It's now been a week and a half since changing the Laguna for a Mazda 6 TS2 auto estate.
What a nice car. Smooth, quiet, near imperceptible gear changes, no interior bonks or rattles - it's a 2006 with 67k on the clock.
Since picking it up I've replaced a rear tyre as an existing one was cracking and low on tread compared to a near new tyre on the other side. Conti Sport Contact 2s. Cheapos on the front (Primewell, desperately trying to look like Pirellis), they will be allowed to wear down and will be replaced by the current rears with new matching Contis on the back when the time comes. Also one wiper blade replaced as it was the wrong size (looked too small and proved to be when I got the new one - hallelujah, old fashioned hook arms for proper wiper blades, no flat nonsense). Just found yesterday one of the rear door seals is coming loose, didn't spot that when buying the car and it's hardly worth the effort to take it back to the dealer (40 miles) or claim on the warranty. Are they easy to fit DIY I wonder?
Couple of things on the neg side - I'd forgotten what a daft set up the climate control has - it likes to direct the air where it thinks it should go and needs telling off most of the time, and has a mystifying three settings - A/C on, A/C ECO and A/C off. No idea what A/C ECO is supposed to achieve. Also, the seats are not as good as those in the Laguna were (not much would be, frankly) and the squab is too short for my likings. I wonder if you can install a Laguna driver's seat...........
Beautifully made car, and a super relaxing drive on the motorways and around town. Average 35mpg so far on brim-to-brim calcs, which has been mostly urban with a couple of long drives down the M4. Happy with that given it's a 2.0 petrol auto.
I think it's a keeper.
Will add any other random thoughts as they occur to me.
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Good luck with it.
My air con is a bit weird - usually it comes on automatically for the windscreen BUT if it is too cold outside it wont come on at all, seems to be regulated by the outside temp - bit of a pain waiting for a diesel to warm up enough to clear the screen without a/c!
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>> Good luck with it.
>>
>> My air con is a bit weird - usually it comes on automatically for the
>> windscreen BUT if it is too cold outside it wont come on at all, seems
>> to be regulated by the outside temp -
Most A/C are like that, won't work below about 5 or 6c.
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The destructions will probably tell you that the aircon won't work below about 4 Celsius to avoid it icing up. I'm pretty sure mine says that.
Edit - crossed with Zero. Interrupted in mid post.
Last edited by: Manatee on Wed 11 Dec 13 at 16:01
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Strange then because the Matrix a/c comes on regardless of outside temp.
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As it should. Surely AC is for demisting in winter as well as cooling in summer.
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>>the seats are not as good as those in the Laguna were
No surprise there really.
Handbook on my Forester states: The air conditioner's compressor does not operate with an outside temperature of 0°C or lower.
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>> Strange then because the Matrix a/c comes on regardless of outside temp.
Maybe it's just the light that's on?
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>> >> Strange then because the Matrix a/c comes on regardless of outside temp.
>>
>> Maybe it's just the light that's on?
>>
It is light only in my Ceed, which has its AC switched on all the time, all car AC systems have a low temperature cut out to protect it from damage.
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>>Maybe it's just the light that's on?<<
Nope, the a/c fires up, if you dont have it on it mists up, clears instantly you turn it on.
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Are you sure its not the recirc you are switching?
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This is copied from the Ceed repair manual for the AC system.
"Fin sensor is installed in front of the evaporator in order to detect the temperature of evaporator. It prevents evaporator from freezing."
It cuts the AC out at +1.3C and back in at +2.8C.
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Well I'm sure my Mazda6 from new (had it 2007 - 2011) did exactly what Stu's complaining about. i.e. it won't (can't) demise the windscreen when it's very cold. My other cars have been the same.
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>>Are you sure its not the recirc you are switching? <<
Yes. The wifes Matrix will fire up the a/c when it is -1, the Elantra doesnt seem to run if the temp is below 2 or 3. I know this because at 7am on a Friday morning I have to swap the cars over and it is a PITA that my car wont clear its windscreen when its cold, the Matrix does it in a couple of seconds.
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A couple of months ago, my son bought a very handsome metallic blue '03 Mazda 6 2.3 sport. He seems delighted with it and, so far, I haven't heard any complaints at all.
