Mazda6 wagon revealed as Japanese production begins

By Tim Beissmann
August 03rd, 2012

FIND DEALS

The all-new Mazda6 wagon has been unveiled for the first time as the Japanese manufacturer celebrates the start of production of its third-generation medium car.

A European-spec red Mazda6 wagon (pictured above) with a 2.0-litre SkyActiv-G petrol engine was the first model to roll off the production line at the manufacturer’s Hofu Plant No. 2 in Yamaguchi prefecture.

The Mazda6 wagon will make its official public debut at the 2012 Paris motor show on September 29, exactly one month after the Mazda6 sedan is unveiled in full at the 2012 Moscow motor show at the end of August.

Both sedan and wagon body styles are expected to go on sale in Australia in the first quarter of 2013, replacing the second-generation sedan, wagon and hatch variants that first hit our shores in early 2008.

Previewed by last month’s spy shots, the wagon shares its front-end design with the new sedan, sporting an upright grille and thinner, more aggressive headlights.

Side-on, the wagon features a shallow glasshouse thanks to its tapered roofline, while at the back the rear window is more heavily raked than the second-gen model and trades the outgoing car’s clear tail-light lenses for darker red fixtures.

The new Mazda6 will initially come with the choice of the 2.0-litre petrol engine or Mazda’s 2.2-litre SkyActiv-D diesel motor, both of which are teamed with a six-speed automatic transmission.

Debuting in the new Mazda6 is the company’s i-ELOOP regenerative braking system, which works in tandem with stop-start engine technology to reduce fuel consumption by up to 10 per cent.

The full specifications of the 2013 Mazda6 will be revealed over the coming months as the car hits the international motor show circuit.

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John

Damn that’s a good looking car.
- Danielr
  
  100% Someone go over and slap Subaru, clearly Japan can decent looking cars.
  - Amlohac
    
    Yeah! Subaru have become rather… conservative of late. Dont get me wrong the WRX STi is a weapon, just doesnt have the “look” anymore. Except the BRZ, but good luck getting one any time soon.
bruster

the car looks quite big, im not sure the 2.0l engine will be enough to move such a car.
as it is the current 2.5l is no fireball…. the diesel should be ok.
most cars in the same segment have a turbo charged engine, mondeo, peugeot, passat etc,,,
Mike

I can see hints of RX-8. Looks the goods.
Basil Exposition

Looks good. I suspect the petrol will be gutless though and prices to be high.
Gan Tan

side profile looks exactly like the GH 6 Wagon…
- Info
  
  No it doesn’t. It is now looking more coupe-like at the back and that may be why they have dropped the Hatchback model Mazda 6 from the new model range.
Golfschwein

It’s Christmas!
Robin_Graves

Looks very nice tho I suspect the tailgate profile will restrict carrying anything boxy and tall with its swooping side profile.
Save It For The Track

If it’s only the 113kW/198Nm tune of the 2.0l SkyActive engine, then it would seem to be underpowered. We’ll have to wait and see. If they have taken a 100 or so kilo’s out it may help.
- Amlohac
  
  Current spec is 126kw I think? But yeah, new model is apparently 230kgs lighter. So ya never know!
Robbie

The look of the Mazda 6 is back on track!

Going to make the CX-5 look even uglier and from the front the CX-5 is fugly!
Davo

not sure I will tick the silver tinsel box on the option list
- Doctor
  
  If it was a BMW that would be an extra cost delete-option….
Pauly

It looks great!

