2009 Mazda 6: What's It Like to Live With?
Read the latest updates in our long-term road test of the 2009 Mazda 6 as our editors live with this car for a year.
What do you want to know about?
- Introduction
- 800-Mile Roadtrip
- Ghost in the Machine
- Ghost in the Machine (part 2)
- Performance and Fuel Update
- Zoom-Zoom? Try Boom-Roar.
- DTE That Works
- Cabin Upgrade
- BSM? Oh, BSM!
- Light steering
- Noises Off
- Keyless Ignition
- Manual Shift Control
- Trunk Space
- Recall For Ours?
- Sold
- Truck Shmuck
- Cargo space
- Four-Cylinder Engine is Adequate
- Needs a Little Oil at 7K
- Childish Puddle Fun
- Kid Duty
- What The Squeak Too?
- Too Much Information?
- How Good Would This Car Be With a Diesel?
- Pet Peeve — CD Changers Behind Navigation Screens
- Tall Guy Friendly
- There's a Screw Loose Somewhere
- Parts On Order
- Setting the Mood
- Fuel Economy Test, Plus Deep Thoughts on Bluetooth
- Heard It Through the Grapevine
- Hits 10K During Morning Commute
- Still a Secret
- Open Wide
- Best Seats Ever? I Didn't Notice
- Tell Me Why I'm Wrong
- I was hit by an AUX
- Special?
- Better than a VW CC 2.0T?
- Tell Me Why I'm Wrong
- Interior Graphics
- Parts Still On Order
- The Goods Minus Grunt
- Add This to the Repair List
- Today It's Better Than a 3 Series
- Weekend at the Track Part II
- Weekend at the Track
- Family Fun
- More Elegant Than I Remember
- Weekend in the Mountains
- Cool as a Cucumber
- Fuel Economy in the Mountains
- Cutline Collage
- Racing Engine
- Center Console Broken and Fixed
- Service! At Last!
- Is it the best family midsize sedan?
- This One's Just Right
- Service! At Last! For Real This Time.
- Look Ma, No More Red Line!
- Managing the Heat
- Donde Estoy?
- Not Many On The Road
- Rear Seat Comfort
- Flashy
- Automatic Headlights Possibly on the Fritz
- Headlights seem to be working
- Blind Spot Monitoring FAIL
- Nav Works Swimmingly
- The Princess and the Bucket Seat
- Fix Our Nav, Please
- Navigation Back on Course
- Full-Tilt Screen
- Not So Different from the World Car
- Navigation Problems Persist
- Just Right
- Belated Fuel Economy Update
- What To Do When the Intelligent Key Gets Dumb
- The Stroller Factor
- Meals on Wheels
- When Zoom-Zoom Goes Mainstream
- Suspension Walkaround
- The Leather Tour
- Compare Specs
- Auto Headlights, Auto Dark Screen
- Navigation Issue Resolved
- Four Adults? No Problem
- I Don't Want to Use the Word "Vanilla"
- Stopped at the Gate
- Feels Like My Own Car
- Details, Details
- O Christmas Tree
- Can do easy
- Blind Spot Monitor Redux
- Wrap-Up
Introduction
The cops drive past just as we turn onto a particularly tricky canyon road. "He didn't even look," our passenger says, adjusting the tension on his seatbelt. Why would he? To most people this is the same as a Toyota Camry or Honda Accord. Fortunately our new 2009 Mazda 6 i Grand Touring isn't as confused as the local law enforcement about its true purpose in life.
We thunk the gearshift lever into the manual gates and the 2.5-liter inline-4 springs to life. Our newest long-term test car rockets headlong toward the top of the mountain.
For the next 12 months and 20,000 miles our new midsize family sedan will see plenty of these canyon jaunts, but will the new Mazda 6 be able to handle the daily duties of a kid-carting, grocery-hauling appliance without losing its secret soul of sporting performance?
Mazda's banking on it.
Why We Bought It
It's very much about soul at Mazda. Take the MX-5 Miata, for example. Though it smacks of femininity to the casual observer, Mazda has never taken drastic steps to change opinions. People who "get it" are able to enjoy the fruits of Mazda's years of engineering labor and relish the responsive dynamics of a real sports car — in fact, there are more Miatas on racetracks around the world than any other car nameplate, more than 1,500 in the U.S. alone. And then there's the RX-8. The damn thing doesn't even use pistons, gets Hummer-esque gas mileage and costs a bundle. But hit the right stretch of road, and, man, those few minutes eclipse all its shortcomings.
And such has been life with the past generations of the Mazda 6. Smallish and rough around the edges, the Mazda 6 has been the enthusiast's choice. As an exercise in compromise, the Mazda 6 skewed toward performance over livability, the sort of thing that wowed on test drives but fell far short of lasting satisfaction in the real world. That lack of real-world practicality kept the Mazda 6 well shy of the sales volume generated by the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry. Those who did buy into the Mazda 6's personality were allotted a ticket to a solemn fraternity of gearheads who "get it." But now Mazda wants more people to get it.
So the 2009 Mazda 6 has grown up in both size and temperament. With more size, the Mazda 6 now competes with the Accord and Camry in passenger comfort. And with more size has come more temperament (if by that you mean power), as there's a choice between a 272-horsepower 3.7-liter V6 and a 170-hp 2.5-liter inline-4.
Of course, not everything can be boiled down to an Excel spreadsheet (sorry, Mazda engineers). So the company's designers tackled the world of interiors, where every judgment is subjective, not to mention open to dispute. The previous Mazda 6 interior didn't win any awards in terms of style, materials or execution, so the 2009 Mazda 6 represents a complete makeover in terms of gloss, pattern and texture, not to mention cohesive design and excellence in tactile feel. The result is a class-leading interior with intuitive ease of use.
But it's a thin line between welcoming new sheep to the flock and selling out your core audience. So we were as surprised as anyone to discover that the 2009 Mazda 6 persuasively combines its traditional Mazda driving soul with the midsize sedan practicality that has been the lasting advantage of the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry. As we noted in our First Drive of the new Mazda 6, "So with all of its major flaws corrected, the 2009 Mazda 6 now sits squarely in the middle of the midsize family sedan segment. It's no longer the sedan to buy just to be different, although its appealing shape still counts for something in a class dominated by soulless styling." And our judgment was confirmed when the 2009 Mazda 6 prevailed over the Honda Accord and Nissan Altima in a comparison test of midsize sedans.
What We Bought
While it's available with a 272-hp 3.7-liter V6, the Mazda 6 with its 170-hp 2.5-liter inline-4 seemed like a more relevant choice to us. While gas prices soared last spring and summer, vehicles with four-cylinder engines were more popular than those with V6s for the first time in decades. And the continuing popularity of the four-cylinder Honda Accord, Nissan Altima and Toyota Camry proves that people expect practical sedans to deliver an effective compromise of both performance and fuel economy.
So even though this 2009 Mazda 6 weighs 3,519 pounds at the curb, we're interested in what life will be like with the stout Mazda MZR four with its internal balance shafts for smooth running and a new, broader torque curve. This is also a PZEV (partial zero emissions) engine option here in California, so we have an opportunity to demonstrate that the conventional gasoline engine is a practical, cost-effective clean-air alternative, although we have to pay an extra $100 for this 168-hp version as a consequence.
We opted for the five-speed automatic transmission for two reasons: 1) it delivers better fuel economy than the six-speed manual (an EPA-rated 21 mpg city/30 mpg highway); and 2) it's an excellent transmission, delivering quick, smooth shift action plus a manual mode with the push-forward-for-downshift, pull-rearward-for-upshift action that we prefer. That and the automatic is the transmission the majority of Mazda 6 buyers will pick. If Mazda's aiming at the mainstream here, so are we.
Just because we're leaving the bigger engine option unchecked doesn't mean we've completely lost our senses when it comes to driving goodness. Experience has shown that vehicles in our long-term test fleet that have navigation systems get more mileage than those without. So we chose the touchscreen navigation unit for the Mazda 6, which runs $2,000. We also added the moonroof and Bose audio package, which includes Sirius Satellite Radio and a six-disc CD changer, a $1,760 option only available on Touring and Grand Touring models. The Grand Touring trim also includes blind-spot monitoring (BSM), xenon headlights, LED taillights, dual-zone climate control, heated leather seats with memory recall and Bluetooth audio and cell phone connectivity.
Our test car, painted in Sangria Red with a beige interior, carries a sticker price of $30,340.
Beyond the Toaster
Our 12-month, 20,000-mile evaluation of the 2009 Mazda 6 i Grand Touring might have started with a ripping drive that tested the limits of the very noisy P215/55R17 Michelin HXMXS8 tires, but it will end in the driveways of our staff.
The 2009 Mazda 6 has left a comfortable niche to seek greater glory in greater sales volume. Will the enthusiasts among us bemoan the Mazda 6's newfound refinement at the expense of raw personality? Will this dramatic sedan still be too much for those of us who prefer the toasterlike styling, reliability and personality of the Toyota Camry? Has Mazda gone too far? Has it not gone far enough?
Check in on our long-term road test blog.
Current Odometer: 1,274
Best Fuel Economy: 23.1 mpg
Worst Fuel Economy: 20.8 mpg
Average Fuel Economy (over the life of the vehicle): 22.1 mpg
The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.
After wheeling our long-term 2009 Mazda 6 from LA to Phoenix and back last week, I've garnered enough driving impressions to fill three road tests. I'll be brief, though. Suffice it to say that although the 6 has grown up, Mazda has not succumbed to the vapid JD Power-obessed blandification that some of its competition has in their mainstream midsize offerings.
Most notable are the Mazda's precise steering and firm brake pedal. These two driving interfaces alone really separate the 6 from its CamCordBu competition, allowing the Mazda to wink and nod at car enthusiasts. Think of a grown-up Mazda 3 and you're on the right track.
It makes you wonder why don't other manufacturers execute them like Mazda has in the 6. Right, the JD Power thing. To score well there, you must not offend the whiners with "vibrations" such as actual steering feel or "hard" brakes that respond with confidence-inspiring initial bite and linearity. What you get with fixation on JD Power numbers is a Toyota Camry.
Oh, and since I can tell you're champing at the bit for some highway fuel economy numbers, I'll relent. Cruising at 75-82ish mph, air off, the 6 averaged 29.3 mpg.
Look in the upper-
left
right corner for the reddish pattern that's displayed on every type of screen (audio, navi, setup, etc.). The width of the pattern never changes, but the top-to-bottom length of it acts as if it's a sound-level meter. Yet the varying length of the stripe doesn't seem to correlate to anything in particular (e.g. volume, static, station).
It's really hard to get a photo of it because it's constantly moving — I snapped at least 10 photos before I managed to capture it. Here's another one showing a bit more of its potential length. It looks like our first scheduled maintenance visit will include some sort of screen diagnostic, as well. Anybody else know what this might mean? Faulty connector? Bad screen?
Ghost in the Machine (part 2)
On my drive home last night, I kept a careful eye on the Mazda's display. The stripe got worse.
After about 30 minutes of driving, the fluctuating stripe became a solid stripe. When I shut the car off then started it back up, the stripe went away for a moment then returned full force. Perhaps it has something to do with heat in the system. I tend to agree with y'all that it's a bad screen and not something to do with a connection or program.
How do you like our Mazda's new paint job? Not really, but I found this photo of Mazda's SEMA car and thought I'd share. Pretty cool, eh?
Some of you have been asking for our initial track-test results, a driving impression, and a fuel economy update. I hear you and humbly obey...
As you know from the car's intro, instead of the headline-grabbing 272-hp V6 Mazda6s, we chose the 170-hp 4-cylinder Mazda6i because it's more relevant to the uncertainty of the economy (though you wouldn't know it from the price of gas right now — I just paid $1.95/gal this morning — what the heck?) and it competes better with its nemeses, the hyper-popular 4-cylinder Honda Accord and Toyota Camry. The EPA has rated the 4-cylinder model with the 5-speed automatic like ours at 22-mpg in the city, and an impressive 30-mpg on the highway.
