The latest version of the Mazda6 takes a great car and, with a little bit of fine tuning, makes it better.
There’s always a bit of a risk – actually, make that a big risk – of messing up in the name of progress.
When you’ve got a car that’s as well put together and drives as well as the Mazda6, do you really want to change things for change’s sake?
But at the same time, you don’t want to be seen as resting on your laurels, no matter how comfy your laurels are and how good the suspension under those laurels happens to be.
No car is perfect: fuel consumption can always be improved upon and handling can be made that bit smoother.
And you only need to look at how dated cars from ten years ago now seem. Even established brands like the Mondeo, the Golf and the MX5 need occasional tweeks if they are able to compete with the motoring upstarts that are forever revving up next to them at the lights.
Of course, if car manufacturers didn’t keep fiddling with the external and internal design of their cars, we’d all be sitting in ten-year-old cars without ever feeling the need to update, and no car manufacturer wants you to be endlessly happy with one of their cars. They want you to stay loyal to their brand, but rather than have you all nostalgic, they want you to covet (and buy) their latest shiny offering.
So they keep fiddling and making tiny changes: inside, outside and under the bonnet.
So despite being only a couple of years old, Mazda made around 400, yes 400, changes to the original Mazda6 to bring us the model that now graces Irish dealerships.
Better
And they’ve clearly taken note from the perennial success of their two-seater roadster the Mazda MX5, by making many of these changes almost imperceptible but for the better – the ideal being that you don’t fix what ain’t broken, while making sure that constant progress is made.
Most notably, the latest models to leave the production line in Hiroshima look smoother and sportier (with a fair few nods to the MX5’s styling), they have bigger but lighter 17” or 18” aluminium wheels that appear to twist slightly in order to give a stronger sense of motion, the ride is ever more responsive and dynamic (it really wasn’t bad to start with), fuel efficiency has improved and emission levels have gone down.
The interior has been updated to appear more refined, with piano black panelling and a chrome trim.
In the 2.2 litre 129ps diesel I’m test driving, one thing that you can definitely feel is the extra torque when pulling away, and you’ll move through the six speed manual gearbox with ease. You can feel the torque, but what you can’t feel is much vibration nor is it a noisy car – the boffins have worked hard to ensure that the noise/vibration/harshness ratio has been carefully tweaked so that the smooth exterior is matched by the ride comfort.
The 2.2l 129ps falls into Tax Band B. If you want more power there’s a more powerful 2.2 litre 180ps model (the Z-Sport) which falls into Tax Band C.
Sound-absorbing materials have been utilised, the doors fit snugly, the wing mirrors are shaped to minimise resistance and cut down noise and the car’s A-pillars have been looked at and fiddled with.
There are plenty of gizmos on the Mazda6, such as a warning mechanism next to the wing mirrors that alert you if a vehicle is coming past you on your blind spot, but it’s not an overly fussy car with knobs and switches everywhere. One of the best things about the interior of the MX5 has always been that the dashboard gives you all the information you need but nothing more, and that ethos is clear to see on the Mazda6 too.
As far as trim goes, you can go for Executive, Executive SE, Sport and Z-Sport with the top of the range model featuring an impressive eight-speaker Bose sound system.
The Sport-grade models feature, among other things, a chunkier logo on the grille, body-coloured wing-shaped mouldings, a new adaptive front lighting system and alloy pedals and gearstick.
You also get Hill Hold Assist, Lane Change Assist, front and rear parking sensors, rain sensing wipers and folding heated mirrors.
Again, it’s all in the detail – you might not necessarily spot the differences (unless you’re parked right next to a Mazda6 with the Executive trim) but it definitely feels like a sportier car.
The Mazda6 sits in a market sector where the competition includes such automotive giants as the Ford Mondeo. It’s a tough sector, but if the car I’ve been driving is anything to go by, then the Mazda6 is well up to the task.
Prices start from €26,485, rising to €36,995 for the Z-Sport model.
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