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New Mazda as important as ever

Here are your talking points: Jinba Ittai, Skyactiv, Zoom-zoom. Know what any of those taglines mean? You would if you've read a review of any Mazda product over the past few years.

Here are your talking points: Jinba Ittai, Skyactiv, Zoom-zoom.

Know what any of those taglines mean? You would if you've read a review of any Mazda product over the past few years.

The first is a Japanese phrase relating to the melding of horse and rider moving as one being. The second is Mazda's catchphrase for their efficient-yet-sporty engines and chassis. The last is pretty self-explanatory.

Thing is, do you really care about all this marketing fooferaw? I know I don't.

Cars are either good, bad or indifferent. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet; a cowpat with a fancy tagline is still as squelchy and feculent.

When it comes to Mazda mid-sizers, the track-record's been a bit hit and miss.

I have fond memories of a boxy old 626 that racked up the miles and could haul ridiculous amounts of cargo.

Then there was the 626 Cronos that might have been styled by the folks behind Lever 2000.

The Mazda6 of the past was based on the European Ford Mondeo, and that's good, but it didn't exactly fly off the shelves.

Strange, that, considering how well baby-brother Mazda3 does.

But here we are nearing the middle of the second decade of the second Millennium, and Mazda is both unfettered by partnership with Ford and without their R&D money.

This new "6" is more important than ever: if the plucky Japanese purveyor of driving pleasure is to succeed, their bread-and-butter mid-sizer better appeal to the masses.

Thinking of buying an MX-5 in five years time?

The success of this car will determine whether or not you'll be able to do so. Not to worry, though, because I've got good news...

Design

Right off the bat, this theoretically medium-strength family-hauler has the kind of curb appeal to make luxury marques envious.

In fact, cruising around West Vancouver, I can't help but feel a certain smugness - nice LEDs, Mr. Audi, I hear you can get those on the new Sentra too.

The "6" isn't a gussi-fied three-box wearing too much cosmetic jewellery: it's an all-new effort that Mazda dubs "Kodo - Soul of Motion."

That's more marketing hooey, but the end result is that the "6" stands out.

With swelling front arches, a long hood and a bluff, trapezoidal nose, there's an inherent "rightness" to the new '6's proportions.

There's only so much you can do with a four-door sedan, and Mazda hasn't over-egged the pudding as compared to a few other excessively bulging mid-sizers I could name.

Better yet, Mazda's new corporate grille puts an end to the goofy grins of the past - while the Mazda3 still smirks away like a lunatic, the '6 has a face that says "Serious Business." The front end does put me in mind of a robot dog, but in a good way.

Environment

If the exterior checks all the styling boxes, the interior is perhaps a tad too conservative for some. There's plenty of black in here, with very little in the way of high-tech gimcrackery.

To my mind, Mazda must think of themselves as the Japanese version of VW. Certainly, their sparse and spar-tan interiors are clean-cut and almost Teutonic in layout.

Here's the appeal: yes, there's no enormous capacitive touch-screens as-standard, split-level LCD displays, nor acres of buttons to adjust every nuance of the cabin; instead, you get something better. Instead of trying to impress you with flash, the Mazda actually works.

It pains me to think that we live in a world where I have to label the Mazda6's sensible knobs and simple three-gauge instrument cluster as "old-school," but there you go. I will say this, aside from the pseudo-iDrive controller just back of the shifter, everything is intuitive, and easy-to-use.

Quite frankly, it's a delight to jump in and drive a car without spending three hours reading the manual and watching YouTube instructional videos.