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Comments
The 5 door model is my fovorite.
Rich
-juice
Yesterday at the NY autoshow I got to sin the 6. My belief is that this car will truly kill the Accords/Camry's of thr world. First off, the hatchback is absolutely beautiful. The one there had a metallic yellow paint that was just stunning. The interior materials are excellent, about on-par with the Passat, and easily better than the Accord or Camry. The silver trim looks and feels expensive, and the seat leather is soft, yet durable. The seats offer good lateral support. The gauge cluster appears to be well layed-out, and the steering wheel feels great, as does the shifter. I realize my "review" is vague and somewhat short, but I only had about 5 minutes in the car. The Mazda rep told me to look for the car in about 6 months. In other news, the RX-8 is HOT, and the Mazdaspeed protege is a hell of a value! Absolutely stunning. I've never been keen on Mazda(except the RX-7 and Miata), but my perception is changing........ They're on a kick!
The Mazda 6 needs to bring over its Japan-market name ('Atenza')... and it needs good marketing. The 6 will not compete with Camry, Accord, and Altima necessarily... it's smaller and sportier than that. Mazda's latest 626 was too plain even for Accord owners!
http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4291945243
Rich
-juice
And I feel sorry for anyone that feels more hp in one car implies that it 'outperforms' another car. The 6 should outhandle anything in its class 9and many more expensive cars) while still matching the utility they (other cars) prvide - and usually exceeding it (with the wagon and hatchback)
The rep at the Mazda display was very confident when he said the hatch would be available before the wagon.
Less than 6 months for the Sedan, early (perhaps march) 2003 for the hatchback and 3-6 more months for the wagon.
I sat in the front and the back, and played witht eh hatch and the awesome one-touch folding seats ni the yellow hatchback on the floor. Amazing overall interior quality for a car in this class, excellent rich and comfortable feel inside, available stick shift with all engine versions, and the (promised) great handling - as value for money, this will certainly challenge the Accord/Camry/Altima and should wrest sales away from them.
The Mazda displays were VERY crowded, if at all that's an indication of popularity.
I'm actually going to the NY show tomorrow, all the way from DC, by train for the day. So I'll get to see it in person for the first time.
-juice
But NY is huge, I believe it's the biggest.
-juice
Every dealer who has seen the car is begging mazda to speed up our launch but the current 626 production schedule and plant change over will take up most of this year...It will be a huge push for mazda to meet the planned launch.....but the cars "buzz" might do wonders about speeding things up!!
BTW, on the pics of the rear seats in the sedan, was that a rear speaker that I see? If it is, hope that's just addition to 4 infront and 2 more in the back; total of 8; very nice. BTW, Rich, did you notice any tweeter in the front door/dash?
First off, the car is gorgeous. I takes the cake for best looking mainsteam sedan, 5 door, wagon, whatever. Beautiful!
The interior is nice, too. Materials are better than Altima, not quite Passat, but easily acceptable. Shifter felt good, seats are supportive.
Wagon had a cool feature - you press a button at the rear, and voila! The seats pop down. They are sprung, or something, it's really neat. You can do it with one finger. Lots of nice touches like that.
Rear seat is roomier than Outback, though the cargo area isn't quite as big as an Outback. If passenger space is more important to you, here is your ride.
Hatch had a wide opening, good space, more so than the sedan.
The yellow color had a subtle metallic tint, it was BEAUTIFUL! Rich, please BEG Mazda to use this color. Best color at the whole show!
Overall you can tell I was very impressed. Better in every way than our 1995 626 ES V6.
-juice
The crowd and excitement around the 6 was pretty amazing, it was tough to get a look at everything I wanted to!
I do agree about the seats though - childishly easy to fold and raise, and perfectly flat too!
And the overal materials' quality was definitely satisfactory, although not plush by any standards. About thrice as good as an Altimas LOL.
The navigations screen that popped up was neat (on the dash, middle), but the DVD system takes some space away in the front glovebox. I liked the feel of the controls, and buttons to open and close the glovebox etc.
Fellow mazda fans of the upcoming "6"...I recently read a
good article about the 6..check out this link:
http://carseverything.com/content/search/results/article/1346/
Tom D.
Give them credit though, many makes have been cost cutting so it was much better than I expected.
