JUST because you see someone driving a pale mauve car to a large Swedish furniture store and looking interestedly at curtains does not constitute an indictment of his masculinity. Well, not if the car happens to be the 2009 Mazda 6 hatchback. And more especially not if he is accompanied by Atilla the Mum. Mauve, as any red blooded male will tell you, is not a color. It is a state of mind that spinster aunts of a certain age occupy. Partly through Herculean efforts of will, and partly because it was 6.30 am on a Friday when anyone who might have seen me was sensibly tucked up in bed dreaming contentedly of a blissful weekend assembling flat-pack shower curtains, we maneuvered our mauve all new Mazda 6 test car discreetly out onto the road past the comatose security guard.
“Nice color,” he said.
Wearing the frozen smile of the newly apprehended felon, I nodded politely and trod heavily on the accelerator. The rictus relaxed and the smile was genuine; the little rascal really moved — or as Mazda would put it, zoomed! This is a lovely medium sized family car. Re-engineered with up-rated wishbone suspension and a transverse 16 valve four cylinder engine, it achieves what it set out to do; it is a family car with a great deal of sporty character. Surprisingly, it does all that on 1800cc.
Mazda — or at least the marketing men — says that it hopes to take the interaction between man and machine deeper than before, in a concept called, “Kizuna.” That translates into the car being a very easy vehicle to drive, all the driver controls are in the right place and it, thanks to the up-rated and redesigned suspension, actually improves on the previous model’s outstanding road-holding. The new 6 is longer, wider and has a smoother outline to it than its predecessor although built on the EU-CD platform developed by Volvo and used within the Ford-PAG range.
Completely redesigned, it is 65mm longer, 15 mm wider, 5 mm taller than the former 6 and sits on a 50 mm longer wheelbase. Though bigger, it is lighter than the predecessor. The five-door hatchback with a longbow side-window design and a coupe style silhouette is very easy on the eye.
The chassis of the 2009 Mazda6 utilizes Mazda’s Triple-H body shell, a high-rigidity body design that offers exceptional crash-safety performance by joining the front chassis members to the perimeter frame. The cabin is reinforced with high-tensile steel and larger cross-section side members.The enhanced aerodynamics — now the drag coefficient is a low .27 for the sedan — help the already fuel efficient engine.
Rolling resistance is lower and electric power steering pump and LED stop lamps reduce the accessory drain on the engine.
Power comes from a variety of engines in the model line up. A new 2.5-liter gasoline unit has evolved from the previous 2.3-liter unit. The MZR 2.5 has a bigger bore and a longer stroke, plus freer-flowing intake and exhaust ports. These combine to improve low and mid-range torque by 10 percent. Also available are the existing transverse four cylinder 1.8 liter — as fitted to the test car — and 2.0-liter gasoline engines and the MZR-CD 2.0 turbo diesel, carried over from the previous Mazda 6. There has been trade talk of a 3.5 liter unit; now THAT would be interesting! The upgraded double-wishbone front suspension now has six-point mounting for improved steering feel. This was very apparent on long high speed corners; nary a trace of wander and rail-track precision of steering. The multi-link rear suspension has been recalibrated to cut down tail-lift under braking and together these really do improve vehicle stability and ride comfort.
The larger diameter front disc brakes deliver better braking and the master cylinder increased in size for improved brake action. Mazda contends that stopping distances for the 2009 Mazda 6 are among the best in the segment.
Should you attempt to park in someone’s trunk though, up to six interior air bags, active headrests that are designed to move forward in the event of a rear-end collision and crushable brake and clutch pedals that limit their rearward travel to reduce injury to the driver’s legs and feet, will minimize the injury to passengers.
Inside the car Mazda’s new Cross Functional Network (CF-Net) provides integrated controls for navigation, air conditioning, audio, and driving information on the steering wheel. It looks for all the world straight out of an F1 car. At the top of the curving dashboard panel, a centralized display is designed to keep the instruments within the driver’s line of sight. However, even with the absence of that disturbing TV screen that seems to be appearing in many cars, I found the display rather scattered with details dotted in different places about the dashboard.
And that on-board red and ultraviolet three-circle karaoke style hairdresser’s delight instrument panel! I am sure the nice gentlemen at Mazda have our safety in mind — but really, who told them that this was the best way to do it? Sure, it was highly visible but for my money cheapened the whole effect of the leather interior and rather simple and efficient looking dashboard. Advanced keyless entry and an 8-speaker Bose sound system — and that was remarkably good — almost made up for it though.
Altogether, the new Mazda 6 is a very able family vehicle. It has a massive trunk, it displays good driving manners — well, you have to start somewhere and you may as well engineer it into the car — and a distinctly sporty feel when pushed a bit. It has a solid, well engineered feel to it with not a trace of the ‘tinny’ feel of a light car and it is a delight to drive; nimble and very safe, a good medium size family car with a bit of edge to it.