Thus far, our car has piled on 3,143 miles, and during that time, it has earned an average of 24.2 mpg; the least-frugal fill-up showed 19.5 mpg (but that included track testing) and Jay's still got the record by eking out 29.1 mpg during his road trip. We're not bashful drivers, so those figures are pretty impressive. Good fuel economy doesn't mean a car has to suck.
Here are the track-test results with driver comments:
Mazda6i Grand Touring Sedan (2.5L 4cyl 5A) - 2,569 miles
3,383 lbs (61% front /39% rear)
Michelin Energy MxV4 S8 (32 psi/32 psi)
215/55R17 93V (front and rear)
0-60 = 9.1 sec (8.8 with 1 ft. rollout)
1/4 mi = 16.8 sec @ 83.3 mph
Some wheelspin is good, and in the case of the Mazda6i, more is better. That shouldn't be a surprise, though, with a 3,383-pound car that has 167-lb-ft of torque, it needs revs to make power. That said, a 9-sec zero-to-sixty is nothing to be ashamed of. Too bad the engine sounds so overburdened doing it.
60-0 = 125 ft
A nice firm pedal and rapid-fire ABS controller keep things consistently confident. Moderate dive but no wiggle or shudder.
Skidpad = 0.84g
(ESP off) Impressive grip and a surprisingly neutral chassis with a hint of oversteer on the limit if you step off the throttle abruptly. It's easy to steer the car with the throttle alone. Steering is talkative but not heavy.
Slalom = 63.2 mph
Excellent turn-in and yaw response, but as the tires' limits approach, the rear of the car begins to step out. The chassis is lively which means it'll actually oversteer (unusual for a front-driver), but we wouldn't want to discourage this kind of enthusiast-style suspension tuning. More tire (like on the Mazda6s V6) would settle it down a bit.
That covers the testing, but what about the driving impressions? Because the engine has to work relatively hard to maintain pace with the unpredictable L.A. traffic patterns, I found myself using the manual gate for the transmission quite often — both in bummer-to-bummer traffic and for passing. Huge bonus to Mazda for knowing that an upshift is a pull and a downshift is a push on the lever.
Even if the engine noise is a little "over" present at times, there's very little road- or wind-noise. The suspension lands on the good side sporty/soft equation without being intrusive, and I prefer it to those of the Altima (which often feels brittle and stiff-legged) and Camry (that's pillowy and floaty). Even with the enthusiast tuning, the Mazda's ability to envelop road irregularities is very good.
I love the intelligent key and push-button start. The sleek, little lozenge never has to come out of my pocket, but I still find myself going for a starter on the steering column instead of at the base of the center stack.
Speaking of steering, I also love the redundant controls on the steering wheel, and again, bonus points for having them lit at night, but only the buttons themselves light up and not the labels associated with them. For instance, I couldn't remember how to turn on and set the cruise control and couldn't tell which toggle switches did what in the dark.
That said, I really like the Mazda6. The styling alone sets it apart from all the Accords and Camrys out there, and the fact that even the 4-cylider model drives with something approaching sport-sedan enthusiasm is reason enough to consider one.
I experienced a moment of clarity when I stomped on our long-term 2009 Mazda 6's throttle for the first time. "Aha!" I exclaimed. "So that's what a combination vacuum cleaner/weedwhacker would sound like!"
I mean, if this were a Camry, then whatever. I expect a Camry to sound like an appliance. But the 6 is made by the "zoom-zoom" company — so why does its new 2.5-liter four sound so nasty? Our track driver wasn't impressed either. "Too bad the engine is pretty loud and thrashy all the time," reads the performance test sheet.
I've heard rumblings here and there about how the Mazda 6 i with the six-speed manual might be an appealing car for enthusiasts with families. Nope. Not as long as this engine's under the hood.
In early December I wrote a blog post whining about the Distance To Empty predictor in our EVO GSR. It stops working with 30 miles to go. Many of you thought this was ridiculous and pointed out that "risking it" is stupid anyway. You folks are really going to hate this.
Above is a photo of the DTE predictor in our Mazda 6i Grand Touring. It goes to zero. Still no walking.
Ha.
2008 and 2009 Mazda 6
One of the areas touched by the Mazda 6's 2009 redesign is its cabin. I think it's become a more attractive place to be — little upgrades like additional metallic trim and sleeker HVAC vents really do make a difference.
It's as if your tweedy, middle-aged uncle landed a younger girlfriend and decided to spruce himself up with a haircut and a couple of new button-downs. This more polished cabin should help Mazda in its effort to vault the 6 from almost-there outlier to genuine mainstream contender.
I took the Mazda 6 this weekend to Angel Stadium to watch James "Bubba" Stewart yet again annihilate the competition at Supercross Anaheim Round 2. At the race, Dan shot a great video showing 4 consecutive backflips.
I noticed that by the driver's left knee (above), next to the unusual headlamp leveling thumbwheel, is a switch marked "BSM OFF." BSM off, what could that be? Huh.
Let's RTFM (read the friendly manual). But of course — Blind Spot Monitoring! — and it works just fine.
BSM works by showing a car sensing icon in either of the outside mirrors if a vehicle appears in your blindspot on the corresponding side (pic below, click on it for a better view). If you operate your turn signal to the side where the blindspot vehicle is situated, you will also hear an auditory beep. The radar sensors are located in both corners of the rear bumper. The book says you must be going 20 mph or more for it to work. I found it to be useful with no false alarms, and it never alerted for parked cars.
The only downside is that if you are cutting in and out of traffic, and not really that close to the vehicles you chop, you will get numerous warnings. Some may find it to be annoying and that all of the alerts will lead the driver to ignore the system. But I don't find it so.
Besides — if you don't like it, there's that BSM OFF switch.
In terms of day-to-day usefulness, the newly re-jiggered Mazda 6 is as innocuously functional as your everyday Camry or Accord. It feels solidly built, has plenty of room, and in Grand Touring guise, has plenty of bells and whistles to make you feel special on your daily commute. The styling has some nice lines helping hide the car's length, and it keeps the 6 from earning an anonobox label. All good. But if you've been drawn to Mazdas and the previous-gen 6 in particular by their Zoom-Zoom tuning (my brother bought one), you'll almost certainly be disappointed the first time you put the cane to the new 6.
Our 6 i Grand Touring has been a pleasant surprise in the oft overwrought mid-size sedan class, sporting all the cool options to help you feel rich (nav, powered and heated seats, etc.), but with the slightly more frugal four-cylinder powerplant. If you spend most of your time in any sort of commute, this is a sensible combo. Unless loaded with passengers and luggage or seeking pole in the on-ramp grand prix, the stouter V6 is not constantly missed. The chassis feels both stout and athletic, but the real letdown is a distinct lack of steering feedback.
When lapping the Home Depot or Cotsco parking lot, the steering is fine: light and precise. Unfortunately, it stays light though still precise once up to speed. This is fine when chasing interstate miles, but it flat stinks when charging down a decreasing radius off-ramp. The over-boosted tiller makes fine adjustments tricky, and the lack of feedback through the wheel means you have to wait for audible or other chassis clues to tell you when grip is fading. The lifeless steering makes this chassis feel betrayed.
Of course, if you're Mazda, and you're sick if getting waxed in sales because your car isn't tuned for mainstream tastes, you'd probably make the same tuning tweak. Camry people should love this car, getting all the same practical benefit but with some actual style they've been clamoring for. Accord folk would probably notice the lack of steering feel, but probably feel a little richer and enjoy the slightly better road-noise isolation. That just leaves Mazda's Zoom-Zoom faithful, who've lost a low-priced mid-size sedan with real handling spunk. With the 6 out of the sharp-steering mix, have we lost the only driver's car in the class?
As my impatient right foot presses the Mazda 6 into action, the engine groans loudly. The mouthy 2.5-liter inline-4 is a little too talkative for my taste. But once the car gets going, Mazda has done a good job of keeping out wind and road noise.
There is a particularly undulating strip of the 405 freeway that can really stir up a car with a stiff suspension like the GT-R. But the softer Mazda6 absorbs the bumps with ease and keeps out the thump-thump-thump of the concrete seams.
So, while we opted for the Mazda 6 with the smaller engine that sounds like it has to work hard to get going, the suspension and well-designed cabin keep the ride relatively quiet. I get to enjoy my music on the commute home instead of the roar of traffic.
Keyless ignition/entry is a great modern convenience, and our long-term 2009 Mazda 6 Grand Touring has it (it's included on the Touring or Grand Touring trim levels). Like some other cars in our fleet (BMW X5, for instance), the 6's lock/unlock operation utilizes a sensor in the door handle. If the 6 is locked and you approach the car with the fob and lightly touch the back side of the exterior handle, the door will unlock. Pushing the black button locks the door.
Our 6's system can be a bit finicky, though, and the interior integration isn't perfect.
The finicky bit: If you touch the handle and pull too quickly, the car will beep but won't actually unlock the door. Further touching and pulling does nothing. So you either have to push the button to lock the door and try again, or just use the buttons on the key fob.
Interior: The integration of the push-button starter isn't as cleanly done as in other cars. Almost all Nissan Altimas, for instance, come with keyless ignition/entry, so the starter button has been nicely integrated on the dash. The Mazda 6's button, however, is lower down on the center stack, and the normal ignition cylinder has been blanked off. The faceplate that houses the button and seat heater switches looks a bit JC Whitney, and it covers what would otherwise be a small (though useful) storage cubby on non-Touring Mazda 6s.
Even so, these are just quibbles. Overall, having keyless ignition on our 6 is pretty cool.
I've found myself using manual shift control on our automatic-equipped 2009 Mazda 6 more than I typically do in other similarly-configured cars. There are three reasons for this: 1) The shift pattern is pull back for upshifts and push forward for downshifts, which is the way it should be — end of story; 2) The manual gate is towards the driver, so the shift lever feels comfortable and natural to use (too many car companies don't seem to grasp this concept); 3) While acceleration is adequate with the 170-horsepower four-cylinder engine, keeping the transmission in manual mode gives more control over those ponies and grants the bonus of engine braking, as well.
Even though the new 2009 Mazda 6 lost some "sport" in its move to being bigger and better, something like this shows that Mazda didn't sell its soul completely.
All day today, I bet you've been dying to know what groceries I bought over the weekend. Well, thanks to this nifty photo, you can! Bananas, strawberries, bread...
More to the point, though, is that our 2009 Mazda 6 has a big trunk. It measures 16.6 cubic feet worth of capacity, which is more than Accord or Camry. It's nicely shaped, too, and has strut-style scissor hinges for the trunk lid.
A commenter on yesterday's Mazda 6 trunk post mentioned reliability, so it seems prudent today to note that there's a recall notice out for the 2009 Mazda 6. There's nothing more I can tell you beyond what's contained in the above NHTSA screen grab, so I'll leave it at that.
Annoyingly, though, I haven't been able to find out if our car is subject to the recall. Mazda's 800 number is completely unhelpful, and the automated voice prompt system doesn't currently list this recall as one to get more information on. We'll update you once we know more, or if, umm, our car's possibly defective door latches result in "an unbelted occupant being ejected and could result in death or injury."
I drove our 6 home last night for the first time. I think it's a solid car, but what makes it distinctive from other family sedans is the interior lighting. To me that kind of style is a difference maker when all other things are relatively equal.
Once again we prove that there are times when a truck would be nice but isn't completely necessary. This is what seven bags of mulch look like in the trunk of a Mazda6.
Relax. I only went a few blocks. And the 6 handled it quite nicely thank you very much.
When it comes to handling golf bags, some carmakers get it and some don't. Mazda gets it — big time, as you can see in this photo of our 2009 Mazda 6. And the opening is nice and wide too so you don't have to angle your clubs in one end at a time.
A lot of cars these days have such narrow trunks that you have to take the driver out of your bag first and lay it in separately. Then, when you're hurrying to the first tee you forget to put it back in and you have to play your whole round with a three wood. Golf's hard enough without that kind of nonsense.
