 The 6 entered its third (current) generation as a fully from the ground up effort (known as “Skyactive” ) on the part of Mazda as were the new CX5, CX3, and Mazda3 compact. For the 2016 Model year Mazda gave the 6 interior updates and more sound deadening materials. It is expected the current 6 will remain as is until 2018/2019 when Mazda is expected to overhaul the car once more.

The Current Car: The Mazda6 is a mid-size family car that competes with the Honda Accord, Ford Fusion, Toyota Camry, Subaru Legacy, Chevrolet Malibu, Nissan Altima, Chrysler 200, Kia Optima/Hyundai Sonata and Volkswagen Passat. Pricing starts at 21K or so for the base I-Sport, 25K for the midlevel I-touring and a hair over 30K for the top of the line I-Grand Touring. The pricing lines up with its competition for the various trim levels. Mazda currently offers only one engine choice in the US-a 184 Horsepower Direct Injected 2.5 Naturally aspirated four-cylinder. I-Sport and I-Touring Trims can be had with a 6 speed manual, (a rarity in this class) I-Grand Touring models are automatic only but gain wheel mounted “flappy paddle” shifters for more engaging driving. In Europe a diesel is also offered but the recent VW “Dieselgate” scandal has poisoned the marketing well for affordable diesel cars being sold here in the US. It is not likely now Mazda will be offering the diesel engine here anytime soon.

The trim I ultimately chose was the Mid-Level I-Touring. Standard features include a 7 inch touch screen with a rotating commander control knob (similar to BMWs I-Drive) The cloth seats in the I-Sport are replaced with some nice looking and feeling “leatherette” P, smart key (you get to leave the key in your pocket when unlocking and locking the car and starting it up) power windows with one touch up/down on all four doors, power locks, dual zone climate control and 8 way power driver’s seat comes standard. Available upgrades for the I Touring include a Bose/Sunroof package (Sunroof and 11 speaker Bose surround sound radio), lighting package (LED Headlights with light piping around the grill trim- it’s very sweet) and an assortment of extra safety features including auto braking, radar cruise control.

I went with the combination of I touring, Bose and sunroof package. Due to my wife’s limitations I had to choose the automatic transmission (she cannot drive a straight gear and refuses to learn) and for the icing on the cake, I paid 300 dollars for the car’s hero color Soul Red which looked especially good with the sand colored leatherette seats. My local dealer found the car coming off the boat which was scheduled to be delivered to Charlotte and retrieved the vehicle for me (If you are interested-**** Shirley Chevrolet/Cadillac/Mazda/Mitsubishi) the only miles it had when I bought it was from Charlotte to Burlington (120). The rest since have all had been so far only done by yours truly.

So what I liked, did not like, or would advise Mazda to change?

The Styling: The best place to start with this car is the exterior shape. Mazda has challenged the notion that a practical, efficient and affordable sedan had to look like a dull rolling isolation chamber. Derick Jenkins (Hey Japanese makers! If you want your cars to look good, hire Americans to style them) and his team managed to pin a masterpiece. The parlor trick of why this looks like it does-the base of the windshield was moved backwards about three inches, this eliminates the typical forward-heavy short nose look of most front drive cars. The subtle and artful sculpting of the side bodywork gives the car the look of a European thoroughbred sports sedan rather than an affordable Japanese family car. The front is an aggressive affair with a lot of deep ground effects and pointed headlights, in the middle a prominent Mazda badge rest inside of tasteful chevron grill with winglets that flow into the headlight cluster. The roof is very rounded, and disappears nicely into the last quarter panel. The rear chrome strip re-emphasizes the Mazda wing badge. Simply put you cannot find a bad angle in this car no matter where you stand looking at it, a hallmark of great styling. The I-Touring and I-Grand Touring come standard with 19 inch wheels which fill out the perfectly sized wells very nicely. The Soul Red color is the real show stopper for this design and glows bright enough to be seen from low orbit. The Accords, Camrys and Altimas of this world are frumpy housewives in loose Yoga pants; the Mazda 6 is Sophia Vergara in a tight, perfectly tailored cocktail dress.





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The Inside story: For the 2016 model year Mazda significantly revamped most of the interior panels, the front dash and the seats. There was definite up-grade in the plastics over the 2015 models with generous soft-touch materials used throughout the inside of the car. The overall feel is nicer than anything it competes directly with and could rival some near-luxury class entries. Each trim gets a different seating material, the I Sport, gets cloth seats. The I-touring gets Leatherette and the I Grand Touring gets actual leather. The leatherette material in my I Touring looks and feels pretty close to the real thing, and the nice thing about leatherette is that it does not require special treatment like real leather and stains are much easier to remove than with cloth. The stuff is quite durable and so far after 12000 miles my sand colored seats show almost no signs of wear at all.

