When you just fold the rear seats flat the estate version of the new Mazda 6, 1,664 liters of cargo volume can be filled through a large tailgate opening. That’s a lot of room although it still falls short of crossovers like the CX-5 and Toyota RAV4. If you have 2,000 liters of stuff then you need to shop elsewhere, but for everything else there is the Mazda 6 estate. It’s a good sign Emirates Airlines has many demands on them, and there is the problem. Mazda UAE doesn’t seem to care about private buyers and the feasibility studies can’t uncover anyone who is interested in a vastly superior and fantastic alternative to a boring crossover. The 6 estate is a fleet special, when it should be marketed as a sporty, practical family all-in-one car. It will even climb a kerb, which is exactly as far off-road as your crossover will venture.
Yes, almost everyone should buy this excellent car. Just not this one. It has the wrong engine. It’s painted fleet-white and the interior is fleet-spec with cloth and I think I counted seven blank switches. But even if it can fit your whole family, bicycles and the dog, the other strengths of this car make up for just about all, well one, of its shortcomings. There is no other car anywhere near its class that comes close, dynamically.
Cars like Nissan Altimas and Toyota Camrys feel like pogo sticks or Ferris wheels compared to the Mazda 6. Not only could it teach D-segment front-wheel drivers everything there is to know about driving enjoyment, but it could give genuine sportscars 101 lessons in precise, quick and communicative steering. I’m thinking Genesis Coupé, 370Z, Mustang; they all pale in comparison when it comes to driver connectedness. I know; that’s absurd. What other front-wheel drive family saloon/estate can you think of that tramlines only because of its sensitivity to the road with the steering skipping in your fingers and relaying the exact camber of the road to the driver? What other car around this class simply doesn’t run out of front grip in the real world and delectably wags its tail with a trailing throttle? I hope the dog’s still alive back there…
In Soul Red Metallic, with leather seats and nice wheels and fewer blank switches the Mazda 6 estate would leave you with no reason to ignore it were you shopping for a family vehicle. Unfortunately it’s Mazda and Galadari that arm you with excuses. They offer one trim only and it’s the base one, with the Skyactiv (diesel-like 14:1 compression ratio, 4-2-1 exhaust, low inertia and rotating masses, etc.) 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine good for 143bhp at 6,000rpm and 210Nm at 4,000rpm. There is fun to be had there still, the powerplant challenging you to keep it fizzing and just make sure you don’t ever brake for anything — unless you want some more oversteer then go ahead and trail-brake into every corner and enjoy the 6’s class-leading and cooperative chassis behaviour (it’s got a solid, short pedal stroke). Strangely the engine is good on the go and on the highway, but getting up to speed takes a while.
There is no pressure on the motor even at high revs and it never feels burdened. It just lacks power, that’s all. I love Mazda’s new 2.5-litre Skyactiv engine, but you can’t have it in the estate. A manual transmission would fix quite a few issues, but you can’t have that either. It’s a pity. I want billboards down ShaikhZayed Road with Soul Red Metallic 6 estates and some sort of tag line like, “Crossovers suck; buy our vastly better estate.” It’s not false advertising.
