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Plenty of Zoom: The 2010 Mazda 6

In the world of mid-sized family sedans, the 2010 Mazda 6 is a stand-out in styling, room and handling. This no plain-vanilla wallflower “sensible shoes” car. It’s sharp, roomy and big on luxury touches – and it’s got zoom

By CANDICE MERRILL
Published: Monday, September 28, 2009 | 6:02 PM

Powering around twisty, winding streets in San Marino and up San Rafael Avenue, there’s no forgetting that V6 is there for you — reliably stalwart, dishing out power when needed and maintaining a good steady ride at freeway speeds when I cruised onto the 210. For a “family car,” this car is an unexpectedly fun drive.

Much as we appreciated the Mazda 6’s brawn, its beauty won us over, too. The exterior is sporty with some standout inspirations like the chrome double exhaust vents, 18” alloy wheels, and fog lights. It’s sized bigger than previous year’s renditions, too. The 6’s curvaceous sporty references no doubt are influences of Mazda’s RX sports car series, and the 6 is better for it.

There is plenty of seating room for 5 adults (so long as said adults are not built like linebackers) and it has an impressively roomy trunk. The interior is sporty with leather trimmed seats (they heat nicely, too – unfortunately it was 100 degrees outside when I discovered I had accidentally turned them on), a Bose stereo system, and keyless ignition (although its location on the console instead of the steering wheel kept throwing me). The whimsical Zoom Zoom displays when the car is started.

The cabin of the Grand Touring version is pretty darn to close a luxury-level sedan. This is a family vehicle with class and comfort.

A great extra I really appreciated is the blind spot monitoring system which comes standard on the Grand Touring models. It alerts you to cars in your blind spot with sound and with a lit up picture of a car in the side mirrors – really nice if you’re on the freeway about to make your move.

Safety-wise, the Mazda 6 is equipped with standard dual front airbags, side air bags and side air curtains. It also includes latch child safety seat anchors for the little ones.

At a base price of $28,000+ MSRP and $33,000+ for the extras like keyless entry, auto on/off headlights, satellite radio and heated auto dimming outer mirrors, it sits firmly in the mid-price range of other cars in its class.

About the only thing I didn’t like about the Mazda 6 is its gas mileage. The estimated 17 miles city and 25 miles highway is nothing to crow about, in spite the car’s other driveworthy features.

All in all, this car’s performance, sportiness and quality are exciting. Mazda’s done the “family car” right in the 2010 Mazda 6.

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