If you flip back to the December 2013 issue and the start of our Mazda6's long-term loan, you'll see that our initial plan was to spend six months in the mid-grade, 6 i Touring model, equipped with a six-speed manual transmission, before switching to the higher trim Grand Touring model with a six-speed automatic transmission and more premium goodies -- including, we hoped, Mazda's new Skyactiv diesel.
The second part of this plan never materialized, because while Mazda has had tremendous success racing its diesel-powered Mazda6 in IMSA's Grand Am series (where it won the GX-class championship), it has yet to bring the production Skyactiv-D diesel engine to the U.S. in anything other than race cars. We didn't let this minor hiccup slow us down; we soldiered on quite happily with the manual Mazda6 and piled on a respectable 24,316 miles before turning it back in.
Over those miles, the '6 returned 28.1 miles per gallon and 29.0 on our Real MPG combined city/highway cycle. Both are pretty good, considering the EPA estimates 29 mpg on the combined cycle and our vehicle spent the majority of its time sprinting around the cities of El Segundo, Redondo Beach, and Manhattan Beach -- usually with a surfboard wedged inside its capacious trunk. In terms of wear and tear, the '6 never missed a beat; any damage to it or our wallets was editor-inflicted. We accidentally skipped the first of three recommended oil changes, but the '6 demonstrated no ill effects. We mangled a front strut bearing with a racetrack shunt, but one day and $184.53 later, she was not just as good as new, she was as good as boring.
Unless you're a vintage car collector, boring is exactly what you deserve in the new vehicle ownership experience. Who needs the thrill of calling your local tow-truck operator or the excitement of a recall notice? We don't, and thankfully never had to experience either, though Mazda6s built between October 25, 2012, and May 9, 2013, were subject to Mazda recall number 7414D covering a fuel tank issue. This isn't to say driving the Mazda6 was boring -- far from it. In fact, we say it's impossible to find another, similarly equipped family sedan as fun to drive as the Mazda6 -- primarily because there are so few remaining available with a manual transmission. (No family-sedan manual is better than the '6's.) And rowing your own is just part of the picture. But we've spent many updates praising the tossable nature of the '6; it's time for you hear about it from somebody else.
We don't often learn what happens to one of our long-term vehicles after it leaves our garage, but in the case of the Mazda6 i Touring, we know exactly what happened: It came back to our company parking lot, with our friendly IT guy, Will Sheppard, behind the wheel. We asked him a few questions:
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