Except the 2L Skyactive Petrol is gutless in the CX-5 and will be more so in the 6.Mazda is following Honda Australia and some how think they are a premium brand and able to over charge Australians…Here is some advice Mazda…. Over Charging didnt work for Honda and I can promise it wont work for you.
- Sydlocal
  
  So Pauly, are you telling us that Colin Chapman has been wrong all these years in saying that a lighter car is faster?
  (the lightest current model Mazda6 with more equipment is still lighter than the lightest 2WD CX5, let alone the popular AWD which is around 100kg heavier again. Also this next gen Mazda6 is supposedly even lighter than the current one)
  
  Don’t get me wrong, a skyactiv 2L petrol Mazda6 would still be slow and gutless, just not more gutless than a CX5 petrol with it being at worst no different. I wouldn’t even bother with the petrol anyhow considering how good the skyactiv diesel/auto combination works. You also get no argument from me about the “premium” pricing!
  - Amlohac
    
    230kgs lighter apparently
- Basil Exposition
  
  Now that Honda and Toyota are cutting prices… Leaves Mazda in a difficult position. Once the new model shine Waines Mazda will struggle to sell at their premium prices.
MisterZed

Yawn. i40 wagon leaves this for dead.
- Before we post, who are you?
  
  Yeah right, of course it does. Except for ride, steering, handling, looks, performance, class, styling, interior design, space and every other parameter. But you fan boys don’t ever seem to worry about those things.
  - MisterZed
    
    i40 is considered one of the best looking wagons on the market at the moment.
    - Sydlocal
      
      The i45 may have the looks MisterZed, but it is a LONG way behind Mazda (and pretty much all other mid sized cars in its class, even its Kia twin for that matter) when it comes to dynamics/body control and steering feel. Unless of course you like a soggy ride and the steering feel of a bowl of porridge. Myself, I actually enjoy driving and in that respect the i45 just doesn’t cut it. It is much like a Camry, a great car to get you around the place with lots of toys and rock solid reliability, but it is nothing more than an appliance to get you from A to B and not for the enthusiast…
      - Guest
        
        Reality is a bitch! 90% of australians are indifferent on handling & performance. The remaining 10% that are, are either on their last few points towards a suspension or are banned from driving. The Nanny state of Australia doesn’t encourage enthusiastic driving of any kind on public roads.
      - Guest
        
        95% of Australians couldn’t care less about handling or performance. The remaining 5% that care are either on the last few points before suspension or are banned from driving. We’re living in the Great Nanny State of Australia that discourage enthusiastic driving of any kind on public roads.
      - Sydlocal
        
        It is called DYNAMIC safety. Having the handling reserves and feel through the chassis etc to avoid an accident in the first place is just as important as passive safety (airbags etc). You don’t have to drive above the speed limit to enjoy the benefits of good steering feel/handling and enjoy yourself etc. I enjoy driving/riding and have never had any demerit points on my license in 20 years of having a license.
      - Norm
        
        Yep – that’s what Australian families want coming in the opposite direction on Australian roads. “Enthusiastic” drivers. Good grief – go to a race track.
      - MisterZed
        
        Why are you talking about the i45? I clearly stated i40 in my post, which is a totally different car.
    - Before we post, who are you?
      
      Considered by whom? If you said it wasn’t quite as ugly as the rest of the Hyundai range, I might agree with you. I can’t help but notice that you ignored or had no answer to the rest of problems with the i40. You are too easliy seduced by what you consider a pretty face. I think Sydlocal sums it up pretty well below, though it does apply to both the i40 and the i45.
      - Guest
        
        Mate, have a Mars bar! You sound very aggressive when you’re hungry. CA forum is a friendly place where everyone gives their polite opinion or views – no need to get so worked up here!, have a Mars bar!
      - Before we post, who are you?
        
        Why thank you, that’s very kind . Do you deliver? BTW I think the ad is for Snickers, not Mars Bars. Back on topic though, what you say about exploring the handling on the open road has some relevance, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do a bit of carving occassionally. Besides even if you are just cruising ride and steering are just as important and a car that does both poorly is noticeably less comfortable and satisfying than one that excels like a Mazda 6.
    - Foxx
      
      So? Looks are subjective, and going by Hyundai’s track record, their designs age terribly and very quickly..
      
      Look at i45, so controversial, yet now it looks like a sick puppy, also selling like a sick puppy..
      
