Mazdaspeed6 Test drive

[AlbNYPR5]

A buddy of mine is looking for a car for his fiancee. Today I suggested that we take a ride down to the local Mazda dealer and check out the Mazda6 for her. They just happened to have 2 MS6s on the lot and one more in the showroom. The one in the showroom was bright red with two-tone black/white leather seats. It looked really nice. Upon further inspection I saw that the hood on it had three knicks in the paint job, shameful. After a while of checking everything out, popping the hood and whatnot he asked if we wanted to take one for a test drive. We were like, it couldn't hurt to take it for a spin. Since my friend is seriously looking for a car he was the one that got to drive it. He said that the cluctch is pretty stiff in comparison to his car (he drives an RSX). With traffic and all he really didn't get to open it up too much but we did get to go around some decent curves and it handled very well. With him not being used to the clutch he wasn't really smooth taking off from a stop. At one light, he gave it a bit too much gas and got the boost going and then the clutch caught and it just tossed us back into our seats. The car is pretty loud, when you get up in the RPMS it is pretty much screaming. But cruzing along at 45-50 in 6th gear isn't too bad. I got this months Car and Driver today and they did a 5-way comparo of sub $30K sport sedans. All 6-speed manual with around 200 hp or more (the Jetta GLI is just under). The MS6 came in 4th ahead of the Pontiac G6-GTP. Their bigges gripes was the loud exhaust note and the lack of luxury items.

 

[Captain KRM P5]

yeah the C&D article was pretty ****** up. they freely admitted the car performed the best in EVERY performance category except braking distance by ONE foot. fastest quarter mile, best roadholding, fastest final gear acceleration, best overall handling, most power, etc etc etc. they docked it for not having a sunroof for the price, for not having as nice an interior and for the front grille's size. personally, i'll sacrifice a sunroof for a near two seconds faster 1/4 mile, better handling and all wheel drive over the hideous and slow GLI they gave first place to.

they didn't even throw cars in there that would have made sense to compare to - where was the requisite Legacy GT or Audi?

 

[hyperboarder]

C&D is never spot on, I think they're geared too much towards the older generation. I'd take power and AWD over a little luxury any day, but hey, I'm 19, the average person buying that kind of car isn't.

 

[Replica]

C&D isn't horrible....just a different perspective.

 

[Newf]

C&D could have at least mentioned that leather and a sunroof among other things were an option. The average reader wont' have a clue about that stuff and think otherwise.

 

[Captain KRM P5]

C&D isn't horrible....just a different perspective.

its honestly one of my more favored reads, but there are certain editors who beat thier own personal proverbial horse month after month. there is one who writes the same ******* editorial every month, just with different words, about how hybrids are a joke, SUVs are fine, environmentalists are misinformed and everything needs a v8.

the articles themselves are good and the comparisons are, for the most part, objective. when they do things like this or when they ranked the slowest car as the best among sport compacts, it really cause me question thier objectivity.

 

[03MzdSpdSTP]

maybe speed and power doesn't make the BEST car???

 

[ENTENSE]

C&D is never spot on, I think they're geared too much towards the older generation. I'd take power and AWD over a little luxury any day, but hey, I'm 19, the average person buying that kind of car isn't.

Me too, I agree with ya and I'm 30

 

[RenzoMSP]

maybe speed and power doesn't make the BEST car???

Well there is also efficiency and reliability.

 

[Captain KRM P5]

maybe speed and power doesn't make the BEST car???

never said that they do, but you would think if the comparison is about performance cars it would be a heavier factor than the comfort level, noise level and sunroof that C&D rated them on.

 

[P5w3kids]

I'd think anyone who owns a P5 would know that acceleration isn't everything. Or maybe you haven't noticed that the car you're driving isn't fast?

I have different issues with this comparison. I've driven all of the cars except the MS6 (the one dealer where I made the attempt was treating them like collector's items). And the Accord, even with V6 and 6-speed, is a snore to drive. Very cushy. I'm thinking they placed too high a priority on the cushy.

My favorite in this class would probably be the Legacy GT, which was not included in the test. The MS6 loses points for being fat and ugly, no matter how it drives. Now if they made a wagon version (conventional sedan styling is so over), I'd be more interested.

 

[hyperboarder]

You really have to read the article to get the whole story (no pun intended). I read it last week, and the gripes they have just aren't important. They admit it outperformed everything by a lot, but little things (for instance the grill and the engine sound) dropped it's overall score.

On a different topic, I think Mazda may have shot itself in the foot a bit by making it hard for dealers to become certified Mazdaspeed dealers. I've been to two Mazda dealers, and neither could carry the Mazdaspeed 6, which really disappointed me. There's only one legit Mazdaspeed dealer in Idaho, and it's not in Boise, so that shafts the whole state. There's at least one in Colorado, but it's not the one I frequent, so again, unless you live in Denver, no joy. The thing that sucked the most was not being able to order any Mazdaspeed parts for my car, even if I'll be installing them. I really think something needs to change.

 

[Replica]

when they do things like this or when they ranked the slowest car as the best among sport compacts, it really cause me question thier objectivity.

then mazdas would never win. (thumb)

I think the C/D guys look for the total package that would appeal to the average comsumer, not guys on car forums.

 

[Replica]

its honestly one of my more favored reads, but there are certain editors who beat thier own personal proverbial horse month after month. there is one who writes the same ******* editorial every month, just with different words, about how hybrids are a joke, SUVs are fine, environmentalists are misinformed and everything needs a v8.

Very good observations....(hah)

There's always the bald guy and the guy with the white dog, they're articles are always the same s***...