2009 Mazda 6: A Life Less Ordinary

It's a dead ringer for a Peugeot 607.

Yeah, I think it may be just you....I think the new 6 is gorgeous....save for the low grade rims you all have....but when I see a fully loaded 6 on the road, I always stare....

Random...but am I the only one who wants LOTS MORE COVERAGE ON THE HYUNDAI GENENSIS....I mean, its been in the fleet now for about a week or two and nothing....we got the GT-R and the R8 shoved down our throats...but nothing on the afforable alternatives.....MORE HYUNDAI GENENSIS!!!!!!

This car looks muy caliente. But that paint could be more shiny/metallic/pearly. Looks a bit flat.

Too bad it looks like a Camry next to a Ford Taurus. Now that's a hot car (102.2 cu ft) that's the same size as the Mazda6 (101.9 cu ft).

am i the only one that thinks the current camry looks good (and better than the 6)? it's quite sleek and understated, which makes the ES seem even more overpriced.

i liked the 6 when i first saw the computer renderings. now i think it looks blah after seeing a few in person. it's a good thing since the 6 is inoffensive, unlike cars such as the TL.

If you think it looks good in red, you should see what I see on a daily basis.... Bright Metallic Silver with a rear spolier.

You know what looks even sweeter? The back end!

Dual chrome exhaust tips and a V6 badge! W00t!!

biturbomunkie

You're kidding, right? The Camry? Wow.

The Sangria pops in person, but I still don't like it. The 6 is anything but overstyled. The 2010 CX-7 and 3 are a bit overstyled. The 6 is just right.

The Camry does look good and is a lot more refined but the Mazda is also a good looking car. Wish I could say the same for the Accord.

The Camry is anything but a lot more refined than the Sonata, Mazda6 or Accord. It's ugly, steals it's styling from the older 6, has a nasty & cheap interior that even the Sonata puts to shame, with a floaty ride. Free Gelatin included for the first 3yr/36,000 miles.

Hi Donna!
Great, great post! It's always fun to participate!
Now, here's what I think. Sure, it's a nice-looking car, but what if we don't want one in red?

I think Mazda's making a mistake by not offering other colors. I know times are hard, but shouldn't we have a choice?

Just my "two cents," as they say!

I'll admit that I do like the appearance of the current Camry when it's wearing the sport package. The ground effects kit actually looks good on the car. The interior also certainly looks inviting, though I will admit to never having set foot in one of the newer ones. I still wouldn't buy one, since it's still a dressed-up version of one of the more civilian cars available on the market.

The Honda Accord /coupe/ looks good. The sedan? Meh.

But as for the new Mazda6, as an owner of the last generation of Mazda6, I'm somewhat disappointed. I like all of the car except for the front end. I'm still not sold on that grille and those headlights. I do think the car looks pretty good in black, though, and it certainly looks mean going down the road at night. I do wish more of the styling of the European version had made it into this US version, though, cuz the European version is HOT.

"am i the only one that thinks the current camry looks good (and better than the 6)? "

No you are not. almost half of a million people thaught so last year and over 20k + each month so far this year thinks the same. i have seen single month numbers in the 40k + last year for the Camry, numbers this Mazda will NEVER EVER!! see.

Toyota have found a sweet spot in the American people's heart with the Camry, something no other automaker has figured out yet. the only thing left for haters is, well its ugly! realy? i guess thats the reason for all other automakers taking design Q'S from the Camry then, including the Malibu.

gotta love all these "Camry killers" LOL.

I'm a big fan of how the new 6 looks. I love the hint of RX-8, and I can definitely imagine myself having this vehicle as a daily driver. I'm going to trash my credibility here, but I actually don't mind the look of the current Camry. Its much nicer then the previous model, thats for sure. I think the Accord is the ugliest car in the class.

while the styling is out, i think this is an ugly looking sedan. it looks as if they tried too hard to make it look good. last gen looked a lot better than this one.

I would also agree that a Camry SE in red looks quite attractive.

As for the 6, I agree that it is over styled. The front wheel arches are a little bit overdone for my tastes, but I think the character line and greenhouse are done well. I much prefer the 6's front end to the one on the new 3.

I'm a current Camry owner and I think it's butt ugly on the outside and the interior looks really cheap. I only ended up with it because the Toyota dealer was the only one who gave a reasonable trade in for my Lexus SUV. I don't hate it, it's just a reliable appliance and it saves me money. I just hope by the time I need another car, the Chris Bangle effect will have completely gone away!

