2009 Mazda 6 i Grand Touring: Still a Secret

I see plenty of Mazda6's in Detroit.
Maybe it's because the Mazda6 is built in Michigan.
Michigan sure has a strong Buy Michigan thing going on.

They're just supporting their local economy, and getting Japanese engineering in the process.

Why does anyone think the current gen Accord is a great car? It's horrible. The interior is cheap cheap cheap- it is NOT the same interior we saw in the 03-07 models by any stretch of the imagination. The ergonomics are fussy and needlessly complex. The engine lacks sufficient power/torque, the 5 speed transmission hunts gears too much with the 4 cylinder engines, and we all know what a disaster Honda's VCM has been. Road noise is way too high, the seats aren't all that comfortable, and the air conditioner can't even keep the cabin cool. If the Chevy Malibu was guilty of such crummy engineering, we'd be blaming it for GM's failure.

Other than that, you're looking at better handling (though a far worse ride) than a Camry, and a worse ride AND worse handling than an Altima or Mazda 6. AND it's slower, AND it sucks more gas. The Accord doesn't even offer an intelligent key (I don't care about the Push-button starters, I do care about accidentally locking my keys in the car or trunk.)

The only ace in the hole I know of is the Accord's reputation for reliability, in a field where most competitors are pretty reliable. So why competitors like the Mazda6 face an uphill battle against the Accord beats me. Car buyers ain't always that bright...

Lets not space out on the fact that the Accords have been eating rotors within the first 20K.
http://www.carcomplaints.com/Honda/Accord/2008/brakes/premature_brake_wear.shtml

Slowly getting out??

More like, at a snail's pace. I've only seen a handful of 6s. And mine is the only V6 model I've ever seen on the road.

If any of you are in NYC, and you see a silver V6 Mazda 6 driving by... give a little wave. That's going to be me behind the driver's seat.

Must admit though, it's nice having a unique car on the road.

I've seen a fair number of them. If I was in the market for a family sedan, its likely what I would test drive first. I love the look, and the interior is best in class as far as I'm concerned.

Word is barely getting out. In America people consider Altima/Camry/Accord and little else. The Malibu is just starting to get consideration. The 6 and Passat are not on the radar of most buyers and never will be. Midsize car buyers are creatures of habit and dont do much comparison shopping outside of the Big 3 midsizers. The Accord is a thoroughly mediocre effort but IL and C&D are determined to pretend is some great automobile that should be deemed a benchmark. Its not class leading in any way except four cylinder hp.

@mikeolan: "Why does anyone think the current gen Accord is a great car? It's horrible."

I hate it when you're right. Fortunatley, it's not that often. ;-)

I see precious few Mazda 6 models around, and just about every one I see is the 4-banger like your test car. I don't get it either. Sure saw plenty of the old model not long after its introduction.

Great photo!

I have yet to see one of these in DFW. If I was in the market for a FWD midsize sedan, the 6 would be high on my list (the V6 version of course). Not sure why the car hasn't caught on with the general public.

"Not sure why the car hasn't caught on with the general public."

Not called Camry or Accord. Enough said. Although the automotive media and Honda/Toyota apologists refuse to acknowledge this the reality is many Camry/Accord owners buy those cars regardless of merit. They are buying the name brand and thats all that counts. Honda and Toyota can turn out mediocre efforts (and they have) and easily drown out smaller, lesser known competitors. They dont worry about the Malibu, 6 or Fusion regardless of how great those products might be. They know most Americans wont bother to research, much less test drive, anything not named Accord or Camry. And when you have the media in your back pocket like Honda does you can rest easily knowing WHATEVER you put out will get rave reviews. I just read edmunds.com's review of the 2009 Accord. They excused the styling, handling, road noise, firm ride quality, button happy interior, small trunk and everything else and basically said you cant go wrong with the Accord. Honda has no incentive to actually try and create something class leading with a reception like that for the clearly average Accord. Most people wouldn't know a Mazda 6 is one was parked on their lawn.

