2004 Mazda 6 Wagon S from North America - Comments

No problems.

This has been a really nice car so far. It's a nice sporty alternative to an SUV. As far as handling is dose well fine. Not as good as the love of my life Audi A4 2.8 V6, But still really good.

The value and fit and finish as well as general usability is what set this car up high.

My only complaints are:

Even when driving in a very conservative manner, I only get 17 mpg in mixed driving. Is this the average for most Mazda 6 Owner with the V6?

The Transmission is to quick to upshift, and too slow to down-shift. There has been times when I am doing 40 mph in 5th gear, then need to hit the gas to drive defensive, but get nothing until its too late, then have to deal with bucket loads of power, and then slam on the brakes to keep for hitting the guy in front of me.

Is this typical too?

I have a manual 4-door Sport Sedan, 2005. While test driving a wagon, which is only available in V6-Auto, I noticed the same lag in down shift. I figured it was due to some overdrive or perhaps just the weight of the vehicle, but after becoming more sensitive the manual, I realized the lag is still present, just not as noticeable.

Some internet research revealed to me that the Mazda 6 has an electronic "drive-by-wire" fuel system. The lag is simply due to the computer conversion of input to the pedal. Some the enthusiasts believe that "re-grounding" the engine have helped their performance. I don't know if its true, but it all comes down to driver perception.

We have a 2004 Mazda 6 Sportwagon and love everything about it except the gas mileage. With a 16 gallon tank, we are lucky to get 320 miles out of a tank in mixed city and highway driving. Of course, it is a six cylinder engine and we have a five speed manual transmission.

Overall, the handling is excellent. The interior controls are great. Ours is a pretty basic version, not the Touring model. But overall, I would give it 9 out of 10 stars. I'm going to go look at a MazdaSpeed6; it is a 4 cylinder turbo charged version of the 6.

Yes, that is pretty typical of the automatic's behavior with the V6. The poor torque and the slow auto transmission were the biggest faults I with the car when I owned it. It was very slow to react in either auto or "manual" mode when I wanted it to downshift... almost to the point of being dangerous in certain situations. Then it would suddenly do so, I would have "too much" power for the situation, and have to brake... which often resulted in a very noticeable "clunk" from the drive train. I also found the need to downshift at every (even slight) incline annoying.

Gas mileage is not a strong point of the V-6. It is rather thirsty for its size. During the time that I owned the car, I averaged about 20 mpg. On road trips I could get as high as 24-25, but in city driving, mileage fell to about 17-18.

I think that with a manual transmission, this is probably a very good car for the money, but I think that the engine and the automatic transmission are poorly matched.

Aside from the powertrain, the only problems I had with the car were some rattles, that the dealer could not seem to fix, and brakes that constantly seemed to need attention (warping rotors every 5K, breaking clips [about 1 every 9 mos.], and groaning noises).

I have a 04 wagon with a manual transmission. I love the car and am very happy with it. I get about 24 miles/gal during my normal daily commute. Better on long trips, but not much better, maybe 25 or 26 a the most. I rarely get under 22miles/gal. I bought this car because of the availability of the manual transmission.

It does have a rattle in the rear that I have not been able to find. That is annoying.

I posted the original review on this car. Since then I have taken the car to the dealer who replaced a fan control and updated the transmission software. Now when the car slows down, the shifting is gone and this car has quickly regained my affections.

Now with over 45k miles on it, and the wagon version being no more. We are planning of keeping it until well over 100k, which is very very very rare for us. Thanks for all the feed back!