The Mazda6 is almost perfect | Reviewed.com

• While the Mazda6 is a great combination of style%2C handling%2C and power%2C it falls short on tech
• The tiny%2C sluggish 5.8-inch touchscreen hampers navigation%2C which itself suffers interface problems
• Pandora-sync is solid%2C but listening from your iPod library is problematic

Driving the 2014 Mazda6 down I-89 through the sparse, hilly towns south of Burlington, Vt., I stopped for gas at the only station for miles. A kid in an older Mazda3 with a bumper sticker that read, "I void warranties" followed me off the highway, pulled up beside me, and rolled down the window.

"Hey, how do you like the new 6?" he asked, eyes darting across the surface of the car.

"It's awesome," I replied, fresh off 200 miles of twisting mountain roads, a grin still on my face. We chatted a bit more before he pulled out of the gas station and merged back onto the highway. I've been stopped by gearheads before, but only when I'm driving something extremely fast or extremely exclusive. This was the first time it happened in an affordable family sedan.

That's probably because the Mazda6 isn't just any old affordable family sedan. From how it looks to how it drives, it distinguishes itself from a pretty crowded pack.

Tech & Entertainment — Here's hoping for an upgrade soon

From the entry-level $20,990 Sport model to the fully loaded, $31,490 Grand Touring I drove, the Mazda6 is easily the best combination of style, handling, power, practicality, and efficiency available in its class. If you're looking for a midsize sedan and don't care about pairing your phone, streaming Pandora or getting directions, stop reading now. Go out and buy a Mazda6. You'll love it.

Otherwise, be prepared for this otherwise fine car's major flaw: The optional infotainment system seriously lags behind the competition. Mazda gave the all-new 6 head-turning looks, one of the best automatic transmissions on the market, and an improbably powerful and efficient four-cylinder engine. Then they saddled it with audio and nav controlled by a tiny, sluggish, 5.8-inch touchscreen. Like having spinach in one's teeth during a job interview, it's not a deal breaker, but it sure is distracting.

Navigation, provided by TomTom, got me where I needed to go, but it was hardly user-friendly. Animations were stilted, and the screen was too small to get a good view of a dense city center. Want to zoom in on a street up ahead to see if it's a one-way? On most nav systems, you'd press the screen near where the street appears, and then press the zoom button. Touch the Mazda's screen anywhere, however, and it'll bring up a prompt to enter a destination — a prompt that's not apparent in any way on the home screen. There's no way to zoom in on a location unless you're already there.

Finding the music you want to listen to is a similarly disappointing chore. Sure, you can connect your smartphone, but wading through playlists is slow and distracting. With all menus alphabetically ordered but only a page up/page down option for scrolling, you can't quickly jump to "P" if you want to listen to, say, Parliament. There's an option to shuffle songs, but you can't un-shuffle them once the button is pressed. Graphics are disconcertingly sparse and make the whole kit feel at least a decade old.

Even the physical controls proved confusing. The screen is surrounded by buttons that can switch the system among its various functions. But the exact same buttons are on the center console, surrounding a cheap-feeling clickwheel. Get rid of the first set of buttons, and you'd have another 2 inches of touchscreen. A screen embedded in the gauge cluster shows basic vehicle information, but doesn't display any data from the navigation or audio systems.

A few positives: embedded Pandora functionality had no problem syncing with an iPhone over Bluetooth, even pausing and resuming a song automatically when a phone call came in, and the nav system's voice recognition was actually quite good. The whole setup is also entirely modular, which means owners can add navigation to a Mazda6 as long as it has a touchscreen — even if it didn't come from the factory with nav. It also means that Mazda could theoretically come out with an update.

That's exactly what's planned for the upcoming Mazda3, which features a new user interface, a flashy 7-inch touchscreen, support for streaming audio through Aha, and even a heads-up display. From what we've seen so far, it looks awesome. But, apparently it wasn't ready before the Mazda6 went on sale.

A Mazda representative told us that the company couldn't discuss whether the Mazda6 would get the same setup found in the upcoming Mazda3, but pointed out that both systems are easily upgradeable. Software can be updated by simply switching out an SD card, and all components are modular. Let's hope the folks at Mazda can turn around the 6's infotainment system as quickly as they reinvented its powertrain. If they did, this car would be just about perfect.

Final Thoughts

The Mazda6 is one of the most interesting competitors in the crowded midsize sedan segment, set apart thanks to eye-catching design, engaging handling, and an attractive price. Despite its upsettingly sluggish and outdated infotainment system, the Mazda6 is still worth serious consideration. But if you're looking forward to streaming your favorite songs or asking your car to find you a coffee shop, you should be aware of the Mazda6's limitations.

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