Mazda6 Tourer review

The latest Mazda6 is new from the ground up, and has already won several car industry awards. It’s a family car with some innovative technology to help with fuel consumption, while still maintaining “exciting driving dynamics”.

A badge on the back proudly proclaims the Mazda6’s “Skyactiv” technology. Skyactiv is Mazda’s umbrella term for a number of technologies that help with performance and economy. One of the most interesting is the i-ELOOP system.

It’s not perfect, but the Mazda6 is better-looking than the competition

This is a regenerative braking system such as you’d see on a hybrid, with the difference that the energy captured when you decelerate or brake isn’t used to drive electric motors in the wheels. Instead, it goes into a capacitor, which is then used to power the car’s various electrical systems; from headlights to heated seats to in-car entertainment.

Mazda claims this can help to improve fuel economy by up to 10 per cent, as the engine doesn’t have to work so hard to drive the alternator. Mazda’s figures show the 6 has impressive fuel economy, beating both the equivalent models of VW Passat and Ford Mondeo. For example, the 165ps 2.0 petrol Mazda has a combined MPG figure of 47.9, compared to 45.6 for the 160ps 1.4TSI Passat and 41.5 for the 160ps 1.4TSI Mondeo.

TRIM LEVELS

The Mazda6 comes in three trim levels: SE, SE-L and Sport. Even the base SE model has a generous level of standard equipment, with 17in alloys, an integrated touchscreen multimedia system, USB and Bluetooth connectivity for music and phone calls and airbags everywhere. The SE-L adds extras such as dual-zone climate control, a six- rather than four-speaker stereo, tinted glass, front and rear parking sensors, heated mirrors and rain-sensing wipers.

If you go for the Sport model, which is also the only way to get the most powerful petrol and diesel engines, you get some smart 19in 10-spoke alloys, an 11-speaker Bose sound system, powered electric seats and keyless entry. The models available in each trim level are in the table below – the specifications refer to the Tourer estate, which was the model we tested.

Our Tourer was the Sport model with the 2.0 165ps petrol engine. It also had the optional built-in TomTom satnav, which is a £600 option whichever trim level you choose.

DESIGN AND COMFORT

The Mazda6 Tourer is a large and imposing car. It’s almost handsome, thanks to its bold grill, raked roof and sharp headlights, but we found some details such as the curved swish down the side of the car rather fussy.

The size means that there’s a massive amount of room inside. Even with a 6′ 3″ driver, there was enough room for a six-footer in the rear with several inches of spare legroom. The boot managed to swallow a couple of suitcases, a selection of boxed glassware and a crate of wine, and that was before we even put the seats down. We particularly liked the way you lower the rear seats by simply pulling a handle on the inside of the boot; the rear seats are spring-loaded, and fold forward automatically.

We have no complaints about the well laid-out and comfortable interior

From the driver’s point of view, everything is where it should be, with clearly laid-out controls for the air-conditioning and plenty of buttons on the steering wheel to help you control the stereo and your phone via Bluetooth.

IN-CAR TECH

The navigation, entertainment and phone systems are all controlled from the central 5.8in touchscreen, or you can also control them with a control knob and a selection of buttons behind the gear lever. We found this duplication of control odd at first, but we also appreciated having the option; the resistive touchscreen is nowhere near as responsive as the capacitive models we’re used to seeing on smartphones, and we much preferred zooming in and out of maps using the knob than trying to pinch-to-zoom on the touchscreen.

The entertainment system is one of the easiest to use we’ve seen, up there with Ford’s excellent Sync system. We could browse a USB flash drive full of music by artist, album and genre, and had no problems connecting an Android phone over Bluetooth. The phone then sat in the non-slip cubby hole at the bottom of the dash (a cubby hole which is much more useful than the small door bins, which are only really any good for water bottles). The Sport model’s Bose stereo is a bit of a monster, with a massive amount of bass.

The USB audio playback system is flexible

Bluetooth audio simply let us play and pause music stored on the phone and skip tracks, but the phone application was much more powerful. We easily downloaded our phone book to the car, and could make hands-free phone calls by pressing the voice command button on the steering wheel and speaking the name of a contact; we found the voice recognition system very reliable when it came to making phone calls.

The control knob is an alternative to using the multimedia system’s touchscreen

It was slightly more hit-and-miss when it came to giving verbal instructions to the satnav. We found the system struggled particularly with numbers, but was fine with the street and town names we found. In the end we preferred to just give a street and town name and say “anywhere” on that road, then keep our eyes open. The satnav itself was as good as we’d expect from TomTom, with a clear display, voice instructions and lane guidance.

DRIVING

We found the leather seats fitted to our test car to be supportive and comfortable, and getting the right seat position was easy thanks to electric backrest, cushion and lumbar controls.

The Mazda6 was an excellent motorway car, with a quiet interior and not too much road noise, in spite of its large 19in wheels. Despite Mazda’s driving fun claims, though, we found it wasn’t a brilliant car to drive on country roads. Acceleration from our test car’s 165ps petrol engine was brisk and we had no complaints with the gearchange, but the car had a tendency to dip its nose over bumps and the firm ride meant we felt every imperfection in the road.

We found the Mazda6 generally easy to manoeuvre, mainly thanks to all the parking sensors. They seem to cover almost the whole of the car’s exterior, and would pick up low walls and kerbs; useful, as this is a very big car. The reversing camera, which is standard on the Sport model, helped when getting out of parking spaces, especially as the car’s sleek lines lead to a small rear window.

VERDICT

The Mazda6 Tourer has plenty of interior space, a huge boot, generous standard kit and impressive fuel economy. It’s also excellent on the motorway, but we felt it wasn’t quite as fun on back roads as we were expecting. Nevertheless, this is a well-designed and good-value family car with a definite touch of style.