Look how much room is left even after my clubs are in the Mazda's trunk. You could put Shaq's clubs in here with having to take the driver out of the bag first.
Last night, I put about 100 freeway miles on our 2009 Mazda 6 i Grand Touring, climbing a few grades and initiating a few decisive passing maneuvers. And now I'm convinced that the car's 2.5-liter inline four-cylinder engine is an adequate power source for this midsize sedan.
Ours is a PZEV, of course, so it's rated at 168 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 166 pound-feet at 4,000 rpm (versus 170 hp and 167 lb-ft on non-PZEVs). Like most fours in this class, the 2.5-liter makes useful torque at relatively low rpm and it lasts into the mid-range, so getting around town and merging onto the freeway is pain-free.
Climbing grades (in this case, the I-5 Grapevine) forces the engine to reach for high rpm — well, not too high, as redline comes early at 6,200 rpm. I don't dislike the way the engine sounds at these speeds, but I don't delight in it. Given the choice, I'd rather have the current-generation Accord's 2.4-liter engine as my soundtrack. The engine isn't exactly comfortable at 6,000 rpm, either, but nor does it feel strained.
In general, I was happy with the responsiveness of our Mazda 6 i's five-speed automatic transmission, but on the Grapevine, it took extra prodding to get it to drop to 3rd in "D," so that manual mode would be useful. I do like the 0.692 top overdrive gear, because it has the engine at 2,500 rpm at 70 mph and only 3,000 rpm at 80 mph.
Overall, this is a powertrain I could live with in a personal car, especially considering the impressive cruising range — this a 400-mile car, easy-peasy. The only time the Mazda 6 i feels kinda slow is under full throttle coming down an entrance ramp. And really, I think it would have no difficulty keeping up with the four-cylinder Accord, Camry and Malibu we tested last year. First choice is still the Passat 2.0T, though.
After last night's drive in our 2009 Mazda 6 i Grand Touring, I stopped for fuel. Then, per the car's owners manual, I let the 6 sit for five minutes, during which time I did my taxes and finished Foucault's Pendulum. Then, and only then, did I check the oil
Oil still registered on the dipstick, but it was below the low mark. So this morning I went to the auto parts store to buy the car's preferred drink, 5W20.
The Kragen I go to won't give out paper funnels ("because we want to sell plastic funnels," the staff says), so I was pleased to find this handy cutout in the plastic engine cover. It eliminates the need for a funnel altogether. I took the photo with the bottle's cap on, because I was already done adding oil — I put in just under half a quart. The level is now fine.
This is the result of boredom when it's combined with a 6th grade reading level.
More pictures and video on the next page.
We went faster this time.
But the extra speed caused the water to tear this plastic shield from its place under the car near the rear suspension. Its absence doesn't harm anything, but we'll get it reattached when we bring the 6 in for its 7,500 mile service.
Threw the Recaro Como kid seat into the back of the Mazda 6 this weekend. Overall the process was fine, though the give in the seat cushion and the texture of the leather made it a little tricky to get a tight cinch the first time. There was a plenty of leg room for my 3-year-old once she was in the seat, even with the front passenger seat adjusted for someone my height (5'7") to be comfortable.
I was particularly grateful that the designers of the 6's two-tone interior wrapped the backs of the front seats in black instead of light leather. When tiny feet do reach the seatbacks and leave their marks, at least it's not a jarring dark smudge on a light background.
And with the child safety seat in an outboard position, I was still able to fit in the center seating position (though I'm dangerously thin) if I put my shoulder behind the wing-like side of the Como. Not great for a road trip, but it would work if you were staying local.
I blasted the column with some canned air thinking I might get rid of the dirt and dust. It lessened the noise, but the ghost remains.
It's going in for service very soon so we'll get it looked at and let y'all know.
Within this well-located, multi-function display, the Mazda 6 provides you (in this instance while listening to the radio) with the following info:
— Climate control status
— Time
— Radio band and which bank of presets selected ("SR2")
— Which preset button is selected ("ch3")
— Station selected ("008" — yes, it's the '80s one)
— Passenger temperature selection.
Doesn't this strike you as a bit much, visually? Try reading this display at a glance and you'll see what I mean — there's just too much info crammed in there. If they eliminated the preset status ("ch3") and showed just "SR" to indicate satellite radio, that would allow more space between the info fields and make it easier to quickly get a read on things.
I know it's not going to happen anytime soon, but how good would our Mazda 6 feel with a diesel engine like our Jetta TDI? I'd really like to know.
I spent some time in our Jetta TDI recently and I couldn't get over how much I actually liked to drive it. It's torque curve is perfect for squirting around town and merging in and out of traffic. The car has no brakes, but that's another issue.
So last night I get into our Mazda 6, flat foot the gas pedal and all I get is a bunch of noise and a rather modest shove in the back. And this from one of the better four-cylinders in the segment.
Now it's entirely possible that the much bigger Mazda 6 would suck with the Jetta's pint-size turbo diesel, but Mazda has its own 2.0-liter diesel in Europe which makes 265 pound-feet of torque - 20 more than the Volkswagen motor. Seems like enough to me. Then again, with that motor our Mazda 6 would probably cost $35,000 too, so there's that.
I've hit my limit on in-dash CD changers mounted behind integrated navigation system screens. I can't stand the setup in our long-term 2009 Mazda 6 i Grand Touring.
If it was just a single-disc player, I think I'd be fine with it. But this is a six-disc unit, and the loading and unloading process is the one of the fussiest I've ever encountered. OK, it's helpful that you get the yellow "In" labels to let you know which slots are occupied. But when I'm ready to put something in slot 2, I can't just press the slot 2 disc icon — I have to hit that, plus "Load" or "Eject." That's silly. And with the soft on-screen "buttons" so close together, it's easy to hit the wrong one accidentally.
Some manufacturers (like Nissan/Infiniti) manage to find other real estate in the center stack for a separate CD changer unit when a navigation system is installed. But, frankly, even a glovebox-mounted unit would be preferable to the Mazda 6's setup, which I certainly don't try to load while driving anyway. (Sure, I could listen to my iPod instead, but I didn't want to last night. The sound quality is not the same, plus I spent 15 years building my CD collection — it takes time to rip it all to my computer.)
A note on the screen discoloration: It's still there, but we will address it when the Mazda 6 goes in for its first service.
Of all the Japanese manufacturers, Mazda seems to best understand how to make a driving position for tall dudes like myself (6-foot-3). Both our departed long-term CX-9 and our long-term 6i feature power seats that can be adjusted into the full "birthing position," with the cushion front adjusted way far upward providing maximum thigh support. It backs this up with a far-reaching telescoping steering wheel that allows me to comfortably bend my elbows. Even the Mazda 3 when equipped with power seats is a pretty good proposition.
It would be nice if other manufacturers (cough, Toyota, cough) caught onto providing this sort of seat and wheel adjustment. I've never understood why they wouldn't, since they are basically eliminating themselves needlessly from consideration for people of my height. Being comfortable is of utmost importance. I find that in general BMW and Volvo usually fit me the best — and I'm going to wildly surmise that the latter rubbed off on its corporate cousins Mazda and Ford, because they "fit" remarkably similar.
There's a Screw Loose Somewhere
I'm driving home. Traffic isn't as bad as it could be at 4:30 pm in LA, and I find myself going 65 mph for a change.
Then I hear it: a persistent tapping coming from somewhere under the car, as if someone from Western Union were sending out an urgent message on a telegraph in Morse Code.
And it continues as long as my speed stays above 60 mph. Nothing to do but turn up the stereo some more until I can get home and crawl underneath to try my hand at some DIY.
The bolts holding the plastic shield in place are loose in three of four corners and a plastic button is missing from the forward edge, allowing aero turbulence to whap it against the car.
I went to my local auto parts store for a new one. Nylon Rivets, they call them. They don't have metric, but the 5/16" ones they had fit fine.
$2.49 for a two-pack and she's all fixed. And I still have one more nylon rivet left if anyone needs one.
No more noise, no more loose screws. My minimum labor charge one hour, and I get $100 per. With parts, tax and the toxic waste disposal fee, the total comes to $118.63.
To whom do I send the bill?
Oh yes, I remember now.
On second thought, maybe I'll keep the second nylon rivet handy.
Parts On Order
Our Mazda6 went to the dealer last week for its first service and to have its various malodies repaired. Some time has elapsed since we've discussed the stripe and the stupidity, but both will be fixed soon enough. Ford of Orange had to order both a new nav system and new undercarriage molding and will be calling us when they come in.
Meanwhile, we paid $95.08 for the 5,000-mile service, which, near as we can tell, includes little more than we would have received for an oil-change-only price. Included in the service are top offs of all essential fluids, a tire rotation and pressure adjustment, brake inspection and inspection of all exterior lights. This, however, is largely our fault for asking only for the necessary service at this mileage instead of asking specifically for an oil change.
The other parts will be covered under, ahem, warranty.
A couple weeks ago James wrote about how the seating position in our long-term 2009 Mazda 6 i Grand Touring is tall-guy friendly. Now I'm not exceptionally tall, but after spending another evening with our big red sedan, I think this is a very driver-friendly seating position in general. Specifically, sitting down into the car puts you in the mood to drive, not just commute.
The seats themselves are nothing special: The leather upholstery is only average-quality and Mazda hasn't taken any risks with lateral bolstering (the better to accommodate humans of larger frame). But there's a good range of seat-height adjustment, so I can jack up the seat to see well over the sedan's rising beltline and long nose. It's a great view — as good as anything in the midsize sedan class. Yet, I still feel like I'm nestled in a real cockpit, rather than sitting on a barstool in some crossover SUV.
Then, there's the steering wheel. It's maybe a tenth of a size smaller than the wheels you usually see in this class and it's a typical, Mazda three-spoke design. It feels good to hold, and as I back out of my parking spot, put the transmission in D and turn the corner in the parking garage, I notice something else: genuine steering feel. This will be a good drive.
By the way, after putting together this entry, I realized we haven't taken many exterior shots of our 6 lately. And we've been talking a lot about its glitchy nav system. The Mazda will be going on a road trip this weekend, so you can look forward to more pics and more driving commentary.
Last Friday a couple of your favorite Edmunds.com editors conducted a 222-mile fuel economy test in the 2009 Mazda 6.
The drive route through Orange, San Diego and Riverside Counties was a roughly even city/highway mix — and thus fairly true to the 55-percent city + 45-percent highway formula the EPA uses to come up with combined mpg ratings. Start and finish fill-ups were conducted at the same pump by the same editor; the climate control was set at 72 degrees; and wide open throttle use was prohibited. Lunch and a driver change came in Temecula, California.
The result? 27.8 mpg against an EPA rating of 21/30/24 for a 2009 Mazda 6 i with the five-speed automatic transmission.
Naturally, racking up over 100 miles in city traffic is time-intensive to the point that we spent 6 hours behind the wheel. That gave us plenty of time and opportunity to use the Mazda's Bluetooth.
The good news is that the Bluetooth connection itself works well. Callers come in clearly over the speakers, and for the most part, it's easy to be heard on the other side as well.
But I'm not a fan of the interface. A while ago, John commented that our Mazda 6's dash-top display has too much information. Yet for all the stuff crammed up here, designers found no room to show the number of bars for signal strength.
There's just a red telephone to let you know that you have a connection. If you want to see signal strength, you have to click the menu button on the nav screen and then scroll down to the phone menu. And don't even think about using the touchscreen to dial your phone while the car is in motion (the screen is active here because I was stopped at a light). I know, I know, I'm supposed to use the voice control to do this, but that's a hassle.
I took a quick trip from Los Angeles to Fresno over the weekend in our long-term 2009 Mazda 6 i Grand Touring. I've written before that I find our car's 168-hp (not 170, as it's a PZEV), 2.5-liter four-cylinder adequate. But during the drive, I decided I really would not want to own a Mazda 6 with this engine.
Even by four-cylinder standards, this engine is light on low-end torque. Its peak of 166 pound-feet doesn't hit until 4,000 rpm and it feels like a steep climb to get there. Scaling the southbound stretch of the Interstate 5 "Grapevine," the tach was pegged at 4,000 rpm in my quest to keep a 75-to-80-mph pace.