      I40 same, when I first saw it, it was ok, but now it looks boring.. And grumpy.
      - MisterZed
        
        I’ll tell you what – if the i40 is now boring after 1 year, this new Mazda6 is going to be boring after 6 months.
    - DanielD
      
      Moment is the critical reflection their MisterZed. We will have to wait and see if it stays true, once this new 6 is on the market.
      Having driven a 2012 Mazda 6 wagon and he i40, I now own the Mazda. Its not perfect but it is much more a drivers car. The Koreans still haven’t figured out how to do suspension tuning.
Homer

Lot to like about Mazdas. Compared to most of it’s competitors they do have a zoom zoom with their steering, ride and handling. Also, outstanding reliability, but the zoom zoom finishes when they get to engines. Outside of the diesel CX5 is any engine in the range class leading? 2 average, 3 average, 6 poor, CX5 petrol poor, MX5 poor, RX8 poor, CX9 ok.
- Mick Dunn
  
  Absolutely agree. And it’s not just that the engines are average on paper. The way they go about their business is horrible too. They sound thrashy and strained at medium to high revs whilst the gearbox has trouble deciding what it should be doing (and don’t attempt requesting a manual shift lest you have to wait a second or two!)
  - Sydlocal
    
    My wife’s GG 6 doesn’t seem to have problems changing gears in auto or manual mode and is no better or worse than many other transmissions of that era and it is the ancient 4 speed job. It doesn’t hunt like something fitted to a Commodore of the same era and actually knows it is going up a hill so it will hold that lower gear. It will even downchange going down hill when you brush the brake. Not to mention you can actually hit the rev limiter in manual mode unlike many other autos that will change up automatically in manual mode even if you don’t want it to. It is no worse than anything else from that era. Having said that it is a bit behind the times being only a 4 speed!
    
    Also the older 2.3 when fitted to a 6 doesn’t sound thrashy or strained at all, sure it doesn’t rev like a Honda, but it is a lot more tractable down low in the rev range, something your “paper peak figures” don’t give you! So are you saying providing more torque down lower in the rev range where drivers mostly spend their time is a horrible way to go about business? Not everyone drives constantly over 5000rpm! I would also say that as it gets higher up the rev range it develops quite a nice rasp in the higher registers not unlike a 4cyl Alfa. It won’t set the world on fire and you have no argument from me there, but it doesn’t sound bad and wasn’t designed as a high revving engine like a VTEC yo! The 2L in the 3 however is much like you said. In every day driving by the every day driver it is not an issue.
    
    Also if you think a rotary (the rotary engine was mentioned by the OP with the RX8) sounds thrashy and strained at high rpm, you obviously haven’t driven one. Torque, or lack of, and ordinary fuel consumption on the other hand is another thing all together!!!!
    - Vti07
      
      The RX8 definitely has no issues revving to high RPM (>9500 IIRC). that’s why there’s a beeper to remind you change up a gear.
  - Rttrgtn
    
    if you can make a M6 sound that bad you must a very poor driver, it isn’t the cars fault
- Guest
  
  Hammer on the nail, mate! Zoom-zoom marketing, good styling details & australianized ride engineering are Mazda’s success factors. Engine development & engineering not their strong suit as they previously relied on their tie-up with Ford to cross share engines and chassis.
  Funny that Australia is one of Mazda’s few successful markets. Elsewhere, they lurk in the shadows of Toyota, Honda & Nissan.
  - Sydlocal
    
    They only cross shared chassis/suspension/electric engineering with Ford and Volvo. The MZR engine was all Mazda. Ford purchased the rights off Mazda to build the MZR in Europe and sell it as the Duratec. Still doesn’t change the fact that it is nothing ground breaking about it. However it is quite a durable engine with no timing belts to worry about to boot. It can reliably make quite good power when Cosworth have their way with it!
    
    Also engineering not their strong suit? What the? Have you been living under a rock all these years? How many other car manufacturers out of the large number that tried got the rotary engine to work properly? Mazda have always been regarded as a company that is not afraid to try something different/quirky and has been successful more often or not. That is most of the reason why Ford had to bail them out all those years ago, trying to do so much and being so daring with their outlandish ideas that they bled themselves dry. It doesn’t really work that well when you are such a small company! They were also one of the first to design and develop computer controlled 4WS for the mass market, getting the miller cycle engine to work in a car. Even their stop-start system is innovative, simple, clever and different from the norm. How many other companies have managed to get a diesel engine to run effectively in the automotive sector on only 14:1 compression? This is only a small number of things Mazda have done. Note, I am not saying what they have done is the best, more that they do have some engineering nouse to go against the grain, even if it doesn’t change the world.
    
