The IT Nerd

Even though the 2018 Mazda6 has a whole lot of technology in it. Here’s what it comes with starting with the safety technology:

• Blind Spot Monitoring: This system keeps an eye out for cars in your blind spots so that you don’t hit them when changing lanes. It also detects cars that are rapidly closing in on you from a distance.
• Smart City Brake Support: Let’s say that you you do not react in time to a car that panic stops in front of you. This Mazda is capable of coming to a stop at low speeds, or slowing down to make the impact less severe. You can get more details on this system here. I should note that as of the 2018 model year, this is a standard feature which means that getting such a key safety feature won’t require you to go to the top of the food chain.
• Lane Departure Warning System: If you cross over into another lane, this system will buzz you on either the right or the left side. The buzz really gets your attention I must say. For bonus points the Mazda6 will also perform minor steering corrections to help guide it back to the centre of the lane.
• Rear Cross Traffic Alert: If you back out of a parking space in a busy shopping mall and you have limited visibility to your left and right, you’ll love this system as you will be warned of any cars that cross into your path.
• Radar based cruise control is included to make long drives easier as it will allow the Mazda6 to slow down or speed up relative to traffic conditions.
• Adaptive Front Lighting System and High Beam Control: This trim level comes with LED headlights with LED daytime running lights that look cool. The lighting can be set to automatic so that you never have to worry about turning the lights on and off. I found that the levels where the lights might turn on to be better than most cars that I’ve driven as on a dark overcast day, the lights would come on. That’s something that would not happen in a lot of cars in similar systems. The high beam control is a handy feature to have as it adds to your visibility on dark country roads. So is the fact that as you steer, the headlights allow you to “see” around corners.
• You get anti-lock brakes, traction control, stability control, and electronic brake force distribution. Plus you get hill holding technology which keeps you from rolling backwards when you’re on a hill.
• You get dual front air bags, dual front side air bags and dual side air curtains and knee airbags.

Two things really stand out though. Let’s start with the 360 degree camera, which is made up of four cameras. There’s the backup camera, along with:

A front mounted camera:

And a camera mounted on each side mirror. Those cameras combined with some software give you this view:

There are sensors all around the car that work with the 360 camera system to ensure that you don’t hit anything. For example, I was navigating a tight drive through and the camera came on automatically when the sensors thought I was getting too close to an object. That allowed me to have the visibility to properly navigate the drive through without hitting anything. The sensors also play a role when parking as well which is very handy as I could ensure that I was not only in the parking spot, but I could also make sure I didn’t hit anything. I have to admit that this was my favorite piece of technology during the week that I had the Mazda6.

The second piece of technology that stood out was this:

The Mazda Active Driving Display is a heads up display that places everything from speed and blind spot monitoring info, to navigation and warning for the lane monitoring, and how close you are to the car in front of you. On top of that, the car is capable of reading speed limit and stop signs so that it can display them on this heads up display in color. It works very well with the only thing that I should mention is that my Oakely Prizim Road driving sunglasses filters the display out. Thus choose your sunglasses carefully.

Now how about actually driving the Mazda6 Signature? You get a proximity key with push button start. Thus all you have to do is press a button on the driver’s door handle. Press it and the car will unlock. Get in, hit the start/stop button and drive away. One nice touch is that the start/stop button will light up with a green light if you press the brake pedal to start. That’s a nice touch to remind you to press the brake pedal to start the car. When you’ve reached your destination, press the start/stop button to turn off the car. Then get out of the car, close the door and walk away. You’ll hear two beeps. One after you close the door and one about 10 seconds later. When you hear both, the car is locked. You never need to pull out the key fob to do any of this. But the key fob does have the ability to lock and unlock the doors and it has the ever useful panic button. As an added bonus, it has a backup key inside the key fob should you need it.

Mazda Connect is on board with the combination of the 8″ touchscreen and the HMI (Human Machine Interface) Commander Switch. It gives the driver a easy to learn, easy to use infotainment system. I wrote about it in detail here if you want to see what it has to offer. And before anyone asks, the Mazda6 doesn’t come with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. But that’s coming later this year. An 11 speaker Bose audio system is on board as well that sounds insanely great regardless of what music I threw at it. Which was the contents of my current audio torture playlist made up of Austra, Ruelle, TV On The Radio, Chemical Brothers, Electronic, Lana Del Rey and Black Coast among others. In fact, here’s a free tip for Mazda dealers to show off how good this audio system is. Play the Lucian Remix Black Coast’s Trndsttr. This song really shows off what this audio system is capable of at all ends of the audio spectrum and it will totally impress buyers.

