2011 Mazda 6 Pricing and Specs

Let’s start with the basics here, Bryan, before lashing out on mechanics. Are the tyre pressures where they should be? A tyre can be pretty under-inflated before that’s actually obvious to the eye, but a tyre with an incorrect pressure can be harder to turn. Next, what about the wheel alignment settings? Has the car bounced off a kerb lately? Has there been any incident that could have wrenched the front end out of alignment? When was the last time the wheel alignment was checked?

For all of that, however, I’m tempted to suspect that there’s something wrong with the valving in the power-steering rack. I’d be having the rack checked for any foreign matter inside that could be blocking the valves or in some other way preventing the rack from guiding the wheels smoothly in both directions. A dodgy steering system is an obvious safety issue, so don’t mess about having it checked.

Definitely the Mazda6. It gets The Tick from me and wins over the SUVs on everything from fuel economy to comfort and quietness.

That seems like a lot of money to replace the seat mechanism, perhaps you could try an independent Mazda mechanic and replace it with used parts. That would save you some money. As for the extended warranty, you should read it and understand what is covered and what is not. The warranty is generally not from the carmaker directly, but from an insurance company and sold through the dealer. If it is correct that the failure was due to faulty welding, as you say it was suggested, then it's a problem for Mazda itself to fix.