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Thought of the day: the car's a TS2 spec, which means it has a Bose subwoofer and Bose speakers. Standard head unit (Panasonic I think). I really can't tell the difference from anything I've had before. I think it's probably my dodgy ears, though. I've only listened to the radio, haven't tried the CD player, but I really can't hear any difference over standard equipment.
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I have a Bose setup in the Alfa with amp and sub under the parcel shelf. I have noticed with this setup the subtly of sound quality is somewhat lost with the car being noisier than the C5 before it. However when driving more sensibly, or when stopped, the quality and particularly the reproduction of previously unheard bass notes is superb.
It is caught out by some bass heavy modern recordings ( a grumble of mine) as there is no facility to back the sub off without just reducing the overall bass.
On 70s rock recordings that were mostly properly balanced drums are brilliant.
Edit: You will not hear what is is capable of until you play a CD known to you.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Thu 12 Dec 13 at 10:12
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Perhaps someone - probably Fenlander - can explain just what a subwoofer does, on the assumption that it's not a dog sent on to the pitch by a football manager.....
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Oh come on Avant... you must know even if you don't feel the need for one.
Wiki is as good as anyone for detail... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subwoofer
Wait a minute you are a church organist... you must be aware there are notes and a bass ambience from real instruments most home and car hi-fi systems are unable to reproduce. Adding a sub goes at least some way to making up that loss.
Last edited by: Fenlander on Thu 12 Dec 13 at 11:17
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Avant, it's like the 32' on your pedals.
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I have 06 hatchback TS2 spec with the Bose set up, and its the best factory fit system iv had in a car. The Bass is deep and when wound up makes the rear screen bounce, also the door mirrors rattle. Maybe because of the boot being smaller and more confined than the estate gives it the kick.
Where is the sub positioned in a estate is it the top of the dash or boot? My sub sits in the spare wheel in the boot floor. AlsoI have noticed it works better with the AVC set to 3 and the fader set on +2 to the rears.
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I'd assume the sub-woofer on the estate is in the same location as the hatchback - so within the spare wheel.
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>> I'd assume the sub-woofer on the estate is in the same location as the hatchback
>> - so within the spare wheel.
>>
It is.
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I worked with someone in the early 90's who had a 1988 626 2.0 petrol manual.
That car was serviced on the dot with an oil change every 6k miles. In 1993 it had over 250,000 miles on the clock and still ran sweet as a nut.
Boringly reliable was how he described it but he wouldn't swap it for the world. It became challenge with him of how many miles he could get out of it. I lost touch with him before he got rid of the car. For all I know he's still driving the M4 between Swindon and Swansea every day in it.
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My Mazda6 Sport (143PS diesel) had a lovely gear box and it really was nice. Then the last few months it got notch and to this day I suspect it was clutch and not gearbox. They tried adjusting etc. and at one point it got worse and then a little better. Never as good as it was before it started to get notchy. If it wasn't so good perhaps I'd have not complained when it went a little wrong!
My next car may well be the new Mazda6 as a saloon in 2.2 Sport guise - or even the more compact (shorter) estate.... But that's next October. But I would think I ought to consider the revised Insignia which would be a lot cheaper (perhaps £200/month better off!).
Last edited by: rtj70 on Thu 12 Dec 13 at 19:13
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The Mazda6 has been based on the Ford Mondeo platform for some years now.
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>> The Mazda6 has been based on the Ford Mondeo platform for some years now.
The Mazda6 I had will have shared some DNA with a Mondeo. But not sure about the second generation Mazda6. The current Mazda6 probably doesn't. The estate and saloon versions of the current Mazda6 even have different wheelbase measurements - the estate is the shorter car both in overall length but also wheelbase.
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Many thanks for the enlightenment about subwoofers. One learns something every day.
Keeping the motoring connection going, there is a 32 ft Ophicleide stop on the Westminster Abbey organ that can make a fair imitation of a Harley-Davidson.
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Can it do a V70 in 3rd gear with foot on the heavy pedal? ;)
It's music to my ears!
Pat
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Just a little update. No problems or failures yet. Well pleased.
I've been playing CDs in the Panasonic/Bose system, it's pretty good but not especially better than other systems I've had. I think I've got poorish hearing though. Other folkses with better lugoles may benefit from the set up.