I know that many Accord buyers do not shop around. My wife is one. She simply has to have a Honda, as she grew up thinking they were the bomb. I had to take her, kicking and screaming, to drive a Ford Fusion, and she liked it how it drove and was quite surprised. But, she didn't like the Ford badge on the steering wheel, and complained vaguely about rearward visibility, and was basically disinterested.

I'll keep trying to get her to consider other great cars, but Honda has a reputation!

Are you saying the 4-cylinder is a good option?

Nice picture. Water always makes it better like in movies and commercials.

It's sad to see people running out and buying Accords and Camrys without even shopping around for better cars. If I were in the market for a midsized sedan, the 6 would be at the top of my list.

I wonder if people will ever realize that the Accord and Camry aren't the only options and aren't the best options. It took a while for Detroit to lose favor and the Japanese to come to prominence. Will it take even longer for Japan to lose favor? Toyota and Honda don't even seem like they're trying anymore. Mazda is doing a fantastic job (styling aside) and its a shame they aren't getting the sales they deserve. Then again, they're so special maybe the low volume is fitting.

"Will it take even longer for Japan to lose favor? Toyota and Honda don't even seem like they're trying anymore."

I think it will happen. In fact, I think the sales declines that Toyota has been experiencing since last fall are a sign that perceptions are s shifting. Toyota is largely seen as a conservative brand for older people. Even Scion was unable to attract the young clientele Toyota wanted. If you grew up with Toyotas and your 60 year old parents drive a Camry you probably dont want to drive a Camry. It happened to Chevy, Olds, Ford, etc. and it can happen to Toyota. Honda is a little better off in terms of reputation amongst younger people.

oh yeah, the Sonata is another nice car that gets lost in the shuffle and gets a fraction of Accord/Camry sales. I would never buy a Camry over the Sonata. The Hyundai actually has the better interior.

I think Mazda is at a critical time with it's two mainstream sedan products (the 3 and the 6) in the US. Let me elaborate a bit.

In my town in México, Honda entered the market about 10 years ago, Toyota entered around 2004 and Mazda in 2006 (FYI, for a car company to sell their cars in México it either has to have some manufacturing plant in the country, or part of its corporate group has to have one). Free from years of image/brand placement, the 3 brands have more/less the same positioning and more less the same sales regarding medium sized and large sedans. I can honestly say I see many current and previous gen Mazda 6s in town, in similar quantities to the Camry, but less than the Accord. The previous gen 3 had the Civic and Corolla beaten in sales. I'm ignoring Nissan because they've been in the market for several decades, and they've been doing well for a long time.

I'm pretty shure that the "slow" sales of the 6 in the US are very much the result of marketing reasons, and the only way they'll counter it is by consistently offering a good product over the next few years. It looks like this 6 nailed it (pending how reliable it turns out to be in the long run) but Mazda needs to really get the next generation of the 6 right. If it can, they'll manage to make "the big 3" into "the big 4" of "medium" size sedans. Ford is probably hoping the same thing with it's Fusion.

Personally, the only thing I hope for is that these cars stop getting bigger. Of the Camry, Accord and 6, the only one that (barely)managed to fit in my parents garage was.....the Camry (and guess what they ended up buying...even though my dad really liked the 6)

Mazda also does not have the dealer network that Honda and Toyota do to support similar sales numbers.

Competition is good, so I wish the Mazda 6 well, but I like the skin of the Accord better. The Accord with its lines and proportions looks more expensive than it is, while the 6 with it's vanilla wrapper still looks like a rental car.

The article made me look at the Mazda6 again. I decided, I hate the option packaging on this car.

Want cruise control? Gotta move up to the iSport.

Want a power drivers seat? Gotta move up to the iTouring.

It's absurd that you have to play that game for options that should be selectable.

