Mazda6 keeping up appearances
Mazda’s flagship sedan gets some upgrades courtesy of the brand’s new smallcar and SUV ranges. By David Linklater.
The days when mainstream carmakers kept the best new technology and features for top-line models and then let them filter down to lesser cars over time are long gone.
The pace of development and competition across the industry mean that as soon as cool new stuff is ready, it’s introduced on whatever the newest model is. Even if it’s a humble family hatchback.
In that context, the Mazda6 has managed to hold station remarkably well. Remember, it’s still the flagship of the brand’s passenger-car range; the only Mazda in NZ that’s more expensive is the CX-9 SUV, which tops out at $62,995 compared with $58,245 for the pinnacle-6.
Quick recap: the 6 was the second Mazda to embrace the brand’s new-generation styling and Skyactiv technology (the CX-5 was the first, in 2012) and even got a much-needed interior redesign as part of a 2015-update.
The car you see here is a Limited sedan with the 2.5-litre petrol engine, which costs $55,995. The most expensive model is the Limited wagon with the 2.2-litre turbo-diesel. Indeed, if you want top Limited specification with petrol power you have to go for the fourdoor, because that combo isn’t offered in the wagon.
Think of the latest Mazda6 update not as a facelift (it looks the same and prices are unchanged) but as a 2016-tweak. There’s been some worthwhile technology and equipment added, although none makes its debut in the Mazda6. See above.
Most of the mechanical changes are aimed at making the Mazda6 a smoother, quieter drive. In its early life this generation leaned towards sportiness at the expense of ride and and refinement. This model remains one of the most driver-focused models in the segment, but changes to the suspension last year improved the ride and now we have G-vectoring Control (GVC) technology, as introduced on the Mazda3.
GVC is one of those head-scratching features because if it’s really working well you don’t notice it. It modulates engine torque in accordance with steering angle and cornering attitude, to transfer weight forward so that the driver can steer more smoothly and the car rolls less. The time from steering input to torque reduction is less than 50 milliseconds and you probably won’t notice the 0.01-0.05g deceleration.
But the result, says Mazda, is smoother cornering, better straight-line stability and improved passenger comfort. Didn’t really notice a thing in our test car. So, er, well done GVC.
Refinement has benefited from a few Cx9-derived tricks, such as thicker glass in the front windows, a new design of door-seal and an increase in noise-suppressing material in the headlining.
The Limited has Mazda Radar Cruise Control (MRCC), which automatically keeps the car the correct distance from the vehicle ahead. But it’s not the very latest system fitted to the CX-9, which works right down to standstill. This one still quits at 30kmh with a quiet ‘bing’ and leaves you coasting towards the traffic in front. Certainly gets your attention the first time it happens – especially if you’ve just been driving a CX-9. Which I have. Say no more.
The 6’s active safety technology now includes a front-facing camera (previously, a laser was used), which means Traffic Sign Recognition (TSR) and extra functionality for the head-up Active Driver Display (ADD). The ADD is now full-colour and partly animated (again, as on the Mazda3) which is pretty swish, although it’s still projected onto a piece of pop-up Perspex rather than the windscreen. Which is not so swish, although the Limited’s ADD does now have a memory function.
That camera also means the Advanced Smart City Brake Support can recognise pedestrians. It now works at 4-80kmh for cars and 10-80kmh for pedestrians.
The 6’s cabin isn’t as impressive as the CX9, but it’s still classy and a whole lot more interesting than the inside of a CX-5. The new model has gained Mazda’s new-design steering wheel, with blingy satin-chrome finish on the spokes. Also new is LED lighting on the overhead console.
The 6 also continues the Japanese car industry’s curious obsession with brown trim inserts, which are so subtle you don’t initially notice them. Then you do, and you can’t look away.
Mazda’s MZD Connect infotainment system is a winner. You can operate it via touch-screen when stationary, a rotary dial or shortcut buttons.
The screen graphics are crisp and colourful, although our test car seemed to continue a long tradition of slightly flaky satnav in Mazda vehicles: it took several seconds to boot up, failed to activate three times in a week and at one stage the screen claimed navigation wasn’t fitted to the vehicle and I should buy it from my nearest dealer.
The Mazda6 remains a spacious business or family vehicle. It’s not really medium-sized at all, in fact: the sedan is just 30mm shorter than a Holden Commodore.
It’s also not a volume seller. Both the Mazda3 small-car and CX-5 medium-suv (which stretches up to a similar price point at $56,795) outsell the 6 nearly four-to-one. Kiwi buyers simply don’t have the taste for traditional medium/large sedans and wagons that they once did.
But if you want to look at it in a glass-halffull kinda way, the Mazda6 transcends the mainstream: it has an aspirational quality that sets it far apart from, say, a Toyota Camry. In look and feel it’s more premiumproduct than all-purpose sedan.
To be absolutely fair to the Mazda6, it does introduce some new technology in diesel form, with new boost technology and two features Mazda calls Natural Sound Smoother and Natural Sound Frequency Control. But that’s a story for another car and another day.