2003 Mazda 6 Luxury Sedan review from Australia and New Zealand

Nothing has gone wrong. As this is a new car I cannot fully review this car with respect to reliability. Will add to this review if anything untoward goes wrong.

I purchased this car brand new after testing both it and the new Honda Accord Euro Luxury. My choice of the Mazda over the Honda was mainly to due to the fact that the Mazda has a much larger boot and greater interior space. The extra space was one of my main selection criteria. I also was not impressed with the fact that the Honda uses a space saver spare for less boot space not to mention the lack of a trip computer considering even the base model Honda Jazz has one.

What impresses me most with the 6 is the suspension. It is very similar to the '94 BMW 325i coupe I used to own. It is has quite a firm ride, especially with 17in wheels, but it still manages to soak up the majority of the road imperfections (common in Australia) like the Bimmer did. When you arrive at the first sharp corner it rewards you with incredible turn in for a family/medium sedan, it even puts some sports cars to shame, almost rivaling my old BMW. The steering is quite light and takes a short while to get used to, but once familiar it is amazing with the amount of accuracy and feedback it delivers. It is like the car knows what you are thinking and where you want to apex the corner. The limit of adhesion is so high many people would not get anywhere near it unless they were really pushing hard. My test road for the above was the Snowy Mountain Highway from Talabingo turning off to Cabramurra. The road is extremely twisty in places as well as sometimes quite rough. It never got flustered or ran off line the whole time pushing hard, even when I had a couple of motorbikes following me getting their knee down. You would be hard pressed to know which end is driving the car. It even puts many rear wheel drive cars to shame.

Now lets get down to the engine. The 122Kw variable valve timing 2.3L (2,261cc) MZR 4 cyl is the only engine available in Australia. It produces 1kw more power than the old 2.5L V6 and produce a little less peak torque, however over 80% of that torque is available from around 1900rpm on wards. That low down torque, while not classed as stump pulling, is noticable. But why lug this smooth running engine when it loves to sing at the upper registers. The exhaust and induction noise of this engine is something that would not be out of place in an Alfa Romeo. Sometimes it is nice just to turn off the stereo and listen to the engine do it's thing. Overall performance from the engine though is just acceptable. Nothing groundbreaking, but enough for everyday driving. A tar burning, rubber smoking engine this is not. It works quite well with the Activematic 4 speed auto, but a 5 speed like the Accord Euro would be better. At least the auto holds gears all the way to the rev limiter and does not change up unless you want to when in 'manual' mode. I must admit though the car is new and the engine is still very tight so it should get better with more kilometers on it. I have read they take a few thousand Kms (4000+) to fully loosen up.

Inside the leather seats are extremely comfortable. They even have sufficient lateral support for the twisty roads the cars loves to drive along. The drivers seat is electrically adjustable 8 ways and manually adjustable in the lumbar support. The instruments are big, clear and look good with the chrome rings around the tacho and speedo. The very comfortable leather bound steering wheel however is only adjustable for tilt. While this may sound bad, it is set about right for a person of my size (174 cm). I only see people above 185 cm having trouble with this. The centre of the dash is well laid out and houses large buttons/knobs for the very effective climate control air conditioning and superb Bose stereo volume/mode controls. The only thing that detracts from the interior environment is tyre noise at the rear from the 17in wheels on coarse bitumen, which is very common in Australia. While the tyre roar doesn't echo as much as in the Honda Accord Euro (not to mention the roar in the Honda came predominantly from the front which I found more annoying), it is still louder. At least the stereo is more than good enough to turn up the volume to drown it out!! On closer inspection Mazda has not put the normal bitumen sound deadener on the boot floor. I am considering fitting some to see if it makes a difference. If it does I will be sure to post it on the site.

In conclusion the Mazda 6 is a very comfortable car that has acceptable performance from the engine and sublime handling from the well tuned suspension. Point to point on a twisty road it would be one of the fastest sedans you could drive. Only the tyre noise detracts from the experience. The nice to drive Honda Accord Euro may have more power and be more refined, but for the person who needs space, dislikes space saver spare tyres and enjoys near sports car handling, the 6, in my opinion is the superior choice.