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By
EWAN KENNEDY
15 January 2007
Though the European marques have been strongly pushing diesel
passenger cars for the last couple of years, the Japanese have been
reluctant to get into this fuel field.
Historically, the Japanese (and the Australians)
have regarded diesel as a fuel for commercial vehicles, though
they will accept it in 4WDs, apparently because the latter have a
tough image in keeping with diesel engines.
Mazda has broken the bounds of buyer acceptance by
introducing the first Japanese diesel car to Australia. (Though it
can be argued that the Holden Gemini diesel of the 1970s was a
Japanese car as it was designed in conjunction with Isuzu and used
a diesel from that company.)
The turbo-diesel engine that’s offered in the
Mazda6 is a modern direct-injection, 2.0-litre, high-pressure unit
that the company says is all its own work, not a joint effort with
Ford. It sits at the forefront of torque output, managing a hefty
360 Newton metres. Power is less impressive, at 105 kW, but it’s
torque that talks in any engine, be it a petrol or a diesel.
On the road we found the Mazda6 diesel to have
plenty of grunt, though there's a noticeable amount of turbo lag
before it really gets up and going.
The six-speed manual gearbox can be changed down
to get the engine up into a higher rev range to counteract this
turbo lag to some extent, but most drivers are likely to leave the
‘box in a higher gear and let the torque haul it along.
Once you do get the engine operating in its torque
band it certainly has Mazda's zoom-zoom, providing a real push in
the back that gives it a semi-sporting air. This is backed up by
the stopwatch showing this diesel car can get to 100 km/h in under
10 seconds.
But diesels aren't bought for performance, most
buyers choose them as economy engines and the Mazda engine
certainly delivers the goods. Most drivers will only use six to
seven litres per hundred kilometres in country running and seven
to eight litres per hundred in suburban driving. With a bit of
tip-toeing we found it possible to get our test car down to five
litres per hundred kilometres, and real feather foots could get it
under the magic five-litre mark.
There's no doubting that this is a diesel engine,
with a distinctive rattle at idle. But the sound is pretty well
contained and from inside many passengers wouldn’t pick it as a
diesel. Under hard acceleration, the rattle is just audible, but
in cruising mode the new Mazda turbo-diesel is almost as smooth
and quiet as a petrol unit.
Surprisingly, this is the first time we have
driven a Mazda6 station wagon, the company preferring to give
journalists the more exciting models in the range, usually one of
the hatches. Which is a shame, because this is a most competent
station wagon that deserves more attention.
It shares the same stylish front end with the
sedan and hatch. Thankfully the designers have avoided the
temptation to go for a sleek rear end, instead providing a
reasonably square loading area that works nicely.
As is often the case in a station wagon, the added
rear-seat headroom gives occupants a feeling of greater space, and
therefore more comfort. There's good legroom in all seats.
Note that the Mazda diesel is an option in the
sedan and station wagon, but not the hatch, the latter being
regarded as the sports model in the range. Both come only with a
manual transmission; the wagon as tested is priced at $35,205
whereas the sedan, which has a higher level of standard equipment
has a recommended retail of $38,090.
Australians are gradually coming to accept diesels
as an alternative to petrols, it will be interesting to see if
they go for one from a Japanese marque. There's no reason why they
shouldn’t, but image can be a funny thing…
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Marque Publishing Company
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