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Comments
If you are smarter than all the reviewers put together it doesn't make sense to argue the point. You have a job, too, and have to go along to get along, right?
blueguy strikes me as one of those people who thinks they are brilliant (enlightened) and should be in charge of everything, and their bosses are too dumb to realize it. Know the type, very unpopular. Can hardly wait for the next car reviews on the 6.
blueguy is right in one sense, reviewers push cars to their limits and the specs have little meaning to the average buyer. I always skip most of that stuff. When they say a car is noisy they rarely mention it's at 6500rpm.
fowler3
If you are so used to driving econocars like Proteges, Civics, Corollas, setting into a 6, everything will feel much better than your daily driver.
Just a thought.
- Less/No commercials
- Playlists that are 376.435 million times better than your average FM station. No repetitiions, no 'greatest hit only from that album, no other songs available' issues
- Complete songs are played, instead of a short 90-100 second blurb from the middle of a song, like on FM
- Phone and email based requests, and you sometimes hear yourself live on the radio, or at the very least, hear your request played moments after you call
- They sometimes carry rebroadcasts of awards' shows (VH1 and MTV, and ESPN as well)
- They often have live, in-studio performances by big and small stars (the other day, Stevie Wonder came in and sang some Christmas stuff, and this was unplanned!)
- Excellent overall sports and news coverage - while you don't have continuous whole-game live commentary, you get updates from every game around the country (major leagues, all sports), and not just a couple of local games (which you would normally find only on Am anyway!)
- The availability of all the channels and genres, and particularly the Euro-Pop and Techno channels really broadens your horizons.
- Great talk, standup comedy, current events' discussions, DIY channel (R-rated as well, channels 150 and 153)
- There's also a books-on-tape channel
- great Soundtracks' and great Broadway tunes' channels
- The Playboy channel (is already available) and other premium channels will soon be available - I would expect PPV type events, full live commentaries on major league games etc
And, most importantly to me - I have lost count of the number of times they play either a song I used to like and have't heard in ages, or a more obscure number by an artist that I listen to, but have not heard before (the song) or an entirely new genre/artist/song that I usually wouldn't listen to or switch to on my radio (FM) even if I had the channel, but happen to stumble upon accidentally, or as a result of their weekly email blurb tells me what specials to expect on which channels that week.
Don't forget the sound quality - approximately (don't have the same precise metric I used above for playlist comparison) 732.45 times better than FM, and when digitally connected to your head unit, well-nigh distinguishable (with road noise thrown in) from CD quality.
And the fact that you can look at artist and song information by pressing a button on the controller (or, in my case, on my compliant Pioneer head-unit)
Despite having a pretty large CD collection, and an excellent 6-CD changer installed in the car, with CD-text, CD-R/RW capability and all the goodies of a direct digital connection to the head-unit, its been 2 weeks (since my Thanksgiving road trip) that my cd magazine has been sitting in my living room, and I haven't missed it for one moment. And I listened to only 2 of those CDs on that road trip as well.
Saying no one will ever adopt it harkens back to the days when the same was said of cable and satellite tv. Most people (that can) have one of those now!
Keep the reports coming in!
And hamproof, as to BG.C driving something better - I think not. He drives a Jetta - the epitome of good-interior-wasted-on-bad-quality-and-terrible-handling. So not much chance of him being unimpressed with the Mazda6 because he drives something better.
Malt: I like knowing how a car behaves at its limits because no salesperson will allow you to take a car off their lot and find out for yourself. The around town stuff I can judge for myself in a regular test drive and so I don't really need those opinions.
I took the 6 I test drove north of 100 on my test drive. There's no reason you can't thrash a test drive as much as you want...what will the saleguy do, wrench the wheel from your hands?
auto:
Actually, I've got the sport suspension and a Neuspeed 28mm swaybar on my car. I can induce oversteer with a punch of the throttle on my 1.8T Jetta while going through any corner. It still doesn't turn completely flat but it's light years beyond the car's stock handling. I'd say the 6 handles better than my modded Jetta but the understeer on the 6 (something that can be rectified with some tuning) drove me nuts. A quick mod to the suspension can make the 6's handling far more exciting. I should also add that my car has no relation to what I think a car should do...I despise my Jetta and anybody on the Jetta board will confirm that.
BTW, people, the car is still the front runner for my dollar. It's hard to pass up a car that nice for 23k (25k msrp).
I agree that anyone interested in the 6 will likely not want the Camcords, but the new TSX should fill the gap for Hond..er Acura.
As far as I can tell, this will be the 6's closest competitor.
If someone took me on a joy ride without my permission, I would hit 911 on my cell quicker than joy rider could say, "What are you going to do about it?"
That test drive would be over in dramatic fashion....boy I wish this kind of stuff would happen with me...LOL I miss out on all the fun
A salesguy has given you permission to drive the car. If he doesn't like it he can complain but my experience thus far has shown me they're far more interested in a sale than anything illegal you might do with the car.
I learned the hard way with my Jetta purchase that it's a good idea to drive a test car exactly as I'd drive my own car on a day to day basis. I acted like many people when I test drove my current car and I didn't break 80 or do anything too overtly aggressive. After making the purchase I was quite disappointed with my car's actual, real-world performance as I had the car at the apex of its abilities on the test drive and didn't realize it. Never again. When I test drive now, I drive it like I stole it or it's a rental.
