The joy of six

AFTER confessing that the past few years had been pretty disastrous for their image, with sales down and new cars not particularly well received, Mazda this week announced to the world's motoring press that this was about to change.

Its saviour is to be the Mazda6, a fine-looking car offering a wide choice of engines and interior looks, as well as at prices that should be welcomed by dealers and customers alike.

That Mazda's European and United Kingdom bosses see the new car as make or break time is refreshingly honest. At the car's unveiling, in Rome, they did not actually hang their heads in shame at the bad times of the past, but did admit that they had just gone through their worst patch since the company's first car launch 82 years ago.

Nigel Brackenby, overlord of operations for the United Kingdom, Ireland and southern Europe, was the first to come clean.

"For a time we really lost our grasp of Mazda's identity. We moved to what we thought was safe territory and tried to compete with mainstream manufacturers (with the 626, 323 and Ford Fiesta-based 321 for example). It was not a winning formula. Now we are returning to our roots, back to our natural position of producing cars that will once more highlight our core values."

A clear reference to the magnificent MX5 sports car which has entered the Guinness Book of Records as the world's best selling two-seater.

Then it was the turn of James Muir, managing director for the United Kingdom, who added that "Mazda in the UK got into a pretty sorry state" with sales at an all-time low. However, Mazda's new strategy would lead to a dramatic revival of fortunes, he said.

The first of the new breed is the Mazda6, a highly-specified family of saloons, hatchbacks and estates, riding on a new platform and with an overall design which Mazda's brand manager described as a "Look at me" design and "Motion in motion".

The new car also arrives to an all-singing and all-dancing marketing musical drive with the catchy title Zoom-Zoom, one that is likely to dominate television and cinema advertising slots and get you jigging about in the seats, if not the aisles.

Although only the saloon versions of the car were available for test driving (and these in pre-production mode, too, so were not all refined), they did offer the chance to try out three new petrol engines, as well as two new gearboxes, one manual the other automatic.

The engines have been built by Mazda who, as members of the Ford family, are providing the test-bedding for new engines which are also destined for the blue badged models as well as likely to drive Volvos and possibly Land Rovers, also family members.

A five-speed Actimatic transmission, providing a clutchless manual gear change will be on the scene later, as will two diesel engines, both 2.0-litre but with different power levels.

The ride levels are the better side of comfortable with the 2.3-litre a superior mover to the 2.0-litre. A very short sprint in the 1.8-litre did not do enough to offer real judgement, although a colleague who had the good fortune to take it on a much longer test drive gave it full marks all-round.

A fairly mild criticism is that on motorway driving a higher fifth gear would have been handy (or even the chance to move into sixth) because the engine buzzy noise gave the impression that another gear change was necessary.

There is plenty of cabin room, even in the back, where the seats in the estate and hatchback versions can be lowered flat without the need to remove the headrests, by a one-movement lever in the side of the boot.

However, I reckon Mazda has missed the plot by not going all-out to provide an eye-catching dashboard: compared with the revolutionary Nissan Primera, the smart Renault Laguna, Mazda's is old-hat blandness. Nonetheless all the essentials are handily placed, functional and adequate enough for the job, with switches for air conditioning and navigation systems housed in the centre console where the front seat passenger can also operate them..

There are plenty of storage trays in the dashboard, centre console and doors as well as a sunglasses case, cup holders and bottle holders.

Design features of the Mazda6 certainly lean towards the sporting. The front end is dominated by the aggressively smiling five-point grille, while profile looks emphasise the steeply raked windscreen, and a slightly crouching stance with flared wheel arches. The rear view is dominated by the clear glass tail lights, designed to match those at the front, and wrapped slightly around the corners.

There are four specification levels with the £13,495 entry-level S offering driver and passenger airbags, side airbags, roof airbags , as well as head restraints and front seat height adjustment. Windows are all powered and the door mirrors are electric and heated. The wheels are alloy, and there is a full-size spare wheel rather than a skinny get-u-home speed restricted replacement.

The TS specification, with prices between £14,494 and £15,995, additionally offers an audio upgrade, arm rests, driver's seat lumbar support,

cruise control, and leather trimmed

steering wheel with audio controls. The next grade TS, priced £16,495 and £17,495, features a wonderfully-sounding Bose audio system, sunroof, six disc CD player, and the chance to spend another £1,000 on leather seating or another £1,500 for a satellite navigation system.

Finally the £17,995 Sport carries a rear spoiler, Xenon headlights and metallic paint finish.

Although Mazda did drop such popular models as the Xedos range, it was sensible enough to recognise that it had a best seller in the MX5, a car which has dominated the world's two-seater market.

Looking ahead, year end total sales for the MX5, 323 range and Mazda6, are aimed at 27,000. This is still 7,000 short of the 1997 figure, but well up on last year's 15,800.

Mazda6 saloons and hatchbacks go on sale in a couple of months, with sportswagon estates and diesel versions arriving in September. An all-wheel drive sportswagon is scheduled for November.

To promote sales, more than £22 million has been set aside this year for marketing, advertising and publicity, and this is destined to rise to £28.5 next year. During this time the dealer network is also to be increased.

Overall, a few tweaks and minor adjustments before going into full-production mode, should eventually see the Mazda6 nosing its way into the best-selling charts, although probably not ahead of the new Vauxhall Vectra which is likely to be its closest competitor even though at £14,645 it is more than £1,200 extra.

Fact file:

Model: Mazda6 saloon

Price: £13,495

Dimensions: length 4680mm, height 1435mm, width 1780mm, wheelbase 2675mm.

Boot space: Overall width 1410mm (four-door model), 1355mm (five-door); length with seatback up 1080mm and 1063mm. Volume: 500litres (four-door), 492-litres (five-door).

Engines: In-line, four cylinders dohc, 16-valve (1798cc) for 1.8-litre L and (1999cc) 2.0-litre L; 2.3-litre L (2261cc) with added sequential valve timing (SV-T). All electronic petrol injected.

Maximum power: 1.8-litre 120bhp at 5500rpm; 2.0-litre 141bhp at 6000rpm; 2.3-ligtre 166bhp at 6500rpm.

Maximum torque: 1.8-litre 165Nm at 43oorpm; 2.0-litre 181Nm at 4100rpm; 2.3-litre 207Nm at 4000rpm.

Performance: 0-62mph 10.7-secs/9.7-secs (auto 11.1-secs/8.8-secs).

Emissions: All Euro IV, 1.8-litre 198g/km; 2.0-litre 203g/km (automatic 209g/km); 2.3-litre 211g/km.

Economy: 1.8-litre urban 24.1mpg/extra urban 44.8mpg/combined 34mpg; 2.0litre manual 24/44.8/33/2. Automatic 23.7/40.9/32.1. 2.3-litre 23.2/40.4/31.7.

Transmission: Five speed manual or four-speed automatic.

Suspension: Front independent, double wishbone; rear independent , E-type multi-link.

Braking: Hydraulic twin circuit, disk all-round, ABS (anti-lock), electronic brake force distribution.

Steering: Power assisted rack and pinion.

Updated: 16:41 Thursday, March 28, 2002