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Comments
For the interior rear window, I use a mixture of distilled water & Gila window tint aid (contains no ammonia or vinegar) solution sold at auto parts stores. Does a good job cleaning and removing residue without ruining your defroster etch on the rear window.
After @4 years and 50,000 miles there are no rattles yet in my car. The only things that rattle in my car are the loose parts such as quarters in the ashtray or a can of spray under the seat or the hand lotion bottle my wife keeps in the passenger door pocket.
Mazda has really started off on a great structural design using the triple H construction in the Protege and now the 6.
I have absolutely no doubts about the Mazda Reliability.
I have found that low end acceleration is a bit slow unless the revs are up. Once you get the revs up the car pulls fine until redline. There is some to be desired though in the low end range. Once the rpms are up the car acclerates very well. The auto-manual shift isn't all that great. You manually shift it around 5500 rpms for it to actually shift at redline. You basically have to anticipate where you want it to shift up. This is pretty standard, even my father in-laws 03 Mercedes e430 'auto shift' does the same thing. The other car I looked at, the Passat, has the same problem with thier 'tiptronic'. Downshifting is a no no into 1st or 2nd gear. The car does not like it and is very abrupt and can unsettle, so I don't do it. The car handles very well and does not have much body roll when pushing it in the curves. It sticks to the road very well and I am sure the Mich Pilots help also.
The Bose system is not that good. Not enough insulation if you want to get slightly loud with the stereo. The car vibrates when you 'pump up the volume' a little. I am pretty disappointed with that part. The in dash 6 disc is very nice and easy to manage. The controls on the steering wheel are great and are lit up at night which is helpful. It takes awhile to get used to adjusting the stereo with the controls on the dash, not exactly the easiest to play with while driving. The heat/ac system seem powerful and come up to speed quickly. The car itself heats up more quickly than any car I have had before, even when it is iced over outside. The cruise control system is good and does a good job keeping a steady pace while through the mountains. I was surprised at that.
Overall I am very pleased with the car. There is plenty of room in the back for my kids, the trunk is very big and has had no problems fitting what I need. From the problems I mentioned above, only the Bose stereo annoys me. The other couple things are very very minor for me. I really like the car overall and it is a blast to drive.
Amsoil is probably one, if not, THE BEST synthetic motor oils produced.
Mike
Sure, 1st and 2nd with the Sportshift can unsettle the car. The same thing happens with an MT. Carrying too many revs is carrying too many revs regardless of the tranny type.
The real trick is to learn how the thing works and not to apply MT methodology to the AT. 5 minutes in a parking lot or straight road isn't going to cut it. I've spent quite a bit of time playing with the system over the last 3,000 miles. No, it's not an MT. Few people I know really understand how to get real performance out of an MT to begin with.
Once you understand it and stop treating it like some novelty and look at it like a tool - you can have a great deal of fun. Then kick over to full AT and cruise for hours.
My buddy bought a 2003 Accord recently and guess what? His steering wheel vibrates like mad and the dealer simply said it will go away(he hopes). He wants to trade my 6 for his. He's pissed. Every time I sit in his car and the vibration starts I can't help smirking and have that "You shoulda bought a 6 look in my eyes" I'm not being mean, this guy used to continually put down Mazda and laughed when I bought my 6 and stated that Honda is "God's gift to cars". Trust me folks the 6 is built well and I think we all got a real winner on our hands.
I realized that ride, comfort, quietness and low-rpm power were more important to me. And that if i wanted the 6 i should get it in MT, because the AT wasn't all that different from my Mazda protege in terms of acceleration and ride.
price was important too. the camry is heavily discounted right now and i got it for a few thousand less than what i could have got the 6i-AT for, since they are still selling for close to msrp. And when i was looking for a 6, the unavailability of certain options with certain packages was very frustrating and turned me off from the 6, especially in January.
Besides price, in my opinion (for AT at least);
the camry is the luxury car in the group,
the 6 is the sports car
and the accord tries to mix the 2
if i had enough for a leisure car, i'd go with the 6 MT, and if i had more than a enough, i'd get the M3.
1. where does the NA Mazda6 made(assembled)? (Japan or Canada or Usa?)
2. are there many parts come from the owner company Ford? (I have extremely bad memory with Ford, and that's the reason i'm looking for a Japanese one).
3. are there some major faults with Mazda6? such as Accord auto-transmission and Camary engine sludge?
4. does it has the same economic gas milage as Accord?
Thanks a lot!
