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113 Posts
Well, it's been one week since I got the car and thought I'd post how I feel about it and some pictures. I'll be comparing this to my 98 (non WS6) 6 speed Trans Am which was my only car until now, along with my friend's 03 automatic Protege LX which I've driven often and is a lot more comparable.
As far as options, I got the stainless steel door trim plates, oem all weather floor mats and trunk mat, 5 year 100k bumper-to-bumper (talked down to $2k), and a 5 year autobutler program for $550. The autobutler program has them wash your car every 6 months and put a hard clear coat on it. They don't guarantee against rock chips but they will fix any swirl marks, hazing, etc that happens during the 5 year timeframe - even if they have to repaint the car. They also clean out the interior (not that they'll need to), pressurize scotchguard into the carpet, and put a protective coating on the leather every 6 months, and guarantee all interior panels, carpet, and leather are stain and tear free etc or they'll replace the part. Considering I have the parchment interior, have a friend's muddy dog in the car often, plan on getting my own puppy, and have heard that this paint chips easily, $550 for all of the 5 year guarantees seemed like a no brainer. This dealership also gives you a lifetime of free oil and oil filter changes, state inspections, and that you'll have a properly working engine - all parts and labor included - with all of their new cars. I also never ran a front plate on the Trans Am in the 8 years I owned it and never got a ticket (or warning). Policemen apparently to only go after ricers with body kits that don't have them. My dealer would not sell the car without the front plate bolted on but the salesman was willing to drive me to North Carolina or Pennsylvania to pick up a 6 without one. In the end, I ended up settling with the manager her and they had their body specialist (who is only contracted, not employed by them) fill in and paint the holes. It looks perfect - better than if they were never there since there are no dimples. I forgot to take a close up of the front bumper but will add one another day.
Now, on to the reviewing and first is the good. For starters I'll never buy another car without radar cruise control (unless it's just a fun car like a SLC). Driving to work is a whole different experience with it - it makes following people that slow down for the turns on windy, single lane roads much less annoying which is half of my commute. I otherwise wouldn't have much of a chance to use cruise control. The High Beam Control is much better than expected as well. I always have my high beams set to on but they only come on when driving down roads without streetlights, when no cars are ahead, and when I'm going a decent speed. They shut off well before someone would be blinded, faster than I could react - especially while on turns. The LED headlights are very good too, especially compared to the halogen reflector housings in the above cars (I replaced the dim sealed beam housings with reflectors of the same shape). The radio also is better than I thought it would be. The woofers aren't very deep, even compared to my Trans Am's stock 6" woofers, but that's an easy replacement. A lot of people say centerpoint sucks but when testing it, I have to disagree. With it off, I only hear the speaker next to me and it feels like there's a concert in a sewer under me. With the centerpoint on, it feels like the music surrounds you and is a similar experience to wearing headphones, or listening to a concert in a room with proper acoustics. I also thought the HUD would be a gimmick that I'd end up disabling but it makes checking your speed much easier and helps keep your eyes on the road. It's also nice that it displays your set cruise speed and makes adjusting of it easier. I've seen some people complain that the cruise control doesn't keep the same exact speed and they say it's annoying seeing the speed change but it really is a good thing. My commute is quite hilly and if the engine and brakes worked to keep you at an exact mph, your gas mileage would suffer tremendously. The float style screen also is very nice for the same reason as the HUD - it makes looking at it and switching between folders/stations easy while in traffic. I'm sure all cars will have screens in this position in the future. The engine isn't exactly powerful, but the car is a lot faster than the Protege (or at least seems to be) and still gets much better mpg. The Dunlops also aren't bad at all - rain or shine (and I drove in a huge storm already). I sometimes can barely hear a deep hum on certain pavements with the radio off, but with quiet music that sound disappears. They are much louder on the 3 and probably were in the 14-15 model. The trunk all weather mat also looks very nice - much nicer than the cheap looking flooring without it. It does a very good job of keeping things from sliding around even when taking turns fairly quickly. You can put an extra large pizza back there without worrying about a mess when you get home.
