I just bought a 2014 Mazda 6 exactly like this one on Christmas eve, and I too love the way it handles and drives. Mazda did an excellent job in transferring the feel of a sports car into a mid-sized family sedan.
The handling is tight, with just the right amount of road feel and power assist. For that weight car, the 184 HP 2.5L, GDI engine give plenty of performance, unless you're competing with a Vet. The all-new auto transmission is really the car's strong selling point, assuming it doesn't have any latent bugs. It is basically a 6-speed, dual-wet-clutch gearbox behind a torque converter. The torque converter gets rid of the first gear stutter seen in dual-clutch Fords, but it is programmed to lock up quickly after shifting into second gear. So, if you look at the specs, you'll see that the automatic amazingly gets BETTER gas mileage than a manual. Paddle-shifters, available only on the GT model, also make it fun to drive when you want to downshift into the right gear before you need the torque to pass.
The car looks and drives fantastic.
My main suggestion to Mazda marketing is to put the paddle-shifters on ALL Mazda 6 models. It's stupid to sell a sport model without paddle-shifters even being an option.
The reason I came to this forum was to find out, since it has direct injection, what oil would minimize the carbon buildup on intake values. I'd prefer to use Mobil 1 5W20/30, but the maintenance schedule calls for 0W20 (probably for mileage reasons), which is difficult to find in M-1 EXP.
Any suggestions what to use with a GDI and where to get it?
