I literally picked up a 2018 Signature with 10k miles for 23,000 TODAY and has 7 year limited warranty - they are a steal right now and coming off my 2017 it is so much better! Went to the tint shop straight from the dealer - Mica Blue with Chestnut interior - wanted parchment but it was in Kansas and Georgia - I can't wait for the 2022 inline 6 RWD!!! Zoom Zoom - Go Mazda

 

My 2018 Signature experience was a bit different than everyone else's but I did find some common issues in the two years I owned it.

It was the best highway cruiser.

I found when I drove it aggressively is when some of the issues popped up. This generation is more softly sprung than pre-2018s so, as told by Mazda Canada, it tends to bottom out easily (even entering driveways made it bottom out) and makes awful noises when doing so (see my knock noise thread)...EVERY 2018 Mazda6 I drove did this noise...so you may want to look into that a bit more. Some members on here didn't observe this in their cars but all of the ones I drove did it.
The engine doesn't like to rev, so think of the turbo 2.5 as a truck/suv engine in a car. The torque is addictive and that's what makes it such a great highway car...but the engine runs out of steam when you start approaching 5k rpm and it prefers to shift at 5500rpm. I found the fuel mileage was pretty impressive for it having so much power.

The interior was gorgeous and I found it very comfortable. I had some interior (and engine) squeaks pop up over the years I owned it but the interior was taken apart when I had the Apple Car Play upgrade installed (if that's important to you, the 19s came with it in the higher trims, 2018s had it factory installed later in that year). The CarPlay/Android Auto really does make a huge different in the audio system ease of use. The stereo system is impressive as well. Oh yeah, the metal-looking painted plastic trim pieces in the seat backs break easily, so beware and replacing them is a bit of a nightmare.

I ended up trading the car for a '20 CX5 Signature as there were very serious engine issues that occurred this winter in my 6 (new engine required, fuel leaks, PCM failure, etc...) but I would say I was just unlucky as others didn't seem to have those type of issues. With that being said, the dealer I purchase my vehicles from have had another 2.5 turbo (cx9) with the same dead cylinder issue which needed an entire engine replacement like my 6 did and I have been in discussions with a CX5 owner who had to replace the engine in his brand new cx5 as it suffered from the same issue. In all cases the compression is down significantly in one cylinder. So that's three turbo engines I know of needing replacement. The CX5 owner noticed the engine issue months after buying it brand new.

Best of luck in your search!

 

WTF does "covid" have to do with moving?

 

Well, I moved pretty much the day NC locked down to SC which locked down at the same time. I had to grab what I could and hope things returned to normal. The normal services available when moving were nowhere to be found. The pandemic has my current business backlogged for orders for what feels like years, running machines at 110% capacity with a skeleton crew of maintenance. Things break, my job is to ensure orders go out the door so I work until that happens.

What that means is I’m several hundred miles from my house in NC, unable to rustle up movers and very much unable to take time off to do any real moving myself. I’ve worked close to 2 months straight with one Sunday off. I’m stuck, need/want some quality wheels to keep miles off my expensive to maintain “toy”.

 

Oh, i thought you were implying the lock down prevented you from freely moving about the country like the Constitution allows.

 

I won’t lie, it FELT like I was not allowed to move about freely. It’s getting better tho.

 

Welcome to the forum. Did your company make medical filters before the pandemic or did you move into a new product line to fill the need?

While you can find problems with any brand, Mazdas have been extremely reliable for the past decade or two. They also have great driving dynamics and I bet you wenjoy the ride. I find them to be a less expensive and more reliable alternative to a BMW.

Drive the Mazda6 and the Mazda3. The third generation 3 (2014 to 2018) is slightly smaller and has a slightly sportier drive.

By the way, my first new car was a 86 B2000. The perfect size truck.

 

The filters we make were in production prior to the COVID crisis. I was brought in to relieve pressure for the plant manager. Basically remove stuff from his plate and make it mine. When the orders ramped for the medical stuff I suddenly became the czar of “keep it running”. Deferred maintenance has made that a 24/7 job.

Like I mentioned in first post I’ve considered the Audi/BMW/Merc route but I already have a German money pit and I want a dynamically good car for back and forth to work. Something that won’t lull me to sleep when I’m going on 20 hours of uptime. I’ve had Mazda products before and like them. My Miata has been a trooper, even with a turbo in the mix.

I’ll test drive one soon I hope, figure out if it’s going to be what I’m looking for.

 

In May of 2019 I purchased a 2018 Mazda6 Signature (Red with Chestnut leather) For $27k. The car was a CPO, adding one year to the factory warranty, flawless condition with only 6,000 miles on it. So far, no problems what so ever.
Coming from a BMW e39 540i/6 M-tech, (I also have a Miata) I was underwhelmed by the car’s handling. I knew that I would miss the seductive power and torque of the big BMW V8, but hoped the handling would be acceptable. Once I found that the tires were the same all-season ones they use on their SUVs, I swapped them out for Michelin high performance summer tires (PS4s). It is like a different car! All in all, one year on I’m very happy with my purchase and don’t miss the high maintenance cost and work that comes with BMW ownership. (Though I still miss just a bit of the performance)