Just passed 12,000 miles on my car, which means I have driven it about 6000 miles since I bought this demo model last February. I'm really happy with this purchase - I think I would call the latest edition 6 as one of the best values in the market for 4-door sedans.
Likes:
-Excellent transmission and drivetrain. Sport mode is surprisingly enjoyable and noticeably better than the already very well-sorted normal mode. No shift hiccups or issues. I think I know why Mazda has stuck with this 6-speed transmission - it's fantastic and they have the tuning just about perfect. And I believe it's also quite durable.
-Comfort. Everything about this car can pretty much be described as, "smooth and nice." The 6 has some of the best front seats I've sat in period. The extremely comfortable seats are wide enough and provide enough seat bottom length to support my legs and I'm over 6' tall. I would not call them sporty seats but they are excellent for cruising. Very comfortable ride overall, helped no doubt by Mazda's choice of tires (more on that later under "dislikes"), excellent seats and suspension tuning. Interior noise levels are fairly low.
-Interior and Exterior Design. Interior design and quality punches way above the price point. I love how uncluttered and clean the dashboard is. Reminds me a little of my 2011 BMW 3-series in how spartan it is only MORE stylish than my old 3 series. Lots of soft touch surfaces as well. A very pleasant place to be for a long drive. The exterior design is also excellent and many of our friends/neighbors agree. It's subjective, but I say Mazda hit the marks on the design.
-Fuel Mileage is excellent. I say this with the understanding that our 6 has the turbo 4 cylinder and it feels fantastic in normal or even slightly spirited driving around town. I got 33 mpg on one 90% highway trip and regularly get 22-24 mpg around town depending on the season. The best way to summarize my thoughts on the fuel mileage is this: The fun-to-fuel mileage ratio is way up there when I think back at my previous vehicles. Our V8-powered Jeep Grand Cherokee is sitting at about 13 mpg this winter with mostly local driving. Yikes!
Dislikes:
-Like our CX-5, the OEM tires are terrible. Wet traction, dry traction, handling - all sub par. The only positive things I have to say about these tires is that they do contribute to the nice, comfortable ride due to the soft non-sporting sidewalls.
-Below-Average Steering Feel. I know the 6 has electric steering-assist like every other new vehicle now, but this system isn't awesome. It's not as bad as some vehicles I've driven, but it's certainly not as good as some that I've driven. It's just "OK". The funny thing is our 2019 CX-5 Signature seems to have much better steering feel and almost seems like the ratio is tighter/quicker than the 6. I wish the 6 had the same steering feel as our CX-5. That being said, I'm also very certain the OEM tires are heavily contributing to this poor steering feel so I'm looking forward to upgrading the tires when the OEMs wear out.
-Handling is just OK. The 6 is far from a sports sedan. I really didn't expect it to perform like a proper sports sedan, but the car is so good in so many other ways I kinda wish it did! But that's just it...I think this car is probably the best example I know of as a true Grand Touring car. It's comfortable; handles well-enough and is quick-enough. I do think it handles better than other FWD 4-door sedans but it's far from a sports sedan. When I come out of a hard turn, hit the throttle and the inside front wheel spins, I'm reminded again that this is not a sports car but a very nice FWD Grand Touring car. And that's fine. But I'm still getting sportier tires when the time comes! I think it might help me get that little bit of extra sport out of the 6 that I want (including a little more steering feel.)
-Entertainment System is Glitchy. Took a long trip at the end of summer in the 6 - total of about 16 hours in the car over three days. The Mazda entertainment system crashed on me at least 5 times and you couldn't get it to reconnect to my phone unless you pulled over, stopped the car, waited a few minutes and then re-started the car. I recently took the 6 in for service though and they updated my system software. It was at least 3 updates behind. We experienced similar issues with our CX-5 which haven't returned since the last 2 updates, so I'm pretty optimistic we won't continue to have issues with our 6's entertainment system.
-Driver's Side Mirror Vibrates. Same deal for our CX-5. The dealer replaced the driver's side mirror on our CX-5 and while it improved, it still vibrates a little making the images slightly blurry. The 6's driver's side mirror is the same. When I was in for service over the holidays, our dealer ordered a new side mirror for me but it hasn't come in yet. Slightly irritating that both of our new Mazdas had the same issue - they have to do better than this in the upscale auto world they are striving to compete in. Curious if anyone else has experienced this on their 2018+ 6? Speaking of the side mirrors, I'm still mad that Mazda has seat memory but not mirror memory. I can't think of any car that has seat memory but not side view mirror memory - that makes no sense at all to me but I knew this was the case prior to buying it. Same deal on the CX-5. I have no doubt Mazda will add this feature to CX-5 and 6 model years as a new "feature", lol.
Other than the tires, my dislikes are mild. This is a heck of a great overall car. I do tend to like the sportier spectrum of vehicles, so keep that in mind when reading my critiques. If Mazda eventually adds AWD and the new inline 6 cylinder to the next generation 6, count me as very interested in this vehicle!
