Regarding the 6, Mazda has stated in no uncertain terms that their goal was to build a world-class sport sedan, aimed squarely at driving enthusiasts. While this car has many attributes that will appeal to mainstream car buyers, it manages to keep most of the key sporting aspects intact.

From a driving standpoint, the best attribute of this car has to be the handling. What you may have read about this car elsewhere is mostly true. Turn in is sharp and responsive, and the car remains poised during spirited driving. The roadholding abilities of the car are also impressive considering the rather modest 16" all-season tires on my tester. Steering feel is pretty good, with a muted yet still discernible amount of feedback through the wheel. Some might accuse it of being overassisted, but I found it to be okay in that respect. While I did not put the brakes to any severe use (11.1" vented discs up front, 11.0" solid discs in the rear, with ABS and EBD), they felt powerful and capable, hauling the car down with little effort. I did notice once or twice a bit of difficulty in smoothly transitioning from on the throttle to braking, but I believe it is likely due to my unfamiliarity with the car, or possibly related to the brake pedal positioning.

In steady state cornering, the car's attitude is fairly neutral, with a manageable degree of understeer. The car responds to lift throttle quickly, tucking the nose in nicely and tightening the line effectively. Through transitional situations, the car feels eager to change direction and maintains a high level of poise, especially considering its family car alter-ego. While I did not push the car to any serious extremes during my test period, I did test it with similar methodology to the '03 Accords (I4 and V6), and the 6 established itself as a notch above the Accord when it comes to handling. While the 4-cylinder Accord handles better than the V6 Accord, it's quite obviously tuned to appeal more to the masses than to the enthusiast audience. The 6's handling is dialed in more to impress enthusiasts, and there really aren't too many penalties to be paid in terms of comfort.

The drivetrain features a Mazda-specific cylinder head on Ford's Duratec 3.0L block. This results in a claimed 220 hp @ 6300 rpms and 192 lb-ft @ 5000 rpms. Coupled to this is your choice of a 5-speed manual transmission, or a 5-speed automatic transmission. I've heard good things about the 5MT, but as noted, I've not been able to sample one as of yet. The 5AT I had was okay, but as in almost any car, I think I would certainly prefer to shift for myself. The 5AT offers a manumatic mode, but in the end I found it better to just leave the car in "D". In the manumatic mode, it sometimes wouldn't register my requests to upshift or downshift, requiring a repeat request with a firmer tug or nudge for my intentions to register. It didn't take long for frustration to set in. Furthermore, the response time of the upshift or downshift requests could also be a source of frustration, so to avoid that, I just left it in "D". In "D", the transmission seemed to work with the engine computer using typical tricks to smooth out the upshifts and downshifts. This means fuel and/or ignition cut betweeen gearchanges. At part throttle, this resulted in relatively smooth operation. At greater throttle openings, the shifting became a little firmer in some kickdown and upshift situations.

As for the power delivery of the 3.0L V6, it seems that some of the bottom end grunt was exchanged for more top end pull. There's a reasonable amount of torque available at low rpms, but more useful power arrives at higher rpms. Despite relatively short gearing, launching in 1st gear is a little soft, exacerbated by an aggressive traction control system and perhaps a conservative stall speed for the torque converter. Power starts to come online in earnest somewhere around 3000 rpms, and it pulls nicely all the way to the top. The gear ratios are reasonably close together, and reasonably short, so the power remains accessible for most driving situations. In particular, I noticed that 3rd gear is particularly well suited for merging onto the interstate, offering nice thrust from about 55mph on up.

In operation, the 6's motor has characteristics very similar to the Taurus' 3.0 Duratec, with added midrange and top-end punch. If you travel a lot, and you're a frequent Hertz customer, then it's likely you've spent a good deal of time behind the wheel of a late model Taurus or Sable, which means you're possibly already familiar with the Duratec. The version offered in the 6 makes similar sounds, though with shorter gearing and less weight to haul around, it climbs through the revs quicker, giving it more of a "bark" than the Blue Oval mill. The operation of the automatic transmission is also very similar to the Taurus', though I'm unaware if there are any actual commonalities between the two units. This is to say that enthusiasts would likely be best served by the 5MT model.

When I first drove the 6, the roads here were wet thanks to extended rainfall in our area. In these conditions, the first few times I dipped into the throttle, I unwittingly engaged the traction control system. The system was virtually transparent, as I didn't notice even a hint of wheelspin, nor the herky-jerky response that characterizes some overly aggressive TCS systems (as found in my '01 Passat). I just thought "Wow, this has a REALLY soft 1st gear". Later on, I tried switching off the TCS and realized that it had been dialing the power way back in order to mitigate even the potential of wheelspin. Interestingly, with the TCS switched off, the motor was much more responsive in first gear, and it was effectively able to deliver the power with little or no noticeable wheelspin, so I'm not quite sure why the TCS was dialing back the power so much in the first place. As in my Passat, if the 6 were my own car I would probably drive around with the TCS switched off most of the time.