Does The Sexy New Sheetmetal Still Hide The Soul of a Sports Car?
In the interest of full-disclosure it should be noted that Senior Editor Muxlow’s daily driver is a first-gen Mazda6, and not just any old 6. His is an exceedingly rare 5-door with a manual transmission and it does a convincing impersonation of a sports sedan, even with its front-wheel drive handicap. Which is the main reason this publication, and many others, have raved about the smartly-sized 6. In our last review of Mazda’s mid-sizer we said, “the 6 drives and behaves like a responsively tuned sport sedan should.” But now there is an all-new 6 and it’s grown a bit to better match up with its mid-size competitors. Has it become dull and soft like the Camry and Accord too? Fortunately, no. Read more…
Serious Zoom-Zoom
There are other turbocharged performance sedans on the market but the two we think of first, the Mitsubishi Evo and Subaru WRX, are considerably more manic than the thoroughly upgraded MazdaSpeed 6 we had the pleasure of driving a few weeks ago. We recently tested the Evo and were—not surprisingly—impressed by the sheer power of the tiny 2-liter and the fierce acceleration it provides. But the Evo is tuned heavily toward hardcore and not everyone wants to sacrifice a decent ride, sound insulation, and luxurious interior accommodations in the name of horsepower. Some will willingly trade a few tenths of a second in the 0-60 mph dash for something that can serve family sedan duty at the drop of a hat. Those people will find such a ride at their Mazda dealer. Read more…
The 6 Gets A 6-Speed
The Mazda6 has been a shining example of what a sport sedan from a mainstream automaker should be. We’re not talking BMW or Infiniti here. This is Mazda, purveyor of increasingly desirable, affordable cars with sporting intentions. And the 6 has been near the top of our favorite sport sedans list since its debut as a 2003 model. Since then it has offered plenty to like, (sharp style, 220hp, available manual) all for around $25k. Luckily, Mazda knows not to let a good thing go bad. So for 2005 they’ve upped the ante in the midsize sport sedan market by including the segment’s first 6-speed automatic transmission. The only people not happy about this? Mazda’s competitors. Read more…
