Take a look at 6’s exterior photos. Right here at this article, just scroll down. Now, if you don’t have any external reasons to firmly maintain a particular opinion about Mazda, whether positive or negative, answer this: would you have wanted this car’s design to change? Once again, each and every one of us is entitled to find it from spectacular to hideous, but the generalized truth is that its design was well-conceived. There’s nothing too big or too small, too extravagant or too discreet, too innovative or too old-fasioned… Nor anything too avant-garde or too cliché, if you want to dust off your French. This is an excellent step – if not the best – for an automobile’s design to achieve the approval of the average customer.
This is precisely why Mazda6’s exterior was kept largely unchanged. The biggest changes appear up front, but it’s not easy to spot them: the lower air intakes were redesigned, and the upper grille received horizontal chrome lines (in order to convey an upscale feeling). At the rear, you’ll see taillights with a new internal design. In other words, it’ll be almost impossible to tell the new car if it’s moving. Now, given the experience a car fan has acquired over the past few years – or the simple observation of the streets, if you’re not that into cars – it’s easy to assume that, if the external changes were that little, the cabin must’ve remained untouched, right? Well, the truth is, this is actually another point where Mazda proves how good is this car.
One of the concepts this company considers when creating a car is driving pleasure. A Mazda car should be fun and exciting to drive, above all. But before talking about engines or transmissions or performance figures, this concept has a more immediate implication: working with where the driver will be placed. This is the part where the nipped-and-tucked Mazda6 received its biggest changes. It received a whole new dashboard, whose design is good enough to appear in more expensive cars. The infotainment screen is still operated by a rotary knob, but went to the top of the piece, in a floating design. This, and replacing the parking brake’s handle with a button, helped the room as a whole to look more elegant and neat without any other changes.
Everything else was carried over from the previous sedan and station wagon. This means you’ll find both the same equipment list and the same Skyactiv-based technical specifications. Depending on the country, Mazda6 can offer a 2.0-liter and a 2.5-liter using gasoline, which are good for 145 hp and 184 hp, respectively. If you prefer diesel, the only option is a 150-hp 2.2-liter unit. And you’d have to leave the United States, because the Japanese automaker is still struggling with that country’s emission regulations before releasing this option there. Transmissions, in turn, always feature six speeds, whether manual or automatic. There’s no official information on the new price list yet, but its changes are expected to be very reduced.