Mazda unveiled the new generation of the Mazda6 mid-size sedan at 2010 Geneva Motor Show back in March, and now as the car prepares for its European market launch they’ve released full details of the sedan and wagon versions. Following the Zoom-Zoom tradition, new Mazda6 received a facelift and comes with a fresh look inside and out, plus new enhanced equipments and tweaked powertrains.
As for the design, the 2010 Mazda6 gets newly-designed headlamps , and an upper grille with a new winged Mazda logo, plus new fog lamps bezels. There’s also restyled rear lights, a combination of clear lenses and LEDs, with chrome- plated winged decorations. Mazda6 facelift also gets stylish new 17- and 18-inch aluminium wheels, and 10 body colours for you to choose form.
The interior of the new Mazda6 has the same atmosphere as before, superb quality, nice design, and luxuriousness. The cosmetic changes here include chrome detailing with piano-black panelling on climate control and audio dials, parking brake knob and the inner door handles. Sports grade models also get silver-hairline finish in full-gloss look. And you also get the new brown leather upholstery option.
The new model has also become more practical and you get lots of new storage spaces. Karakuri rear seat functionality is still onboard that automatically folds the 60/40 rear seats down by pulling on a latch in the boot side trim panel (Hatchback and Wagon), and there is a Karakuri tonneau cover that automatically moves up and down with the wagon liftgate.
Mazda6 has one of the widest boot openings (1,066 mm , for the wagon) and one of the widest boot floors in its segment (1,146 mm). Boot volume with all seats up is between 510 litres (hatchback) and 519 litres (wagon/sedan), which is big enough for the suitcases of five adults. And the Mazda6 wagon and hatchback can even transport more, if need be. With the rear seats down, the wagon and hatchback have a load floor length of 1,926 and 1,879 mm respectively, and a load volume of 1,702 and 1,751 litres (floor-to-ceiling).
The facelift model has been upgraded with a newly-evolved human-machine interface system (HMI), now with instruments that are easier to use. The numbers in the driver instrumentation are larger and the ambient temperature indicator is no longer in the driver cluster, but in the centre display where the front passenger can also read it.
Like its siblings, the Mazda 6 has always been a nice car to drive and the 2010 version won’t disappoint as well. In fact they say that the ride quality is improved significantly in the new model thanks to the new suspension components. The high-mount double wishbone front suspension gets new front stabilizer bushes with a lower spring constant. The multi-link rear suspension now has new hub mounting bolts that are more rigid than before, which helps make the rear more stable during steering operations.
The 2010 Mazda6 facelift also gets more efficient engines including MZR 2.0 DISI petrol, a newly-reined MZR 2.2 turbo diesel in three derivatives and single-nano technology catalysts for all petrol engines, plus MZR 1.8 and top of the line MZR 2.5 petrol units. It is also loaded with active and passive safety features such as New Swivel-Type Adaptive Front Lighting System (AFS) with Bi-Xenon Headlamps , New Hill Launch Assist (HLA) Function, and Emergency Stop Signal (ESS).
