A refresh with oomph
Mid-size sedan is all about family and ride precision
KELOWNA, B.C.— The “new” 2018 Mazda6 mid-size sedan is actually the third reworking of the car which was introduced back in 2012. That’s a pretty quick and frequent turnaround and a reflection of how light on their feet carmakers have to be these days.
The car is on sale now, starting at an even $27,000.
Not that the Mazda6 necessarily needed reworking — it has been among the favourites in the mid-size sedan class, at least amongst journalists, for just about ever.
Why do journos like this car so much? Maybe because we are disproportionately Mazda owners. I was once at a dinner table with eight colleagues, and five us owned Mazdas, mostly Miatas.
What do we know that the rest of you don’t? Maybe I should say, why haven’t we been able to communicate our enthusiasm to our audiences? Good questions, both.
There are two classes of upgrades in the new Mazda6: those you can see and those you can’t. On the former front, they have done some clever work with the styling. “Clever” because they’ve largely kept the sheet metal the same and upgraded the plastic bits front and rear, which don’t typically require expensive retooling. New LED headlights on all trim levels and subtle tweaking to front and rear ends give the car a lower, cleaner look. Alloy wheels are standard across the board — 17 inchers on lower trim levels, 19 inchers on the upscale models.
The interior has undergone a more significant rework, with new seats front and rear offering more room and support. Cloth is standard on the base GS trim; you get leather if you move up to GS-L, GT or the new range-topping Signature edition, which gets luxurious Nappa leather in dark brown or a bright white. Signature also gets some real tree wood trim bits, unheard of at this price point.
Dual-zone air conditioning with proper round knobs is standard on all trim levels. So are heated seats, even the two outboard rears. Toyota’s new Camry doesn’t offer rear-seat heat even in their $40,000-plus top-of-the-line model. On Mazda6’s GT and Signature trims, you also get ventilated front seats.
The digital readouts in the centre console (and in the instrument panel in thus-equipped models) are more read- able and can be programmed to show you just the information you want, hence it can be less cluttered. A head-up display is available.
Mark Peyman, national manager of product strategies and development for Mazda Canada, mentioned that one thing that pops up in consumer research as being a desirable feature is blind-spot monitoring.
There is one nice feature — a warning system lets you know if the cameras are obscured by ice or dirt. Particularly important in our climate. You will have to carefully study the spec sheets for the various trim levels to get just the stuff you want.
Suffice it to say that Mazda6 is wellequipped at every level.
For the bits you can’t see, there are even more upgrades, some of them remarkable for a mid-cycle refresh.
The big news in the engine room is the availability of two significantly improved power plants. Daniel Grenier, manager for dealer technical support and quality assurance for Mazda Canada, noted that big numbers on a spec sheet, both in horsepower and fuel economy, don’t always translate into realworld advantages.
“We focused instead on what makes the car fun to drive — in a word, that’s torque,” he said.
The SKYACTIV-G 2.5-litre, four-cylinder turbo engine borrowed from the larger CX-9 SUV is a $2,000 option on GS-L, and standard on GT and Signature.
One issue with turbocharged engines is that it often takes a while for the turbo to spool up and develop boost. Mazda has added a flap to the air intake system which can reduce the cross-sectional area of the duct, thereby increasing the speed of the air flow into the engine, rather like pinching a garden hose to make it easier to soak your friends at the pool party. As engine revs rise above 1,600 r.p.m., the valve opens to allow a fuller charge of intake air.
The Compression Ratio of 10.5:1 is very high for a turbocharged engine. Mazda avoids engine-killing knock via a suite of technical tricks, including cooled exhaust gas recirculation.
The engine can run on regular 87 octane fuel. If you can afford premium, it can squeeze out an extra 23 horsepower at the top end. That sounds like a lot, but again, peak torque which actually accelerates a car is unchanged, so it’s mostly money tossed down the intake manifold.
The GS trim level comes only with the non-turbo 2.5-litre four, which is also standard fitment on GS-L. Another bit of big news in this engine is the introduction of cylinder deactivation. Under the right conditions, this system shuts off two cylinders, resulting in a measurable reduction in fuel consumption. Grenier added that as far as he knows, this is the first time this feature has been available on a four-cylinder engine in our market.
Both engines are mated to a six-speed automatic transmission. Many competitors have more than six ratios in their auto-boxes, or have gone to a Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT), looking for better fuel economy.
Mazda6’s Transport Canada numbers aren’t world-beating, but we’ll have to wait to see what we can record in the real world; Grenier believes we will be impressed.
Despite Mazda’s sporty-car connection with Miata, they have given up trying to get Canadians to shift for themselves in family cars. Heck, even the Miata (OK, OK, MX-5 ...) is increasingly slushbox now.
Interestingly, the U.S., traditionally a less-manual-loving market, offers a stick, but only on their base trim. That sounds like a loss-leader to get a lower advertised price. Mazda6 stays front-drive only, like most of this field. Subaru Legacy (standard) and Ford Fusion (optional) are among the outliers here. A myriad of tweaks to the suspension and increased sound insulation promise a more comfortable ride.
Mazda has answers to questions most carmakers don’t even ask, which is probably why their cars feel so good on the road. Which is where we took the new Mazda6. Our first mount was a turbo. Frankly, we didn’t realize this at first, because there’s virtually no turbo sensation at all — just smooth, linear acceleration. Later, we tried the non-turbo. By comparison, it felt significantly slower — as it would, because it has a bunch less power. It still gets out of its own way, however, and will do the job if you’re not in a huge rush and prefer to save a few bucks at the pump. And as hard as we tried, we could not sense the switching off of the two unused cylinders.
The transmission in both cars shifted smoothly and quickly. Our testers both had the paddle shifters, but if you prefer, the autobox can be switched to manual mode by sliding the lever sideways from Drive. Like so few carmakers, Mazda gets the manual shift mode correct — pull back to upshift, push forward to downshift. It’s not a matter of personal preference; it’s physics. If you are manually shifting, you are looking for more performance, and if you are accelerating, you would be pulling the lever in the direction the accelerating forces are taking you — backwards. Reverse above procedure for braking. Simple. Done and dusted.
The car is remarkably quiet and comfortable. The seats are excellent. Handling is precise and predictable. Overall grip levels weren’t that high — the car seems tuned for ride quality rather than canyon-strafing.
But this is a family sedan, after all. And yet, one that rewards the driver who cares about handling precision. Nice job on the refresh, Mazda.