It's brother, the Fusion, doesn't play the game as badly.

The accord looks more expensive? You must not be talking about the models with 16" wheelcovers and single exhaust tips. That looks like a rental car. The 6 V6 looks FAR more aggressive and expensive than any Accord.

If looking like a older Saturn makes a car look expensive, the new Accord is worth six figures.

re. "Competition is good, so I wish the Mazda 6 well, but I like the skin of the Accord better. The Accord with its lines and proportions looks more expensive than it is, while the 6 with it's vanilla wrapper still looks like a rental car."

I appreciate looks are subjective, but this whole bit had me falling out of my chair laughing!

Yeah, I have to agree with Jaeger1 here. The Accord looks like a chinese knockoff of a BMW. The coupe looks nice (it doesn't look like a 5 series knockoff, either) , and the sedan looks OK in profile, but especially from the rear, the sedan looks hideous. None of the lines match up, and it looks like those cars from the late 70's that collect rust.

My friend has a 4 cylinder Accord with very little equipment and it is the definition of penalty box. I was really disappointed with the interior.

ACCORDing to this thread the Honda Accord is just a big lump of junk while everything else in the segment is CLEARLY better. Those Honda guys dont know anything about making a decent family sedan. *end sarcasm*

I think just about every car in this segment is competitive in one way or another minus the Mitsu Galant. Some are more refined, some offer more quality, some offer a better driving experience, some offer a cheaper price of entry, some offer better styling, some offer more luxury, some offer more sport, some offer better performance, some offer better handling, some offer better fuel economy, some offer a better warranty, some offer more power and some offer more features. HOWEVER, not 1 car in this segment can do all those things.

If I was looking for a car in this segment it would be between the Accord, Malibu and the Passat as I like all 3.

@hondaacura4

Up against the competition, most of the competition is more well rounded than the Accord. On a 1-5 scale, most of the competition would rank 5 at what it does best, and usually 4's all around. Unless it's a Chrysler Sebring or Mitsubishi Galant, you won't see any 1's or 2's.

The Accord is 3's all around. That's a real shame, as the last gen Accord was practically 5's. It really is not the tight, nimble car it once was.

Currently, the class is split up as so:

Best in Class: (Altima, Mazda6, Malibu) -In that order, but the sum total is so miniscule you can't go wrong either way. I only ding the Malibu because of GM's terrible reliability record. These cars are all exceptionally well rounded.

First round Alternatives: Accord, Camry, Sonata, Fusion

Strictly for people with bad credit who can't afford either: Galant, Sebring, Avenger. Pontiac G6.

Most non-car enthusiasts are sheep and will follow the crowd of popular opinion so they'll by a Camcordtima because of the reputation and the number of them they see on the road. Favorable attention from the media whose writers and commentators can be prone to some of the same biases further that notion. It's why losing a good reputation is costly and can be deadly in business.

I've never subscribed to the the bandwagon mentality with most things.

The reason you want to buy a car that's the most popular is because it's hassle free. It is the most reliable thing out there. When something breaks, There's already 30 TSBs on it since so many people drive it and have experienced your problem. The fix will take no more than 30 minutes at the dealership.

That is why you want to buy the most popular car. It's reliable. And when it breaks, it's reliable.

If you buy a Mazda, you can run into things like the turbo overheating and destroying itself, transmission lag because they can't program the software correctly, etc. But Mazda doesn't know how to fix it, because not enough people have the problem to give them enough data and experience at fixing it, and not enough people buy their cars to let them hire a huge staff of engineers to fix things quick.

@BillT9
That is very true. Especially with GM models.

I thought about getting a Honda Accord, but the driver's seat was apparently designed by a sadistic bastard. Even Accord fans have complained about its lack of comfort over longer trips.

" HOWEVER, not 1 car in this segment can do all those things."

Accord is best at nothing, thats the problem.

"That is why you want to buy the most popular car. It's reliable. And when it breaks, it's reliable."