It's not that I mind revving this high, mind you. But whereas the Honda Accord's 2.4-liter engine is comfortable and free-revving at these heights, Mazda's 2.5-liter is noisy and somewhat strained. This is not an athletic-feeling engine and not in keeping with the car's or the brand's sporty image.
The upside to this experience was the five-speed automatic transmission. This automatic is quick with downshifts and, as long as you're steady on throttle, it holds those gears for as long as needed. When I was cruising at 4,000, it was holding onto third gear.
And other than the mediocre engine performance, the Mazda 6 was a fine road trip car. All 6s, four-cylinder and V6, have an 18.5-gallon fuel tank — thus providing incredible range in the four-cylinder car. I put in 13.640 gallons after 347.9 miles of driving (for 25.5 mpg), but I easily could have stretched that past 400.
Wind and road noise levels in the cabin are not exactly calming, but they're average for the midsize sedan class. And both my boyfriend and I found the front seats comfortable and supportive for three hours of driving.
Early yesterday morning, our long-term 2009 Mazda 6 i Grand Touring passed the 10,000-mile mark during a commute into Southern California's Inland Empire. At the time, I was cruising at 75 mph and enjoying the big red sedan's nicely damped ride — it's controlled over the bumps but never too harsh. I was also listening to Morning Edition, so I wasn't fretting over the lack of bass and separation from the optional, and underwhelming, Bose audio system ($1,760 when bundled with the moonroof).
When the Mazda 6 hit 9,998 miles, I searched for an exit so that I could safely document the approaching milestone. We ended up at this lovely funeral home in the Covina hills.
So my friend Mitch comes across the street to see the new car the way he always does. He owns and runs Park Plaza Shell, where he already sees more cars than anyone in town. Here's what he said. (You probably can guess what I said.)
"So that's a Mazda?
"I can't recall seeing one before. It really looks great. Don't all cars looks great now?
"It's so big. What kind of Mazda?
"I remember the Mazda 6. This doesn't look anything like that.
"Better than an Accord?
"How much power? From the V6, I mean.
"The four-cylinder is better?
"Fuel economy is that good?
"Think they'll turbocharge it?
"That much power in racing?
"I don't think I've see one before. Better than an Accord?
Yes, the Mazda 6 is still a secret. But the secret is slowly getting out.
It looks like the Mazda 6 is smiling even with the hood open - maybe it's happy about the adequate inline four it's got. I find the four cylinder engine to be perfectly fine - if this is the new face of making due with less then I can live with it.
There are now just two midsize sedans with a four cylinder engine I actually like. The Mazda 6 and Honda Accord. Is the Mazda's powerful? Not really. Does it drone at times? Yep. Still it's OK. The Mazda 6 is now the kind of car you drive to work and forget for eight hours, then you go home (nice enough inside) and forget about it till morning. The Mazda 6 has lost something compared to the previous version - the new car is fine but not special. Welcome to the Camry side of life Mazda.
Not noticing certain things is one of the highest compliments you can pay. For example - "Did you notice the sound system at that Broadway play?" "Not really." "Wasn't the editing in that film incredible?" "Didn't really notice." The truth is, if most things like this are noticed it's because they're terrible.
I've been driving the Mazda 6 for a few days and I simply have not noticed the seats. I say that means they are excellent. What do you think, are great seats virtually invisible or are they the kind that instantly WOW you with firm bolstering or a super soft cushion?
Here's a picture of the most beautiful thing in the entire automotive world. See how that kid's feet are not touching the seat in front of him? Pure joy! No amount of horsepower, handling prowess or blue and white logos can make up for this one simple pleasure.
Hey Mazda, thanks for getting it!
I consider the Mazda 6's lack of an iPod specific connection to be a huge mistake. It's just the kind of thing a typical Mazda customer would want in a big way. An aux in jack is not the same - it won't charge and you can't navigate your device without looking down. That being said, it does work in the most basic sense. However, the one thing I just can't take is the fact that whenever I turn the car off then on again, the stereo never stays on the AUX setting. Almost every time I fire the car up, the radio is on some other setting usually CD. I leave my iPod hooked up and it remains running on shuffle. If I can't have total control then at least give me the ability to jump right back into 16 gigs of randomness. Truly maddening!
There's nothing really wrong with our Mazda 6i Grand Touring. Still, I'm amazed how many people get upset by statements like "It's just OK" or when we imply that the new Mazda 6 is a little more like a Camry than the previous version. Owners of the new Mazda 6 no doubt feel they have something special. I think I know why they feel this way
Mazda clearly spent a lot of time getting the 6's interior just right. It's an area that's often overlooked but likely more important than any other aspect of the car. The interior of the car is where you spend ALL your time.
New Mazda 6 owners likely feel their car is special because of the chrome trim, the glowing white needles and blue/red backgrounds and the nicely ingetrated steering wheel mounted controls that always seem to be right where you need them. Mazda 6 owners feel thier car is special because from the inside looking out, it is.
Last night on Edmunds.com we published a comparison test between our long-term Mazda 6 Grand Touring and a Volkswagen CC 2.0T. It's a test I've been wanting to do for quite sometime. Two stylish four-cylinder four-doors that both cost right around $30,000 and prove that mainstream family sedans don't have to be boring.
I'm not going to tell you which car won it, but I will tell you that my personal hard earned money would be payed monthly for the better looking and more powerful VW. As much as I like the Mazda 6, I really like driving the CC. Plus, I'm a sucker for its Ferrari Daytona inspired leather upholstery.
Which would you rather have parked in your garage?
I've been reading a lot of blog, forum and YouTube comments that have a similar theme.
They basically go like this (w/ some variation): "I'm waaaay too busy apexing corners, out gunning 911s and just being awesome in general to worry about an iPod connection. After a day of super incredible driving, I'd rather watch a bronco busting buddy film, slap high fives then down a Bud rather than worry about downloading music or whatever."
I call bull on that. Having an iPod connection is becoming a make or break proposition for many new car buyers. Mazda kinda gets it - they put a power point and the AUX jack together inside the center console storage box. iPod on > music > songs > shuffle. Set it and forget it. I get 16 gigs of music and I never have to worry about running out of juice or dealing with ugly cords. Sure, I'd rather have a standard iPod specific connection but this is a decent second place.
Our Sangria Red Mazda 6 came with a beige leather interior. The beige leather interior came with this odd, wavy-lined/matte metallic faux bamboo ("shamboo"?) trim material on the center console. Whenever I get into the Mazda 6, I think, "This is a nice-looking interior" — and then I happen to look down at the cupholder cover and go, "Ugh, except for that." I can appreciate that designers like to throw in something a little different, a little something to catch your eye, but this pattern is going to look really dated really quickly.
Perhaps you remember this little problem with our 6's navigation screen? Or, maybe, you remember the missing underbody cladding courtesy Boss Man Oldham? Certainly you remember that way back in early April we took the 6 to the dealer to have these issues addressed and get the oil changed? Naturally, the parts had to be ordered.
Service writer Mary Kant at Ford of Orange in Orange, California (that would be the OC) told us we'd get a call when the parts arrived. That was in April. It's June. Still no call. We rang Mary this morning and were told the underbody cladding is in but the nav screen has been on backorder. It's supposed to ship on June 9. We don't know from where.
Mary said she'd call when it arrives. We aren't holding our breath.
They say familiarity breeds contempt, but I think the opposite may be true for cars. Spend enough time with any machine and you can't help but sense some beauty in its lines. Not that the complex curves of the Mazda 6 are heinous to begin with, but the subtlety of its shape is definitely starting to impress.
It's in some good company as well, as I thought I'd spotted a nearly identically prepped Sangria Red 6 getting a scrub in a neighbor's driveway, and it wasn't until I was close enough to wave that I realized it was a Jaguar XF in a remarkably similar shade. That lucky owner also did a double take as I rolled by, probably drawn in by both cars' high bustle.
The 6 is no XF, but our oddly luxed-out four-cylinder model continues on as a remarkably pleasant daily soldier, and even the normally unappealing arrest-me-red paint scheme continues to look rich and almost peppery. That spicy shade doesn't carry over into thrust, however, but many of us are probably focusing on what a bargain this machine must be with its four-cylinder mill, as there isn't a time I drive it that I'm not impressed by its content. Trying to adjust the front passenger seat from the drivers perch had me fumbling for a lever in front of the seat, then doubtfully reaching for the far side of the seat to be surprised again in finding power adjustments. In a four-cylinder? Wait, what's the sticker on this thing again? $30,340?
OK, scratch that. Our Mazda 6 is a loaded, luxed-out four door that gets sexier looking by the day. But topping $30K, it's got everything you'd expect at this price but motor. Jockeying for an upcoming turn lane, I had to dent the fire-wall to out-hustle a Prius. He was full-bottle too, but it was close. For the sticker, I'd want a little more accelerative breathing room. Though riding on the capable "old" 6 platform and not as slinky, you can tart up a 2010 Fusion SEL pretty well for $30K, including Sync and a 3.0-liter V6.
I logged 150 freeway miles this weekend in our 2009 Mazda 6, most of it in slooooooww moving freeway traffic, and noticed that the center console lid felt strange under my bored right elbow.
Lifting the loose lid, I realized the latch was broken off, preventing it from clicking shut.
I don't believe that mini nuisance has yet been added to the Mazda 6's growing list of repairs.
My sister-in-law came over last week to borrow some long stuff. The pile included a rake, an area rug, 4 five-foot-long two-by-fours and an oversized patio umbrella. She popped the trunk of her 328i and realized her rear seat does not fold down.
Now what?
"Well", I said, "I can take the kids seats out of our Passat wagon and fold down its seats, but what a pain in the butt. You got any other ideas?"
"What about that car?" she said motioning to our long-term Mazda 6 that was sitting in my driveway. "Will they fit in there?"
"I don't know, let me get the key."
Sure enough. The Mazda's rear seat folded flat in seconds (it's even split 60/40) and it easily swallowed all the items. In fact, there was so much room to spare she went back in the garage and grabbed my push broom, a few tall bamboo sticks I'd been saving and my lifesize cardboard cutout of Burt Reynolds.
After 900 miles — the round-trip mileage to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca (sheesh, I just said it again) — I've become intimate with the 6's seats, which left both the wife and I with some serious road ass.
The 6's harder-than-average seats are good for short trips as they keep me from sinking in too much and offer reasonable lateral support. They're also highly adjustable. But after 900 miles their firmness was just too much for my relatively unpadded underside. Maybe it's just me.
Here's something that isn't me, though. In an effort to eliminate hot spots and find the optimal seating postion, I was fiddling with this lumbar knob when I heard a pop from the back of the seat. And then, as you might imagine, the knob became purely decorative, offering as much control over lumbar support as the volume knob on the dashboard.
What's more, the red stripe on the nav screen is still there — three months after we made the initial dealer visit to resolve this issue. Mazda of Orange refuses to return our calls despite telling us last month that the screen was on back order. We'll try another dealer after one more phone call.
The wife and I logged aboout 900 miles in the Mazda 6 over the weekend, stopping at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca (they like it when we call it that) several times to take in the insane shriek of GP motorcycle engines cranking out somewhere around 290 hp per liter. The 6's specific output, while adequate, is somewhat less.
Here's a shot of the 6 next to the James Dean Memorial at the intersection of highway 41 and 46 in California's central valley.
Overall, the 6 treated us well, achieving 30.2 mpg on the 350-mile return trip. There are, however, a few niggling details I'd like to change about the 6. More on those later.
Our 2009 Mazda 6 has been popular with our familied staffers. It's always a vacation choice with editors who have kids. When they want to escape for a weekend of family fun, the Mazda 6 fulfills their needs in style and comfort.
Here it is pictured at the water park with two of our editors.
We have featured all of our long-term cars except the Smart Fortwo and the Ford Focus and we figured you didn't care if we skipped them. The Honda Insight and Dodge Ram are too new. We'd like to give them a little breathing room before we tackle them as car of the week.