Hope some of you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Likes:
-Excellent transmission and drivetrain. Sport mode is surprisingly enjoyable and noticeably better than the already very well-sorted normal mode. No shift hiccups or issues. I think I know why Mazda has stuck with this 6-speed transmission - it's fantastic and they have the tuning just about perfect. And I believe it's also quite durable.
-Comfort. Everything about this car can pretty much be described as, "smooth and nice." The 6 has some of the best front seats I've sat in period. The extremely comfortable seats are wide enough and provide enough seat bottom length to support my legs and I'm over 6' tall. I would not call them sporty seats but they are excellent for cruising. Very comfortable ride overall, helped no doubt by Mazda's choice of tires (more on that later under "dislikes"), excellent seats and suspension tuning. Interior noise levels are fairly low.
-Interior and Exterior Design. Interior design and quality punches way above the price point. I love how uncluttered and clean the dashboard is. Reminds me a little of my 2011 BMW 3-series in how spartan it is only MORE stylish than my old 3 series. Lots of soft touch surfaces as well. A very pleasant place to be for a long drive. The exterior design is also excellent and many of our friends/neighbors agree. It's subjective, but I say Mazda hit the marks on the design.
-Fuel Mileage is excellent. I say this with the understanding that our 6 has the turbo 4 cylinder and it feels fantastic in normal or even slightly spirited driving around town. I got 33 mpg on one 90% highway trip and regularly get 22-24 mpg around town depending on the season. The best way to summarize my thoughts on the fuel mileage is this: The fun-to-fuel mileage ratio is way up there when I think back at my previous vehicles. Our V8-powered Jeep Grand Cherokee is sitting at about 13 mpg this winter with mostly local driving. Yikes!
Dislikes:
-Like our CX-5, the OEM tires are terrible. Wet traction, dry traction, handling - all sub par. The only positive things I have to say about these tires is that they do contribute to the nice, comfortable ride due to the soft non-sporting sidewalls.
-Below-Average Steering Feel. I know the 6 has electric steering-assist like every other new vehicle now, but this system isn't awesome. It's not as bad as some vehicles I've driven, but it's certainly not as good as some that I've driven. It's just "OK". The funny thing is our 2019 CX-5 Signature seems to have much better steering feel and almost seems like the ratio is tighter/quicker than the 6. I wish the 6 had the same steering feel as our CX-5. That being said, I'm also very certain the OEM tires are heavily contributing to this poor steering feel so I'm looking forward to upgrading the tires when the OEMs wear out.
-Handling is just OK. The 6 is far from a sports sedan. I really didn't expect it to perform like a proper sports sedan, but the car is so good in so many other ways I kinda wish it did! But that's just it...I think this car is probably the best example I know of as a true Grand Touring car. It's comfortable; handles well-enough and is quick-enough. I do think it handles better than other FWD 4-door sedans but it's far from a sports sedan. When I come out of a hard turn, hit the throttle and the inside front wheel spins, I'm reminded again that this is not a sports car but a very nice FWD Grand Touring car. And that's fine. But I'm still getting sportier tires when the time comes! I think it might help me get that little bit of extra sport out of the 6 that I want (including a little more steering feel.)
-Entertainment System is Glitchy. Took a long trip at the end of summer in the 6 - total of about 16 hours in the car over three days. The Mazda entertainment system crashed on me at least 5 times and you couldn't get it to reconnect to my phone unless you pulled over, stopped the car, waited a few minutes and then re-started the car. I recently took the 6 in for service though and they updated my system software. It was at least 3 updates behind. We experienced similar issues with our CX-5 which haven't returned since the last 2 updates, so I'm pretty optimistic we won't continue to have issues with our 6's entertainment system.
-Driver's Side Mirror Vibrates. Same deal for our CX-5. The dealer replaced the driver's side mirror on our CX-5 and while it improved, it still vibrates a little making the images slightly blurry. The 6's driver's side mirror is the same. When I was in for service over the holidays, our dealer ordered a new side mirror for me but it hasn't come in yet. Slightly irritating that both of our new Mazdas had the same issue - they have to do better than this in the upscale auto world they are striving to compete in. Curious if anyone else has experienced this on their 2018+ 6? Speaking of the side mirrors, I'm still mad that Mazda has seat memory but not mirror memory. I can't think of any car that has seat memory but not side view mirror memory - that makes no sense at all to me but I knew this was the case prior to buying it. Same deal on the CX-5. I have no doubt Mazda will add this feature to CX-5 and 6 model years as a new "feature", lol.
Other than the tires, my dislikes are mild. This is a heck of a great overall car. I do tend to like the sportier spectrum of vehicles, so keep that in mind when reading my critiques. If Mazda eventually adds AWD and the new inline 6 cylinder to the next generation 6, count me as very interested in this vehicle!
Hope some of you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!
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