What are you talking about? CAmry quality has obviously slipped. Everything you said is baseless and yet you made the statements as if they were facts. All cars are reliable these days. Problems faced by current owners generally fall under annoyances, not reliability issues. What evidence do you have that Mazdas are unreliable? None. The funny thing is people who experience problems with Hondas and Toyotas will still vouch for them. When reading comments about the 2007 Camry some folks with problems actually traded their camry in for another Toyota product. What kind of sense does that make?

hondacura4: "ACCORDing to this thread the Honda Accord is just a big lump of junk while everything else in the segment is CLEARLY better. Those Honda guys dont know anything about making a decent family sedan. *end sarcasm*"

Welcome to the way I've been feeling for the last decade with the nonstop criticism of my favorite domestic.

If you buy a Mazda, you can run into things like the turbo overheating and destroying itself, transmission lag because they can't program the software correctly, etc. But Mazda doesn't know how to fix it, because not enough people have the problem to give them enough data and experience at fixing it, and not enough people buy their cars to let them hire a huge staff of engineers to fix things quick.

The turbo doesn't overheat, oil gets past the seals and it smokes out the exhaust. The transmission isn't laggy with the pcm updates and the turbo is likely to be fixed with their latest version. To say that they haven't been trying (they're on the 3rd version) is wrong. GM doesn't try to fix anything.

Mazda LOVES tsbs. There are a ton out for the CX-7 alone but luckily most of them do not apply to me. Some do though.

"GM doesn't try to fix anything. "

What does that have to do with anything? Its not even true.

GM's problem is that it'll fix 4 problems and 8 more will open up.

Let me chime in as well. Since I'm well into middle age, I can't say that I'm a marketing demographic dream, but I don't want an old man's car. I've had a Fiat 124 Spyder, Fiat Strada (junk), Mazda 626 (most reliable car I've ever owned, BMW 3 series coupe, Jeep Grand Cherokee (moved to VT and thought I needed four wheel drive; junk!), SAAB 9-5 wagon (great car, but lousy V-6) and, at present, an MB C320 4 Matic. Wife's '99 SAAB 9-5 SE needs to go, but only after we sell this house and move to DE. Now, that you know my prejudices, here goes.

I've always respected Honda for their reliability and reputation. Previous generation Accords were class leaders, perhaps a bit mainstream, but ran like a clock. The current generation leave me cold. Ugly, out of date transmission, poor acceleration on the V-6, road noise and handling. Acura same thing. Seems Honda's stopped dead in their technology track and has a "Vice-President" in charge of ugly styling.

Nissan Altima is good; very good. Would like a power passenger seat and am not sold on the CVT. Shades of growing up with my father and the Buick Dynaflow! Car is executed well and is a bit of a "ruffian", but has character.

Toyota Camry and other Toyota models leave me cold. Sure they work and have good resale value, but they're as exciting as taking your first cousin to the movies as an 18 year old! See aforementioned Buick for comparison. Old man's car!

Now to the 6! One of the very few Japanese cars with style inside and out. Scads of features on the Grand Touring S, like great V-6, Aisin transmission, HID headlights, Blind Spot monitoring and more. Things I'd like to see, but realize cost, come into play include a better GPS system with a backup camera, more adjustments on the electric front passenger seat, better trim (the faux whatever with stripes is offputting) and, in the "pick the thing to death" department, front fog light trim that matches the center (black?) trim rather than silver. Oh, maybe a better quality leather, but it seems fine.

Bottom line is that if you value "fun", "style", "performance" and more, the "6" is it for me and I hope many more others. Gads, I just wrote a book. Sorry.

"Accord is best at nothing, thats the problem."

1487, the Accord has always been a jack of all trades. Good at everything but best at nothing.

@ all you Honda haters: the next time you go to a rental car counter and get assigned a Mazda 6, think of me laughing my a** off =P