2. depends on which model 6..but both have Ford parts. Some visable and some not
3. Based upon owner reports and Mazda service bulletins...no problems with the car other than the fuse box cover is easy to break off the nipples if not slid into place correctly. one post about a squeeky sunglass holder. no big deal.
4. similar
And the one question you didnt ask. Yes, it is the most fun car to drive in it's class.
The other thing to consider about the engine noise is that I've heard that the engine doesn't sound nearly as good new as it does after 1000 miles or so.
Mike
As for the hot topic of the day(The Accord.) A couple people where I work have Accords. I just talked to somebody this week about their 03 Accord. I didn't hear them mentioning rattles in their car when I was talking to them. Finally, Steering Vibrating on a Honda. Thats unbeilavable to me.
fowler3
fowler3
fowler & audia8q: Both are right about the gas mileage and performance, I'm averaging a little better than 23 mpg and its seems to perform better after over 2K.
That's the 6th 6 now.
I4: Mazda
V6: Cosworth casting process, polished-off by Mazda
Don't kid yourself, this is a car "built for drivers"
Dinu
aromas- I put 5w-20 Amsoil synthetic in the car.
alcjew- ALC is very nice & helpful in the car, still the Bose (my opinion & again, only my car) suffers from what I am used to from Bose.
ruefus- Uhm can't really do anything to help the revs while downshifting with an automatic "manual" transmission. As far as an MT, you can easily compensate while downshifting by matching the revs of the gear you are going into which will not unsettle the car unless you do it wrong or your speed doesn;t match the geaer you are going into...thats a little more on the racing side, such as blipping the throttle while downshifting while racing motorcycles...
When does that rotten egg smell completely go away? I've got 500 miles so far although it has become more infrequent.
Jason.
aromas: Thanks for the response on the differences. I might have missed it on some earlier posts, but do you have any pics of your 6?
That rotten egg smell is the coating the manufacturers put on engines exterior to prevent metal oxidation/corrosion, during transport, before it gets to the dealers. It will slowly burnoff after about 1K, so you're almost there.
cconger2: I'm assuming you put synthetic at the dealership. Is Amsoil the only one available or do they have others or does it depend on the dealer. I'm pretty sure when I bought the car the dealer said that they only use Amsoil there.
Man my fingers are tired from arguing with the Hondaphobes on their problems board.
Just as Hondaphobes "can't admit our cars have problems". Mazda people sure get defensive when the talk of sales comes up. They are about 60% behind quota so far. Not quite what you'd expect for a car that so obviously the "better car".
I did some math by taking the current amount of Accord posted problems & quality issues vs M6's problems and solutions. This is my rough analogy: Accord = 6761; M6 = 52. The ratio is 6761/52 = 130 Accords / 1 M6 problem issues. Since you mentioned that over 60K Accords have sold so far: 60000/130 = 462. Therefore, this idicates there should only be 462 M6 sold. In other, words there are portionally (roughly) more problems with Accords sold than M6s. IMO, the M6 is a solidly built car, hands down! By the way, I'm sr mechanical engineer (18 years) and constantly involved with producing quality (6 Sigma) designed & built commercial & military defense systems. I'm involved from conceptual design through when the final product leaves the assembly area. I've had some automotive experience interning a few years using SAE requirements.
I'll admit the previous Accord is a much better car than the 626, don't understand why Accord owners can't admit the 6 is better than the 03 Accord. 2nd place is nothing to be ashamed about. You can't be the bride every year. They don't seem to realize the 6 has been out longer in the rest of the world and the problems in Europe and Asia are nada and sales over there are quite impressive.
It must stick in their craw than the 6 looks better, handles better and is more RELIABLE. Is there any way we could get Pat to open the 6 vs. Accord thread again as long as we promise to behave. I don't like to bother the people on the Accord problems board again, they are way too busy trying to figure out how to fix those darn cars and don't need any distractions.
According to sales number, Ford Taurus is a better car than the Honda Accord.
It just isn't worth opening it again. The Honda folks have their beliefs and the Mazda folks have other beliefs. Spouting sales or repair figures isn't going to convince anyone to change camps.
I've owned both makes over the years. Both companies make very nice cars and I wouldn't mind owning a Mazda or a Honda again.
Choose the company/model/flavor that hits your buttons and enjoy it.
(alcjew: I'm in the Midwest, but thanks for the suggestion. No, my dealer says they still can't order effectively. Don't know what to make of it, but they'll find a car eventually.)