Wow this article doesn't reflect my own experience and gives a pretty negative image of this car. I haven't had any differential noise or reliability issue. I finally experienced the sudden lack of power twice just lately with 93 octane fuel. Some people had posted here negative opinions of the intercooler design that are completely unsupported: I didn't experience any lost of power in +36-37 deg.C ambient temperature while the underhood temp was higher, up to 42 deg.C...
As I mentioned before, my only disappointment is with the clutch feel. I never heard Mazda was replacing clutches to address customer concerns. I am giving Mazda a chance to come up with their own improvement before I attempt the clutch adjustment procedure that is circulating on Mazda forums (if they don't offer me to replace it next time I'll bring it for regular maintenance).
Subaru Legacy GT is not in the same league of the Speed6 IMO. Only the 2007 SpecB version (not the 2006MY) is somewhat competitive but at a much higher price . I didn't buy the Speed6 for its expected reliability records based on the experience we have with our Mazda6 GT V6 (just like I wouldn't buy a 3 Series expecting it to be trouble free either...
) But I do hope it's Japanese origin will fare better in the long run than the US one (other Mazda6s)...