The dash layout seems to be modeled after entry level sedans from the likes of Audi, Mercedes and BMW. The look is dominated by the 7 inch touch screen mounted on the top. It’s a bit jarring to see it at first as it looks like someone stuck an I-pad mini on top of the dash but you get used to it quickly. Most of the controls for the info-audio systems are operated via a large round knob in the console, similar to BMW’s I-drive or Audi’s MMI system. The upshot of this arrangement is that it forgoes the often large number of buttons found on competing entries and presents a lower dash for better visibility up front. The dual zone automatic climate controls are still conventional knobs and buttons located on the dash. For the most part Mazda’s “commander” switch works well and moves quickly through choices, but one annoyance is operating the actual radio, it takes scrolling through a couple of menus to get to favorite stations or change audio source formatting.

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The 11 speaker Bose system is gem in terms of clarity and punch. The infotainment and climate controls can be operated with voice commands as well, and the system works quite well in understanding and implementing voice directives. The 6 comes with standard blue tooth and it paired effortlessly with my mobile. In the admittedly small console area (interior storage is NOT this car’s forte’) there is an indention near the top of the storage bin for 2 USB ports, and an adaptor for your Apple I-whatever along with an SD card port should you chose to purchase an in-car navi system. It’s a nice piece of ergonomics in that everything is in easy reach but it makes for both a very small armrest and limited storage space.

The Mazda 6’s seats are excellent, well bolstered and even fit larger fellows like me quite well. The lateral wings just enough to hold you firmly in place but not so intrusive as to pinch your sides. On long trips they are just the right combo of soft feel and solid back support. The rear leg room is good overall accommodating most adults with ease. The only downside, is the sloping rear window C pillars which can bump tall folks getting into the back seat, though it’ s much better executed than the Chrysler 200. If maximum head and leg room are a priority for your next sedan purchase the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord are better choices than the Mazda, which can feel “intimate” compared to those cars more “airy” cabins. The trunk is just less than 15 cubic feet, which is small on paper compared to many of its rivals, but nicely shaped and with non-intruding hinges which allows the owner to make full use of every inch. The back seats fold nearly flat in two parts for more cargo room as needed. With the exception of a couple of minor foibles, the 6 is a refined and very pleasant place to spend time.

The Drive Train: of course looking expensive and feeling good to sit in will only get you so far in this market if you do not have some fundamentally good engineering underneath, and here Mazda excelled. The only available engine is a naturally aspirated 2.5 liter four cylinder. The engine like most of its competitors is direct injected. One unusual aspect is the very high 13:1 compression ratio. The upside is that the mill is highly responsive and efficient at the same time. The Mazda can run on regular grade gas. The output is 184 Horsepower and 185 foot lbs of torque, unusual in a NA engine being the torque is higher than the horsepower, a more common stat found in turbo charged units. In terms of its direct competitors these numbers are nearly the top of the class, with only the Accord Sport (189 Hp) being a more powerful entry level drivetrain. To Mazda’s disadvantage however other makers offer more powerful engine options, the Accord, Camry, Altima and Legacy can be had with six cylinders, the current Fusion, Malibu, Optima and Sonata can be opted up with powerful turbocharged four Cylinders. Mazda however does point out that the take rate on up-level engine cars tends to be only about 10 percent on average, for Honda and Toyota who are the Walmart/McDonalds of family car sellers that translates to thousands of units, but for miniscule Mazda it would only mean a handful of cars going out the door. At some point in the future Mazda may offer an alternative, but for now the 2.5 liter in the real world has plenty of performance for most sedan buyers.

In terms of refinement and efficiency the Mazda’s engine is quite a sweetheart. It only gets noisy at cold idle (common to direct injected engines.) At highway speeds it’s a polished and unobtrusive little mill, and at warm idle it is virtually silent and vibration free. Even at hard throttle its relatively muted compared to many of its competitors. Like most naturally aspirated fours the meat of the power band is from 2500-4000 RPM, at which the car pulls quite strongly. The sport button (automatic transmission) located next to gear lever will allow for quicker and higher revs when engaged.

