Mazda 6

Mazda 6 Q&As

Check out real-world situations relating to the Mazda 6 here, particularly what our experts have to say about them.

• Does the 3rd generation of the Mazda 6 have unreliable in transmission?

  Mazda’s 6 has always had a pretty good reputation in the trade for its reliability and durability, but globally, there have been a few concerns with the automatic transmission. The first of those is a situation where the transmission goes into limp-home mode. At that point, it can suffer slurred shifts and a lack of acceleration. It doesn’t seem a common complaint in Australia, but it’s reckoned to be caused by the transmission fluid becoming contaminated with small iron particles (possibly swarf from the production process) becoming attracted to the magnetic sensors inside the transmission. At that point, the sensors lose the plot and the information going to the computer becomes garbled.

  The other thing seen (mostly in the US) has been a whining noise from the transmission. Inspections have shown this to be caused by a damaged bearing in the transmission, possibly the victim of misalignment of the gearbox casing. Again, it’s not a common fault showing up here.

  Overall, the Mazda 6 seems one of the better bets out there in reliability terms.

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• Mazda 4 - A bigger hatchback than the 3?

  Mazda is unlikely to increase the number of its passenger car models, given the contracting nature of such body styles in favour of crossovers and SUVs.

  Also, note that a CX-4 has existed in China for a number of years, slotting tightly between the CX-3 and CX-5 as a sleeker coupe version of the latter, so if you do see a '4' (or, more likely, a '40') on the tailgate of a Mazda in the future, it might be sat on an SUV-shaped rather than hatchback-shaped five-door.

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• Mazda 7 - Will Mazda build a bigger sedan than the 6?

  Probably not, sadly.

  The slower-than-anticipated sales of the Mazda6 series over the past decade, combined with Mazda's hesitation to replace the existing, nine-year-old model, suggests that there is not a larger sedan in the pipeline.

  However, with Mazda marching upmarket and its ties with Toyota strengthening, a joint-venture project with Toyota or even Lexus, using Mazda's new rear-drive platform and inline six-cylinder engine range, may make a model-sharing premium flagship – like a Mazda7 or even Mazda9 – a possibility.

  But please don't hold your breath on this one because it is merely conjecture on our behalf.

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• Mazda 9 - Will we ever see a successor to the 929?

  Mazda is unlikely to introduce a sedan larger than the Mazda6, due to the declining sales of larger sedans globally in favour of SUVs.

  However, with Mazda marching upmarket and its ties with Toyota strengthening, a joint-venture project with Toyota or even Lexus, using Mazda's new rear-drive platform and inline six-cylinder engine range, may make a model-sharing luxury flagship – a modern-day 929 in other words – a possibility.

  But there are currently no plans that we know of pertaining to such a model, sadly.

  We hope this helps.

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