With apologies to moggy lovers, it's an
old cliché that there's more than one way to skin a cat. In
recent years the motor industry has gone to extreme lengths to make
engines more efficient. More efficiency means better use of fuel
which in turn results in driving each dollar spent on petrol – or
diesel – further along the roads and highways.
Mazda have taken a different approach
to the same problem with the 2.5 litre engine that powers the Mazda6
range. It was already a fairly efficient engine, but ran on (premium)
95 RON fuel – petrol that is more expensive than 91 RON. So it
re-engineered the engine to run on 91 RON, better known as standard
unleaded. And, it has achieved the feat without any penalty in
economy, performance or output. According to Mazda the benefit to
owners is roughly a 10 per cent reduction in running costs.
The engine still delivers 125 kW or
power at 6000 rpm and 226 Nm of torque at 4000 rpm. Our test car was
the luxury sports variant and the 0-100 km/h sprint remains the same
at 8.0 seconds flat. From an owners perspective the bottom line is
simple: you cannot tell the difference between the new engine and
old, apart from when you pull into your friendly filling station.
When buying a new car it is easy to overlook the fuel type
recommended for your car and this can be a costly oversight.
When we checked at our local servo,
standard was selling at 131.9 cents a litre compared to 141.9 for
premium, so if you filled up from scratch there's a saving of $6.40
on Mazda6's 64 litre fuel tank. If you chose E10 then the saving
would be $8.32. Expect to get around 8.6 litres/100 kms economy, but
this depends on driving style and conditions.
Mazda introduced the re-engineered
power plant as part of a mid-life freshen-up of the Mazda6. They also
introduced Bi-Xenon headlights with adaptive front lighting system.
This means the headlights follow your intended path, which is great
when cornering. In effect the lights follow the direction of the
steering wheel. To date this technology has been the domain of the
more expensive marques and Mazda6 became the first sub $50,000 car to
be fitted with it.
Interestingly, there is nothing new
with this concept. There were cars fitted with adaptive front
headlights as early as the WW1 era. They used a system to connect the
swiveling headlamps by a horizontal rod and then another rod was
connected to one of the steering arms. We suspect it's a little more
sophisticated these days.
Mazda also added some driver-friendly
assistants: parking sensors, rain-sensing wipers and auto on/off
headlamps. As a package it added $3500 worth of extra goodies to the
different variants, but the price increase was kept to $500 to $1500,
depending on grade. So you have to fork out a bit extra to get the
benefit of the fuel savings and the more you drive the quicker the
savings are made up.
Driving the Mazda6 luxury sports was
hardly a chore as we found out in our week-long road test. The luxury
sports comes only in the hatch variant and is a smart, sporty-looking
vehicle with some extra kit to set it apart from other variants. The
body kit includes front and rear aero bumpers, integrated side skirts
(shared with other variants), and a rear spoiler and sports grille.
Luxury and luxury sports also get a power sun roof.
The interior also gets some sports
treatment with aluminium pedals and footrest, blackout instrument
cluster, leather seats and leather panel trim, plus leather on the
steering wheel and gear knob. The overall effect is of a sports car.
Yet, even with its hatch rear end, this is a family car. At 519
litres the boot is family size and the rear pew seats two adults in
comfort, but will squeeze three, although the should room would be an
issue. Leg and head room is good.
Our overall feeling of this car is that
it's designed for the sports-car single that finds himself/herself
married with children. It's a beautifully balanced vehicle that
handles like a sports car, but without the drawbacks of your typical
two door. At 0-100 km/h in 8.0 seconds it's not the fastest set of
wheels on the block, but nor would you want that as a family hack.
But acceleration is more than adequate. The 2.5 litre engine is an
easy-revving heart that is nicely matched to the six speed auto,
which, by the way, is silky smooth and a pleasure to use.
With the leather finish and use of
high-quality plastics the cabin has a nice-to-come-home-to feeling
about it generally associated with more expensive marques. We found
it comfortable, both in driving positions and in the literal sense.
We like the Bose sound system. Perhaps our only complaint was the NVH
(noise, vibration, harshness) level which seemed to intrude into the
cabin, particularly wind noise.
Mazda6 is one of the standout
performers in the hotly-contested medium car segment up against Honda
Accord Euro 2.4 and Subaru Liberty 2.5.
Mazda6 hatch Pricing (before on-road
charges)
2.5 Classic
$34,440
2.5 Luxury auto
$43,910
2.5 Luxury Sports
$43,440
2.2 Diesel Sports
$44,840
FEATURES
ABS
Brakes: standard
Air
Conditioning: standard
Automatic
Transmission: optional
CD
Player: standard
Central
Locking: standard
Cruise
Control: standard
Dual
Front Airbags: standard
Front
Side Airbags: standard
Stability
Control: standard
Traction
Control: standard
SPECIFICATIONS
ENGINE:
Capacity:
2.5 litres
Configuration:
Four in line
Head
Design: 16 valve DOHC
Compression
Ratio: 9.7:1
Bore/Stroke:
89.0 mm x 100.0 mm
Maximum
Power: 125 kW @ 6000 rpm
Maximum
Torque: 226 Nm @ 4000 rpm
DRIVELINE:
Driven
Wheels: front
Manual
Transmission: six speed
Automatic
Transmission: five speed
Final
Drive Ratio: 3.863
DIMENSIONS,
WEIGHT AND CAPACITIES:
Length:
4735 mm
Wheelbase:
2725 mm
Width:
1795 mm
Height:
1440 mm
Turning
Circle: 11.4 metres
Kerb
Mass: 1451 kg
Fuel
Tank Capacity: 64 litres
Towing
Ability: 1500 kg (kg with braked trailer)
SUSPENSION
AND BRAKES:
Front
Suspension: double wishbone
Rear
Suspension: multi-link
Front
Brakes: ventilated disc
Rear
Brakes: solid disc
PERFORMANCE:
0-100
km/h Acceleration: 8.0 seconds
FUEL
CONSUMPTION:
Type:
RON 91
Combined
Cycle (ADR 81/01): 8.6 L/100km
GREEN
VEHICLE GUIDE RATINGS:
Greenhouse
Rating: 6 /10
Air
Pollution Rating: 6.5 /10
STANDARD
WARRANTY:
3
years/ unlimited km
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