In terms of the gear box Mazda features both an available six speed manual (I-Sport and I-Touring) and a six speed automatic. The manual is closer to Miata than Accord, with sharp, crisp action and nice response. In terms of numbers however, the automatic is the one to go with here. Thanks to some rather clever engineering on the part of Mazda, the 6’s six speed auto-box will allow the car to accelerate quicker and get better gas mileage than its manual shifted counterpart. In developing its current line of cars Mazda looked at a number of different styles of automatics. The goal was to combine the natural smoothness of a CVT, the low speed certainty of a conventional torque converted automatic, and the quickness of a dual clutch or DCT. Each of these techs has weakness’s Mazda wanted to negate.

The result is hybrid of these technologies. At low speeds the transmission operates like an older automatic with a conventional torque converter, once speed builds the torque converter is disengaged and an secondary clutch plate comes into play. The result is the transmission is smooth and refined in town, nearly imperceptible in stop and go city traffic. At higher speeds the 6 can aggressively and quickly up and down shift much like a dual clutch unit. This aids both in the car’s responsive acceleration and excellent fuel economy. In practice, this unit works incredibly well, very docile around town, but when the gas pedal is depressed it comes to quick attention. Use the sport button and shift logic becomes even more aggressive.

Performance and Fuel economy In terms of actual performance the car will accelerate from 0-60 in 7.0-7.5 secs depending on which magazine is testing it that week. This is rather quick for an entry level engine in this class, and will allow the 6 to win a drag race against most of its direct competitors even ones equipped with entry-level turbo engines including the Ford Fusion ,the Chevy Malibu 1.6 and Passat 1.8TSI. Like most naturally aspirated fours the off the line acceleration is slightly soft, but it strongly pulls at around 2500 or so, which is commendable. The combination of engine and transmission work extremely well together and the 6 never feels caught out, especially in sport mode. This cannot be said of some others like the Chrysler 200 whose nine speed auto often feels confused or Nissan and Subaru’s CVTs which at low speeds seem to lurch and feel a step behind what your foot is instructing. Of course the Mazda6 is no match for the V6/or 2.0T powered versions of its opponents, but again few people are going to really complain that the 6 takes a second or so longer to reach interstate velocity at the end of the on-ramp than those cars. In my experience I never felt the car was ever really wanting, except for high speed passing on the interstate where I would have loved about 30 more ponies under the hood.

The upside of being a 4 cylinder only lineup is the 6’s excellent gas mileage. Here, the combination of efficient engine, slick transmission, and light weight architecture combine to give the 6 outstanding gas mileage. Gas mileage in the Mazda6 per the EPA runs from 26 MPG at the low end to 38 MPG at the top. This gives it the highest gas mileage of any conventional gas powered midsize family car. Optional on the upper end Grand Touring is something called I-Eloop-a device which captures heat off the brakes and uses it to power some of the cars accessories taking load off the engine. Equiped with I-Eloop the 6 can hit 40 MPG, if you want better mileage in this size only a hybrid or diesel will beat it (currently the only diesel in this class the Passat, has suspended sales due to “dieselgate” ). My experience has been good overall, on a longer run at the NC coast I managed to hit 42MPG. My average is around 27 or so for mixed driving, this is not only better than my prior two cars (2000 Acura TL and 2008 VW Passat) but even beats my old 1994 Honda Civic two- door I had which is tiny in comparison to this car and had 60 less HP to boot, technology, huh?

Ride and Handling: The 6 is built on relatively lightweight architecture which it shares with the 3, CX5 and forthcoming CX9-lightess conveys an immediate advantage in handling, and combined with quick steering the 6 transitions directions quickly and precisely. Although the steering (like most other cars in its class) is electric there is solid communication between the car’s front wheels and the driver’s hands. Whereas Toyota for example seeks to isolate you, Mazda seeks to engage you, a difference in the two company’s philosophies, and I personally prefer Mazda’s. The 6 shrink wraps itself around you as you navigate curves, making you quickly forget you are sitting in 191 inches of sheet metal, driven aggressively it feels like a well damped compact car. On paper the car’s cornering limits are not that high, in part to blame is the standard equipment Dunlap all-season sport tires, they are OK and that is all you can really say about them. I plan on upgrading to Michelin Pilot Exaltos when the time comes to replace these. Nevertheless body control is excellent, steering is utterly predictable and spot on accurate whether transitioning around sharp corners or changing lanes on the interstate. There is no doubt Mazda meant for the 6 to be the track star in its peer group. I have some pretty curvy roads near my house and when I am going down them I tend to hit them aggressively and the car can dance around them like Fred Astaire, the Mazda is just uncanny at that sort of thing. The 6s brakes are also strong and responsive with no shimmy under hard braking, again the lighter weight helps the 6 to slow down quickly when needed. The only issue is that in initial press of the pedal it can feel slightly spongy but I have gotten used to it, so not a big issue.