-juice
Subjectively it felt roomy, not as airy as the Altima but roomier than the old 626.
-juice
All are sedan numbers.
186.8'' long
105.3 wheelbase
56.7 height
width 70.1
width mirror to mirror 77.7
ground clearance loaded...5.1
front leg room (left) 42.3
front shoulder 56.1
front head room 38.0 / 38.7 no moonroof
rear leg room 36.5
rear shoulder room 54.9
rear headroom 37.1
luggage area...
load length, rear seat up 42.5
overall load width 55.5
trunk volume 15.2 cu. ft.
fuel capacity 20 gallons
turning circle 19.4
hope this helps!!
Rich
The gas tank is also bigger - the old one only seems to hold 15-16 gallons or so.
-juice
It is my opinion that VW/Audi is the best in the biz when it comes to interiors so we shouldn't quite expect those levels yet, right? Maybe over time...
I'm getting antsy over the 6. I've pretty much decided that my next car will either be an A4 or the 6, depending of course on the execution of both over the next year and a half. Mazda has announced a 270 HP turbo version of the 6 with all-wheel drive, hopefully it will be sold in the USA (or at least the all wheel drive bits). That would make my decision easier!
As always, at your service... :-) carspy01
http://www.mazda6.de/de/gallery/default.asp
-juice
The 6 will weigh in at around 3000 pounds - pretty good for a car of it's size. I'm now wondering which engine is the better choice - the 2.3 should be able to give good performance and be a bit more tossable in the twisties. It probably will also be the aftermarket's choice, don't you think? A nice turbo would compliment it (if the Mazdaspeed turbo 6 doesn't show up on our shores). It should also have better gas mileage.
Sure, a kit for the 4 banger would be a start, but I still want the 6. Give me 4 pot brakes and bigger sway bars.
-juice
Also, a low boost turbo or a supercharger will have a nice effect on the V6 as well, but I wonder about room under the hood for them.
Anyone hear about a limited slip option? I would hope that if so it is the Torsen/Quaife style and not one of those clutch-type differentials.
Hmm, low boost, not a bad idea. Make it like VW's or Volvo's, good torque and easily chipped.
I bet Mazda uses traction control to manage the axle. Managed diffys are heavier and pricier.
-juice ('93 Miata rear LSD, '98 Subaru viscous coupling center diffy)
-juice
The Quaife differential for the MTX-75 (Focus transmission) weighs in at around 17 pounds, but the performance is definitely worth the weight penalty.
It is true that LSD diffies are expensive - ranging from ~$700 for a Quaife for the Focus (thanks to a production ramp-up since it was chosen to be used in the Focus RS) up to $1300 or more. Installation costs are a moot point if you put it in at the factory, but aftermarket installation is going to run $600 - $1200. If Mazda offered a Quaife differential as a factory option, I would definitely order it in addition to traction control (as long as the traction control can be defeated).
-juice
Let me give another example where traction control is not necessarily the best choice:
I often find myself needing to find a hole in traffic so I can pull out into the road. Sometimes I have to accelerate pretty quickly to avoid an accident (other option would be waiting half an hour for traffic to clear sufficiently) and when I do this the inside wheel of my Focus always spins. If I had the traction control option on my Focus, most likely it would have applied a little brake pressure on the inside wheel and slowed the engine down a tad. I would have regained traction but at the expense of acceleration - this could force the person behind me to have to slow down or even worse. A limited slip would have been the better choice in this instance.
"It's the news that will have driving enthusiasts across the country cheering! Mazda is planning an assault on the performance market, with a range of powerful, lightweight cars.
The attack will be based on the company's daring new vehicle line-up, which will slowly be revealed to the public over the next 18 months. Sporty derivatives are being developed under the brand name Mazda Performance Series (MPS), and first to hit the road will be a souped-up version of the 6.
Powered by a 276bhp 2.3-litre tur-bo, the newcomer will offer four-wheel drive and a distinctive bodykit to take on rivals such as the Subaru Impreza WRX"
See http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/ae_news_story.php?id=25475
But they may save it for the MPS car. Boy, AWD and 276hp sound good to me!
-juice
Anyway, nothing could be much worse than these potential pics of the 03 Accord:
http://thehollywoodextra.com/accord/accord.html