Smart And Spacious
by David Finlay (24 Jun 08)

This is one of the most recent additions to a range which, as a whole, is itself quite new to the UK. The second-generation Mazda6 was launched here late last year, and it wasn't until March 2008 that the estate arrived.

Although you wouldn't mistake them for anything else, I think that the saloon and hatchback versions of the new 6 are a little less distinctive than their predecessors, but the estate is a handsome piece of work, particularly in Sport form as tested here. That's because the Sport is the only model in the range to be fitted as standard with the Appearance Pack, which consists of side skirts, a rear spoiler and modified front and rear bumpers.

The Appearance Pack is fairly subtle, as these things go, but it's enough to sharpen up the car's looks. The test car's deep metallic blue paintwork didn't hurt either, as I hope you'll agree.

There's nothing about the pleasing lines which harms the estate's practicality. With the rear seat in place, it can carry 519 litres' worth of luggage; fold the seat flat and you get 1751 litres, or 49 litres more than the 6 hatchback offers in the same configuration. These are not category-leading figures (the Vauxhall Vectra estate, for example, beats the Mazda on both counts) but they're way ahead of the class average.

Another point of particular note about the test car is that it uses the new 2.5-litre petrol engine. This replaces the previous 2.3-litre unit, but for various reasons (including the fact that the new 6, though larger than the previous model, is also lighter) it has better fuel economy, at 34.4mpg combined, and lower CO2 emissions, at 192g/km.

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