Now for the bad parts (although nothing really is that bad). The Trans Am wasn't a "true sport car" since it wasn't designed mostly with a race track in mind, but its fenders flared up like one and I could easily see where the sides of the car ended. The Mazda's are the opposite so you can't see where the car ends - making adjusting to the car's size and parking by curbs much more difficult (especially with the nice 19s to worry about). Of course it would be ugly if they did flare up on this car, but it is a con for the driving aspect nonetheless. Then while I have no problems with the electric steering on this type of car, I wish it were a little tighter. I had to turn the steering wheel on the Trans Am much less for the same turns and your hands have to work a lot harder in parking lots with a lot of sharp turns, etc. It still isn't terrible though and is much better than most of the direct competition and isn't an annoyance. I also used to almost never slow down for turns in the Trans Am, which did have BMR racing springs, Bilstein shocks, and a 3 point tubular subframe connector. I never went around turns at speeds where the car leaned and I couldn't slam on the brakes if need be, yet now I'm going around the same turns at 60% the speed of the T/A and there still is a lot of leaning and there's no way I could slam the brakes even though they don't grip as well. I didn't expect it to be as good as the Trans Am at corners because it's a much more comfortable family sedan but I do wish it had a little less lean to it. I will say it's probably slightly worse at cornering than the Protege but it's a lot larger, a lot more comfortable, and brakes much better so overall it's a much better setup. Then there's the volume control of the radio. The command and volume knobs have a premium feel, but holding the volume buttons on the steering wheel does nothing. The volume steps are very small and having to rapidly press the button for 10 seconds to get it at a decently different volume is ridiculous. Because of this, I'm usually having to reach for the volume knob. Hopefully this is something that's fixed in an update. The other thing is there's no power outlets in the rear. This is a family sedan and often has kids (or in my case adults) in the back who would want to charge their phones/portable game systems - you'd think they would have found a place to put a couple. I'm going to look into either putting 2 under the rear vents or one on each door if I can find a place where I can make it look stock, and where there's room underneath the panels. People on here have complained about the system taking a long time to resume music. I've found that if you click the disclaimer once the car is started, it only takes a couple seconds to resume playing my music off of my flash drive, but it does not start loading that until the disclaimer is off the screen. To make it even worse, if you are in reverse, the backup camera shows up and the disclaimer then shows up once you are in drive making the wait even longer. Luckily, people have found a way to disable the disclaimer on the 3 and I probably could do the same thing to the 6 whenever I get a chance. The touch screen speed disable is equally stupid and sometimes it takes a lot more effort and time with eyes off the road to navigate than it would have if I could touch things. This also has been worked around for the 3 though. The engine has more low end grunt than the Protege but while the T/A could easily climb mountains near West Virginia going 60 in 6th gear without an issue (roads that trucks often get stuck on and fail to get up), the 6 very often has to shift down twice for small hills in my commute at 65. For my drive, having a slightly larger engine should have gotten me better mpg but most people aren't on as hilly roads and the shifts are smooth without being a problem in comfort. It's also my first car with XM and that isn't nearly as good quality as 320kbps mp3s - let alone m4as - and on a partly cloudy day, there fairly often are static skips in the music. USB works well at loading music off of the flash drive but the list shows the album covers as grayed out text within the list. I don't know who the hell thought graying them out instead of not displaying them was a good idea. I checked and Windows shows no photos eve when displaying hidden files so I'm not sure why they're showing up in the car and I haven't had time to bother looking into it any further. Also, I put a few folders on the drive at first and then added more and the 6 now shows the first ones I loaded in alphabetical order, then the next batch in alphabetical order. I'll have to look into deleting the USB's cache from the system somehow to fix this, which I assume is the culprit.
Overall I'm extremely satisfied with my purchase and don't really miss the Trans Am - the comforts and features (and mpg on regular gas) completely outweigh the loss in power and handling. There's a couple women at work that apparently always buy slightly used BMWs and Mercedes and they were raving over the 6's inner and outer appearance for a few days and kept saying they couldn't believe it's a Mazda. The illuminated grill and LED headlight/foglight combo turns heads at night too, and the car overall gets less bad attention. Any teenager in something faster than a minivan would always try to race me when I was just accelerating slowly in the Trans Am and be proud of their accomplishment, thinking they must have a fast car. People would even be driving by and surprisingly often slow down and try to get me to gun it and race them when there are cars 2-3 car lengths in front of us - I'd be into the car in front of me within a second with a pull from 50. It's something that really took the enjoyment out of having a sporty car. The Mazda 6 has more of a classy appearance and doesn't scream "race me!" to those kinds of people which is a welcome change.
Well, onto the pics. I took these right after putting on Optimum Car Wax which really made it shine, although it was a very cloudy day. The only mod I've done is the exhaust tips which are more detailed in this thread. I also have a chrome plate frame with a clear cover that has chrome caps over the screws and doesn't have the dealer name on it, but I'm waiting to install it when I get a specialty plate in. I'll go ahead and write out that it's blue reflex with the parchment interior in case someone uses the search function while looking for some photos.
