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Mazda's Mazda6 is the closest matter you'll discover to an Audi A6 among mainstream sport sedans. The range-topping, midsize Mazda6 Signature edition with a turbocharged engine (finally) closes the gap on directly-line performance. The car has improved rider comfort, lower cabin noise levels, and solid driver assist technology. It is a gem.

The Mazda6 remains front end-drive but, which may give some buyers needless pause, and the infotainment system could use a makeover. Otherwise, at $36K all in, this is a solid choice for sedan buyers who enjoy driving, where a similar Audi or BMW would be shut to $50K before larding on the options. You lot can get most of the upscale Mazda6 goodness and rubber features in the Touring edition in the upper twenties.

The current, third-generation Mazda6 dates to the 2013 model yr and has seen three updates that would authorize as a mid-life refresh on about other vehicles. For 2018, the Mazda6 gets an optional 2.v-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine from the Mazda CX-9 SUV, while the base of operations 2.5-liter four has two-cylinder deactivation (the just such 4-cylinder in the US) and more power, now 186 hp and 187 pound-feet of torque. The turbo iv is rated at 250 hp and 310 pound-feet of torque with premium fuel, and 227 hp with regular. The Mazda6 also adds ii top-terminate trim lines, Grand Touring Reserve and Signature, to underscore the automaker'southward claim that it'south a class-higher up machine company.

I spent a calendar week and virtually a thousand miles in the Mazda6 Signature. It was excellent on the highway with a full suite of assists for pacing traffic. The redesigned seats, with vibration-absorbing loftier-density foam, were ultra-comfortable and a scrap wider, a response to Americans' average weight proceeds of xv pounds since 1990. Acceleration is cat-quick at most half-dozen.5 seconds to 60, although Car and Commuter says the Honda Accord Turbo is a second quicker, and the Toyota Camry V6, VW Passat GT, and Chevrolet Malibu 2.0T likewise beat the Mazda6 by several tenths. Mazda uses a six-speed automated, while competitors go as high as 10 speeds; Mazda explains that the more gears you lot take, the more fourth dimension you lose to shifts.

The Mazda6 continues to offering Yard-Vectoring control: When the driver begins to turn, the engine controller reduces throttle imperceptibly, only enough to shift a fiddling extra weight onto the forepart wheels for ameliorate control through the curve.

The Signature front seats are ventilated and fans suck air in, another example where Mazda zigs where others zag. The back seat has decent room for most adults; if you want ultra-room, look to the Hyundai Sonata. The car is quite tranquility with added sound-damping textile and laminated drinking glass.

Mazda6 Driver Assists, Infotainment

Mazda has an fantabulous suite of driver-assist tools, especially with the higher trim lines. Every Mazda6 has at least blind spot detection, rear cantankerous-traffic warning, forward standoff warning, and front automatic braking ("Smart City Restriction Support") at 19 mph and nether. All cars as well have LED headlamps and taillamps.

The Signature adds stop-and-become adaptive cruise command, lane keep help, and adaptive (steerable) front headlamps, which comprise Mazda i-ActiveSense, like to Honda Sensing, Hyundai Smart Sense, or Toyota Prophylactic Sense. Outside the i-ActiveSense array, the Signature has surround view cameras and front-rear parking sonar. In that location's a caput-upwardly display (HUD, or Activing Driving Display in Mazda terminology) that, like Hyundai, displays blind spot warnings among its notices.

Mazda continues with a command knob ("Commander") supplemented by a handful of touch-screen functions, only not a lot. Three buttons in forepart of the controller selection cover audio, navigation, and Dwelling house; from Home you choose additional features such as Setup or Telephone.

Mazda calls infotainment Mazda Connect because y'all tin connect phones and music players. But information technology won't connect to the net, since there's no onboard telematics modem. MazdaConnect needs to exist upgraded before long to go on pace, and the screen should be upped from viii to 10 inches in the adjacent facelift or 4th-generation Mazda6. Android Auto and Apple tree CarPlay are now integrated; Mazda wanted to be sure the apps were secure and solid.

Mazda6 Trim Walk

Mazda sells the 2018 Mazda6 in five variants, or trim lines. The Sport and Touring get the non-turbo engine. The CD player is gone, only there are at least ii USB jacks and ii 12-volt outlets. Except on the Sport, there are no optional packages, making it easier to lucifer cars and buyers every bit long every bit they liked the colors.