The final part of this review will tie up some loose ends and I’ll give you my final verdict. Watch for it on Friday.

The interior of the 2018 Mazda6 Signature is simply a class above. Though I do have three very minor complaints, it’s a total winner. Let me walk you through it:

The drivers side door (not to mention the rest of the car) has a mix of Nappa leather, aluminum, Sen wood and Ultrasuede accents that really gives an upscale feel to the interior. Along with piano black accents around the buttons.

I’m zooming on the stitching, wood and aluminum accents that show how well this is all done.  Clearly a lot of time and attention went into this.

Bose supplies the audio. I’ll talk about that more in tomorrow’s review of the technology in the vehicle.

There are red puddle lights on all the doors for added safety.

Here on the drivers side of the Mazda6, there’s all the controls for the electronic overseers, the hood, gas cap, and trunk releases. Along with the pedals including a dead pedal. It’s all very functional, but if Mazda wanted to kick things up a notch, they could have included aluminum pedals to give it a bit of a sporty or upscale feel.

The driver and passenger get 10 way adjustable nappa leather seats that are heated and cooled. The seats are very supportive as long as you dial it in to fit your body. Once you dial it in, it has memory settings to memorize those settings.

The steering wheel is leather wrapped, heated, and has controls for the infotainment system and cruise controls. You can’t see them here, but there are paddle shifters on the back of the steering wheel. They’re plastic which works. But given the amount of detail that you’re going to see in the rest of the interior, aluminum paddle shifters might kick things up a notch.

Though the picture isn’t straight, you can clearly see the gauges. Now the one in the center is completely digital and customizable. The outside gauges are analog.

The 8″ Infotainment screen is mounted on top of the dash and is easy to read in any light. The start/stop button for the engine is to the left of it.

There’s dual zone climate control below the infotainment screen. The display related to this is digital and easy to read in all lighting conditions.

There’s a cubby that is below the HVAC controls that fit my iPhone 7 Plus.

Here you see the leather wrapped shifter, the sport switch, electronic parking brake, a button that holds the brakes on a hill, and the HMI commander switch for the infotainment system. There’s a door to the right of all of that….

…..That has a pair of cupholders…..

…..which holds a Venti sized Starbucks coffee with ease.

There’s a very deep central storage area with a 12V outlet as well as 2 USB ports and a 3.5 mm audio jack. When this is closed, you have a handy arm rest.

Why am I showing you the rear view mirror? It’s frameless. What that does is give you a bit more in terms of viewable area. Which in turn gave me amazing amounts of rear visibility.

The glovebox is average sized and was occupied the owners manuals.

You get a decent sized moonroof. The glass portion is powered, but the sunshade isn’t. My wife commented that having both powered would have been cool. I can see her point. But that’s really not a deal breaker.

The rear seat will fit two adults with ease as I was able to “sit behind myself” which is no small feat as I am 6 feet tall. Three adults may be a stretch if the person who sits in the middle is tall. My wife is 5′ 6″ and her head almost touched the roof in that position. Three kids back here would be no issue.

If you don’t need to seat three in the back, you can flip this down and get a couple of cupholders and the controls for the rear heated seats.

You can also open it for some storage as well as a pair of USB ports.

There’s ventilation in the back.

All the interior lighting is LED based which is very upscale and pleasing to the eye.

The trunk is very large as well as having the hinges boxed in so that they don’t crush anything beneath them. On the left and right sides are recessed storage areas so that you can keep stuff in there and not have it slide around the trunk.

It held our weekly grocery shopping haul with lots of space left over.

There’s a handle on the inside of the trunk that allows you to close it without getting your hands dirty.

This Signature trim level really is impressive. And any criticisms that I mentioned are really minor as these are areas where Mazda could have taken an impressive interior, and made it perfect. To be frank, I’ve been in luxury vehicles that aren’t as good as this. If you spend any time in it, you’ll be impressed as much as I was.

Tomorrow I will discuss the technology in the Mazda6, and there’s a lot of it. Stay tuned!