So, we're giving the Mazda 6 another go. Yee-ha!
Several thousand miles have gone by since I last drove our long-term 2009 Mazda 6 i Grand Touring. As I adjusted the power driver seat and tilt/telescoping steering wheel this afternoon, I realized I was happy to get back into the Mazda.
The cabin materials in this car are of respectable quality for this price ($30,340), and the overall effect of our 6's sand-colored seats, black carpeting/dash and red/blue lighting is a fairly upscale ambiance. I also find the driving position in this big sedan more natural and comfortable than just about any other moderately priced midsize sedan on the market.
So, when I pulled up to this Santa Monica, California, taco truck (west side of 11th, just north of Olympic), we decided not to eat our mariscos tostada inside the Mazda 6.
When I wandered across the street to take this photo, I finally found an angle of this sedan that I like — the 2009 Mazda 6 looks great in profile. I still think its front and rear fascias are way overdone, though.
Took the Mazda 6 for a family road trip to Running Springs over the weekend. It's about an hour and a half drive each way with an elevation gain of about 6,000 feet, and we also made day trips to Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear Lake. Found the firm seats to be quite effective for this duration, but I can see why Josh Jacquot tired of them after 900 miles.
The real pain for us on this trip was the sluggish response of the four-cylinder engine and five-speed automatic transmission team on the way up the mountain. I was constantly pining for turnouts to slink into so the more powerful-engined cars behind me could move on. On the rare occasion that I was stuck behind someone else and a passing lane became available, I'd really have to put my toe to the floor (and then wait, wait, wait) to pass them before the lane ended. But once we got into town and only had minimal elevation gains and losses to deal with, the Mazda 6 was a lovely partner for our small family of three.
When I was growing up every car in my household was a Chevy. My Dad had two Chevys, my oldest brother had one, my sister had one, my Aunt who worked for my Dad, had one.
I grew up expecting all cars to have powerful, cold-blasting air conditioners. So, forgive me if I'm a little obsessed with the subject.
After sitting in our company garage all day, the cars get pretty toasty. So, I was very happy last night when I got into the Mazda 6 and found the A/C to be Chevyriffic. It has dual zones so my less heat-stricken passengers can control their own environment, the vents are well placed, the dials are easy to use without needing a degree in environmental science (unlike some other cars in our fleet <cough>Audi</cough>), the air flows strong and quietly, and the system cools the whole cabin quickly.
Happy happy joy joy.
Tell us about the A/C in your car.
On our three-day trip to the San Bernardino Mountains, we averaged 24.5 mpg over almost 300 miles of driving (about half of which were on flat highway). That's slightly better than both our lifetime average with the car (23.5) and the EPA's combined fuel economy estimate (24). But considering that the EPA highway estimate is 30 mpg (and our best tank so far has been 29.5), the mountains took a good chunk out of our fuel economy, which is what you'd expect.
As you can see from the various shots above, our Mazda 6 is a well-built sedan. I searched inside and out for a panel that wasn't lined up or a piece of trim hanging out of place and I couldn't find one. I even checked the now infamous sunroof crease and it looked pretty tight too. Good to see at 15,000 miles, nice job Flat Rock plant.
Is there anyone who doesn't dream of putting a racing engine under the hood?
The pumped-up exotic sports cars you see on the street are just the latest expression of an impulse that you can trace clear back to 1916, when Louis Chevrolet formed Frontenac with his brothers to build overhead valve conversions for Henry Ford's inline-4. Since then it's been a point of pride to say that your car had a competition-bred thoroughbred engine under the hood.
Who would have guessed that our 2009 Mazda 6 would be among them?
Yes, the Mazda 6 is just like the Bugatti Type 35, Ferrari 250GT SWB and even the Porsche 911 GT3, because it's got a competition-proven engine. Mazda's 16-valve, DOHC, 2.5-liter MZR inline-4 might seem modest with its output of 170 hp, yet it's the basis of the turbocharged 500-hp engine that powers the Dyson Racing Lola B09/86 that competes in the LMP 2 class of the American Le Mans Series.
As a matter of fact, the Mazda MZR powers a full range of Mazda cars in competition, including the MX-5 Cup, Star Mazda, Formula Atlantic and even drag racing. There was a time when production-based engines were fairly common in racing applications, but as engine manufacturers have come to emphasize low-friction, lightweight designs in order to improve fuel economy and air emissions, this has become a rare feat. It's particularly rare among four-cylinder engines, where the designs are stressed near their limits even in a production application. These days, the idea of building in the capacity for added horsepower seems like a waste of money and resources to corporate accountants.
The MZR is a notable exception. Engineered by Mazda for worldwide use to both Mazda and Ford cars, this inline-4 has been massaged by some of the finest specialists in race engineering. Cosworth removes the engine's balance shafts and adds its own modified cylinder heads and crankcase to build the normally aspirated, 300-hp engine for Formula Atlantic. The turbocharged MZR-R has been developed by AER, which formerly specialized in Nissan engines.
Truth to tell, only the MZR-R's engine block will remind you of anything found under the hood of our Mazda 6, as a single Garrett turbocharger, a Cosworth-developed valvetrain with barrel-type throttles, and electronics from Life Racing help develop 500 hp and 400 lb-ft of torque from the 100-octane E10 fuel provided by BP. Even so, I'm kind of charmed by the fact that a little bit of our Mazda 6 not only competes in the American Le Mans Series but also powered a handful of cars at the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year.
I opened up the center console of our Mazda 6 this morning. It was really easy to open. And when I saw the missing latch I understood why. I can't tell you how it happened.
But I can tell you the missing latch was found, and snapped right back into place with minimal effort. Now our 6 is good as new.
Service! At Last!
Well, not quite. But we did get a call from Mazda of Orange last week saying they have the navigation screen and underbody cladding in stock at last. Service writer Mary Kant offered to have the car detailed to compensate us for the delay.
We'll take it in next week.
A Mazda 6 participated in today's family midsize sedan comparison test over on Edmunds.com. Like our long-termer, it was a loaded Grand Touring version, but unlike our long-termer, it featured the bigger V6 engine that comes on the 6 s (ours is a 6 i).
Put up against the Chevy Malibu, Ford Fusion, Honda Accord and Hyundai Sonata, the 6 showed itself to be the best choice for enthusiast drivers and not a bad one for everyone else, either.
This One's Just Right
I spent another weekend searching for houses. Our 6 hit the top of my list of vehicles to drive over the weekend because of its nav system. I've learned more about the streets of LA in the last two months of house searching than I have in the last 10 years of living here.
I've always liked the 6, even the previous generation. I felt it was a great car that gets overlooked for no other reason than everyone is attracted to the Accord/Camry like moths to a flame. At least that's true here in SoCal. But how does it stack up to the new Taurus?
I recently got to spend some time in the new kid on the block: the 2010 Ford Taurus. While I did like the Taurus quite a bit, it didn't feel nimble, it didn't feel fast for having a powerful engine, and like everyone keeps saying, it's BIG. You don't get a good feel for how big it is in pictures, but in person it's really tall to a short guy like myself and the seating position looks down at just about every non-truck/suv/crossover vehicle out there. I felt like I was mini truckin' while driving the Taurus.
When I got back into the 6, my experience in the Taurus really gave me an appreciation for how "right" the Mazda feels to me. It's comfortably spacious without being huge. It feels light and nimble in the steering wheel and it's aesthetically pleasing to my eye. Ok, so the four banger we got in there doesn't do much to inspire passing confidence, that's it's biggest weak point for me.
If we had that V6 in our car, I'd say without hesitation that it's a solid car from tip to tail.
Service! At Last! For Real This Time.
I'll be taking the Mazda 6 to Ford and Mazda of Orange today to have the navigation screen and underbody cladding repaired/replaced. Between the dealer's delays and our own foot dragging this has taken far too long. More on this next week.
Those of you who care about our Mazda6 no doubt remember the red line on the nav screen, which has been haunting us for months. Well, it's finally been repaired. Or, more precisely, it's been replaced — by Mazda of Orange. The debacle dates back to April when we first took the car in for this issue and to have the Oldhamised underbody cladding replaced.
The delay is thanks largely to the dealer which took entirely too long to acquire the parts, but there was no shortage of foot dragging on our end, either. We finally took the car in for the repair on Friday, August 14 and were called to pick it up on Tuesday, August 18. We'll spare you the long string of logic that kept us from attempting to pick it up until last Friday, August 21.
Prior to picking it up, service writer, Mary Doyle, offered to have the car detailed to compensate us for the multiple delays — something we were thankful for. However, when we got there last Friday, the car was as dirty as when we took it in. So we left it until Tuesday afternoon, which was as soon as they could complete the job.
The logic here escapes us. Think about it critically and it seems we were being further delayed by a service designed to compensate us for a delay. This is yet to occur to anyone at Ford of Orange, but we're not terribly surprised — they haven't exactly covered themselves in glory throughout this mess.
Whatever.
It's done. There's no red line on the nav screen, the new underbody cladding is in place and the paint is shining again.
With temperatures in the triple digits in some parts of the Los Angeles area this weekend, I had a chance to test the limits of the Mazda 6's AC. The system functioned just fine, and did a good job of cooling the cabin.
One thing that took some getting used to is the fact that the HVAC display screen is so, so far away from the HVAC controls. Since the HVAC control knobs don't bear any notches to let you know how far they've been turned, you have to check the display screen for the status of things — and it's all the way at the top of the center stack. A setup like the one in the Hyundai Sonata, for example — where the HVAC display screen is beneath the nav screen and directly above the HVAC controls — would have worked better.
Which car's HVAC setup do you like best?
Last month we let you know that the Mazda 6's navigation screen had finally been fixed thanks to Mazda of Orange. But while the display screen's red line is indeed gone, the actual navigation unit seems to be having problems. When I left our office in Santa Monica, GPS was locating me in Fullerton, about 40 miles away (presumably because it's close to Orange).
I then drove about 250 miles north to central California but the Mazda thought I was heading south. For a while the display screen showed the car wandering around Mexico. I felt like Moses in the desert, if Moses happened to drive a Mazda.
I tried the calibration function via the navigation system's menu and set my location manually — that worked for a short time but then the navigation started getting increasingly off in terms of distance. I finally tried taking the navigation DVD out and reinserting it. No luck there, either.
Another trip to the dealer is probably in order. In the meantime, I'll enjoy the underwater scenery of my current location.
Have you seen many new Mazda 6 sedans on the road yet? I haven't. As editor Riswick mentioned in an Edmunds comparison test recently, the 6 hasn't exactly been lighting up the sales charts. So far from the beginning of the year through August, Mazda has sold 23,514 6s. In comparison, Toyota's sold 238,612 Camrys and Honda has moved 200,543 Accords. A few others: Ford Fusion: 123,766; Chevrolet Malibu: 108,516; Volkswagen Passat/CC (combined): 21,395; Mercedes-Benz C-Class: 34,432.
Of course, the whole point of the "go large" 2009 redesign was to make the car more appealing to the masses. Given that we're pretty fond of our long-term Mazda 6 and owners seem to like it, too (it has a better Edmunds consumer rating than both the Accord and Camry), what's the cause for the comparatively low sales? Lack of awareness would be my guess.
Although some people still pine for the smaller, more nimble previous-generation Mazda 6, that car's tight rear seat was no doubt an issue for many family sedan buyers. To see how the upsized new Mazda 6 fares, I sat in back of our long-termer for about an hour-long trip.
There's plenty of legroom and decent thigh support. Toe room should be fine as long as you're not wearing hiking boots or something bulky like that. Headroom was suitable for me (5-feet, 10-inches), though I could imagine someone of taller stature having more of an issue with this. There a suitable rake to the seatback, making it a little easier to relax.
The only thing I didn't like was that the door's armrest seemed too far away — I couldn't easily rest my forearm on it. Overall, though, the new 6 is very competitive in terms of rear-seat comfort.
In the daytime, the dash lights on the Mazda 6 glow a subtle red. But in the evening, they let their hair down and rock out.
