Mazda 6 1.8 TS

Road Test

Your Say

Test date 16 January 2008 Price as tested £16,110

For Cabin design, sharp handling, cruising refinement, value for money

AgainstThrottle response, sloping boot floor, hard to read LCD graphics

We’ve had upper-medium Mazdas for many years in the UK, beginning with the ultra-pretty, Bertone-styled, rear-wheel-drive Luce in the 1970s and followed by the 626/Montrose.

Four generations of front-wheel-drive 626s, each less visually memorable than the last, continued the line until 2002 and the launch of the previous Mazda 6 as the first of the ‘new generation’ Mazdas. But the Mazda 6, which promised much with its crisp looks and ‘zoom-zoom’ marketing, lacked the polish it needed to compete with its best rivals. Now there’s a new model, derived from the old one but slightly bigger all round, as is usually the way with new upper-medium cars.

So far, so predictable. But despite the new car’s extra size it manages to weigh around 35kg less (depending on model) than the old one. Its engines are claimed to be more fuel-efficient, too, so like the Mazda 2 before it, the new 6 is heading in the right direction for these carbon-conscious times.

Mazda would like this car to be considered in the same sentence as an Audi or a BMW. That’s not going to happen while buyers remain slaves to brand snobbery, but the new 6 makes a decent fist of premium pretensions just as its stablemate in the Ford empire, the Mondeo, does.

This test of the 1.8-litre hatchback, with the entry-level engine and the second-lowest of five trim levels, might make interesting reading for Mazda’s Ford colleagues.