Mazda 6 2003 News

Manufacturers including BMW, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), Peugeot and Citroen have issued recalls via the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

Only a fraction of the 1.2 million cars on Australia roads with airbags that can spray shrapnel have been fixed, new figures show.

Celebrations as the first Mazda 6 rolls off the factory line - festooned with tinsel.

Most soft-road SUVs are front-wheel drives with on-demand 4WD systems of varying fallibility. The impression of extra space they convey is illusory. Their styling is usually unfortunate, and dynamically they range from acceptable to execrable.  They combine the shortcomings of legit four-wheel-drives and proper cars. And none of their virtues. Whereas increasingly, wagons are where it’s at – none more so than the up-tarted Mazda 6 Touring Wagon, which enters showrooms shortly. This cow-upholstered petrol auto version features the various virtually negligible tweaks common to the rest of the range which has copped its mid-lifecycle upgrade (next to no improvements were required). Oh alright, I’d like another 500 revs, a bit more power and a lot more down low torque – something direct injection and forced induction would address – but then I’d also like a land of autobahns, first class secondary roads and German standards of driver training for all license holders. The point is, the Mazda6 has more than enough of what it has. And if your driving life is typical, there are dynamic dimensions to this family lugger that you’ll never chart.  But if you do go there, the 6 will – as ever – go with you all the way. If only Audi did steering that was this meaningful all the time. If only all cars in which the front wheels do both the steering and the driving handled so superbly. Yet it’s functional to a fault with a rear seat-down storage capacity that at more than 1700 litres is sufficient to stack several sumos. And, to these jaded rheumy eyes, the Wagon is the best looker of the 6 range. The slightly smaller Mazda3 has become the favourite of private buyers in this wide brown land – yes, a car from Hiroshima, not elsewhere in Japan. And certainly not Melbourne or Adelaide. The bigger 6 starts in the 3’s price range and is a better family device. Mazda doesn’t aspire to the prestige label, but the 6 slays any number of European imports that hide their glaring deficiencies behind their ‘aspirational’ badges. It’s priced against the Camry but is degrees of magnitude superior to that duller-than-ditchwater device. And if you want an antidote to Camry Hybrid hype, try the Mazda6 diesel wagon with its 400Nm and 5.9l/100km.  These wagons do everything a soft roader purports – and much that it can’t.

In a swiftly changing motoring environment carmakers are searching for new ways to cut fuel use and emissions and improve efficiency.Among the hundreds of concepts and new and updated models on display at the Paris motor show over the next 15 days are some definite standouts. Renault has combined gull-wing doors, comfort, refinement and a slippery design with a hybrid diesel engine and plonked it all on massive 23-inch wheels in its range-topping Ondelios concept car (cover picture).It's 4.8m long and has a hybrid 150kW version of the 2.0-litre dCi engine.There are also two 20kW electric motors at the front and rear to provide extra boost recovered during braking.Mercedes is unveiling one of the world's fastest cabriolets. The SLR McLaren Roadster 722S has 478kW of power and accelerates from 0-100km/h in 3.7 seconds before reaching a top speed of 335km/h.Just 150 of the two-seater supercars will be built. It complements Mercedes' other show star the ConceptFascination, a wild two-door sportswagon. It's a modern version of the old British “shooting-brake” where a wagon tail has been planted on a sporty saloon.Citroen's crossover concept, Hypnos, hasa 150kW engine that boasts miserly fuel efficiency figures of 4.5-litres per 100km.However, it what's inside that is different. An extremely colourful rainbow light show highlights its sleek styling.Honda is using the Paris show to highlight its green commitment. Star of its stand is the new Insight Concept, a dedicated petrol-electric hybrid car in the vein of Toyota's Prius.It is expected to go into production within the next few years.From the US, GM will debut a close to production version of its revolutionary Volt electric car. Chevrolet is showing its new crucial small car the Cruze, plus its first seven-seat multi-purpose family car, the Orlando show car.A form of SUV-family van and wagon crossover, it has a 2.0-litre diesel engine.Alfa Romeo is unveiling its little MiTo compact which is due to come to Australian the middle of next year.Fiat is showing the MiTo's likely competitor in the super-mini category, the 120kW 500 Abarth EsseEsse (SS) plus its PUR-O2 eco-range of cleaner, greener 500s. New technology includes the ability for the engine to turn itself off while idling and back on to continue driving.Mini will show its all-wheel-drive Crossover Concept, while BMW will premiere its X1 wagon. The Mini is intended for adventurous twenty-somethings, while the Concept X1 will go into production as a safe, practical family car.Chasing a similar small, sporty car market is Audi with its new A1. The near-production version will be a feature of its stand.Saab is exhibiting its 9-X Air concept car, while Volvo is debuting its production-ready ultra-safe XC60 crossover which is headed for Australia.Porsche has several new models in the911 range plus the go-anywhere Cayenne S Transsyberia super-4WD.Mazda's all-new Kiyora urban compact four-cylinder concept car will sit alongside the world debut of production cars, the new generation MX-5, the Mazda6 with a 2.2-litre turbo diesel engine and the Mazda2 1.6-litre diesel.Lamborghini has joined the rush to GT supercars with its four-door Estoque concept.Like Porsche's Panamera, Maserati's Quattroporte and Aston Martin's upcoming four-seater, the Estoque, brings a new versatility to one of the world's most uncompromising sports marques.Lamborghini stresses that although there are no production plans for the AWD Estoque it has been developed as fully production capable.Toyota has three world premiere vehicles ranging from its little four-seater city car, the iQ, to the all-new Avensis sedan and wagon and the 1.4-litre diesel-engined Urban Cruiser All Wheel Drive.Ford is debuting the all-new Ka city car with a choice of 1.2-litre petrol and 1.3-litrediesel engines, the hot Focus RS and the new economic Fiesta.Volkswagen will show off its latest Golf GTi. The hot hatch for 2009 is cleaner, smoother and much more refined than earlier cars.It will still come with a 155kW turbo petrol engine and the promise of a 7.2-second sprint to 100km/h, but is missing the wild body bits of earlier GTi road runners.Nissan's debuting Nuvu concept is just three-metres long. It only has two normal seats plus a third that folds down for luggage and groceries. The city car has solar panels on the glass roof.Ferrari will debut its chic two-seater V8 California sports car.From Korea will come Hyundai's i20 small car and a 2.4-litre engined hybrid SUV.Kia is showing its Soul range of urban crossover concepts that come with either petrol or diesel engines. There's also a hybrid version. Additional reporting by Kevin Hepworth and Paul Gover. 

Battling torrential rain for most of the journey, the all new Mazda 6 was still able to show us that the Japanese marque is determined to keep its ‘best selling import’ record

The second generation Mazda 6 is bigger physically, has greater power, and comes in at a few hundred dollars cheaper than its predecessor.