The blue and red combo makes my eyes think they see purple.
I don't mind the look. Purple is my favorite color. But I think if I were on a long road trip, my eyes would tire of the neon-ish glow.
What color are the lights on your speedometer?
This weekend featured beautiful, sunny weather in Los Angeles. I know, what a surprise. Yet, for some reason our Mazda 6 thought that it was dark and gloomy, because the automatic headlights stubbornly refused to shut off. Even after multiple starts and stops (ignition wise), the headlights continued to remain on despite it being bright and sunny.
This morning was indeed overcast and gloomy, so it was tough to tell if the headlights were still acting up or if they were just doing their job. However, in the brief drive between the gas station and the office, I'm pretty certain the lights came on only after I entered the garage. Therefore, it would seem that the auto headlights are acting up, but not always.
We'll have to add this to the imminent dealer fix-it list along with the manual lumbar control knob (we forgot about that one) and the wonky navigation system, which now places the car about 114 miles off the coast of Santa Cruz. It doesn't even have a reliable compass, as it points south when you're really going north.
I had our long-term Mazda 6 last night and thought I'd check out the headlights that JRiz said could possibly be on the Fritz. When I left the gym after work it was already dark out and they came on with no problem.
This morning, it was a bit dark and gloomy when I drove in. The headlamp telltale in the meters (lower portion of tach) wasn't on and I also verified that the lamps weren't on when I saw no lamp reflection in the dark Suburban ahead of me at a stoplight (the light turned green just as I was able to whip out my camera.)
All of this was with the headlamp switch in the Auto position.
So they seem to be working now.
Like many cars nowadays, the Mazda 6 can be equipped with a blind-spot monitoring and warning device (BSM). Using sensors, the car informs you via a little light in the mirrors (pictured) if something is in your blind spot. Should you activate the turn signal when said something is lurking, there is a loud beeping noise as a warning.
The Ford Fusion has this too and does the job of warning you of other cars should your properly placed mirrors not be sufficient or your mind wanders. The Mazda 6's system will also warn you of other cars, but it gets a FAIL because it'll also warn you of guard rails and trees and hedges and curbs and dudes 20 feet away.
When merging onto I-405 North from I-10, I signaled my intention from the right-most lane to exit onto the off-ramp ahead. The 6 loudly beeped at me (it's a bit startling) because it was picking up the guard rail and shrubs that were presently there. When I went to turn right into the garage this afternoon, BSM picked up the curb, trees, grass or previously mentioned dude even though all were actually beyond an extended right-hand turn lane placed between them and the lane I was presently in. The Ford Fusion and other systems didn't do this in the same places.
As such, I turn BSM off every time I get into the Mazda 6. And really, I'd rather have an integrated blind spot mirror, like the one found in the Ford Flex. Rather than a little light telling me there's something there, the mirror actually shows me the something that's there.
This is where our long-term 2009 Mazda 6 insisted it was located all weekend.
That is all.
Ever hear the story of the Princess and the Pea? Prince's mother hides a pea under a mattress, stacks many more mattresses on top, and still the Princess is sooooo delicate, she can feel the pea underneath, bruising her back while she's trying to get her royal beauty sleep?
Yeah, that's not me.
But that's exactly how I feel about our 2009 Mazda 6's seatbacks. I like the shape of the seat, lateral support, bolstering, even the quality of the leather, but for some reason, the feel of the three vertical seams in the seatback annoys me, no matter what I'm wearing.
No, I haven't tried driving with a parka on yet (this is Southern California, folks, I'm not planning on donning one anytime soon), but I'm not wearing a backless evening gown to work, either.
A couple of miles down the road in the Mazda 6, I start fantasizing about sheepskin seatcovers.
Does that make me a Princess, or just a big, ol' whiny baby?
Yesterday we called Long Beach Mazda and scheduled a service appointment for this morning in order to bring our Mazda 6's navigation system back to dry land.
We agreed to drop off the car at 8:30 a.m., which we did as evidenced by the photo above.
Hopefully, it won't take long for the repair.
We dropped off the Mazda 6 at Long Beach Mazda to have its navigation fixed. Within a couple hours the phone rang. "You're car is ready. We calibrated the nav system and you're no longer swimming in the Pacific."
See that arrow on the nav screen? Well, that is exactly where I parked to take this picture. I consider that a job well done. Finally, a competent service department.
I know we've had a lot of posts featuring the navigation screen lately, but I discovered this morning that it's possible to tilt the screen in our Mazda 6. And I'm not talking about the acrobatic tilt and swivel to load CDs into the audio system. This tilt seems useful in avoiding glare on the screen itself. At least, that's all I can think of.
Here's how it works. You push the physical "display" button below the bottom right hand of the screen, and the display screen controls come up (click through to the jump to see the control screen). There are two virtual buttons on the bottom left corner of that screen to control tilt angle. Hit the left one and the physical screen stays flush with the case (see above left). Hit the right one and the bottom of the physical screen tilts ever so slightly up (about half an inch or so, see above right).
Any other ideas why this might be useful?
In August I was walking around Tokyo while on vacation, and I spotted this red Mazda Atenza. Now I know the world-car version of the Mazda Atenza/6 is Mondeo-based and, so far as we know, nothing like our Mazda 6, but in that moment, the resemblance to our North American-market long-term Mazda 6 was striking. The shape of the headlamps is oh so close, and even the red paint looks similar to the mix used for our long-termer.
I peeped inside, and sure enough, it even had a similar looking light interior and an automatic transmission. Straw seat mats must be a JDM-only option.
Of course, I then got all wistful: I miss the Mazda 6 wagon.
Let's get down to brass tacks: The persistent navigation system problems we are having with our 2009 Mazda 6 have gone on far too long.
First reported back in April, we waited months for back-ordered parts to come in to fix a broken display screen. A new head unit was needed to remedy a mysterious red stripe that obscured the right-hand side of the display.
The parts eventually came in and we finally got the screen repaired in late August. But a short time later the "you are here" cursor started to wander — first to Mexico, then out into the Pacific Ocean. At least one reader suspected the problem was a GPS error related to improper installation of the new part.
Circumstances prevented us from bringing it in straight away, but when we finally did we brought our Mazda 6 to a different dealer, in hopes of better service. They told us that all the system needed was a recalibration. "That will do it", they said. The work was done and the car was promptly returned to us the next day.
After a while it became obvious that this rush job was woefully insufficient. Our Mazda's nav system needs much more than a mere recalibration.
They should have have been able to tell that the GPS signal is not reaching the navi system, as evidenced by the lack of clock reading in the yellow circle, above. Without it's main guiding signal, the system resorts to groping its way along 100% of the time in "dead-reckoning" mode, a back-up mode intended to fill-in the momentary satellite blackouts that occur when the car is driven under trees or through tunnels.
DR uses steering, speed and acceleration sensors to approximate your direction changes, and this data is overlaid on top of the map. It doesn't know exactly where you are, but it can make a good guess if your starting point (and heading) was properly calibrated. It also makes the assumption that you're driving along roads that it knows.
This works fine for short hops in suburban areas. But if you drive miles and miles at a time in this mode, the errors pile up and the system loses it's way. Left unchecked, North becomes South and you wind up south of the border or far out to sea. It's no coincidence that the editors who noticed the biggest errors were the ones who went out on extended trips.
This weekend I drove to San Diego, 90 miles south. But I didn't notice that the cursor had started to diverge until I appraoched a meal stop in Irvine, about 1/3 of the way there. In the photo above the nav system thinks the car is on Von Karman Avenue. But I've put the manual cross-hairs on my true location on Jamboree Road, about 1/2 mile east. It's not a big offset at this point, but it played heck with my attempt to locate food.
After eating and restarting the car and zig-zagging out of the El Pollo Loco Parking lot, the system inexplicably lost track of north and south. Pretty soon it had me tracking north-northeast (as indicated by the the red triangle above) when I was in fact near the yellow circle, headed more or less south-southeast toward San Diego. At one point the difference between my actual and indicated positions grew to some 170 miles.
So much for the dealer's recalibration theory.
It turns out the recalibration procedure is in the manual, and it's pretty simple. I reset my position and direction this morning before heading to work. No dealer visit required.
As I suspected, this recalibration was just as ineffective. Within 30 miles the system started to develop a large-enough error that it could no longer estimate which of the closely-spaced roads it was travelling along. Here I'm driving on the 405 freeway, but the cursor is on a parallel path in a nearby Inglewood neighborhood.
Why can't the dealer service department recognize the obvious? No time signal means no GPS signal. And, more basic than that, a system with a functional GPS input knows that it's not miles away in another country or bobbing in the water like a buoy at sea. Errors like this should never develop where satellites are visible overhead.
C'mon service technicians and service writers, use your heads. We're bringing this thing back in once more to have the GPS signal restored, so you're getting another chance.
There are many roads in L.A. that are fun to drive. Twisty, elevated roads with spectacular views.
However, most of our driving time is spent stuck on the freeway inching along with thousands of other commuters.
That is when the interior features of a car become so important.
Crawling my way home Friday night after a long work week, I became friends with our Mazda 6. It's not that I didn't like it before. But we got to know each other a little better.
I appreciate its easy-to-use audio system, its satellite radio, its seat heaters, its comfortable power-adjustable driver seat.
But most of all I enjoyed its pedal action. It's not too tippy like the BMW 7 Series. It's not too hesitant like the Suzuki SX4. It's just right. (I sound like Goldilocks.) And the brakes are the same. They have the right amount of feel. You never have a jerky stop. You never fear you're not going to stop. It's just right.
And when the heavens shine upon the freeway and a path finally clears for you, it has enough zoom to get you going. It's not the quickest car on the road, but it's not the slowest.
It's just right.
I was out of town when Donna sent out her e-mail looking for 2009 Mazda 6 logbook data to populate her October fuel economy update. Here are some Mazda 6 fuel economy facts:
Miles driven: 20025 (in 11 months)
Best tank: 30.2 mpg (EPA highway = 30 mpg)
Worst tank: 18.7 mpg (EPA city = 21 mpg)
Average mpg for all miles: 23.7 mpg (EPA combined = 24 mpg)
Number of fill-ups: 68
Number of fill-ups of 15 gallons or more: 15
Number of tanks with 350 or more miles: 14
Number of tanks with 400 or more miles: 6
Greatest range on one tank: 453.9 miles
Three things:
The Mazda 6 hasn't gone on many long-distance road trips, but it has met or exceeded the highway rating a couple of times.
The lack of road trips may not lead us to 24,000 miles in 12 months, but it will be close. We're not doing bad for a car that's mainly seeing commuting duty.
Its overall mpg over 25,000+ miles is just about equal to the EPA combined rating. It is equal, in fact, if you round it up to the nearest whole number (23.7 --> 24) as the EPA does for its window sticker numbers.
For the record, we are not having problems with our 2009 Mazda 6's so-called Advanced Key. You know, the kind where you keep it in your pants...and push buttons to lock or start the car instead.
But what does one do if the car fails to recognize the electronic signature of the Advanced Key?
Well, for starters, you slide the little latch aside to release a hidden "real" key and use it to unlock the door, old-school style.
But there's no obvious place to stick it, as the usual keyhole is blanked off.
A closer look reveals a little key-sized notch at the base of the plastic cover.
Once removed, a keyhole of sorts is revelaed. The weird part is this: the key goes in, but you can't turn it to start the car.
To do that, you go back to the start button on the center stack, as usual.
It's all very easy, but not every car with such a system has the same back-up starting strategy. Advice: read the manual entry on this subject beforehand.
So he tells me that now that they have this new family, she's looking at her Toyota 4Runner and thinking it should be some kind of family-friendly crossover. You can't blame them really, as there's a whole commercial culture built on accessories for your newborn, so you find yourself extending the same outlook to your transportation needs. It's as if you get a big stamp on your forehead that says, "Must have room for stroller."