As far as options, I got the stainless steel door trim plates, oem all weather floor mats and trunk mat, 5 year 100k bumper-to-bumper (talked down to $2k), and a 5 year autobutler program for $550. The autobutler program has them wash your car every 6 months and put a hard clear coat on it. They don't guarantee against rock chips but they will fix any swirl marks, hazing, etc that happens during the 5 year timeframe - even if they have to repaint the car. They also clean out the interior (not that they'll need to), pressurize scotchguard into the carpet, and put a protective coating on the leather every 6 months, and guarantee all interior panels, carpet, and leather are stain and tear free etc or they'll replace the part. Considering I have the parchment interior, have a friend's muddy dog in the car often, plan on getting my own puppy, and have heard that this paint chips easily, $550 for all of the 5 year guarantees seemed like a no brainer. This dealership also gives you a lifetime of free oil and oil filter changes, state inspections, and that you'll have a properly working engine - all parts and labor included - with all of their new cars. I also never ran a front plate on the Trans Am in the 8 years I owned it and never got a ticket (or warning). Policemen apparently to only go after ricers with body kits that don't have them. My dealer would not sell the car without the front plate bolted on but the salesman was willing to drive me to North Carolina or Pennsylvania to pick up a 6 without one. In the end, I ended up settling with the manager her and they had their body specialist (who is only contracted, not employed by them) fill in and paint the holes. It looks perfect - better than if they were never there since there are no dimples. I forgot to take a close up of the front bumper but will add one another day.
Now, on to the reviewing and first is the good. For starters I'll never buy another car without radar cruise control (unless it's just a fun car like a SLC). Driving to work is a whole different experience with it - it makes following people that slow down for the turns on windy, single lane roads much less annoying which is half of my commute. I otherwise wouldn't have much of a chance to use cruise control. The High Beam Control is much better than expected as well. I always have my high beams set to on but they only come on when driving down roads without streetlights, when no cars are ahead, and when I'm going a decent speed. They shut off well before someone would be blinded, faster than I could react - especially while on turns. The LED headlights are very good too, especially compared to the halogen reflector housings in the above cars (I replaced the dim sealed beam housings with reflectors of the same shape). The radio also is better than I thought it would be. The woofers aren't very deep, even compared to my Trans Am's stock 6" woofers, but that's an easy replacement. A lot of people say centerpoint sucks but when testing it, I have to disagree. With it off, I only hear the speaker next to me and it feels like there's a concert in a sewer under me. With the centerpoint on, it feels like the music surrounds you and is a similar experience to wearing headphones, or listening to a concert in a room with proper acoustics. I also thought the HUD would be a gimmick that I'd end up disabling but it makes checking your speed much easier and helps keep your eyes on the road. It's also nice that it displays your set cruise speed and makes adjusting of it easier. I've seen some people complain that the cruise control doesn't keep the same exact speed and they say it's annoying seeing the speed change but it really is a good thing. My commute is quite hilly and if the engine and brakes worked to keep you at an exact mph, your gas mileage would suffer tremendously. The float style screen also is very nice for the same reason as the HUD - it makes looking at it and switching between folders/stations easy while in traffic. I'm sure all cars will have screens in this position in the future. The engine isn't exactly powerful, but the car is a lot faster than the Protege (or at least seems to be) and still gets much better mpg. The Dunlops also aren't bad at all - rain or shine (and I drove in a huge storm already). I sometimes can barely hear a deep hum on certain pavements with the radio off, but with quiet music that sound disappears. They are much louder on the 3 and probably were in the 14-15 model. The trunk all weather mat also looks very nice - much nicer than the cheap looking flooring without it. It does a very good job of keeping things from sliding around even when taking turns fairly quickly. You can put an extra large pizza back there without worrying about a mess when you get home.