I think it looks fantastic - and in any colour. It is very nearly as bloated as the new Accord, but it hides it well with sleek, curvy lines. Honda needs to hire some Mazda stylists right quick. But not the dudes who gave us the happy-faced new Mazda 3.

I thought the old one was pretty attractive. But, I guess it lost some appeal when they all found there way into Hertz Rental Car Fleets.

When I first saw the new one, it looked okay at best. I was a little biased towards Mazda over Honda and Toyota. But, the more I see it, the uglier it gets. The back looks decent, perhaps a little bland, and the front looks like it was squashed by something very large. It looks somewhat like it was flattened.

Overall, it falls between the 2009 Nissan Maxima, and the 2009 Acura TL in terms of fugliness.

Saw one in the ski parking lot last week-they look fantastic!

toyota4life

Just because people buy them doesn't mean they buy them based on looks, not to mention Mazda would NOT be capable anytime in the near future to pump vehicles out like Toyota. They don't have the manufacturing capacity, or the dealer network to support such a thing.

Selling in volume means nothing, more people buy trucks, but is every car modeled after them?

And yeah, the 6 got fleeted out pretty heavily in these past 2 years to boost sales. I can't blame them honestly.

6 looks good but I don't like the red. Darker colors are better for this car and the 17" rims are terrible. Mazda needs to change those for 2010. I don't even know how that design was approved.

The Camry only looks good to some because the bar for camry design has been set so low. Its an OK looking car but if it werent a camry no one would be impressed. Since its from Toyota and its not downright boring people tend to get a little excited. If the camry was wearing a Ford or Chevy or Hyundai badge no one would be praising its looks. As for the SE model, I think the ground effects look ridiculous and if Pontiac tried something like that people would be complaining.

"No you are not. almost half of a million people thaught so last year and over 20k + each month so far this year thinks the same. i have seen single month numbers in the 40k + last year for the Camry, numbers this Mazda will NEVER EVER!! see."

Mazda doesnt even have the capacity to build half as many 6's as Toyota sells of the camry. Mazda is a small automaker compared to Toyota. Using sales numbers as an absolute barometer is stupid. According to your logic the 2008 F150 is much better than the Tundra because it outsold it 3 to 1. And just that quickly your argument is blown apart.

"I thought the old one was pretty attractive. But, I guess it lost some appeal when they all found there way into Hertz Rental Car Fleets."

Sonatas, Camrys and Altimas are sold to rental fleets as well. Almost every automaker is selling to rental companies now. I have seen rental Hondas and even a Jetta from Enterprise.

They took a great looking design (the world 6) and over inflated it into another lumpy fat bubble. It's ok looking, but I'd never support a dumbed down... oh, I mean vehicle specifically tailored to American tastes.

...I wasn't going to buy a mid size sedan anyway. BUT STILL!

Personally, I think that this and the malibu are the best looking midsize sedans on the market (this might even edge out the malibu, and I have always thought that detroit's design studios were the best in the world). It looks a little bloated in pictures, but in person it looks unique and beautiful. The old 6s (other than the mazdaspeed 6s) were boring and derivative looking by comparison. So glad that mazda didn't go the way of honda and toyota by going from boring to freakin' ugly.

the black Mazda6 in one of their TV commercials actually made me consider for a few moments getting a black car. Then my I remembered my OCD when it comes to shiny cars.

I've only seen 1 of this generation Mazda6s on the road so far and it was about a half a block away so I didn't get a good look. Comparing pictures of it to the old style I still prefer the old style. Not the boring plain old one but the sportier looking one (is that the 5 door?)
http://glamgirlcars.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/mazda-6-red.jpg

I agree that the current non-US market 6 does look better than the one they gave us.

"Toyota have found a sweet spot in the American people's heart with the Camry, something no other automaker has figured out yet"

A lot of shoppers just buy what they know. They hear about the Camry a lot and see a lot of them so they buy them.
Same reason Ford changed the name on the 500 to the Taurus. Same reason the G8 would have sold a ton more if they called it an Impalla. I'd guess Toyota spends more in a month advertising the Camry than Mazda spends in a year advertising the Mazda6.
It might be a fine car but they haven't hit some magic formula that just pleases every driver. The magic that Toyota has is people automatically assume quality when they go there. They have the opposite that the US car makers have going. The US models that are good quality are seen as flukes and the Toyotas that have problems are the unusual cases in peoples minds. To the average driver that is probably the most important factor.

