2005 Mazda 6

MODEL DESIGN AND FEATURES

The Mazda6, a model range which combines an energetic - even aggressive - road presence with a predatorial, athletic stance in a distinctive four-door saloon car, showcases Mazda's design and brand direction for the future.

Marking the beginning of Mazda's new brand identity - developed to help customers recognise that new-generation Mazda products are clearly different, more sophisticated and more relevant to their expectations - the Mazda6 delivers definitive styling, a dynamic driving experience and exceptional functionality while achieving top-class levels of comfort, safety, craftsmanship and performance.

Designed and developed to convey real passion to Mazda's fun-loving customers, it is the focal point of Mazda's all-embracing brand strategy and exemplifies the brand's new design philosophy. Every element of the development of the Mazda6 has examples that reflect Mazda's unrelenting focus on raising the level of craftsmanship in order to meet and exceed the demanding expectations of today's sophisticated saloon car customers.

The Mazda6 has been developed to build upon that reputation for it has not only been crafted with materials of a consistently high quality and precision but also designed and assembled with fine attention to the smallest details which make the difference between being a good car and a truly great car.

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DISTINCTIVE EXTERIOR DESIGN
Blending an athletic stance with a predatorial presence

The Mazda6 embodies a new design philosophy that Mazda calls 'Emotion in Motion', a phrase capturing the essence of the Mazda6 and which places emphasis on dynamic balance, rhythm and speed. The design makes a clear statement that the Mazda6 is toned for the purpose of exhilarating driving dynamics and fundamental comfort. The proportions, design and packaging set a new standard in the class for spaciousness, comfort and progressive refinement.

From its dynamic exterior design to its spacious, comfortable interior, Mazda6 is clearly crafted with materials of a consistently high quality and precision. Únderneath its taut, sculpted skin, Mazda6 is insightfully engineered to deliver on that craftsmanship promise.

In silhouette, the Mazda6 has distinctly sporty lines, expressed particularly by the steeply raked windscreen, the absence of a coloured centre pillar and the flared wheel arches. A second look at the Mazda6 reveals its stylistic devices providing the athletic components of its image: the large wheel wells, discreetly accentuated wheel housings and, above all, the fact that the top half of the body shell has a more delicate appearance than the more muscular lower part. This approach by the Mazda designers has created a car that is visually very striking and looks athletic from any angle.

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The short body overhangs and the virtual absence of hard edges create a strong bold look that automatically draws the eye to where you would expect the optical centre point to be – right between the axles.

The rear view is dominated by the clear glass tail lights designed to match the front headlights, wrapped slightly around the corners of the body shell, leading the eye easily from the side to the rear view. The result is an overall dynamic impression of a car that is a dynamic contender in the midsize vehicle segment for people that want a car with character.

The body structure of the new Mazda6 is the first indication that this new platform is engineered for even higher levels of manufacturing precision.

Featuring the now-familiar five-point Mazda family grille, although in the most distinctive form so far displayed, the face of the Mazda6 is bold and predatory to set it apart from other saloon cars. Its designers describe it as having 'an aggressive smile that says this is not your ordinary midsize car'.

The Mazda6, like an athlete, has a design that underlines the strength of the dynamics and technology under the skin without outlandishly showing off.

The designers sculpted the body surfaces on the Mazda6 with defined shoulders to emphasise athleticism. By eliminating corners and placing design 'tension' in the centre of the bonnet and around the centre of the vehicle – placing the 'visual weight' of the car between the wheels – they aimed to make the car stand out among any boxy cars in the segment.

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The design was also created with safety uppermost in the minds of the development team. The all-new architecture allowed the designers and engineers to optimise vehicle proportions to provide enhanced crash performance, while providing a superb interior package.

INTERIOR
Opening up a fresh, spacious and high-tech cabin

The all-new Mazda6 has been designed insightfully to provide spaciousness and comfort for the vehicle occupants, excellent ergonomic positioning of the seats and controls, as well as innovations in load-space flexibility.

Put more simply, Mazda6 has extra room to Zoom-Zoom.

The new Mazda6 is has been crafted to address the high expectations of today's midsize car customer, giving customers a car that meets their lifestyle and space requirements.

The interior has been designed to be as innovative and distinctive as the exterior, with a completely fresh and dynamic look, which is unique in the class. Reflecting the car's global reach, the interior design of the Mazda6 addresses the high expectations of today's midsize car customer in terms of safety, comfort, space, convenience and storage, as well providing an ergonomically pleasing environment which is anything but bland.

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Optimising ingress and egress for loading young children and luggage was paramount for the Mazda6 designers. To address this, the Mazda6 receives a 2 675 mm wheelbase with the wheels pushed to the edges, giving the Mazda6 a more aggressive stance and helping provide a class-leading interior package.

