I've had my Mazda 6 Sport estate since early December 2010 and have now covered just over 10,000 miles in it so I thought that it would be a good time to write a little review. It's got the 2.2 litre diesel engine with 180bhp. Average fuel consumption measured brim to brim & calculated on the handy Road Trip Lite iPhone app (thanks for the recommendation Zero) is 42.06 with the highest being the most recent tank at 44.54 and the lowest being the third tankful at 37.00. I mostly use it to commute back and forward to work which is 33 miles each way, and 80% dual carriageway / motorway.
What's good
The engine is very smooth and delivers its power with a bit of a shove from about 1500 rpm and then just keeps on going. I haven't really taken it up to the red line but do boot it in third now and again just to try and blow any accumulated rubbish out the back (actually thinking about it, is that unnecessary with the DPF?). It accelerates smoothly and without fuss, as long as you're in the right gear, and it's very easy to find yourself going quite quickly. I have largely disciplined myself to stick the cruise on somewhere between 70 & 80 on the speedo when conditions allow and that does seem to have a beneficial effect on the fuel consumption.
It's quite spacious, although it should be given the size of it (feels quite a bit bigger compared to my last car, a Skoda Octavia estate), but there's only really space across the back for 2 full size seats and anyone in the middle can lump it. The boot area is a good size and if you need to fold down the back seats, that's easy to do and they fold flat.
I think it looks great and when cleaned the Copper Red paintwork really makes it look good.
The Bose sound system is impressive. Bluetooth connection to my iPhone 3 works well, allowing playback of music and call functions. It's not so happy with my work supplied Nokia 3109 but it does connect and you can receive calls well enough. I haven't really set up the voice activated dialling, I don't tend to make many calls in the car and if I do am happy to pull over to do so, but will use the button on the steering wheel to answer incoming while moving. You can use an aux in to connect mp3 players – I haven't done that yet but will get a lead to do so at some point.
What's not so good
In common with many modern cars, seeing out of the thing is not always easy. The thick A pillar can mean that you're leaning forward and back to see properly when pulling off the drive or out of junctions. The rear window isn't massive either and you can see practically nothing out of the rearmost side windows which has led to some close shaves when hurriedly reversing onto the drive.
The parking sensors are almost comically sensitive and the beep you get when engaging reverse makes turning the thing round on the drive a cacophony of beeping noises.
The 18” wheels and (I assume) tuned for 'Sport' suspension mean you feel pretty much every bump but it's not too bad. It handles well, as far as I can tell going up and down dual carriageways every day. On the relatively few occasions I've taken it along some twistier roads it corners well and certainly hangs on through the bends to a far greater degree than I'll ever need. I thought long and hard about going for a TS2 trim which came with smaller wheels and a slightly less powerful engine. However the TS2 didn't have the Bose sound system so I opted for the Sport and I'm happy with that.
It's a company car so I won't pay the servicing bills. However I checked the oil about 6 weeks ago to find that it needed topping up. The only oil Halfords had that matched the spec was Mobil 1 ESP Formula which costs a frankly astonishing £16.99 per litre. At that price the 12,500 mile service intervals are going to soon add up.
In conclusion it's a great looking car in my opinion with a very accomplished engine. If I was buying one with my own money I probably wouldn't opt for the Sport trim. I imagine that everything one needs is on the TS2 but the difference in lease rates & BIK was small enough to make the higher trim level attractive, so I thought why not?
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Very interesting - many thanks. The model you have is £2,300 more (list price) than the equivalent Octavia estate (vRS TDI 170) and a whopping £5,500 less than the 2.2 diesel Mondeo estate which you can have only as a Titanium X.
Is it worth the extra over the Octavia? It wouldn't be for me, because I think good visibility front and rear is essential, but that's just a personal view. Otherwise it sounds good: I suspect the stereo system is responsible for quite a bit of the extra cost over the Octavia.
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Interested that you found the Bose system worthwhile, I specced it on my Audi A4 Avant a few years back and didn't perceive much difference to the standard fit 10 speaker system and resolved never to bother with such an option again. Possibly more a reflection of the quality of the standard system than on the Bose option I guess.
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I haven't really got anything of quality to compare it with to be honest, but I like it. It's got a subwoofer in the spare wheel well so I can indulge my inner baseball cap wearing Saxo driver if I want. That's another not so good actually, no spare but the neither have the lower trim levels. I could have lived without the sub in a TS2 if it meant gaining a spare wheel, but it didn't.
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My previous model Mazda6 Sport has a BOSE stereo with a subwoofer in the spare wheel. The spare is a space saver though but at least it's a spare.
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I'm not sure if it's worth more over the equivalent Octavia to be honest. My previous car was a 52 plate tdi Elegance so I can't make a direct comparison with the current model. I would have liked to, and against the Superb, but getting a test drive out of Skoda for either proved impossible. However I did want a bit more space than the old Octavia provided, hence considering the Superb, and I think the Mazda provides that. However I do now know that manoeuvring the Superb onto the drive so I could go out forwards would have been a considerable challenge!
I don't think I'd pay the extra for the equivalent Mondeo and the lease rates for the Mazda were pretty favourable compared to the both the Mondeo and Skoda.
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Mazda Mazda 6 - Mazda 6 estate - the first 10,000 miles - Avant