Now for the bad parts (although nothing really is that bad). The Trans Am wasn't a "true sport car" since it wasn't designed mostly with a race track in mind, but its fenders flared up like one and I could easily see where the sides of the car ended. The Mazda's are the opposite so you can't see where the car ends - making adjusting to the car's size and parking by curbs much more difficult (especially with the nice 19s to worry about). Of course it would be ugly if they did flare up on this car, but it is a con for the driving aspect nonetheless. Then while I have no problems with the electric steering on this type of car, I wish it were a little tighter. I had to turn the steering wheel on the Trans Am much less for the same turns and your hands have to work a lot harder in parking lots with a lot of sharp turns, etc. It still isn't terrible though and is much better than most of the direct competition and isn't an annoyance. I also used to almost never slow down for turns in the Trans Am, which did have BMR racing springs, Bilstein shocks, and a 3 point tubular subframe connector. I never went around turns at speeds where the car leaned and I couldn't slam on the brakes if need be, yet now I'm going around the same turns at 60% the speed of the T/A and there still is a lot of leaning and there's no way I could slam the brakes even though they don't grip as well. I didn't expect it to be as good as the Trans Am at corners because it's a much more comfortable family sedan but I do wish it had a little less lean to it. I will say it's probably slightly worse at cornering than the Protege but it's a lot larger, a lot more comfortable, and brakes much better so overall it's a much better setup. Then there's the volume control of the radio. The command and volume knobs have a premium feel, but holding the volume buttons on the steering wheel does nothing. The volume steps are very small and having to rapidly press the button for 10 seconds to get it at a decently different volume is ridiculous. Because of this, I'm usually having to reach for the volume knob. Hopefully this is something that's fixed in an update. The other thing is there's no power outlets in the rear. This is a family sedan and often has kids (or in my case adults) in the back who would want to charge their phones/portable game systems - you'd think they would have found a place to put a couple. I'm going to look into either putting 2 under the rear vents or one on each door if I can find a place where I can make it look stock, and where there's room underneath the panels. People on here have complained about the system taking a long time to resume music. I've found that if you click the disclaimer once the car is started, it only takes a couple seconds to resume playing my music off of my flash drive, but it does not start loading that until the disclaimer is off the screen. To make it even worse, if you are in reverse, the backup camera shows up and the disclaimer then shows up once you are in drive making the wait even longer. Luckily, people have found a way to disable the disclaimer on the 3 and I probably could do the same thing to the 6 whenever I get a chance. The touch screen speed disable is equally stupid and sometimes it takes a lot more effort and time with eyes off the road to navigate than it would have if I could touch things. This also has been worked around for the 3 though. The engine has more low end grunt than the Protege but while the T/A could easily climb mountains near West Virginia going 60 in 6th gear without an issue (roads that trucks often get stuck on and fail to get up), the 6 very often has to shift down twice for small hills in my commute at 65. For my drive, having a slightly larger engine should have gotten me better mpg but most people aren't on as hilly roads and the shifts are smooth without being a problem in comfort. It's also my first car with XM and that isn't nearly as good quality as 320kbps mp3s - let alone m4as - and on a partly cloudy day, there fairly often are static skips in the music. USB works well at loading music off of the flash drive but the list shows the album covers as grayed out text within the list. I don't know who the hell thought graying them out instead of not displaying them was a good idea. I checked and Windows shows no photos eve when displaying hidden files so I'm not sure why they're showing up in the car and I haven't had time to bother looking into it any further. Also, I put a few folders on the drive at first and then added more and the 6 now shows the first ones I loaded in alphabetical order, then the next batch in alphabetical order. I'll have to look into deleting the USB's cache from the system somehow to fix this, which I assume is the culprit.
Overall I'm extremely satisfied with my purchase and don't really miss the Trans Am - the comforts and features (and mpg on regular gas) completely outweigh the loss in power and handling. There's a couple women at work that apparently always buy slightly used BMWs and Mercedes and they were raving over the 6's inner and outer appearance for a few days and kept saying they couldn't believe it's a Mazda. The illuminated grill and LED headlight/foglight combo turns heads at night too, and the car overall gets less bad attention. Any teenager in something faster than a minivan would always try to race me when I was just accelerating slowly in the Trans Am and be proud of their accomplishment, thinking they must have a fast car. People would even be driving by and surprisingly often slow down and try to get me to gun it and race them when there are cars 2-3 car lengths in front of us - I'd be into the car in front of me within a second with a pull from 50. It's something that really took the enjoyment out of having a sporty car. The Mazda 6 has more of a classy appearance and doesn't scream "race me!" to those kinds of people which is a welcome change.
Well, onto the pics. I took these right after putting on Optimum Car Wax which really made it shine, although it was a very cloudy day. The only mod I've done is the exhaust tips which are more detailed in this thread. I also have a chrome plate frame with a clear cover that has chrome caps over the screws and doesn't have the dealer name on it, but I'm waiting to install it when I get a specialty plate in. I'll go ahead and write out that it's blue reflex with the parchment interior in case someone uses the search function while looking for some photos.