    They hardly lack engineering know-how, it is more they lack the capital to be able to make the most of it. That is their problem, they are trying to do too much at once with too little and if they are not careful they will no longer be around.
    - Guest
      
      The irony in this marriage between Ford & Mazda is that Ford isn’t exactly a fantastic engine builder themselves – they still rely on Lotus & Cosworth for their ground-breaking engines. Ford engines themselves were used beyond their shelf life eg. Kent, OHV Crossflow, Pinto, etc. and dared I say the Barra 6 (Grandpa’s ax).
      MZR engine is pure generic stuff nothing exciting or interesting compared to groundbreaking stuff like Honda’s B16/B18, Mitsu’s 4G63 or even Subaru’s boxer Rex engine.
      Being different/quirky and twice near-dicing with bankruptcy is not considered successful at all. The 1st near-bankruptcy was in 1973 when the Arab-oil embargo caused the Rotary engine to be avoided like plague. Mazda had then bet their whole house on the Rotary engine.
      Their auto technologies are at best innovative and unique but lacking mass adoption, it’s like VHS vs Betamax all over! Honda did it with their innovative VTEC system & it spawn a host of imitators like Mitsubishi’s MIVEC, Toyota’s VVTL-i, Nissan’s VVL & Proton’s Cam-Pro. Imitation is the best form of flattery.
      Now who’s living under a rock then?
      - Sydlocal
        
        OK you got me!
Guest

Is it just me? The new Mazda corporate grille looks like a rip-off from Mercedes Benz right down to the central positioning of the Mazda logo. If Mazda adds 3-4 horizontal chrome bars to the grille, they gonna get a call from Mercedes.
- Noddy of Toyland
  
  Ok mate.
- Neutral Observer
  
  Probably just you.
- Darryl
  
  I just went and had a look to check where the logo/badge on our Ford and Mitsi are, and to my great surprise they are in the centre of the grille.
- Hung Low
  
  It has the similar look of a 70′s RX3 grill, I like it.
- Nada
  
  I think you mean BMW, connecting the grill with the headlights?
Schn

I wonder if there’ll be a Mazdaspeed version. Hopefully there will. Really would like one, it’s got the looks to match one too.
FSquared

I know I will get stoned to death for saying this. In my opinion the current Mazda family look is actually more conservation compare to the last two generations. Sure it is sleek, but good design requires more than just a bit of sleekism. This comment goes out to the current BMW family look as well, bar the 1 series which is effectively a refresh in terms of styling. Stoned to death again and Condamned to the hell of public opinion
- JD
  
  conservative cars dont age…. look at hyundai’s cars. When they are released, they look stunning, but after a year or 2 the car looks dated. i40 looks boring now
  - Simon
    
    I agree with you both – look at the first Gen 6. Looked far less ‘conservative’ and still after ten years doesn’t look as bad.
    And - being stoned to death along with you – the Hyundai’s front end styling that they have across basically the range now is already starting to look…. dated..?
    - MisterZed
      
      Yeah right, the previous NF Sonata (2005-2010) was as conservative as they come, and it’s just aged so fabulously, hasn’t it?
Luke Brinsmead

Mazda seems to becoming the BMW of the East. Sporting prowess, quality presentation, high servicing costs and strong brand value. Makes the Camry, Maxima, Liberty et al. appear unsavoury.
falcodore

Looking as sleek as it does, it’s easy to imagine a modern day MX-6 being produced : ) Here’s hoping…
Bgunwood

I would like to have seen more of the Shinari concept car built into the new 6. It had stunning,yet classical looks. Suzuki did the same with their Kizashi, it’s hardly recognisable from the concept model first seen a couple of years ago. A bit of a let down really and a good chance missed to create something really special.