The sporty Mazda6 is certainly a great family car, writes Michael McAleer, Motoring editor, but isn't yet the leader of the pack
Choice: it's the great bugbear for traditionalists. If only people would buy what they're told to buy and others stopped forcing new fangled ideas upon us.
For the loyal fans of the traditional family car, the number crunchers predict you are slowly becoming a dying breed. This motoring institution is giving way to the multitude of flexi-formats, from SUVs to MPVs and Vs of every different shape and format. Think of motoring cross-breeding gone mad.
That's the sad reality of giving people choice: they end up making choices of their own.
According to industry gurus, the family car market is set to become as important to motoring as the Charity Shield is to Premier League teams or the Railway Cup to GAA fans. The big names are still around and will be for some time to come, but the halcyon days are over.
To compete with the multi-purpose formats on offer, apparently regular family cars have to move upmarket, to take a more premium position than competitors that offer a little more functionality for modern family life.
We first saw the early signs with the introduction of the Volkswagen Passat and since then, every follow-up saloon has more allure, more space and frankly more to offer than any of the preceding models.
The last big arrival was the Ford Mondeo. Now, coming in right after it, is the new Mazda6.
The timing could have been better. It's hard to wow the audience of a diminishing market with a car that will always play second fiddle to the Ford in terms of market penetration and media attention.
Yet Mazda is too busy revitalising the brand to be unduly pre-occupied about competition from its biggest shareholder, Ford. It wants to spread its "zoom-zoom" mantra to every corner of the motoring world.
The slogan was around when the first Mazda6 came out and, in many ways, its styling and ability suited the marketing theme. Unfortunately, it was the exception to the rule when you looked at the rest of Mazda's line-up. However, slowly but surely, the Japanese brand has revamped and re-engineered its offering.
Previously, it catered for two distinct markets: first, the motorist who bought solely on Mazda's rock solid record for reliability and build quality - Mazda having a reputation that many European car bosses would happily sacrifice their engineering team as crash tests dummies to attain. Second, it had its sporting pedigree, notably with the MX-5.
To marry the two, they opted to turn Mazda into a sporting family brand. That's easy when it comes to RX-8 and even the new CX-7. It's less so for the family car fleet, such as the Mazda5 and even the regular family car like this one under test.
So to the car itself - and like rivals it has got bigger inside and out, and its design has come a long way. The outgoing model always looked a little over-dressed. If light clusters are motoring jewellery, then it had a little too much bling for our taste.
This new model has got its accessories just right. The sporting stance makes it not only a fetching proposition, but gives it something extra in the family market: sporting looks. The lines are crisp and the body is better proportioned than the Mondeo or the Passat.
Inside, the Mazda6 loses nothing in the way of spaciousness over competitors and adds extra rear legroom and shoulder room. The big letdown for us was in the plastics. If these cars want to be taken more seriously as viable options for BMW buyers, then they need to revisit the cabins.
VW has done a good job with the Passat, Mondeo needs to rework its cheap shiny plastic central console and Mazda needs to source some soft-touch plastics and add a bit of colour. After all, more time will be spent inside than outside of the car, staring at the dash, wondering why this car cost so much when it seems like the plastics are no better than on your son's toy truck.
That said, there are some nice touches, including the new steering wheel controls on higher specification models that, once mastered, allow you to adjust everything from temperature to audio controls from an intuitive toggle on the steering wheel.
In terms of performance, all the engines on offer in Ireland have been brought forward from the current model range. Our test car was the 1.8-litre petrol, an engine well-suited to this model and particularly beneficial because of its relatively low carbon emission output. At 161g/km, it's not going to save the planet, but it's significantly better than the mid- 170g/km figures of most rivals.
Part of this success is down to yet more weight-saving. The brand won plenty of plaudits when it introduced the Mazda2, a car that bucked the bulk trend in the supermini market. Here, on a car that features a host of new equipment and larger bodyshell than its predecessor, Mazda has managed to shed 35kgs over the outgoing model. To pull that off was a stroke of genius.
On the road, the Mazda6 is lovely and smooth, if just a little lacking in the sort of feedback we would have hoped to find in a car that's marketed and designed with sporting traits in mind.
Yet, it fails to live up to our initial expectations. The 1.8-litre engine is perfectly suited to the car, and it has the best manual gearbox in the family car market. Then there's the fact that we know that this car will run for years without complaint.
What's missing is a little more of that "zoom-zoom" DNA. Perhaps Mazda has been overbilling the sports pedigree, or perhaps our recent drives in the likes of the CX-7 made us think that Mazda had some magic powder to turn every car it touches into fun. If so, then part of the blame falls at Mazda's marketing door and part at our over-eager imagination.
The Mazda6 is well equipped with 16-inch alloys, air conditioning, four electric windows, remote locking, heated electric mirrors, remote stereo controls and ESP as standard on the basic 1.8-litre Executive model.
The higher specification will appeal to buyers later in 2008, when a potential VRT saving is passed on to buyers. With a CO2 emissions figure of 161g/km, it's low enough to benefit from the lower 24 per cent rate, while many of its competitors will fall into the 28 per cent bracket.
Perhaps if it didn't come with the "zoom-zoom" strap, we would have fallen for the Mazda just a little more.
Given the brand's track record for reliability, it's hard to argue against it in terms of ownership and it's an automatic entry on our "must test" list of cars in this segment. If you're buying a family car then you need to take a test drive in this. It's just we were hoping for a little more.
The Mazda6 is a great contender and all it needs is a little tweaking. A better interior, a sharper ride and this could well be the sporting alternative in the family market. For now, if a fun drive is what you're after, it's still hard to pass on the Ford Mondeo.
Factfile
ENGINE:1798cc four-cylinder offering 118bhp @ 5,500rpm and 165Nm of torque @ 4,300rpm. Five-speed manual, front-wheel drive.
SPECIFICATION:ABS, EBD, brake assist, traction control system (TCS) and DSC standard for all models.
Executive: 16" alloy wheels, four electric windows, heated mirrors, air con, ESP, daytime running lights.
Executive SE: dual-zone climate control, cruise control, remote stereo controls, leather steering wheel, six-speed gearbox.
Sport: sport bodykit, 18" alloy wheels, front fog lights.
Sport SE: electrically folding mirrors, automatic lights and wipers, six-CD changer, Bluetooth.
Z-Sport: half-leather seats, electric driver's seat, Xenon headlamps, Bose stereo.
L/100KM (MPG):
Urban: 9.5 (27.7)
Extra urban: 5.2 (54.3)
Combined: 6.8 (41.5)
CO2 EMISSIONS:161 g/km
CURRENT VRT RATE:25 per cent
VRT RATE FROM JULY 1ST:24 per cent
PRICE:€29,995
4dr from €27,495 to €35,165
5dr from €27,995 to €39,495
Estate from €30,995 to €40,495