Engineers spent a great deal of detailed effort to develop an interior with a form that would follow function, carefully choosing material and colours for a harmonious design.

Drivers will find intuitive and easy to use controls in the centre stack. The concentrated use of oval displays in the vehicle - a shape found in Mazda sports cars of the past - is aesthetically and functionally pleasing, but also enhances safety by improving the visual orientation of the driver.

Chrome rings are used around a large tachometer and speedometer. Interior door handles are finished in semi-gloss chrome to convey strength and precision. Fully closable heating and cooling vents are also circular in design.

Carefully textured materials are used on the full door trim and instrument panel, matching the premium appointments used throughout the vehicle's interior. The Mazda6 2.0 Elegant and 2.3 Sporty models have cloth trim, with power-adjustable leather seats being fitted to the Mazda6 2.3 Sporty Lux manual and Activematic models. The doors feature large, moulded map pockets and a bottle holder.

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To enhance driving comfort, the three-spoke steering wheel on the Mazda6 2.3 models has remote audio and cruise control switches on the spokes of the leather steering wheel. A stalk on the right of the steering wheel controls the wiper, while a stalk on the left operates lights.

Interior Spaciousness and Comfort

A clear objective in the design of the new Mazda6 was to maximise the spaciousness of the interior for the comfort and ease of the occupants, regardless of size. The Mazda6 is wider than leading vehicles in its segment and Mazda put this extra width to good use in the vehicle interior and exterior, without affecting its manoeuvrability but still contributing to a feeling of roominess and comfort that is a first impression of this new Mazda car family.

In particular, generous shoulder room contributes to the feeling of roominess and comfort and, in their efforts to achieve segment-leading interior comfort and spaciousness for all customers, Mazda6's designers worked hard to ensure that rear-seat passengers weren't overlooked.

Package design efforts focused on providing those seated in the rear a more comfortable seating posture with 61mm more generous knee room making the Mazda6 ideal for relaxed and comfortable long-distance cruising.

The comfort of the seating positions in Mazda6 is complemented by the plushness and harmony of the materials used in the seat designs themselves, and the quietness and smoothness of Mazda6's cruising behaviour.

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Driver positioning

Mazda's objective is to design vehicles that develop a 'oneness' with their drivers. Mazda6's interior design reflects that attention to this important detail of optimising human interaction with the machine.

Extensive effort in the design and ergonomic engineering of the Mazda6 was devoted to providing the optimal seating position for the driver. Mazda strove to provide a comfortable seating position that would give the driver clear feedback on the vehicle movements, have clear outward visibility for a wide range of statures and position the driver optimally to operate the controls and switches.

Mazda6's driver seat has been crafted based on careful ergonomic studies. It was imperative to achieve not only enhanced comfort even for long-distance motoring, but also for supportiveness for many sizes and shapes of drivers and clarity of dynamic feedback important for maintaining driver confidence.

True driver's seat

Great emphasis was placed on developing a front seat that could live up to Mazda6's performance and handling, while still providing outstanding long-term driver comfort. Engineers developed a series of new tests to design a seat that was free from vibration with class-leading posture and lateral support.

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Lumbar support is fitted to the driver's seat as standard on all Mazda6 models which also has good shoulder, upper pelvis and lower end support together with a wide degree of adjustability for both length and height.

In the Mazda 2.0 Elegant and 2.3 Sporty models, a wide bar-type handle is easily accessible for adjusting the fore-aft movement of the driver's seat. Its range is a generous 240 mm, helping Mazda6 accommodate a broad range of human statures comfortably.

The driver seat also is height adjustable, with an easy to operate, ratchet-type lever on the outboard edge of the seat cushion. The seat ratchets higher or lower - a range of 55 mm - in small increments. This feature augments the ability for many statures to customise their driving position optimally.

Electric multi-adjustable leather premium sport seats are fitted as standard equipment to the Mazda6 2.3 Sporty Lux derivatives.

The Mazda6 driver can also adjust the three-spoke steering wheel for the best position of comfort and control. It adjusts both for tilt - by 45 mm of rake - and length, telescoping over a fore-aft range of 50 mm.

In car entertainment is provided by an in-dash single-CD front-loading Radio/CD player in the Mazda6 2.0 Elegant, while the 2.3 Sporty and Sporty Lux models get an in-dash six-CD front-loading audio system. All models have a four-speaker system plus two tweeters.

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The audio controls on the centre console are mounted high on the console for easy driver reach without distraction from the road. Lesser-used controls, such as the heating and ventilation system switches, are mounted lower.

An air conditioner is standard in all models with the 2.3 Sporty and Sporty Lux featuring a full automatic version with Climate Control. A further convenience feature is the glass sunroof which is fitted as standard equipment on the Mazda6 2.3 Sporty Lux manual and Activematic.

