Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Cars
  3. Car News

Joyride: 2014 Mazda Mazda6 Grand Touring

By

Mazda’s design department hit the Mazda6 out of the park. Thankfully, the engineers weren’t far behind making it one of the only family cars with a soul.

The Mazda6 debuted to rave reviews, and on the surface it is easy to see why. The sleek sedan combines the looks of a high-end sports sedan with range-topping efficiency. Thanks to liberal use of quality materials and Mazda’s sensational Kodo design language, the Mazda6 stands out in a lineup of humdrum family cars like a bolt from the heavens. The picture isn’t quite that simple, though. The Mazda6 may be miles ahead of the competition in many ways, but it also has some big flaws.

Recommended Videos

Powertrain

The Mazda6’s biggest problem – by a country mile – is its powertrain. Currently, the Mazda6 has precisely one engine option: a 2.5-liter 184 horsepower SKYACTIV four-cylinder, which features direct injection. If this were the entry-level engine, it would be just fine, especially thanks to a class leading 26/38 mpg split.

The Mazda6’s biggest problem – by a country mile – is its powertrain.

This number can actually jump up to 28/40 with the use of the i-ELOOP system. For those not aware with this glob of vowels, it’s an interesting bit of gadgetry that uses a super capacitor charged by regenerative braking to run the electric accessories, reducing engine demand. It’s kind of like a hybrid system that uses normally wasted energy to power not the car but rather its other bits.

Unfortunately, even with the wizardry, 184 horsepower is just barely enough for the Mazda6. 0 to 60 takes a below-average 7.7 seconds and there are parts of the power band where the engine is simply dead. For the average driver, this may not be a problem. For anyone who wants to enjoy the car, the SKYACTIV powertrain is a definite wet blanket.

Mazda has been promising to release a 2.2-liter turbo diesel. Sadly, it’s been delayed more times than Duke Nukem, so we can’t count on it arriving any time soon.

Dynamics

The underwhelming power is an added shame because the Mazda6 is one of the best handling family sedans on the market.

Once I managed to coax the Mazda6 up to speed, I really enjoyed throwing it through the bends. For such a large car, it handles nimbly. Thanks to fast steering, the car changes direction quickly. And while there is a fair amount of body roll, the car is hard to catch out.

Don’t get me wrong; this is still more of a family car than a sports sedan. The steering may be precise, but it also lacks feedback, and the brakes are only adequate. At least these sacrifices aren’t for nothing, as the Mazda has a very quiet and comfortable ride. When compared to the prescription sleep aids that other automakers pass off as family sedans, the Mazda is a real treat.

Upscale everywhere

Even with the sensational handling, what really separates the Mazda6 from the competition is its upmarket character. That starts with the looks. Most midsize sedans look as though they were designed by people who cut their teeth designing toaster ovens, and moreover still really want to design them.

Mazda has made clever use of metal trim and contrast color stitching to give the car a very upscale feel.

Not so the Mazda6. It makes liberal, even scandalous, use of the brand’s Kodo design language. Kodo can be roughly translated as heartbeat, and the long sweeping hood and curvaceous hips are enough to get the heart beating even when the car is standing still. Normally, this kind of design is reserved for high-end sports cars, rather than family haulers that start at a mere $21,190. This means that the Mazda, particularly in blue and red, stands out.

In the $31,000 Grand Touring edition, the interior is similarly upscale. The most obvious features are big, classy leather-trimmed seats. But the interior quality goes beyond the seating. Mazda has made clever use of metal trim and contrast color stitching to give the car a very upscale feel.

The sheer number of features the buyer gets for $31,000 reinforces this up-scale feel. There is a complete suite of active and passive safety features, ranging from back-up camera and blind-spot monitoring to the always pleasant radar-guided active cruise control.

2015 Mazda Mazda 6 center console
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The only real downside is that the infotainment system is a bit outdated. Mazda’s latest offering, the Mazda3, comes with an all-new and very competitive system that we will be reviewing soon. In the Mazda6, however, the driver has to make do with a balky out-of-date setup. The worst part of this system is the TomTom navigation, which has a hard time finding the car’s location, constantly searches for signal, and has a really dreadful user interface.

The saving grace of the Mazda6’s infotainment is the clever little command wheel that complements the touchscreen. This handy control makes the system much easier to use, especially for drivers like me, with unreasonably long legs, that need to be miles away from the dash.

Conclusion

Even if the infotainment weren’t an unmitigated disaster, the Mazda6 would still be worth paying attention to. For the money, the Mazda delivers more character, luxury, and beauty than anything else in the midsize market. So for buyers who want to show some soul, it is an obvious choice.