I never liked the old 6, had a rental, didn't like it one bit over my CX-7. I never saw what the fuss was about. It drives OK, but has some weird suspension tuning, floats over wavy roads, but crashes on potholes and uneven road surfaces. They've fixed that mostly.

There are TOO many senior citizens around here driving 15 miles under speed limit in their Camrys and Accords. My grandma drives an Accord and her last car was a Camry. I test drove five different midsize sedans. It may not be as reliable as a Toyota or Honda but I wanted something more exciting so I went for the Mazda6 GT. I love it.

i hate the way people always bash the accord or camry as ugly appliances. as we see here, not everyone likes the 6 so some think its ugly just like people say of the accords and camrys. I think it's very nice, just not that red. I also like the accord and camry, especially in dark colors. people buy what they like so if they want a camry, let them get it. dont say they buy what they know and what they hear about because they obviously had to LIKE the car to want to purchase it. But such is life, and the 6 ,accord and camry are all nice in their own right.

Overall, the 6 looks good. However, it has a few questionable styling features such as the pronounced wheel arches that don't cohere with the rest of the styling and the black plastic blank on the rear doors that should have made from glass (a sign of cost cutting). The front overhang on this platform is excessive just like the Accord/TL which makes the car look less modern compared to the Altima, Camry and Malibu. Those cars have much tidier front overhangs which make those cars look less front heavy and better proportioned. Also, the i version's 17" wheels flat out suck. However, in the right color and properly fitted with 18" wheels, this car is a looker.

PS- the Camry is actually a good looking car. Is it plain, sure but you can't really find any flaws in the sheet metal. There are no bulging headlights or unnecessary body creases (a la Accord) and no dumb gimmicks liked over styled taillights (Altima) or weird fender creases. The Malibu is also another car in the class that is plain be entirely cohesive in it's design.

doesn't look sporty. Not ugly but not handsome either. Just Ok at best.

I have to disagree about the camry not having unnecessary styling flaws (responding to chavis10's remarks). To my eye, the rear taillights are gross looking the way they do, in fact, protrude outwards like the accord's headlamps (apparently that is the current fashion for car lights in Japan). I also can't stand how the lamps encapsulate a good portion of the sides of the trunk, yet don't light up on the sides (look at a picture to see what I mean). The trunk also cribbs bmw's awful bangle butt, another bad styling feature. Finally, in my opinion, the body colored front grill slats look cobalt cheap. The mazda looks way more cohesive, and less gimmicky to me.

"The Camry is anything but a lot more refined than the Sonata, Mazda6 or Accord. It's ugly, steals it's styling from the older 6, has a nasty & cheap interior that even the Sonata puts to shame, with a floaty ride. Free Gelatin included for the first 3yr/36,000 miles."

That interior will be good for 20 years. Floaty ride is just an excuse for haters. This car has the best ride over broken road. No Sonata or Accord will match it.

Good for 20 years? Did you see the Long Term Camry? It was degrading with less than 20k on it. Had poor build quality, and the best ride over a broken road? I think not. The Sonata feels much more sophisticated.

uncanny- yes, the Camry's tail lights protrude slightly but I don't find the offensive compared to more exaggerated applications (have you seen the ones on the new Mazda3?- TERRIBLE). The Bangle butt is actually function and I find the subtle application cohesive unlike the orginal 7 series or knockoff Lexus LS. Just my $.02

Ace47- you are hopeless. No one can argue the current gen Camry has worse interior materials compared to the previous version.

Sadly, I find this car average overall. The rear end styling is OK, but it kind of looks like a Lexus from the back (is that bad?). I have an '03. It was a stunning car to see when it first came out! It has alot more personality than the current car. Plus I liked it's size. Bigger is not always better.

Long story short? I'm up for a new car soon. I'm not likely to replace my 6 with one of the new ones no matter how improved it is. It just does not move me like my car did from day one!

Zoom...

Ditto. Feel the same about my 2003 6. The test drive was all I needed to buy the car. Everyone has different tastes. For example, I'd disagree about the Cx7 being fun to drive, but that car has its advocates. The touchy pedal, turbo lag, and smoking engines are a turn off for me. Good thing the 2010 comes with a regular 4 inline.

Honda has a new mandate. "Design Ugly Cars". If you want to spend more, change Honda to Acura! Sorry, but that's how I feel. Camry's styling disppears into the background, drives like an old Buick and is about as thrilling as taking your sister to the movies at 18.

So I have a delayed and prolonged adolescence, but at 59 I want my "Zoom-Zoom".