One thing though seems to be surprising me. The fuel economy. I'm seeing nearly 500 miles out of a tank of fuel when I'm doing combined motorway/town work now. The last tank of approx. 12.5 gals did 500 miles. That's just about 40mpg, I calculate. In a 2.0 petrol engined largeish estate car with TC auto. Crumbs.
Last edited by: Alanović on Thu 23 Jan 14 at 16:05
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My 2.0 petrol TC Forester is supposed to be a gas guzzler, but I find it's no worse than my 1.6 petrol TC Lancer.
Course, if I drove it like Lud the Malteser drives his PT, it would be a totally different story.
:o)
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>> if I drove it like Lud the Malteser drives his PT, it would be a totally different story.
Not too slowly as a rule but quite economically Perro. I haven't checked lately but I think I'm getting low-to-middle thirties per gallon round here. There's a bit less traffic than where Zero lives, but for a 2 litre manual 'world car' thingy it isn't that bad. I do a lot of short journeys too, 10 miles or less. Of course I have retired from 70s minicab hustle and bustle. I mimse a bit these days.
Alanovic's Mazda sounds excellent. A friend has a Mazda 3 and it seems a nice little car, refined and unburstable-feeling somehow.
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Actually thinking about economy, which means efficiency, makes me remember that the car could do with an oil and filter change soon, and perhaps a proper look at the air filter sooner than that. It's a K&N element, allegedly more efficient than bog standard, and last time I tapped the dust out of it there seemed to be some stickier fine gunge building up that wouldn't just fall off.
I don't know whether one can wash it in petrol or something of the sort. I suppose I will have to telephone K&N... bummer.
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Deep down he misses his Renault.
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>> Deep down he misses his Renault.
>>
I do a bit. I miss the seats, and the size of the thing. I miss its looks a bit (insert Specsavers comment here). I don't miss it's economy as much as I thought I would as I was expecting 25-30 from the Mazda. 45-50 was the norm in the Renault, could see 60 on runs. I don't miss the clutch pedal. I don't miss its electrics.
Clear win for the Mazda, but if only I could get the Laguna's driver's seat back.
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>> Clear win for the Mazda, but if only I could get the Laguna's driver's seat
>> back.
Just pop down the scrappy and collect it, the car is bound to be there by now.
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>> Clear win for the Mazda, but if only I could get the Laguna's driver's
>> seat back.
>>
>> Just pop down the scrappy and collect it, the car is bound to be there
>> by now.
Failing that, seek out a Chrysler 180 driver's seat. Must have been one of the most comfortable around at the time.
:)
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www.knfilters.com/cleaning.htm
I mimse a bit these days too Sire, what's the hurry? .. although the Forester reminds me of my Dolomite Sprint in that the engine/gearbox likes to get a move on at the slightest touch of the loud pedal.
I'll wager the turbo jobbies don't hang about :)
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>>refined and unburstable-feeling somehow.
>>
That's a good way of putting it.
However, it may not survive the day. I've got the wife's Golf to take it for an MoT and herself is driving the Mazda. Usually commutes by train but as sod's law would have it, she's working more locally today and needs a car.
Shiver. If anyone can burst it..........
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It remains unbursted, and the Golf passed its MOT without an advisory. That's another year's Golfing ahead then. Mind you, it's done less than 4k miles between MOTs, and it'll do even fewer miles this year. Had to fill it up on Friday, first time since August I think.
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>>That's just about 40mpg, I calculate.
>> In a 2.0 petrol engined largeish estate car with TC auto. Crumbs.
Quite remarkable and the icing on the cake!
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It's certainly convinced me that when we replace our 2002 Golf TDi auto, it will be with a petrol or petrol hybrid. Probably a Jap one if I can get it past the trouble and strife. Insight, Prius, Mazda 3, that sort of caper. New shape Auris Hybrid would be lovely.
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Ford hybrids becoming available in the next little while too, for what that's worth.
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If it is a Mazda 6 diesel I hope the pleasure lasts!
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I must have got confused during the hi-fi thread drift! I did say IF!
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The factory fit alarm has started false alarming every so often. Ladies' underdrawers to it.
Got to be a main dealer inspection job I reckon. Bah.
Last edited by: Alanović on Mon 3 Feb 14 at 10:21
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is there some way of turning off the interior volumetric sensors?
