We Like The Cars That Go Boom – Mazda 6 2016 Review

As my audience knows, I’m always on the go. There’s football practice for my son, work, and of course I always manage to get in some type of adventure. Last week I had an awesome opportunity, courtesy of Drive Shop USA and Mazda, to park my car in the garage and get to my adventures in a sweet new ride. I test drove the Mazda 6 2106 Grand Touring.  I was provided with a vehicle to drive for a week in exchange for my honest feedback on my experience. All opinions are my own and are not influenced by this arrangement. Full disclosure.

My first impression of the car was that it was visually impressive.  In fact, my exact words were “What a sexy beast!” It’s a sexy car and I happened to get one in Soul Red.  That color is a head turner for sure.  In fact, when I drove the car to my son’s high school football game, I had several people ask me as I got out what kind of car it was.  Both men and women gave approving and envious stares and nods. We also took a Labor Day road trip to Disney World and when I pulled up to the swanky B Resort the valet had nothing but compliments.

Here are the highlights of my Mazda 6 2016 Review:

• Appearance – I loved the Soul Red and the sleek look of the car.  It also comes in Sonic Silver and Titanium Flash.  The sunroof was also a nice feature.
• Push to start ignition – Oh you fancy, huh?
• Gas Mileage – Fantastic on gas! It gets 38 miles to the gallon on the highway and 26 mpg city.  I did quite a bit of driving and there was still a quarter of a tank of gas at the end of my week.  My daily work commute is 34 miles.  In addition to that I drove a 50 mile round trip to my son’s game.  We also had a weekend getaway for Labor Day to Disney World which was about 120 miles round trip.
• Technology – I was most impressed with the level of technology. I wasn’t expecting such a smart car.
• Blind Spot monitoring system and lane change alert – The side mirrors display an alert when there is a car in your blind spot. This was a very nice and helpful feature.  A car like this would be great for a new driver.
• Rearview camera – The camera provided a wide view and it is a full screen mode on the display screen.
• Bose sound system – It’s Bose. That’s one of those brands that speaks volumes! (Ha ha….no pun intended I swear but it works!)  The sound system was definitely put through its paces with my teenager riding shotgun on the road trip.  It received his seal of approval. He also liked that it had Satellite XM radio, Pandora, and Bluetooth capability to listen to music from our phones.
• Interior – The Grand Touring model has beautiful soft leather interior, electric seat controls and seat setting memory
• Space – As a long-legged diva, I have no complaints about space or leg room. I had room to spare. The backseat has a decent amount of leg room and there were also backseat air vents.
• The Vroom Vroom – 2.5 liter four-cylinder.  SKYACTIV-G engine.  It’s not the most powerful car I’ve ever driven but it had plenty of get up.  You can enable the Sport mode to give you a little bit of an extra pick up if desired.
• Safety –  Advanced dual front air bags, Engine immobilizer anti-theft system, Fold-away brake pedal assembly, Front and rear crumple zones

There is one very cool feature of the Mazda 6 Grand Touring 2016 that I was crazy about! Watch my detailed walk through below to see this snazzy bit of technology in action, the active drive display:

Overall I was impressed.  I’ve never owned a Mazda and this first experience was a pleasant surprise.  If I were in the market for a full size sedan this would certainly be a top contender.

I can hear your minds working.  You want to know if there was anything that I didn’t like about the car right? Sure you do.  What’s the sweet without the sour right? I would say my only wish would have been for buttons to control the air temperature instead of dials.  Everything else was so high-tech, so having dial controls for the air conditioning felt like I was cheated just a little bit.  If you were looking for shade, sorry but I don’t have any. It’s a quality vehicle.

You can read more details on the specifications and pricing at MazdaUSAMedia website.

I love to hear from you.  What do you think? Would you consider the Mazda 6 2016?  Are there any questions you have about the vehicle?  Let me know!

Lauren G. , Outdoorsy Diva™

“Adventure is a lifestyle.”