2020 Mazda 6 vs 2017

What's the difference?

Mazda6 wagon, with its impressive dynamics, great practicality and value. The Atenza grade adds another level of luxury but also look at the GT, which has the same engine and an almost identical features list. Oh, and you don't have to put a bed in the back like I did, but it's good to know you can.

The Mazda6 GT wagon looks stunning and is great to drive, but it doesn’t have the cargo capacity of rivals such as the Passat and Superb. As for the GT grade, I’d be looking at the Touring instead – it’s about $5K less and you’re only really missing out on the proximity key, which is great, but not $5K great. Good on you for considering a wagon, too. It’s the thinking person's alternative to an SUV.

Despite being heckled for driving a Mazda6 wagon to an old-school rod festival, more than a few punters inside wanted to take a look at it. One mate who's an auto spray painter even called it a "Mazdaratti" for its high-end looks and was impressed with the Machine Grey paint it wore.

I'm a fan of the hue, too and also the car's styling, with that glittering grille, the broad bonnet and the low-slung stance. The interior is also outstanding in its design and the materials used. From the Nappa leather seats to the layered dash with its suede-like trim, it's a premium-feeling cabin.

If there are any criticisms it's that the cabin is feeling dated compared to the cockpit of the new-generation Mazda3, with its beautiful and modern insides boasting an integrated display and a more minimal design to buttons and switchgear.

How big is the Mazda6 wagon? The Mazda6's dimensions show it to be 4865mm long, 1840mm wide and 1450mm tall. That's big, and only about 210mm shorter in length than a CX-9. How does its size affect the driving? You'll have to read on to find out.

The Mazda6 sedan is a good-looking car, and even as a wagon it’s appealing, with that sloping roofline, those curvaceous wheel arches and long bonnet. The shape isn’t new either – sure there have been updates, but this model came out in 2012 and it doesn’t look out of date. 

Can you tell it’s a GT from the outside? No. Well yes, but only by the wheels and headlamps – the GT has 19-inch alloy wheels and LED headlights, but so does the top-of-the-range Atenza.

Inside, the Mazda6 GT wagon’s stylish cabin has a premium feel with leather seats and an excellent fit and finish. All the touch points throughout the cockpit are soft or padded, and all the controls, from the paddle shifters to the climate buttons, are perfectly placed and feel refined.

There are spots where the cabin is showing its age – that head-up display once seemed cool but now appears dinky and the display is tiny and antiquated by Volkswagen and Skoda standards these days.

How long is the Mazda6 wagon? It might not look like it, but the wagon is shorter end-to-end than the sedan. The dimensions don’t lie; the wagon is 4800mm long, the sedan is 4865mm.

Compared to its rivals, the Mazda6 wagon is 110mm longer than the Subaru Levorg and 33mm longer than the Passat wagon, but 71mm shorter than the Mondeo wagon and 61mm shorter than the Superb wagon.

Don’t be fooled, though, longer doesn’t mean it has a bigger cargo area - all will be revealed in the practicality section below.

Any car you can put a double-bed camp mattress into and sleep in has to be practical, right? As you can see from my images, that's just what I did when I took the Mazda6 Atenza wagon to a hot-rod festival that went over a weekend. The temperature dropped to -2C but I was cozy in my Mazda6 camper.

I don't suggest anyone else should do the same, but even for me, at 191cm tall, there was enough room to stretch out with the tailgate shut – those second-row seats fold flat and open up to give you a cargo capacity of 1648L (VDA).

Put those seats back into the upright position and the boot space is still good at 506 litres. You'll find hooks for hanging bags and a 12V outlet in the boot, too.

Cabin storage is also good, with two cup holders in the second row and another two up front. There's a big centre-console bin with two USB ports and a 12V outlet and pretty decent-sized door pockets, too.

People space is good, but not fantastic. I can sit behind my driving position but only have enough room between my knees and the seat back to squeeze in one of my fingers.

Headroom back there is getting tight, too, and that's because of  that swoopy roof line. The low roof and small door openings also make it hard to lift babies in and out. Parents will have to bend over further than in an SUV. This is one of the advantages of an SUV's ride height. That said, for kids who can climb in on their own, the wagon's height is ideal.

While we're talking ride height, SUVs tend to have high boot-load lips that you're forced to heave your bags and shopping over - not so with the Mazda6 wagon.

Nobody buys a wagon by accident. You get a wagon because you’ve preempted regular situations when you’re going to have to carry stuff. Lots of stuff. Wagons are basically utes with a roof for people that don’t get dirty.

So not much point in getting a wagon if the cargo capacity doesn’t meet your requirements. The Mazda6 wagon has 506 litres of boot space, while the sedan version has 474 litres. Yes, that sounds like the wagon is small, but the big hatch opening and being able to fold the seats down opens up a 1648-litre cargo area.

The Passat wagon isn’t as long as the Mazda6 wagon, but its cargo capacity is 650 litres, or 1780 litres with the seats folded flat. The Superb has an enormous 660 litres or 1950 litres with the second row folded. The Levorg’s cargo area is smaller than the Mazda’s, with 489 litres, and so is the Mondeo’s, with 488 litres.

Cabin storage is good with two cup holders up front and two in the back. There’s also a large centre console storage bin and bottle holders in the doors, too.

