New Mazda 6 set to blow the hubcaps off the establishment
Dan Heyman
Courier Staff
Aggressive front fascia? Check. Streamlined, air-splitting shape? Check. Wicked-cool race-car inspired engine start/stop button? Check.
I was heading to the 58th annual Niagara Wine Festival in Ste. Catharines and the car I was lucky to be test driving was well-suited for a classy event such as this.
I was piloting the 2010 Mazda6 – the same folks that offer the smiley-faced Mazda3 and the Mazda5 mini minivan. And it just happens to be one of the coolest mid-sized sedans on the market today, taking on perennial favourites like the Toyota Camry and the Chevrolet Impala.
This is the second generation of the car, and if this new model doesn’t cause the establishment to shake then either the establishment needs to re-adjust or I’m completely off base. Not a week before I had driven the new car, I had rented an old 6 for a trip to Montreal, so the comparison was fresh in my mind.
While the old model was good, you see the improvements as soon as you sit in the plush seats of the new one. The first thing you notice when you reach for the ignition key slot is that there is no ignition slot. That’s because it’s a keyless entry and can be started with the press of a button, as long as the key fob is on your person.
Now, this is an option reserved only for the top-end GT-V6 trim package, but if you opt for the standard GS-I4 model you still get features normally reserved for high performance sports sedans such as a six-speed manual transmission, 170 horsepower and 17-inch alloy wheels. This is the only option, as Mazda seems to have decided steel wheel covers (hubcaps) are a thing of the past and have no place on a vehicle like this.
So how does it drive?
In a word – actually, two – very well. The first thing I noticed was the steering. It’s just weighty enough not to disconnect you from the ride, but assisted enough not to make manoeuvres in tight car parks overly difficult. Also notable is the turning radius has been reduced. This is good, because a huge turning radius was one of, if not the worst aspect of the old car’s dynamics.
The next highlight comes courtesy of its exceptional manners on the highway. Thanks to its streamlined shape, wind noise is greatly reduced and to top it all off, gas mileage is kept below 10 L/100 km on the highway for all engine/transmission combinations available, thanks to the low drag coefficient made by the 6’s slippery shape.
So I arrived at the festival relaxed, refreshed (thank you, manual climate control) and ready to sample some of the Niagara region’s finest. Now, if I could only scrounge up $23,195 so I could get one of my own…
