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Comments
The Mazda 6 cant get here fast enough!
One thing is for sure though. Mazda doesn't market toward that crowd so they have no chance of charging those prices. The "Zoom Zoom" crowd wants bang for the buck, not "I need something trendy and don't care about value."
If Mazda wants to charge $25K for a 6, I'm very likely to just spend the extra $5K and get an Audi A4 Quattro. The residual value of the Audi will easily make up the difference.
And please don't remind me of the Jetta's ubiquity. I see it daily. Argh. I wish the WRX had had a nice interior or that some other company made a car with a near-luxury interior and a fun engine. Tough to find for 25k and below. In fact, with the exception of the WRX (which is all fun and zero luxury), it doesn't really exist outside of the Jetta right now. Maybe the 6 will change that? I hope so. Hopefully Mazda will use decent components (unlike the chincy stuff in the 626, Tribute, Miata and Protege) and offer nice leather, along with a manual.
nobody on here has actually driven the car, except for a select few of us,and few have even seen the car but yet everyone is a pricing expert...mmmmmm interesting
Rich
Hey, what's so pathetic about the accord's interior? I like it so much, I'm hoping they do very little to change the accord 03 interior.
I hope Mazda doesn't sacrifice interior development like Nissan did though. The interior of the Altima is the cheapest thing I have seen next to a Cavalier's...
Also, there's nothing pathetic about the Accord interior, it's one of the best ergonomically. It's just boring, like the rest of the car.
I worry that if the 6 falls flat, Mazda does too. I want both the 6 and Mazda to do well.
-Andrew L
key would be putting in more features than their competitors at each price point, like what they've done with the Protege compared to Corolla/Civic/Sentra.
So, yesterday I bought a 2002 Silverstone Passat GLS 1.8T manual with black cloth iterior. Sure the suspension isn't sports sedan quality, but nothing $600 won't fix.
$22,600 was my price before tax license ($300 over invoice).
I came THAT close to going with the Protege5, they have $750 incentives right now, but that car hopped too much for me.
So it's VW for me. I would have liked to consider Mazda, but the timing was off. I work across the street from Mazda R&D and I'm sure I will start seeing 6's in their parking lots soon.
I think that the one thing that draws me to the 6 over the Audi A4 is the hatchback. Hopefully it arrives very shortly after the sedan. But you gotta love the VW/Audi 1.8T. It is a fantastic engine.
with mazda's affiliation with ford and the tight financial restraints their under, i see the interior being at the same level as the current mazda 626 (which will put it above the new altima). i hope to be pleasantly surprised though.
BTW, I could not careless how the media rates a car. For my money if the Mazda 6 has an interior on par with the Accord/Altima/Anything American then it's just not worth buying. Mazda's interior hopefully will be aimed at the Camry SE or the Passat.
I realize what market the Accord is meant for and that millions of people don't mind paying 24k for a car with substandard interior components, but regardless of those factors, for my personal tastes the Accord's interior, along with Altima's/626's falls far short.
I found a lot of cheap bits on the Accord, and I'll be very specific about them. It still has gooseneck hinges for the trunk, something VW and even Kia and Hyundai have addressed. The hood has a prop-rod instead of proper struts. The headliner is like cardboard with recycled peach fuzz sprayed on it, with a texture like dryer lint. See for yourself. Camry and Altima use the same material, but the Passat, Galant, and even our 1995 626 use padded cloth headliners. The carpets are thinner than a rental Taurus. Sure, it's all assembled nicely, but that does not mean the materials are nice.
So I hope Mazda targets VW for material quality, not Honda and Toyota, which have been cutting costs of late, and it shows. If Mazda reaches VW levels of material quality (i.e. well above Honda and Toyota), then maybe people won't complain so much about the prices.
-juice
Mazda has to tip-toe between the value brands and the big boys, in terms of pricing, while offering a sportier overall package that stands out from the crowd.
-juice
-juice
Didn't they used to have vinyl? I can see where at least that's easy to clean. Not attractive, though.
Maybe they are assembled with care, with well aligned panels and good switch gear, but I'm talking materials used. The carpets feel thin and cheap.
Mazda can better the Accord's interior. Aim for Passat, IMHO.
-juice
i was talking about about the feel of the switch gear. and it's so darn obvious that the switch gear feel is better (especially the climate controls) than the jettas. yes, the accord sedan is sterile looking (imo), but to extend it to its sophisticated double wishbone suspension and its engines is going over the deep end. lighten up on the arrogance will you.
Arrogance? It's not arrogant to dislike a company's products. When honda makes an exciting/interesting/fun car I'll take notice. Until then, they're just a synonym for yawn.
Give us zoom zoom for real. Sportier, quicker, better handling, good value. German character with Japanese quality at American prices.
Sound good?
-juice
Sounds a lot like the Protege.
Its handling will put ANY Jetta to shame. Pity you don't know better!
Back on topic - i like that combination of inspirationsa nd qualities - German character, Japanese quality, American prices. Although the 3rd is probably a pipe-dream, I don't doubt that it (Mazda 6) will be priced reasonably and comptetitively, with an edge compared to Honda/Toyota!
As someone else posted, ideally the 6 will have Japanese reliability, German character and American (or Japanese) prices.
-juice
better yet, to 'even out' the competition a bit more pricing-wise, make it a MP3 vs. Jetta duel!
and to stay on topic, wow Mazda 6!
I want it all in every car. I hope the 6 comes close. I love the exterior lines and as I've said before I'm a fan of Mazda. My family has owned several Mazdas, mostly Miatas and those cars are a blast to drive. I believe in Mazda's zoom-zoom (guess I'm brainwashed by the marketing - although I don't watch TV, so go figure).
I'm pretty confident the exterior and handling of the 6 will be top notch. I'm only worried about the interior (I fear another Altima-like letdown) and the powerplant (Ford...eek!).
Consider an MPS version too. I read some stuff about a lowered, supercharged Tribute with 17s and 275HP. Maybe they'll do the same with the 6. Slap on some 17s and get that 6 up near 300 horses.
As far as the Ford Duratech engine goes, I don't hear any Lincoln LS owners complaining about it on their forum. I've driven the 2.5 ltr in the Contour and found it to be okay, so I'm not worried about the engine.
What might bother me is a comment someone above made about the interior not being open-feeling or something like that. But hopefully I'll see for myself at our car show in March.