As for humans, I’m one of those (but a tall one at 191cm) and I can sit behind my driving position with about 20mm of space. Headroom is also good back there.

The Mazda6 wagon’s coupe styling looks great, but the rear door opening is smaller because of it and I noticed this meant bending more to put my toddler into his car seat.

The Mazda6 wagon comes in three trim levels with a choice of two engines – a diesel or, in the case of our test car, a petrol engine. The GT grade we tested is the rung down from the top-spec Atenza and lists for $43,990, which is about $10K more than the Sport entry variant.

The GT comes with bucket loads of standard features. There’s a seven-inch touch screen with nav, an 11-speaker Bose stereo system, digital radio, a reversing camera, front and rear parking sensors, power-adjustable front seats, dual-zone climate control, paddle shifters, push-button start, LED headlights and tailights, and roof rails. 
 
Keep in mind that you’ll get all those same features on the Touring grade, too, only for about $5K less.

All the GT adds is 19-inch alloy wheels, sunroof, heated front and rear seats, head-up display, adaptive headlights and a proximity key. Really, the best thing in this list is the proximity key – a feature you can’t option on any of the other grades.

For the same amount of money (actually $500 less) you could buy a Volkswagen Passat 132 TSI Comfortline, which is superb, or for $2K less there’s the actual Skoda Superb 162TSI in wagon form, which has a cracker of an engine and clever features, or there’s the Ford Mondeo Ambiente wagon for a smidge over $35,000 (there's a diesel Mondeo wagon in the Trend spec for $42,840, too). 

That makes the decision a bit harder, doesn’t it? Well, it’s a good problem to have.

The Mazda6 wagon doesn’t have Apple CarPlay or Android Auto; there are people that are now making a decision to buy a car based on the presence of these apps.

The Mazda6 Atenza has a 2.5-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine making 170kW and 420Nm. Only the GT and the Atenza have this engine, while the bottom two grades get a 2.5-litre without the turbo. What's the difference? A lot. The turbo engine makes 30kW and 169Nm more in power and torque. Two words to describe it: velvety smooth and powerful. OK that was three words, possibly four.

Shifting gears is a six-speed automatic transmission. Sure, other car makers are moving to more and more gears, but there's no fishing around for the right cog in this Mazda transmission, as you occasionally find in some eight- or 10-speed autos.

The Mazda6 GT wagon is available with a diesel or the 2.5-litre petrol engine which was in our test car. Producing 138kW of power and 250Nm of torque, the engine is smooth, quiet and has plenty of oomph.

This is a front-wheel-drive car and the transmission is a six-speed automatic. 

We've written news stories about how Mazda refuses to bring hybrids or electric vehicles to Australia. Mazda's thinking is that its petrol engines are already super-efficient, and it says the 2.5-litre turbo petrol engine with the six-speed automatic in the Atenza wagon should use 7.0L/100km after a combination of open and urban roads.

I put more than 450km on the clock of the wagon but began fuel testing towards the end of our time with it to ensure a good combination of driving. My testing measured at the fuel pump found that after 144.3km our test car's mileage was 11.6L/100km. That was fully loaded up with a weekend away's worth of luggage for two adults and a five-year-old child on board.

You'll only need to feed it 91 RON, too.

Mazda says the wagon with the 2.5-litre petrol engine and six-speed auto should use 6.6L/100km when driven on a combo of urban, country and city roads. Our car spent most of its life with us in the city and our trip computer was saying we were averaging 10.2L/100km. 

You now know from what I've written above that the turbo-petrol engine and six-speed auto are excellent, but what's the Mazda6 Atenza wagon like to pilot? The answer is: outstanding, for the segment and price. Steering is excellent with good feedback, the ride is comfortable and composed and because this isn't an SUV, handling is impressive, with a low centre of mass.

That engine provides plenty of oomph for great acceleration and I know I've mentioned it already, but the transmission is also superb at holding gears for sporty driving or shifting almost seamlessly in the traffic and when cruising leisurely.

Mazda’s ‘thing’ is making cars that are fun to drive – the company takes this seriously, and when a new car is launched they devote a lot of time explaining the pains they went to in making the car engaging to pilot.

And the effort seems to pay off; Mazdas really are good to drive, and the Mazda6 is no exception.

Steering is smooth, well-weighted and accurate, the engine is responsive and has a sport mode (which is actually sporty), and the six-speed auto gets the drive to those front wheels well. There were times, though, that the front wheels would lose traction - especially from a standing start on a hill.

Handling is good and the ride is comfortable, too. Although the lower profile tyres on the GT grade (225/45 R19) do mean you’ll feel the bumps and cracks in the road more than the thicker-walled tyres on the lower grades.

And finally, a wagon will almost always be better to drive than an SUV, and that's because it has a lower centre of mass and that gives it superior handling. Just like a car. Because that's what it is.

The Mazda6 wagon scored the maximum five-star ANCAP rating. There’s also some great advanced safety equipment including AEB (forward and reverse), blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert.

There’s three top tether points and three ISOFIX points across the second row.

The Mazda6 Atenza wagon is covered by a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty. Servicing is recommended every 10,000km or 12 months and you can expect to pay $324 for each of the first five services.

The Mazda6 wagon is covered by Mazda’s three-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty. Servicing is recommended every 12 months or 10,000km and is capped at $305 for the first service, $333 for the second, $305 for the next, then $333 and back to $305.