Interior stowage flexibility

The dashboard of the new Mazda6 features a felt-lined upper storage tray that is concealed by a flip-back lid. The tray has the capacity to stow away a mobile phone, remote garage door opener, sunglasses or wallet.

Mazda6's centre console provides several clever stowage possibilities. A voluminous double-bottom stowage box, with integrated coin holder and hinged lid, is situated in the rearward section of the centre console between the two front seats. The armrest between the two seats opens into another concealed felt-lined stowage area for valuables.

Conveniently placed on the passenger side of the console, adjacent to the parking brake lever, is a lid that flips open to reveal two large integral cup holders, each capable of holding a 828 ml drink.

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Door pockets for the driver and front-seat passenger feature large inner bins large enough to hold ring bound map booklets. Each contains an integral compartment that is ideal to hold a 500 ml drink bottle.

The Mazda6's driver also has access to a sunglasses compartment located overhead near the interior dome light.

The rear side of the two front seats features an elasticised storage pocket while rear passengers have a centre armrest with built-in cup holders.

Cargo spaciousness

The new Mazda6 offers a capacious boot for the stowage of luggage and other cargos carried in everyday motoring life. Its volume, 500 litres for the Mazda6 sedan, is class leading.

The Mazda6's innovative chassis design eliminates the intrusion of strut towers into the cargo compartment, which allows for a wide load floor of 1,016 mm making the car much more flexible in dealing with bulky items that frustrate modern car owners.

Thanks to a smart, double-link hinge design for the Mazda6's boot lid, the entire hinge mechanism is contained outboard of the luggage compartment itself. The damped hinge folds neatly into the gutter area under the edge of the boot lid, preventing luggage and other large items from being damaged by the hinge.

This makes all 500 litres of boot space, usable space.

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Innovative thinking from Mazda has given Mazda6 even more flexibility to carry bulkier cargo items.

Its 60-40 asymmetrical split-folding rear seat back allows the rear seat to accommodate longer items without sacrificing the entire rear seating section.

To enhance the security of valuables stored in the boot, the seats may only be lowered by releasing a remote lever in the boot itself, thereby preventing unwanted access from the vehicle cabin.

Attention to detail

Engineering effort was focused even on seemingly small aspects of this new vehicle platform's execution. For instance, even the door operation featured a multi-faceted series of initiatives:

To optimise the effort of opening and closing the doors of the new vehicle, volunteer subjects were wired with electrodes to measure every muscle movement required. As a result, Mazda6's door handles are positioned at the height of minimal muscular load.

The door handle itself was optimised through extensive study of the finger pressures involved in operating various handle designs. Again, volunteers were wired with sophisticated sensors to measure pressure on various parts of their hands.

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The sound of the door closing was studied for both its machine characteristics - such as the force involved in the closure - and the human characteristics - the sound level and sound quality apparent to the listener. Mazda engineers applied 'psychoacoustics' principles to the study and established targets for the right sound.

The speed of closing the door was scrutinised and a target closing speed of less than 1 millisecond was achieved in the new Mazda6.

The structure of the door latch was subjected to an intensive engineering study to optimise its operating force and closing robustness. The new Mazda6 features a low-friction latch design as a result.

The weather strip sealer around the perimeter of the doorframe was improved to reduce closing efforts. The new design helps reduce the maximum air pressure in the cabin resulting from the door closure.

The doors of the new Mazda6 seem to operate so effortlessly that their operation becomes 'invisible' to the customer.

That quiet quality

Mazda6 also communicates its quality and craftsmanship aurally. From its quiet, comfortable, premium-class ride comfort to the details of every switch and button, Mazda6 reflects careful attention to detail in a highly pleasing fashion to its occupants.

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The sound quality of the Mazda6 also results from a multi-faceted effort by development engineers.

Powertrain noise was relentlessly attacked in the technology of Mazda6's new engine range. The new petrol engines with their Sequential-valve timing (S-VT) technology bring new levels of refinement to their class.

Wind noise was attacked with aerodynamic precision in Mazda's wind tunnel. The shape of Mazda6's body structure, and the sophistication of its sound package, helps to isolate wind noise from the vehicle occupants.

This was important to Mazda6's aerodynamic engineers, who joined with the chassis engineering team to create a level of ride comfort that would reduce fatigue and stress on longer journeys.

Complex intake manifold and air intake system designs in the powertrains were fine-tuned to provide a unique sound quality of the engine. This gives the driver a positive feedback during acceleration and counters the potential for irritating engine noise during normal operation.

Every pushbutton, every handle and every lever was engineered to produce a sound quality that matched its precise look and operational feel. This attention to detail of touch, feel, sound, look and function is what adds up to the total perception of craftsmanship.

In so doing, Mazda believes that they have delivered the best.

Source - Ford Motor Company