Six appeal

No, not the MG6. The Mazda6. Given the ongoing demonising of diesel following the government U-turn, the public is quite sensibly questioning the right fuel for their motoring. Note that I said ‘questioning’, not ‘turning their back on’. Because we’ve had diesel rammed down our throat for years now, finding good petrol stock to satisfy demand is very difficult. The aforementioned MG6 was lampooned for launching as ‘petrol only’. Still, that’s not a recommendation to rush out and buy one.

At a recent auction, I watched a 2015 Mazda6 SE-1 Nav saloon with 23,000 miles make a very strong £9900. It was ex-motability, which is pretty much the norm when looking for such cars, because only those who qualified for free road tax could stomach the duty when diesel was the future.

Now, it’s all change and, in my opinion, Mazda is the new Honda in offering discreetly stylish saloons with terrific petrol engines. There were two Mazda6s in this sale and both attracted strong bidding from within the hall and online. Nothing else that day did.

The three Mazda dealers I use to price parts are all family-run, so they offer old-school service, which is a refreshing change from the increasingly corporate culture of the national franchises run for the shareholders.

‘Mazda is the new Honda, in my opinion’

Which brings us back to MG. The Chinese relaunch has been less than successful. Dealers are all backstreet affairs – more BL than Big Dealer Group. However, a friend of mine in the trade has owned and run two now. And you know what? Both have been faultless.

So, if you can’t stretch to a petrol Mazda and feel like a gamble, then maybe you could look at the MG6? One thing’s for sure, you wouldn’t be short of a social life because there seems to be an MG owners’ club in every town.