That being said the Mazda6 isn’t perfect; both the powertrain and the infotainment are dying to be updated. These issues hold the car back from real greatness. Fortunately, though, both are fixable. Mazda already has a better infotainment system in the pipeline, and even if the diesel doesn’t pan out, it is hard to imagine that slapping a turbo on the SKYACTIV motor is beyond the company’s resources.

Until then, it is worth overlooking the Mazda6’s problems, because at least when driving it, the owner knows they have a soul.

Highs

  • Sleek sports sedan looks
  • Upscale interior
  • Value
  • Excellent handling for a family car

Lows

  • Outdated infotainment
  • Underwhelming powertrain
Peter Braun
Peter Braun
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Peter is a freelance contributor to Digital Trends and almost a lawyer. He has loved thinking, writing and talking about cars…
Audi halts vehicle deliveries to the U.S. as it mulls impact of tariffs
2021 Audi Q5

If you’d been thinking of buying an Audi, now might be the time.  The German brand, owned by the Volkswagen Group, has announced it would halt shipments to the U.S. in the wake of President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on all imported vehicles.
Audi is currently holding cars that arrived after the tariffs took effect, on April 3, in U.S. ports. But it still has around 37,000 vehicles in its U.S. inventory, which should be able to meet demand for about two months, according to Reuters.
Automakers on average hold enough cars to meet U.S. demand for about three months, according to Cox Automotive.
Audi should be particularly affected by the tariffs: The Q5, its best-selling model in the U.S., is produced in Mexico, while other models, such as the A3, A4, and A6 are produced in Germany.
Holding shipments is obviously a temporary measure to buy time for Audi and parent company Volkswagen. If tariffs stay in place, vehicle prices would likely have to go up accordingly, unless some production is shifted to the U.S. Volkswagen already has a plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is planning a new plant in South Carolina. That latter plant, however, isn’t expected to be operational until 2027 and is currently dedicated to building electric vehicles for VW’s Scout Motors brand.
Other global automakers have also taken drastic measures in response to Trump’s tariffs. Jaguar Land Rover on April 5 said it is pausing shipments of its its UK-made cars to the United States this month. The British sports-luxury vehicle maker noted that the U.S. market accounts for nearly a quarter of its global sales, led by the likes of Range Rover Sports, Defenders, and Jaguar F-PACE.
And on April 3, Nissan, the biggest Japanese vehicle exporter to the United States, announced it will stop taking new U.S. orders for two Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs, the QX50 and QX55.

Read more
Waymo faces questions about its use of onboard cameras for AI training, ads targeting
Two people exit a Waymo taxi.

In an iconic scene from the 2002 sci-fi film Minority Report, on-the-run Agent John Anderton, played by Tom Cruise, struggles to walk through a mall as he’s targeted by a multitude of personalized ads from the likes of Lexus, Guinness and American Express, everytime hidden detectors identify his eyes.
It was clearly meant as a warning about a not-so-desirable dystopian future.
Yet, 23 years later that future is at least partlially here in the online world and threatens to spread to other areas of daily life which are increasingly ‘connected’, such as the inside of cars. And the new testing grounds, according to online security researcher Jane Manchun Wong, might very well be automated-driving vehicles, such as Waymo’s robotaxis.
On X, Wong unveiled an unreleased version of Waymo’s privacy policy that suggests the California-based company is preparing to use data from its robotaxis, including interior cameras, to train generative AI models and to offer targetted ads.
“Waymo may share data to improve and analyze its functionality and to tailor products, services, ads, and offers to your interests,” the Waymo’s unreleased privacy statement reads. “You can opt out of sharing your information with third parties, unless it’s necessary to the functioning of the service.”
Asked for comments about the unreleased app update, Waymo told The Verge that it contained “placeholder text that doesn’t accurately reflect the feature’s purpose”.
Waymo’s AI-models “are not designed to use this data to identify individual people, and there are no plans to use this data for targeted ads,” spokesperson Julia Ilina said.
Waymo’s robotaxis, which are operating on the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin, do contain onboard cameras that monitor riders. But Ilina says these are mainly used to train AI models for safety, finding lost items, check that in-car rules are followed, and to improve the service.
The new feature is still under development and offers riders an opportunity to opt out of data collection, Ilina says.
But as we all get used to ads targeting based on everything that’s somehow connected to the web, it seems a once-distant vision of the future may be just around the corner.

Read more
Waymo’s driverless cars are about to begin an overseas adventure
Waymo Jaguar I-Pace

Waymo’s autonomous cars are about to appear on streets outside of the U.S. for the first time.

The company on Wednesday announced on social media that its autonomous cars will be driving onto the streets of Tokyo, Japan, “soon,” with some reports suggesting the rollout will begin as early as next week.

Read more