And there's something to be said for a utility-style cargo area. That nice, flat loading floor makes it easy to scoot things in and out, and almost everything has some kind of split-back folding seat so you can expand the space. Of course, it also quickly assumes the appearance of an overcrowded kitchen drawer, with stuff sliding around. And the truth is, the volume isn't that great, because you can only stack stuff to the height of the rear seatback for fear of something being catapulted forward in a sudden stop.
So why not a car instead? As the Mazda 6 illustrates, the modern trunk is a miracle of modern convenience. This one measures 16.6 cubic feet, and the whole split-back seat thing applies. The liftover height is actually lower than most any crossover. And everything is secured in a nice container, so it won't try to hit you in the head in an accident. It's not like the trunk of the modern car is shaped like a well, which is what used to make the trunk of a sedan so inconvenient. I'll show him this picture, since I think hardly anybody really gets the way rear seats flop and fold these days.
So I'll suggest the Mazda 6 to him. But they'll probably get a Mazda CX-7 instead.
We drove our car of the week, the 2009 Mazda 6, for a Meals on Wheels run today.
There was plenty of room in the trunk for the various food carriers, newspapers and beverages that we delivered.
Each route consists of 10-12 locations all within a short range of each other. While one person brings the food to the door, the driver types the next location into the navigation unit.
While the Mazda 6 gives clear, accurate directions — and no longer has a big red stripe down its side — it would not remember that we were in Santa Monica. Everytime I typed in the next address I had to type in the city, even though my trips were within blocks of each other. When you're going from 16th Street to 19th Street, you don't need the nav. But when you're trying to find Marguerita from Montana, you have to know where you're going.
Luckily, my partner for the day knew the area pretty well. So, we shut off the navigation and used our own sense of direction.
I can never drive our Mazda 6 without feeling the pain of Mazda product planners, engineers and marketers. Their challenge: To capture the performance-oriented sensations promised by the "Zoom-Zoom" corporate positioning and also make a family sedan with sufficiently broad appeal.
In other words, how do you take Zoom-Zoom mainstream?
It's easy with a Miata or Mazda 3. Make 'em taut, sharp, not too isolated, and you're there.
With a family four-door, you run the very real risk that the potential audience will all call it too stiff and go buy an Accord or Camry. (Which they do, in droves.)
Personally, I'd like a sedan that purports to be driver-centric to be truly rewarding to drive. The steering should feel accurate and well weighted, suspension action should be firm but compliant, the ride should talk to me about the road surface, the brake pedal should barely move. And I know it doesn't require BMW pricing to get all this.
In the Mazda 6, I can feel the tension. The steering is heavier than in a Camry, yes, but not by a whole lot. The ride is a bit stiffer and noisier than in an Accord, perhaps, but I don't feel a dramatic advantage in control and response in return. So what are we getting? A sedan that is truly sporty and spirited to drive? Or one that is just a little stiff and noisy? I'm sure there are folks (both within Mazda and without) who would say the car has gone too far and others who think it hasn't gone far enough.
And I don't have the answer.
It's certainly a pleasant, effective four-door to drive around in. Not particularly quick, but spritely enough. And pleasingly fuel efficient. Handling is settled and predictable. I like the seats, the dash layout is fine and small controls are problem-free. In fact, the Mazda 6 gives me nothing at all to complain about. (I don't care for the Blind Spot Monitor system, but it's easy to shut off.)
But is this car sufficiently crisp and sharp to support a philosophy that tries to say, "Our customers are serious drivers, and they know how a car should work"?
Nope.
I guess that puts me in the "not far enough" camp.
After looking back through the archives, I realized that our 2009 Mazda 6 had not yet undergone the suspension walkaround treatment. This aggression will not stand, man. You deserve a peek.
Each long-term test of course ends as it began: the car is taken to the test track to see how it fares when driven at the limit.
The Mazda 6 recently underwent its wrap-up testing, and by chance we had a 2010 Ford Transit Connect delivery van at the track on the same day for unrelated purposes. Comparisons were unavoidable after the Transit beat the Mazda 6 in the slalom (61.9 to 60.9 mph) and tied it on the skidpad (0.79 g).
Some of that difference is down to the absence of electronic stability control (ESC) on the Transit we tested, whereas our Mazda 6 has an ESC system that can't be completely disengaged. And the system fires-off somewhat easily because our 4-cylinder Mazda 6 rides on rather pedestrian Michelin Energy MXV4 S8 tires.
Despite those limit-test numbers, the Mazda 6 performs admirably in day-to-day driving due to a well thought-out suspension.
The Mazda 6 uses double wishbone front suspension with a high-mount upper arm. Consistent with the low-end price-point of a family car, all of the main parts are made of steel or iron.
Here's another view of the high-mount upper control arm (yellow) and the coil-over spring and shock assembly (blue). Remember not to call it a strut because the coil-over here does not perform any wheel-location duties. That is to say, if it were absent, the upper and lower arms would totally control the caster and camber of the wheel throughout its range of motion.
A familiar L-shaped lower arm is used, and the Mazda 6 uses the same sort of cantilevered rear bushing we saw on the Mazdaspeed 3 and Focus, albiet this one rests in an aluminum housing.
The 6's transverse engine and front-drive layout make it necessary for the steering rack (green) to be mounted behind the front axle centerline.
The lower end of the shock absorber bolts to a fork (yellow) that splits around the front drive axle on its way to the lower control arm.
The front stabilizer bar (green) attaches to the fork via a short link (yellow). While this may look like a direct-acting design, it isn't because the fork mounts to the lower control arm some distance inboard of the lower ball joint.
Here's a close-up of the lower ball joint (yellow) and the attachment point for the coil-over's mounting fork (green).
Mazda NVH engineers (Noise, Vibration and Harshness) decided they needed to add a mass damper to the upper arm to quell a particular harmonic they didn't think you'd like. Every suspension design represents a complex mechanical structure, and no two are alike where harmonic resonances are concerned. We've seen mass dampers pop up in all sorts of places on various cars in these walkarounds.
Front braking duties are carried-out by one-piece ventilated front rotors and single-piston sliding calipers.
Changing pads involves nothing more than removing the lower slide bolt (black) and pivoting the caliper up on its mate. Rotor changes require the entire caliper and caliper frame to come off, and that means removing the two yellow bolts.
If you find yourself going after those hose bolts, stop. You're doing it wrong.
Moving on to the rear, we see a larger version of the control blade rear suspension we saw in the Mazdaspeed 3 and Ford Focus.
Like those other cars, the control blade (blue) is a thin trailing arm that locates the wheel in the longitudinal direction and stabilizes the hub against torque inputs. The upper link (green) and the primary lower link (black) define the camber angle and camber curve, while the tiny toe link (yellow) works with the primary lower link (black) to control toe-in.
The primary lower link (white) may look like a control arm because it's so big and fat and has a lot attached to it. But it's got only one bushing at either end, so it's a link.
Like the Mazdaspeed 3, there are two bump stops in play. The primary urethane one is somewaht soft and is designed to engage gradually, giving some of the benefits you'd get with a progressive-rate spring. The harder rubber one is more of an ultimate travel limiter — the true role of a bump stop. But it doesn't engage abruptly and slam home because of the presence of its urethane counterpart.
As we've seen before, the forward toe-link (green) is much shorter that the longer, rear-placed primary lower link (yellow), and that means the rear wheel will toe in as the wheel compresses and the toe-link swings through its tighter arc.
Over toward the right, the stabilizer bar is tucked away, nearly out of sight. The connecting link is nearly invisible in this view.
Even up close it's hard to see how the stabilizer link drops through an opening in the lower control link.
Left to right: the inner pivot bushing, the stabilizer bar link, coil spring and urethane bump stop, hard rubber bump stop landing, outer pivot bushing.
Inside the circle you'll see where the toe link can be adjusted to set static toe in during a wheel alignment. One half of the threaded section has left-hand threads and the other half has right-hand threads. Loosen the jam nuts on either end and the center section can be easily twirled to adjust the length of the link without removing it.
Lower down, we can see that the rear shock absorber mounts directly to the rear knuckle for a 1:1 motion ratio and maximum efficiency.
Here's a close-up of the knuckle (yellow) and the three bolts (blue) that attach it to the control blade (green).
Rear braking comes from this FoMoCo single-piston sliding caliper and a non-vented rear rotor.
The aforementioned Michelin Energy MXV4 S8 all-season tires, size 215/55R17, are mounted on 17" x 7" aluminum alloy rims. Together they weight 47 lbs.
The Leather Tour
You asked how the leather is holding up. The answer is: pretty well.
Here is a pictural tour of the leather in our 2009 Mazda 6.
This is the driver backrest. The leather is unstained and the seats have maintained their shape. That semicircle you see toward the bottom is sun glare.
More pictures after the jump...
Despite its light color, you can see in this closer look at the perforated leather, there is no discoloration.
The headrests still look great. No greasy head smudges.
Besides a blue ink mark, the passenger seat looks clean.
The shutter on my camera went a little wonky here. This is the driver seat cushion. This is the most-used seat in the car and it is maintaining its shape well.
A closer look at the driver seat leather. No wear here.
You asked how the Mazda 6 compares to its competitors.
I ran this simple calculation through my favorite tool on the Edmunds.com site. I went to the 2009 Mazda 6 i Grand Touring page, then clicked on Compare Popular Models. Then I opened up all the fields.
Edmunds offers up the Chevy Malibu, Nissan Altima, Subaru Legacy and Toyota Camry. If these aren't the cars you want to see, you can swap them out for any car on our Web site.
You can compare dimensions, engine specs and more all in one chart.
Happy reading.
Besides dust, what do you see on this nav screen? Nuthin', right? Me neither. Believe it or not, the navigation system is on. If you look very, very closely at the bottom of the screen, you might be able to make out part of the word "Venice," but it's quite faint.
This is what happens when you have the Mazda 6's headlights set to "automatic" during the day. The nav screen automatically darkens and is basically unreadable (even when it's not in direct sun). I haven't been able to figure out how to counter this (if anybody has any ideas, I'd love to hear them), so I end up turning the headlights to the off position during the day, which sort of negates the benefit of having automatic headlights, doesn't it? I recently picked automatic headlights as my contribution to Edmunds' Top 10 Features We're Thankful For article, but if the Mazda 6 were my personal car, I might have reconsidered.
Our 2009 Mazda 6 made its final trip to the dealer for service on the navigation screen. We are hopeful this is the last time.
Long Beach Mazda was more thorough now than during our last visit. This time the GPS screen was physically removed, which uncovered the problem. One of the wires from the loom was not soldered properly. The ineffective solder-job was touched up and now we're back in business. Our navigation system works like new.
So what did we learn from this process? Ford of Orange was a disappointment. It took them 4 months to order and incorrectly replace the nav-screen. We would use Long Beach Mazda again. Yes, the first repair attempt failed, but the folks there were always pleasant. And in the end they do get credit for fixing the problem.
Yesterday, four of us, all adults, got into the 2009 Mazda 6 for a 20-minute drive to Thanksgiving dinner. I sat in my preferred driving position (no moving the seat up for people in back) and still there was legroom to spare. It's no wonder, really, now that the (North American-market) Mazda 6 has a nearly 110-inch wheelbase.
Had I been in the first-generation Mazda 6 (2003-2008) that I liked to drive so much, we wouldn't have been nearly as comfortable; its wheelbase was just over 105 inches.
And although I don't find our Mazda 6 especially interesting to drive, I always find satisfaction in its fairly crisp throttle response and solid brake pedal feel — within the standards used to judge four-cylinder, midsize sedans, mind you.
In the early years of this century, I never could understand why some people would dismiss all family sedans as vanilla cars. The Altima (2002 --) had just gotten fun; the Passat (1998-2005) and Legacy (2005-2009) were as good as they'd ever been before or since; and the Mazda 6 (2003-2008) was the entertaining new 626 replacement.
In 2009, though, I find myself looking around and wondering where the fun sedans went. The Subaru and the VW bore me now — they're bigger, heavier and less engaging. I still like the Altima's total package, but it hasn't really moved on dynamically — it's just quick thanks to its 3.5-liter V6 and CVT.
