Having a sports car usually comes with a large cost associated with it. The Mazda 6 Grand Touring gives you the sporty feel and look you want with room for your family and a starting price of only $20,000. Lets see if the car is worth the money.
The 2014 Mazda 6 is powered by a 2.5L DOHC 4-Cylinder Engine that produces 181 Horsepower and 185 FT-LB of Torque. The Mazda 6 Grand Touring tested is front wheel drive and has a 6 speed automatic transmission with an auto-stick option. Both the Touring and Sport models come with a 6 Speed Manuel option. Putting that power to the road are 19 inch 225/45 R19 all season tires. This combination gives the 6 Grand Touring a combined fuel economy of 32 MPG with ranges being 28 MPG city and 40 MPG highway. This puts the Mazda 6 in the top 20 percent of vehicles for fuel efficiency. The fuel economy during testing was exactly what the EPA ratings were on the window sticker
Helping to keep you on the road with all that power are an independent front and rear suspension with front and rear stabilizer bars. Dynamic Stability Control and Traction Control help keep your car level and between the lines when you happen to get your foot into the gas. Steering is electronic assisted that gives you variable steering depending on the speed you are driving. To stop your car, the Mazda 6 has 4 wheel disc brakes with Anti-Lock Brake System with Break Assist. The handling of the Mazda 6 was what you would expect from a sporty car. There is little body roll through the corners, the brakes work well and keep the car straight under hard braking. Only thing that was touchy was the steering as it took some time to get used to the points when the steering would get tighter for a more firm feel.
No one want’s a car that isn’t safe. Lets see what Mazda has done to make the 6 a safe car for you and your family. First the started out by giving everyone (5 passenger) 3 point seat belts to keep you in place during an accident. For those of you with small children, there is also the LATCH system integrated in to the car. The next level of protection involves keeping the driver and front passenger safe with Dual Front Airbags. For side impacts, the driver and passenger have side impact air bags. For everyone, Mazda has also implemented Side Curtain Airbags for all occupants. The IIHS has given the Mazda 6 a G in Moderate Overlap Front and Side impact, Roof Strength, and Head Restraint and Seats. The Small Overlap Front was give an A rating. This is the 2 highest rating the IIHS give with the grades bein G, A, M, and P.
Instead of worrying about what protection you can have in case of an accident, lets keep you out of an accident. Mazda has put together a great group of features to help keep you out of trouble. When you’re traveling on the highway, there is a Radar Cruise Control that uses radar to keep you a set distance from the car in front of you in case they happen to slow down. This can be adjusted win one of 3 distance setting for how far you would like to remain behind the car in front of you.This keeps you from accidentally flying up behind a car if you aren’t paying attention while traveling long hours. When you do go to change lanes, the Mazda 6 Grand Touring is equipped with a Blind Spot Monitoring System that gives you visual and audible signals to alert you to cars. Getting tried during long trips is always an issue. To keep you alert an in your own lane, there is a Lane Departure Warning System that verbally alerts you if you happen to veer across either the center lane or off towards the edge of the road. This also works well on the highway with the white dash line painting for passing areas. Say you’re in the city and the car slams on the brakes in front of you. The Mazda 6 has Smart City Brake Support that with apply the brakes if you aren’t paying attention or don’t happen to be able to apply the brakes fast enough. It’s defiantly a strange feeling to have the car apply the brakes for you as I had this happen with a plastic arm gate that didn’t open as quickly as I thought it would. The cars came to a complete stop on its own, avoiding collision. Also while backing up there is rear cross traffic alert. All the safety features are very easy to use and great add on’s to keep you safe. Only issue I found was with the Lane Departure Warning system is if the roads have slush on them as in the winter driving i preformed with this car, the system had a hard time recognising the lanes to alert you when you started to veer.
Other additional features that area added to the Mazda 6 are Rain Sensing Windshield Wipers that will automatically turn on when rain hits your windshield. The front headlights are HID and are adaptive as they turn with the steering wheel to help illuminate the road ahead while going around corners. Included in this package are Halogen Fog Lights to help brighten the path in front of you. The rear tail lights are a combination of LED and Halogen bulbs to give the best lighting possible to keep the people behind you aware of when you are stopping and turning.The mirrors are heated and have integrated turn signals to better show other drivers that you are going to turn. The driver’s side mirror is also auto dimming. The HID headlights do a great job of illuminating the road in front of you. The tail lights with the LED/Halogen combination are very bright for the cars behind you.
Onto the interior. The Mazda 6 sits 5 comfortably. The rear leg room can get tight for taller people but is still adequate. The seats, front and rear are all trimmed in black leather in the case of the car we are driving. The other option is Almond leather. The driver’s seat is very comfortable and race inspired. The seat takes you and gives you support on both sides to keep you in place when taking those corners a little faster than you probably should. The driver’s seat is 8 way power and the passenger seat is 4 way power. Both seats have heating and cooling to keep you either nice and toasty in the winter, or cool in the summer. The drivers seat is one of the most comfortable seats I have sat in to date. It hugs your body and makes you feel like you are getting ready for the Daytona 500. The rear seats are also just as comfortable as the front and have 3 point seat belts for all 3 passengers. The steering wheel is leather wrapped and includes controls for cruise control, wireless calling, and car audio. The Infotainment center features a 5.8 inch touch screen with navigation, heater controls, Sirius Satellite Radio,and Bluetooth hands free options. The screen also functions as your back up camera. There are also USB audio inputs to listen to music from your MP3 player. On the center console, there is a rotary wheel and buttons to control most all of the functions of the Infotainment center without touching the screen. The Infotainment system is hooked up to an 11 speaker BOSE system that includes a Subwoofer.
The climate control features dual controls to keep both the driver and passenger happy. If you can both manage to agree on a set temp, the Mazda 6 has an auto temp feature that keeps the car at one temperature by adjusting the heat/cool and force of the air. The rear seats also have vents to give a flow of air to whom ever you stick in the back seats.
Another forward looking feature of the Mazda 6 Grand Touring is the i-ELOOP regenerative braking system. This system uses the forward momentum and braking to recharge a battery to power the electrical devices and save on gas mileage. There is a graph in the instrument cluster that you can view to show the state of the battery charge and the charging state. This battery does not hold much charge but does it’s job well.
The Mazda 6 Grand Touring has a price as tested of $32,849 and a starting price of just over $20,000 this car has all you want. With a leather interior, a manual transmission and plenty of get up and go, the 2014 Mazda 6 is just the car you are looking for. Check out MazdaUSA.com for this and all the other great cars they offer.
