5 October 2012

Sneak peek at new Mazda6



When the new generation Mazda6 arrives in Ireland next February it might offer the Irish distributor a chance to tap into the key business market where the model hasn't really competed before, writes Brian Byrne.

I've just had an early drive in a near-production prototype outside Paris, and short though the experience was, it impressed.

Coming immediately after the Paris Motor Show European reveal of the new version, and the global introduction of the wagon variant, I was already primed to like a car that by general concensus at the show was one of the nicest of the 'real' cars there.

The new lines of the Mazda6 make it the first model to fully take on board the latest design 'language' developed by the company. It certainly extends the elegance factor, and punches home in style anyhow the sporty ethos which Mazda tries to live to.

Apart from the strong and muscular shapes and character lines, the passenger compartment has been moved rearwards significantly, and this adds a long bonnet sportiness to the car.

The designers have also worked to improve the interior, which have in the versions I drove today a much higher level of perceived quality than previously. In some respects, they had to, because this is an area where the Korean competition particularly has been leapfrogging their Japanese neighbours.

That said, the cockpit of the Mazda6 is still understated compared to many competitors, but there's no gainsaying the actual quality of the materials in the trim.

Also, it remains an immediately intuitive car to find your way around the controls and switches, a quality which a number of European manufacturers in particular seem to have forgotten about.

This is a first view, and the cars driven were not quite final production quality, so I'm not going to go into much detail here.

Just to say that the driving experiences themselves, in the two 2.2 diesels of 150/175hp, provided an insight into a strong effort towards achieving refinement in operation. A pretty successful effort.

Some technical details. The car is longer, roomier especially for rear seat passengers, and has the longest wheelbase in its class. Though there's more of it, the structure of the car is substantially lighter, which is part of Mazda's SkyActiv strategy to make its products more efficient.

Powertrains when it gets to Ireland will include a 145hp 2.0 petrol as a lead-in version, plus the 2.2 150hp diesel which is expected to be the main attraction for the anticipated 500 buyers who will roll out in one in 2013. Fuel consumption in that one will be 4.1L/100km (69mpg) and emissions 108g/km. A high-power 175hp version of that diesel will also be available.

Prices aren't finalised yet, but a guide would be that the petrol car will be under €30,000, and the main diesel at or a bit above that figure.

There will be much more to write about the car when it comes to Ireland, not least the significant range of standard and optional safety technologies. The new car is expected to perform at the top level of the EuroNCAP crash test regime.

And then there's that energy regeneration system which uses a capacitor rather than a battery to store that recovered energy, the first production car to do so. 

But for the moment, from the pretty town of Mery sur l'Oise, that's enough to be going on with.