Comparison Tests
From the June 2013 Issue of Car and Driver
TESTED
Driving a family sedan tells society that you’re toeing the line. It’s the responsible move, presumably one of many. Buying one is akin to getting a tattoo lasered off: You might be the same person afterward, but the edginess of youth and the dumb things you used to do are now painfully erased. In the ’50s, you would’ve been the man in the gray flannel suit. The French would call you bourgeois.
If anyone even notices. Nearly all family sedans are vehicular camouflage, a way to disappear into the crowd. But in this segment that projects so much sameness, the new Mazda 6 draws long, involuntary stares.
We caught ourselves eyeing it quite a bit. Sure it’s gray flannel, but it appears to have been tailored in Milan. That’s Milan, Italy, not Milan, Michigan. The stamping looks expensive, the detailing is exquisite, and the 19-inch wheels fill the fenders completely. And yet Mazda sells the 6 at Men’s Wearhouse prices.
Newness goes deeper than the tautly drawn skin. Entirely redesigned for 2014, the 6 is all Mazda. Previous versions were born of the long affair between Mazda and Ford and were assembled in Flat Rock, Michigan, on a line that once churned out Probes and MX-6s. With Ford and Mazda now sleeping in separate beds, Mazda moved production to Japan and started over.
Built on a new platform, the 6 is lighter, structurally stiffer, and rides on a 1.6-inch-longer wheelbase than its predecessor. A fuel-efficient 184-hp 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine drives every 6 now, the V-6 having been taken off the option sheet. As you’d expect from the Miata company, a manual is available, but we opted here for the far more mainstream six-speed automatic.
No conversation involving automotive cubicles is complete without the boss, the Honda Accord. New for 2013, it is the quintessential family sedan, refined, spacious, and practical. The latest Accord has vanquished every mid-size foe it has faced so far and landed—for the 27th time—on our 10Best list.
For this round, we brought together loaded four-cylinder versions of the Accord and 6. As the highest trim level available with Honda’s 2.4-liter four-cylinder, the CVT-equipped Accord EX-L features leather, collision and lane-departure warnings, navigation, and the novel blind-spot camera for $30,785. Up on Mazda’s top shelf is the 6 Grand Touring. Available exclusively with a six-speed automatic, our $31,490 6 arrived equipped almost identically as the Accord, with the exception of its optional automatic cruise control.
With only two cars in this test, if you’re not first, you’re last.
Many will enter, few will win. It took three comparos to arrive at our final mid-size champ.
