Dad's view: I could not stand the gauges. The red lighting was impossible to read with sunglasses on and at night the thin font make a quick check impossible for me. I also had a great deal of trouble reading the climate and radio controls where the words and the finish blended together in the same fashion as that on the Infiniti G35. I also questioned the dial placement so far ahead of the readout. Take a good look at the photo of the dash area and note how the temperature and station readouts are high on the dash and the controls knobs low. Very confusing and difficult to decipher.
I don't have anything positive to say about the optional rear spoiler. It added a great deal of weight to the rear trunk lid and took away from the rear visibility. I didn't think it added anything to the good looks of the Mazda and it costs $300.
In daily travels our 220 horsepower V6 was efficient and only when it was pushed did you notice its limitations at low speeds. The transmission shifter was exceptional. It was excellent and made heavy traffic situations easy although I wished the clutch had a little more feel to it. The car is practical, fairly inexpensive to maintain, and is nicely finished. There are some nice touches such as strut-type lid hinges that don't fold into the trunk space, uncomplicated to fold down rear seats, and lots of little storage spaces.
Living with the Mazda exposed some problems that we did not notice at first. The opening is too small for large items, the rear seats do not fold flat, the steering wheel does not have enough range of movements, and the rear doors don't open wide enough for easy access. These are small issues, but they can be annoying.
Recently, Edmunds had a test of ten family sedans. They had everything from Korean cars to American and Japanese competitors and decided that the Accord was the best followed by the Mazda with the Camry in third. We could have saved them a lot of time since we arrived at that conclusion a long time ago. However, we are The Car Family and these vehicles are our specialty. The only difference we had with Edmunds is that we like the Chevrolet Malibu better than they did.
Family conference: The Mazda 6 is well done and deserving of attention. It offers that difficult combination of utility, ride, economy, and looks. If the more pedestrian looking sedans are boring to you, the Mazda should be experienced in both six and our cylinder models.
