Thought I'd start a thread on the new motor.

 

Mine is used, 1 owner 9k on the clock.

 

Exterior - Well its the outside, it's up to you if you like it or not. I think it's actually not bad. Mazda's styling has been pretty decent recently, the 6 is a handsome car as well.

The SE has 16" alloys, and a relatively narrow/tall profile (these days) 205/60. Tyres are cheap. I drove the sport with 18" wheels and I didn't really notice any difference over ride or road noise.

 

I actually think the saloon is better looking than the hatch but the boot opening is narrow and I need the practicality.

 

Interior - quite surprised at the quality of the interior. The materials are very good, all soft touch plastics. Witha  few minor exceptions what looks like metal in the cabin is metal. Storage is limited. Previous car was a Honda Accord which is much bigger and had a lot of little cubby holes. Steering wheel and gearknob are leather.

If you takes it's peers to be cars like the Nissan Qashqai then the interior is significantly better. In laws thought it was on a par with their Audi and were questioning whether another Audi was worth the extra.

 

SE has a large central speedo left and right are digital screens. Left is the rev counter, right is the multifunction OBC display. Wheel has controls for cruise, ICE and phone and is reach /  rake adjustable.

 

Real handbrake. Beside the handbrake are another set of ICE controls. A buit like the BMW system. Large knurled wheel to select and a couple of buttons surrounding it. Second smaller knurled wheel for volume. These controls are actually ok, I use them quite a lot because I'm fingerprint phobic.

 

Which leads to.. the NAV models have a 7" touch screen in the middle of the dash. It controls the ICE, phone and navigation. It works ok, it's resistive so no heavy prodding but it isn't oleophobic like good phone screens so it shows every fingerprint. Also the screen is set square on which means it's positioned slightly badly for everyone. Would have been better to put a 15deg tilt on it towards the driver or better still let it turn a bit to suit.

 

The ICE...I have no idea who made that system. It is far harder than it should be to the point where I'm not really sure how it works. You can use the steering wheel controls the second set by the handbrake or the screen or voice controls. But you can't do every function with every control.

The radio (DAB on 2016 models) scans for stations and puts them in a list, you can then add them to a favourites list (up here there are only 6 or so stations anyway), flicking between them I still have no idea if it's going from favourite to favourite or scanning between, the order it picks them in is really weird. Also it doesn't seem very keen to rescan when you move area.
I also us a USB stick for digital music, the car is very good for this in that it has 2 USB slots and can cope with most digital formats including OGG (might be good if you have the Bose option). However I have no idea how to select USB other than through the voice commands. Which can be hard with a small person in the back seat that can give a running commentary in the car for hours without break.

 

If you have a generous data contract you can stream music to the car.

 

The sat nav has it's quirks but generally works ok. Mine needs an update as it has the wrong speed limits on some roads I use. You can update manually with an online account with Mazda. It does take some weird routes but I think that may have been how I've had it set (fastest/shortest route etc), it's been a bit less odd recently. It can get live traffic updates via your phone but that is an optional subscription. Nav updates are included for the first 3yr of the car. Don't know how much they are after. Not cheap I imagine.

 

Seats are ok. I'd say on a par with my old Mk2 VRS. I have the cloth seats, lumbar support bit lax and the seats feel a bit hard and flat but not uncomfortable, a bit like golfs of old. SE-L has heated seats which is an oddity on cloth. They are very hot indeed.

 

Plenty of space in the back seat, armrest in there too.

 

Visibility not great in the car. Usual thick pillars for safety which do get in the way at junctions. Wing mirrors are set quite far back, seems to irritate some people.

 

No scuff plates at the doors and they are showing some damage to the paint already. Options from the dealer.

 

Keyless startup, which I'm still struggling to get used to. Open the car with the remote and stick the key back in your pocket. I'm still looking for the keyhole every time.

 

On the road -

 

The engine is probably what you're paying for in this model. The 2.2d is a twin turbo with 150ps and 280ft/lbs. Turbos are sequential so no lag at all at low revs and no noticeable switch from the small to the big one. Plenty of poke for overtaking. It really is considerably faster than the Accord with the same hp.

 

Father in law thought the car was petrol. engine is very quiet with no diesel clatter. Quite quite outside as well.

 

Euro 6 without adblue.

 

Road handling is fine, it's no hot hatch but you can hustle it alone well enough. Maybe the 18" alloys would come in there. Suspension is quite stiff but not crashing, you do feel the bumps in the road but they don't rattle your fillings. I've heard great things about the gearshift being very MX5 ish, not sure about that, it's light but maybe a bit notchy when cold. Accord had a lovely precise mechanical feel to the gears, the Mazda doesn't.

 

Road noise a weak point. It is quite loud even with the deep 60 profile tyres. Definitely lacking sound proofing at the rear.

 

Rear parking sensors only you need the Sport if you want fronts.
I don't have the safety pack so can't comment on lane warnings etc. All have the city safety braking, below 19mph the car should detect if you are approaching a queue of stationary traffic and apply the brakes. Possibly this should be called the perving safety.

 

Start stop system works well enough.

 

No spare just a can of gunk. But it does have space for a spacesaver. It's £400 but I'll be getting one.

 

Paper mpg is a work of fiction. Stated figure is 68.9mpg combined average. Last fill up I worked out I got 49mpg. OCB said 50mpg so at least it's honest there. I've managed to beat the paper figures in just about every car I've owned so that's quite telling here with this being nearly 30% off. Even if the cars is still tight it'll never get close to 70. I'd guess ther car will do mid 50s for most people.

 

Good -

Price (used) was considerably lower than peers

Fit and finish inside and out

Spec

Performance

 

Bad -

MPG (vs publicised figures)

Visibility

ICE controls

No spare

 

Oh and the tank is little which is a PITA. 400mi to a tank.

 

Used to get nearly 800mi from a tank on the Accord doing similar mpg.