The salesguy never said a word about the speeds I reached with the Mazda6. He was too anxious to sell me the car to care if I was doing 105 or 55.
just mention in the 911 call that the customer has kidnapped you and is stealing the car...LOL
Taking a test drive is neither kidnapping nor grand theft. The law is about intent. Good luck proving a cat on a test drive had designs on stealing the car or spiriting away some salesguy.
Amen to that. Get that puppy off a truck and with as few miles as possible.
The 6s I test drove had over 100 miles on it already. Some poor sucker will buy it after it's already been redlined over 100 times.
And since I mentioned lights: I noticed that when you switch to high beams on the 6, the low beams remain on and the high beam is a separate reflector with farther projection; lights up the road nicely.
harder than ANY testdrive you can throw at the car. I had already heard that and recently (month or so ago) there was a posting on Accord board that mentioned this.:
(Thanks to the original poster of this info on Accord board. I am quoting him
>You wouldn't believe what they do to the cars >before they load them up to be delivered to the >dealers. A dealer "test drive" doesn't even begin >to approach what the factory does with them after >they roll off the assembly line.
>--cold engine rev to redline
>--"speed shifting" new transmissions
>--bringing the cars to a stop by shifting into >park while still rolling
>--smashing the brakes from normal driving speed >to see when anti-lock kicks in
>--"burning rubber" coming off the assembly line
>Those are just a few of the things I observed.
>That doesn't include how the trucker loads them >onto the carrier for shipping.
>Long and short of it, those first few miles you >see on the odometer from the factory weren't >"easy" miles. Bottom line....don't worry about >those first few miles or demo miles. They can't >be any harder than what the factory does.
>I always had the naive notion that all cars were >lovingly crafted and assembled. Having been >through the Honda plant, the Toyota plant (in KY) >and the Saturn plant in TN, it was obvious at all >these plants that the name of the game is "keep >the assembly line moving".
Also my local Mazda dealer's service manager said
similar things in terms of "how they run car-engines" in the factory testing.(under normal and stress test kind of environment).
... And one has a choice whether or not to buy a car that a dealer has sent out on test drives. One has no choice with respect to how the car was handled at the factory.
Actually, I did test drive an 02 Camry SE V6. If that barge is sporty, I'd hate to think what a normal Camry feels like. Yikes! The Mazda6 is like a race car in comparison.
I'm a little baffled why everybody is so up in arms over car reviewers. I just don't trust another person to tell me what I will like or dislike. Movies, food, cars, etc...experience them for yourself and don't let others push you into avoiding something. I guess making decisions based on personal experiece is bad?
Try turning the corner late, take it faster than you think it could, accelerate quickly, brake suddenly...BUT, be respectful of a car that doesn't belong to you and the person sitting next to you who wants to go home at the end of the night.
8 Sales Consultants lost their lives this year in test drives.
Trust me:) You can have a lot of fun in this car without driving like a ...
http://autos.msn.com/vip/jedlicka.aspx?modelid=10684&src=vip
Except, I'm worried, if I order this- will I get it within 8 weeks?
Stephen
fowler3
fowler3
I would say that 95% of salesman would be fine with a test drive that "pushed" the cars limits to a degree, but I would get his permission first -- mostly for common courtesy, also for litigious reasons.
I put trust in car reviews. When I compare 5 reviews of the same car and they pretty much say the same thing, I can assure myself that those reviews are precise. It's when reviews don't match up - that's when I think less emphasis should be put on them.
So far for the Mazda6, I've seen the consistent synopses: excellent handling, good looks, good price, inferior quality of material, small backseat.
-Alt
http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/DisplayWheel.jsp?wheelMake=Sport+Edition&wheelModel=Valore&wheelFinish=Silver+Painted
I read in a buyers guide (I think it was Road and Track) that the materials were great.
cool
awesome
these were some of the responses i got as i showed my new 6s silver sport package to my co workers. my 5 minute commute to work took 30 mins
because i stoped at the gas station and could not leave because of the response the car got. on wed when i picked up my car, a couple was looking at the row of 6's the dealer had-- one being mine that i was sitting in-- we started to talk, i discussed my experience with the car and all its features since i know more about the car than most dealers do. i gave them the salesmans name and the next day i get a call. they bought one on the spot. they will start selling very well and very quickly if my experience is any guide. my next posts will be about the car and its handling. all i can say is-- buy one--
"Stand-alone options include a power glass moonroof, leather upholstery, heated front seats and Bose sound system with an in-dash 6-disc CD changer. "
Stand-alone options? Not.
blueguy--Frankly, I don't have time to go on a lot of test drives (kids, job), so I have to rely on other peoples' opinions (including yours!) to narrow my choices a little. So I'll probably compare the 6 with the Altima and Passat, but I'm not going to test drive a Camry or a Taurus,because they're not what I'm interested in. I agree that you shouldn't just buy a 6 because the reviewers liked it.
fowler--were you talking about the MSN review? It's not in italics on my computer.
I'd like to see a shoot-out between the Altima 3.5s-MT and the 6s-MT. Yeee-haa!
I wouldn't bother with a comparison of the 6i-MT withn the Altima 2.5s-MT, as the suspension on the 2.5s just doesn't compare. Hmmm, maybe the same could be said about the Passat, not sure on that one.
My 'check engine' light came on two days ago. I took it in to a local dealer and their computer said there was a slow coolant leak. They didn't see this, so they just cleared it out. The light has stayed off, so let's hope it was just a glitch and all will be well.