Mazda6 Sport ($23,890 including $890 freight). The entry model is the but 1 that still offers a six-speed manual; AT $22,840. Both accept cloth seats, Bluetooth (telephone and sound), six-speaker audio, an 8-inch center stack display, 17-inch alloys, and the prophylactic features mentioned above. The Sport automatic can be had with the $625 i-ActiveSense package: adaptive cruise command, lane-deviation warning / lane continue assistance, automatic high beams, forward emergency braking, rain-sensing wipers, and auto on/off headlamps. The auto is rated at 26 mpg urban center, 35 mpg highway, 29 mpg combined. The manual is actually rated lower: 24/33/27.

Mazda6 Touring ($26,590). The $ii,700 crash-land brings in the the i-ActiveSense features, vinyl seats, nineteen-inch alloys, keyless entry, power driver's seat, rear HVAC vents, heated front seats, and a ability moonroof. In that location's no bump up in safety/commuter aid features over the Touring until y'all achieve the Signature trim.

Mazda6 Grand Touring ($30,900). The GT and in a higher place go the turbo 2.5-liter engine, rated 23/31/26. (I got 31 mpg in my by and large highway driving.) It adds an 11-speaker Bose premium audio arrangement, satellite radio, navigation, auto-dimming inside and driver-side mirrors, heated side mirrors, and paddle shifters.

Mazda Grand Touring Reserve ($32,160). The GTR gets the head-up display, traffic sign recognition, adaptive (steerable) headlamps, windshield wiper de-icer, heated rear seats and steering wheel, and (a beginning for Mazda) ventilated front seats that wick away wet and heat from the front seatbacks. The seats are leather (black or parchment), the driver seat is 8- not vi-way power, and the passenger's 6-style.

Mazda Signature ($35,640). At almost $12,000 over the entry Sport and $3,500 over the GTR, the buyer gets subtle Japanese Sen wood cockpit accents, parchment or deep chestnut Nappa leather seats, a environs view photographic camera system, front and rear parking sonar, a vii-inch multi-information display in the musical instrument panel that replicates the speedometer and adds reconfigurable gauges, and a gunmetal-color grille. One prissy-to-have feature would exist rear sunshades. Another would exist a saddle tan leather choice. Buyers may find parchment is too calorie-free and chestnut too dark.

Because Mazda merely offers one option packet, on the entry Mazda6 Sport, it adds on features-that-would-otherwise-be-options as you walk the trim lines. Arguably, more buyers would benefit if the Signature's surround cameras and front end/rear sonar kicked in with the K Touring or Reserve, leaving the Signature range-topper as a mostly-style trim.

Forty-nine of 50 midsize-sedan buyers opt for something other than the Mazda6. Fools. Mazda6 sales were flat for the start half of 2018, in a market downward thirteen percent, and June-only sales were upward 35 percent at a yearly sales stride of 40,000. Note: Some listed cars seem small for "midsize," but size tin can be measured by interior volume or vehicle length.

Should You lot Buy?

The Mazda6 is the best midsize car for driving enthusiasts who also need to carry passengers and luggage, just don't want an SUV. Arguably, if yous go for the Signature model, it's a close friction match against premium compact or midsize cars and certainly a bang-for-the-cadet winner.

Amid midsize sedans comparable on cost, the Mazda6 is often not every bit quick to 60 mph, doesn't generate quite the Thousand-forces around corners, and takes a footling further to come to a terminate. But information technology's the ane that feels the near enjoyable to bulldoze hour after hour. Life is as well short for irksome cars.

The Honda Accord two.0T is the closest to the Mazda6 every bit a performance car, and it's the class of the field if y'all desire an all-round great sedan. The Toyota Camry is a solid, hassle-free driving appliance; it tin can't be crush for A-to-B transportation in comfort. The Chevrolet Malibu is the best midsize auto General Motors has ever congenital, but unlike the total-size Chevy Impala, it isn't on the list of cars GM plans to impale off. (Nosotros found the high-mpg Malibu Eco isn't sure to recover its price premium during ownership, though.) The Hyundai Sonata is always solid. The Nissan Altima should exist highly competitive with a new model late in the year that adds plentiful driver assists, including the semi-autonomous ProPilot Assist.

Bottom line: The Mazda6 is a competitive friction match confronting any motorcar in the mid-price, midsize sedan category. Equally for the cadre buyer, the Mazda6 stands out every bit the best car for enthusiasts who don't have fifty large to spend.