I tagged along with a friend to look at the Mazda6 GT.
I've got to say first off that Mazda had better step up on their sales training. The salesdud proceeded to drive us around on what he referred to as the "Mazda Experience" test loop. He said the route was "dictated by Mazda Canada", as if Mazda Canada has a VP of Routes. He did panic braking, emergency lane changes, banged over rough roads for a half hour before my buddy had the chance to drive. We were both ticked off. If it was my test drive, I would have told him to take me back to the
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dealership.
As for the car, the handling is very good, the brakes are very effective and acceleration is adequate. There was a fair bit of engine, road and wind noise, much more than in some other vehicles in this category. When revved out, the engine seemed to get gruff, but that could have been due to us having tried the V6 IS a few minutes before hand.
The interior was relatively plain, but was well put together and the materials were good. The seats fit me fine. Plenty of room in the backseat when the front seat was adjusted for me. The rear windows narrow quite a bit, but that's not unusual these days. Headroom all around was more than adequate for me. One thing I did notice while riding in back was quite a bit of wind noise from either the door seal or the c-pillar.
The MMI with the control puck was a PITA to use. A touch screen would have been much simpler. The nav screen was underwhelming. Overall the system didn't work as well as the system in the IS250 we had tried earlier in the day. It wasn't even close to being as easy to use as MFT or the best in class uConnect in Chryslers.
Overall, I was left with mixed feelings. The car looked beautiful, it worked very well, but the relatively high noise level, poorly executed MMI and dismal "Mazda Experience" would probably have me looking elsewhere.