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Dunno. I'm googling this morning but not coming up with anything. Unholy pain in the backside.
Had it with my 1998 Mondeo estate - I solved that one by disconnecting the bonnet alarm switch. Disabled the system nicely. Don't want to try it on this system though, dire warnings of the car never starting again have been discovered on the Mazda forums already.
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A hammer works well.
(I assume Renault designed the electronics)
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Do you keep a phone or tablet or sat nav in the car? anyone of those always sets my alarm off.
Over on mazda6 owners club everyone one who always posts that their alarm is going off for no reason always comes back with yes one of those devices left in car.
When you set alarm push bottom button on remote to turn interior sensors off see if it still goes off.
Last edited by: mazda chris on Mon 3 Feb 14 at 11:01
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You know what, Chris? My boy sometimes leaves a kindle in the glovebox. I'll check and see if it's there today.
Cheers.
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>> (I assume Renault designed...
A bit of a rash assumption...
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>>>>You know what, Chris? My boy sometimes leaves a kindle in the glovebox>>>>
That will be the problem. Mine used to go off but only in the daytime not at night did it for a couple of weeks. One day i opened the arm rest to get a pen and found the son's phone. He used to put it there mornings on the way to school and take it out again when i picked him up in the afternoon. Its a good reminder though if you leave it in their by mistake.
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Well well well. Three holes in the ground. The boy's kindle is in the glovebox, and the car false alarmed this morning. How does that work then? It's just a plain kindle fire with no sim card or internet connectivity (apart from wireless at home).
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No idea. iv left my tablet in their before and it s gone off, also when we have popped into a service station and left the sat nav in glovebox its gone off before we have got to the doors.
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When I bought the car it had a hard wired old smartnav device. It still has it. I don't use it but it powers up on start up. Now the kindle has been introduced in the last few weeks, and it didn't false alarm before we had that. So I think I can rule out the smartnav.
For now I've locked the car with the remote and pressed the "disable alarm" button. Will see how it goes. Thinking about it, the alarm has not gone off at home, and the boy always removes his kindle when we get home. Hmm.
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Couple of incidents with the anonymous silver wonderbus recently, neither of them its fault.
Just after parking in a hospital car park one day last week, the lady parked next to me started to reverse out of her space and managed to sideswipe my rear passenger side bumper with the front of her car, taking off some paint and leaving some scratching down to the primer. I was still in the car at the time so leapt out so talk to her about it. She looked at it and said: "Oh, you'll be all right with that, won't you?" You can probably guess my response (I kept it calm and polite). Her details were taken and it's going to the bodyshop as soon as I can get round to it. Her car bore worse damage, but the thing (Mitsubishi people carrier, 53 plate, kind of shabby condition AC would drool over) was a wreck covered in dents and scratches elsewhere anyway. Convinced she'd have just sodded off were I not there.
The other incident is mostly my fault. On my drive to Didcot which lead to the one-way street satnav prattery I mentioned elsewhere, I drove through a large and apparently deep pool of standing water - it was the morning after the Berkshire thunderstorm, for those in the area. The storm itself was near and powerful enough to have set off plenty of car alarms in my street, easily the loudest thunder I've ever heard (amazed the dog survived it, 15 years old and on heart pills). Now, the drive through the puddle was partly to amuse a child, but there was a mitigation in that the other side of the road was being used by other vehicles. Should have slowed down though, I accept. Seems the car has sucked a load of water in and is slowly depositing it in to the passenger footwell. It's in the garage today to be turned upside down and shaken violently.
Sigh.
In other news, I've successfully attached and test piloted my new roof mounted bike racks. Yeehah. I was much more nervous driving with the 4 bikes up top than I have ever been before, I was quite unnerved. Piccies here:
s1192.photobucket.com/user/alanovich/library/Roof%20bikes
Last edited by: Alanović on Mon 23 Jun 14 at 13:40
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Ooh, and forgot to add.
Tyres. We all love a post about tyres.
Someone of the female persuasion who shall remain anonymous, has kerbed a front wheel and taken a chunk out of the tyre sidewall. On closer inspection it seems the fronts were almost down to the wear bars anyway, so two new tyres purchased.