And the 2009 Mazda 6. I haven't wanted to like this car, because it doesn't do anything particularly interesting. But over the long weekend, I decided it has the best ride quality in the midsize sedan class. It's not the softest ride. But it always, always composed. And it is never, never harsh. I never complain. My passengers never complain.
P.S. When I returned to the 6 after four rounds of karting, it felt perfectly natural to start driving the Mazda again. But I did wish the seat heating continued all the way up the seat-back cushion (instead of stopping the lumbar zone) to soothe my bruised back.
Early this morning I drove a friend to the airport, and for first time in many months, the security guard at the entrance to LAX motioned for me to stop.
Uh, oh, I thought. Driving a Mazda with California license plates, just me and Stephanie in the car, what could be the reason for the stop?
I rolled down the window and wished the heavily armed officer a good morning. He peered into the car, and asked, "Is this a 3?"
"No, it's a 6," I responded quickly.
"Huh," he said. "My daughter said she's considering buying a Mazda 3. I'm not sure I know what one looks like. But if it's anything like this, I'm good with it."
He waved. I waved. Steph breathed a sigh of relief.
Today marks the sixth day in a row that I've been driving our long-term 2009 Mazda 6 i Grand Touring. Six days! Short of taking a real road trip, that's about four days longer than you can ever hope to spend driving one long-term test car.
And it's especially nice when it's a car you would choose for your very own.
That's how I feel about the Mazda 6. It's spacious, comfortable, and has all the features I would require when putting down my own hard-earned money.
It's not that I don't loooooove the BMW M3, but with a base price of just over $26K, the Mazda is a car I could actually afford to buy.
With nearly 22,000 miles on the odometer, our 2009 Mazda 6 was due for a little love at the local detail shop.
Those miles have been good to the 6, which truly still looks like new.
It's been a rainy few days here in Southern California but the Christmas tree needed to be bought despite the wet weather. I had our shiny red Mazda 6 for the weekend so we headed over to our local OSH to pick out a nice tree. We usually get a 6-foot-tall Noble fir but this year I wanted to go a little higher without cutting it too close to the ceiling in my living room.
We picked out a lovely 7-ft Noble fir and the tree guy informed us that he couldn't tie it to the car but he could provide us with some twine. I had brought along a sound blanket to protect the Mazda and we carefully placed the tree on the roof. But once I had it on top of the car, it looked so small. So I dropped the rear seats in the Mazda 6. It's easy to do once you release them from inside the trunk. I spread the sound blanket in the back and the car swallowed up the tree with no problem.
It was much easier to take it home inside the car instead of on the wet roof.
Click through to see my wonderful tree in all its glory:
I'm used to getting around 300 mi fuel range in most vehicles; that's my expectation.
And I don't like to go much below a 1/4 tank, just in case.
Our long-term 2009 Mazda 6 has a 2.5L I-4 EPA rated at 21 City, 30 Hwy, 24 Combined (but only has 170 hp).
400 miles on a tank? Can do easy.
I actually got 410 mi on one tank of my Vegas holiday — pretty good, huh?
What are your expectations for fuel range?
(North Strip pic overlooking the Wynn golf course for those of you snowed-in.)
UPDATED 1.4.10 @ 1800
I did a post previously on our long-term 2009 Mazda 6's Blind Spot Monitor system.
But that was before youtube, or more accurately, before I got an account and figured out how to use it.
The Mazda 6's blind spot detection is radar-based with the sensors both in the mirror housing and at the leading edge of the rear bumper. The mirror housing sensors help locate target vehicles as they pull alongside. The icon in either of the side mirrors lights up when there's a car in your blindspot. If you flip the turn signal when a vehicle has been acquired, the icon flashes with an auditory alert.
It works fine, and I like knowing if a vehicle is in my blindspot, but the auditory alert can get a little annoying if you're cutting in and out of traffic.
The Audi blind spot detection in our long-term S5 has no auditory alert, which I prefer.
Wrap-Up
Why We Bought It
Durability
Performance and Fuel Economy
Retained Value
Summing Up
"I can never drive our 2009 Mazda 6 without feeling the pain of Mazda product planners, engineers and marketers.
"Their challenge: To capture the performance-oriented sensations promised by the zoom-zoom corporate positioning and also make a family sedan with sufficiently broad appeal. In other words, how do you take zoom-zoom mainstream?"
This question was posed early in our durability test of the Mazda 6. And it rang in our ears as our test spanned some 24,000 miles.
Why We Got It
Throughout its history Mazda has favored the preferences of performance-minded enthusiasts to those of the general public. And this no-nonsense mentality deserves much of the credit for the company's prosperity. It created a niche for the brand that Mazda owners have come to appreciate. And so with the 2009 Mazda 6, the company's intention wasn't so much to break this mold as to reshape it. But in the mind of Mazda-heads, the thought of a sedan designed for mass appeal seemed to contradict the very spirit of the brand. For these reasons we entered our long-term test of the 2009 Mazda 6 with a different kind of anticipation than we would have toward other midsize sedans.
For 2009 the Mazda 6 was all-new, boasting larger proportions and a redesigned interior. And if you asked Mazda, this was done without compromising the driving experience its core audience expects. Our first drive of the upgraded Mazda 6 found us picking up what the engineers were putting down. No longer was this the midsize sedan to buy just to be different. It was a legitimate contender in a segment dominated by the Honda Accord, Nissan Altima and Toyota Camry. It was the fun car in an otherwise drab segment. When it won our midsize sedan comparison versus said Accord and Altima, we had to have one.
We added a 2009 Mazda 6 to our long-term fleet without delay. Our choice to pass over the customary V6 option for the 170-horsepower 2.5-liter inline-4 reflected the rising cost of gasoline at the time and a general shift in consumer priorities toward fuel economy. Better yet, we thought, let's add the PZEV emissions option to further enhance our fuel miserly ways, no matter that it dropped engine output to 168 hp.
And so it would be. Our 12-month durability test of the Mazda 6 was under way. We had high expectations for this Rocky Road alternative to a segment of vanilla sedans.
Durability
Our early impressions of the 2009 Mazda 6's driving performance were positive. Engineering Editor Jay Kavanagh commented, "I just drove from L.A. to Phoenix and back in the 6 and it made its mark. Most notable are the Mazda's precise steering and firm brake pedal. These two driving interfaces alone really separate the 6 from its CamCordBu competition, allowing the Mazda to wink and nod at car enthusiasts. It makes you wonder why other manufacturers don't execute them like Mazda. Right, JD Power. To score well there, you must not offend the whiners with 'vibrations' such as actual steering feel or 'hard' brakes that respond with confidence-inspiring initial bite and linearity. What you get with a fixation on JD Power numbers is a Toyota Camry."
We also found pleasure in the qualities that make this a competitive midsize sedan. A range of more than 400 miles per tank was a plus. But there was more. Following a long weekend in the 6, Senior Editor Erin Riches wrote, "I decided that this Mazda offers the best ride quality in the midsize sedan class. It's not the softest ride. But it is always, always composed. And it is never, never harsh. I never complain. My passengers never complain." A lack of complaints regarding the Mazda 6 would be a common theme during this test.
Inside the cabin our Mazda 6 generated praise. There was plenty of space to fit four adults thanks to the extended wheelbase. Rear-seat access and comfort were even acceptable. Child seats latched in easily and the added legroom in the new Mazda 6 design was just enough to keep kicking feet from striking the seatback in front of them. When prodded with the question, one editor replied, "Does the Mazda 6 have the best seats ever? Well, I don't know. I've been driving it for a week and I haven't even noticed. I'm going to consider that to be a compliment. Yes, the Mazda 6 may have the best seats ever."
Our issues with service and reliability in the 2009 Mazda 6 have largely been the result of dealer incompetence. We first noticed the red line through our navigation screen 8,000 miles into the test. A visit to Mazda of Orange was the solution. Or so we thought.
We dropped it off for the navigation issue, a regular service and to have the splash guard replaced. Four months later, the new nav screen arrived. One month after that, the nav went on the fritz. We thought it was just out of calibration, but learned there was more. Long Beach Mazda uncovered the problem when it removed the nav screen and found a loose wire. A faulty solder job at the Orange dealer was the cause of our headache.
This was our only issue of note, and it didn't resurface once the re-solder was complete.
Total Body Repair Costs: None
Total Routine Maintenance Costs (over 12 months): $364.52
Additional Maintenance Costs: Replace splash guard
Warranty Repairs: Replace navigation screen
Non-Warranty Repairs: None
Scheduled Dealer Visits: 2
Unscheduled Dealer Visits: 3 attempts to fix navigation screen
Days Out of Service: 4
Breakdowns Stranding Driver: None
Performance and Fuel Economy
All long-term vehicles undergo a performance test when they first enter our fleet and once again when the test wraps up. Acceleration testing of the 2009 Mazda 6 uncovered no deterioration in performance over time, since the final test matched the first: 9.1 seconds from a standstill to 60 mph (8.8 seconds with 1 foot of rollout like on a drag strip) and 16.8 seconds at 83.3 mph in the quarter-mile. Chief Road Test Editor Chris Walton noted, "No surprise, really. It's a 3,400-pound car with a 170-hp four-banger that needs revs to make power. That said, this is nothing to be ashamed of with a 9.1-second 0-60. Too bad the engine is pretty loud and thrashy all the time."
Other performance tests showed the Mazda's age. While its suspension seemed up to the task, the Michelin Energy MXMV4 tires were just starting to show wear. Dynamic and braking tests were less impressive than as-new. Braking distance grew from 125 feet to 130 feet; slalom speed dropped from 63.2 mph to 60.9 mph; and grip on the skid pad slipped from 0.84g to 0.78g. After these tests Walton commented, "These tires are making a racket. On the skid pad, dynamic stability control begins to take away throttle just as the less-than-capable tires begin to sing and shriek. These all-season tires are equally limiting performance in the slalom."
From a fuel economy perspective we were pleased to have the four-cylinder engine as opposed to its V6 alternative. We averaged 24 mpg over 24,000 miles with a best tank of 31 mpg. Our worst observed fuel economy was 19 mpg, following a heavy-footed day of instrumented testing.
Best Fuel Economy: 30.8 mpg
Worst Fuel Economy: 18.7 mpg
Average Fuel Economy: 23.9 mpg
Retained Value
When it first entered our garage, the 2009 Mazda 6 i Grand Touring wore an MSRP of $30,430. After nearly 24,000 miles its value depreciated a considerable 34 percent. This level of depreciation is common in highly optioned vehicles, yet our 6 had only an optional moonroof and navigation system.
Our long-term Toyota Camry and Honda Accord depreciated 26 and 20 percent, respectively, following their tests. We should note these were both V6 models, and were run through Edmunds' TMV® Calculator during a time when the resale market was much healthier.
True Market Value at service end: $20,016
Depreciation: $10,414 or 34% of original paid price
Final Odometer Reading: 23,738
Summing Up
Our long-term 2009 Mazda 6 came and went without really being noticed. It did the job we expected. As a commuter car, it was comfortable and fuel-efficient. As a family hauler, it offered thoughtful amenities and a decent amount of space. We had no complaints. And we consider that to be a good thing. It wasn't until after the car physically left that the buzz around our offices reached a crescendo, "Where is the 6? It left already? Did it go up for sale? That is one of the few long-term cars that I would actually consider buying. So, really, is it gone?"
When the time arrived to grab a set of keys for the night, our 2009 Mazda 6 was never chosen last. From start to finish, the car remained mechanically sound. Even the beige interior appeared untouched by the time our evaluation period ended. With all of the grimy hands and soiled shoes we stuff into our long-term cars, this is unheard of.
If we had to find a weakness in the Mazda, it's residual value. Depreciation is significant, and clearly not up to the levels of the Camry and Accord. If you plan to drive the Mazda 6 for a few years and flip it, you'll be disappointed. This is a keeper. Buy it new or used and drive it into the ground.
Of all the long-term cars we drive in a given year, there are very few that we'd spend money from our own pocket on. The Mazda 6 is one of them.
The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.