One would tend to think that all of this talent around corners would lead to a harsh ride. Mazda made updates to suspension calibration for 2016-that smooth out the ride a bit without adversely affecting the car’s handling prowess. The 6 is no Camry though. The ride is taunt and firm, with no real float. On most surfaces however the 6 actually handles imperfections quite well and is only harsh on really broken roads or on concrete expansion joints. The lighter weight of the 6 does allow for more ambient noise to be heard in the cabin than rivals like the Camry, Altima or Legacy, though updates for 2016 closed the gap a bit, especially over the interstate. If you are the type of car buyer that prefers a wheeled isolation chamber the 6 will not be for you. It would be nice if Mazda would add back about 40 lbs of sound deadening material. Based on what we know of the sound deadening tech on the forthcoming CX9-it is likely the 6 will get considerably quieter in its next re-design.

Safety: having a safe car is very important these days especially in era of distracted driving. No matter how good you might be, no matter how attentive or cautious you think you are the risk of getting into a wreck is higher than ever. So it was important for me that I have solid car that could protect me and those who are with me in the unfortunate event of an accident. According to the rating agencies the Mazda6 scores GOODs on all impact tests (the best currently offered) from the insurance institute and the government testers rate it at 5 Stars on everything accept rollover where it gets 4. The 6 is considered a top safety pick in its class, all the more impressive considering how light weight it is compared to many of its rivals.

Standard safety features include Front, Side, knee, and rear curtain airbags, ABS with 4 discs, full range traction control, stability control, Brake assist and electronic brake force distribution. Standard on the I-touring and I-Grand Touring is blind spot monitoring (a very useful feature and despite some occasional annoyances, and very worth having)

In addition and in the latest fashion Mazda will also sell you its City-Safe package which includes lane correction, radar automated cruise control and automatic emergency braking.

I have fortunately never had to test the safety gear and hope I never have to, but it’s comforting to know I am well protected on my daily commute to work.

Reliability and Durability: According to Consumer Reports the 6 (and other Mazdas for that matter) is doing very well. Mazda now builds its entire lineup in Japan at a couple different factories to maintain tight quality control. One of the advantages of being a smaller car maker with only a handful of models to build is that it is easy to focus on the production of each one, making sure everything rolls out properly assembled. In my experience, it’s been so far, so good, with only a couple of oil changes and tire rotations under my belt. The car has run flawlessly and functioned perfectly. Body integrity is good as well, no squeaks or rattles emanating from the dash or door panels. The switchgear and interior plastics look brand new still and the seats still feel like I just bought the thing last week. The body panels and paint work still look great as well.

I expect that this car will hold out very well and for a very long time, I plan on about 10 years with it as it is my first new car. The Mazda’s sky active technology has an advantage in this regard as well, as Mazda’s engines, transmissions and suspension components are engineered entirely in-house and designed to work specifically with each other. That translates into consistent quality across the board.

Final Thoughts so Far: The Mazda6 was the very first new car purchase I have ever made. So far I have been delighted with the experience of owning one (apparently I am not alone the 6 is a top finisher in JD Power’s customer satisfaction ratings) The 6 checks all the boxes that a middle age guy like me needs for a multitude of tasks, its refined, efficient, reasonably practical, safe and well made. Mazda decided to wrap this car in a seductive shape and pack it with kind of built in fun that guys like me once remembered in the sports coupes of days long gone by. Mazda has said that it seeks to put a little of the MX5 Miata’s soul into every other car they produce, it’s a good goal to have and one they succeed at doing.

Would I recommend the Mazda6? I will be honest here. If you want an anonymous, grey dishwasher on wheels, the 6 is not going to be for you. There are many cars on the market that do the appliance thing very well. A number of its competitors are roomier, more tech laden, and quieter than the Mazda6. The family sedan category is full of very good choices and no bad ones at this point.

The Mazda6 is something different. Mazda could care less about having a moving platform for whatever the hot mobile app you downloaded this week, focusing rather on the feel of the car as it goes down the road, it has that elusive secret sauce that has long left larger mass sellers. When you are done doing all the mundane sedan things, commuting, transporting family members, running errands, you will want take this car out on a country road in the middle of nowhere, with light traffic, and just feel it glide around the curves. You will smile along the way, knowing you bought something that looks and feels this good. That is what Mazda is all about, and though they are tiny compared to the likes of Toyota, GM, Ford, Honda and Nissan, I am glad that Mazda is still here, and still choosing to do things its own way.

Former Top Gear Presenter Jeremy Clarkson once said the mark of a great car is that it has to have soul, and the Mazda6 has a lot of soul.