Now, here's the bit where I get dogs' abuse. The rears are good and are Contis. I have gone for budgets (brand: PACE PC10) at £55 each rather an £85 for matching Contis. However, there's a twist. The tyres which I ended up with are 94W Extra Load rated, as opposed to the rear wheels which have 91W rated Contis. I reckon the Extra Load rating is worth as much as the supposedly superior non-XL Contis, and with my loading bikes on the roof now I think they're a good move.
For extra blood pressure implications, I asked the head honcho at the tyre shop (local little indie, not a big national chain) if the new ones should go on the back. No, says he. New always on the front. OK, says I. Go for it my good man.
Questions? Comments? Sarcastic remarks?
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Well you did court opinion...
>>> I asked the head honcho at the tyre shop (local little indie, not a big national chain) if the new ones should go on the back. No, says he. New always on the front.
He was being kind. The theory is the tyres expected to give the weakest grip should go on the front... as he's advised.
:-O
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>> The theory is the tyres expected to give the weakest grip should go on the front... as he's advised.
That's one theory, based on the idea that ordinary drivers can cope with understeer but not oversteer. Another - mine - is that the tyres with the newest tread should go in front to ensure the best braking in slippery conditions.
But when the new tyres are also cheaper than the old ones they may be made with a harder, less grippy compound and poor tread design with few sipes. I would always advise drivers to do a bit of cautious getting-out-of-shape on wet bends until the real picture becomes clear when they have put different tyres on the two axles. No one wants a nasty surprise with the family on board at the wrong moment.
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I see what you're getting at but his words were "new always go on the front". That was in response to me saying "new go on the back, don't they"?
I drive within speed limits and I don't tailgate, and I'll be going slower (60) with the bikes on. It's not a racing car and I don't "explore its limits". So I reckon that mitigates any reduced performance from the tyres, and I'm happy that they're "extra load" rated.
Swings and roundabouts.
Dese are de beasties. Mine are marked 94W however.
tinyurl.com/ls7oy6r
Last edited by: Alanović on Mon 23 Jun 14 at 15:36
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Fair enough. After all, it's only the top-tier tyre makers that recommend new tyres go on the back. What do they know about the Christmas cracker brands?
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Does the fact that my top tier rears are virtually brand new (6 months old, 5k miles, always on the rear so barely worn) mitigate in your eyes WdB?
I had these PACEs on my Ford Galaxy for ages, they wore pretty well (and those cars eat front tyres) and I never had a moment's worry with them. They were indistinguishable from the Pirellis they replaced.
Well I've got a Christmas cracker car and live in a Christmas cracker town, so it should all work, right?
;-)
Last edited by: Alanović on Mon 23 Jun 14 at 15:46
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To me, part of the appeal of the new-on-the-back model is that it keeps reasonably fresh tyres at both ends. A typical FWD car is so light on its rear tyres that it would be easy to run a pair for four or five years while the grip steadily and imperceptibly declined, but with a much greater variation as front tyres came and went. Whereas with the Michelins I use on the Volvo, I have a neat 25,000 mile cycle in which a 6mm pair moves from back to front and wears down to 2.5mm while the rear pair goes from 8 to 6. No guesswork and no sudden 'I didn't realize they'd got that bad' either.
It's partly why I've found the LEC bewildering. It's been over two years now, and 25,000 miles, and it still has only one Michelin end because it's taken me this long to wear out the bleedin' Nexens - and they've been on both ends now. They may look naff but they're really not that bad.
Your Pirellis weren't P6000s, were they? Wouldn't want anything indistinguishable from those.
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Nexens were original equipment on the Ka we bought new for just over 5 grand in 2004. ( the one "she" rolled ) maybe they do grip well enough, I mean you wouldn't think you'd roll over very easily if there was no lateral grip would you?
Or was that maybe the slithering sideways and using the kerb as a fulcrum that did it?
I'm sure they'll be fine...
;-)
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>> Your Pirellis weren't P6000s, were they? Wouldn't want anything indistinguishable from those.
>>
No. P7s I think.
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Right, it's back from the garage. Seems my little amphibious vehicle experiment lead to some muck being thrown in to the the condensation outlet from the aircon system, leading to that water being forced in to the passenger footwell. A blast with an airline seems to have cleaned it out (and my wallet for an hour's labour). Lesson learned.
Normal (reliable) service resumed.
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Mazda Mazda 6 - The Laguna's replacement - Review - Stuu
