I've been looking to trade my '04 Honda Accord for a Mazda 6 for the last two years but never pulled the trigger. I test drove two 2016 automatic GT's yesterday and cannot get past two sticking points. I'd really like some advice on the following:
(1) At both dealerships, I had to pull out onto the access road of a highway, accelerate quickly across 3 lanes of traffic and then drive onto the on-ramp. It was a near-death experience. The car accelerated fine from a dead stop to about 35 mph and then hit a dead-zone with minimal acceleration with my foot close to full throttle. I thought I was going to get rear-ended by cars rapidly approaching from the rear. I had the same issue with both cars (as well as test drives a year ago on a similar 2015 model). The only thing I could do was to floor the pedal completely, let the kick-down switch engage at which point the transmission kicked down two gears, the engine revved like crazy and the car accelerated. Yikes, what a crazy way to get onto a highway. How do all of you Mazda6 owners handle this? Is there some trick? I read that sport mode and/or using the paddle shifters might help, but I read about that after the test drive and so could not try it in person.
(2) The second issue is the air conditioner. In both test drives yesterday (two separate 2016 GT's) , the AC struggled to quickly cool the car even though the outside temp was 75F (the car interior temperature was hot from sitting in the sun). In fact, in the test drive 2 summers ago in 100F weather (Texas), the car never got much cooler than 80F. The salesman didn't think anything about it, but surely that is not normal?
I really do want to trade in my '04 Honda, but even that 11 year old clunker accelerates better and cools better than the Mazda I want to buy. Am I missing something? I love the look of the Mazda 6, but cannot get past these two sticking points.
Thanks!!
(1) At both dealerships, I had to pull out onto the access road of a highway, accelerate quickly across 3 lanes of traffic and then drive onto the on-ramp. It was a near-death experience. The car accelerated fine from a dead stop to about 35 mph and then hit a dead-zone with minimal acceleration with my foot close to full throttle. I thought I was going to get rear-ended by cars rapidly approaching from the rear. I had the same issue with both cars (as well as test drives a year ago on a similar 2015 model). The only thing I could do was to floor the pedal completely, let the kick-down switch engage at which point the transmission kicked down two gears, the engine revved like crazy and the car accelerated. Yikes, what a crazy way to get onto a highway. How do all of you Mazda6 owners handle this? Is there some trick? I read that sport mode and/or using the paddle shifters might help, but I read about that after the test drive and so could not try it in person.
(2) The second issue is the air conditioner. In both test drives yesterday (two separate 2016 GT's) , the AC struggled to quickly cool the car even though the outside temp was 75F (the car interior temperature was hot from sitting in the sun). In fact, in the test drive 2 summers ago in 100F weather (Texas), the car never got much cooler than 80F. The salesman didn't think anything about it, but surely that is not normal?
I really do want to trade in my '04 Honda, but even that 11 year old clunker accelerates better and cools better than the Mazda I want to buy. Am I missing something? I love the look of the Mazda 6, but cannot get past these two sticking points.
Thanks!!
