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22 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday August 6, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com FAMILY OWNED & OPERATED You'll Love Our Service! 905-335-4080 BURLINGTON LINE Striking looks, bigger engine, more room power the 2009 Mazda6 By Jim Robinson METROLAND MEDIA GROUP AGOURA, Ca.: Mazda Canada has done it again. With its Canadian market share now up past 5.3 per cent, the 2009 Mazda6 looks to be another hit like the Mazda3 and Mazda5. The striking exterior, with its RX-8 and CX-7 front fender flares, takes the car from good-looking to segment stand out. Mazda had four styling studios working independently on the design that came down to two models. One was called "beautiful" and the other called the "advanced." In the end, the advanced design was chosen because the more aggressive look was thought to be more appealing to the kind of driver/owner Mazda had identified. From the front fenders back, you can see how the lines in some of Mazda's recent concepts were moulded into the overall structure. An example is a very subtle and elegant "S" curve that flows from the high point of the roof down and back to the tip of the rear deck. But the most pronounced feature of the external styling is the way the front fenders flare out like wings, and along with the five-point grille, gives the car the look of a broad arrow. The 2009 Mazda6 is larger than the previous version in every dimension. Wheelbase is lengthened by 115 mm; overall length is greater by 195 mm, while overall width is increased by 60 mm. Both front and rear occupants benefit from more headroom, shoulder room, and legroom. Cargo capacity grows by 39 litres to 469 litres. That 10 per cent increase in cargo volume results in a very high trunk deck. You will have to be very careful when backing up not to hit objects like posts. There is no parking assist audible warning available. There were also many initial versions of the interior that boiled down to what you could call a bi-level design. The rich look of the CX-9 is seen here with violet and amber main gauge illumination that is pleasing to the eye. Following Mazda Canada convention, there are two models, the base GS and the top trim GT. The GS and GT start with a 2.5-litre, DOHC inline four-cylinder engine producing 170 hp and 167 lb/ft of torque. This is a larger version of Mazda's ubiquitous 2.3-litre engine that makes more power with better fuel economy. A six-speed manual transmission (now rare in a mid-size sedan) is standard and a five-speed automatic with sequential manual mode is an option. Fuel numbers for the six-speed are 10.4/6.9L/100 km city/highway and 9.7/6.7L/100 km city/highway for the auto: a case where the automatic is better on gas than the manual. The GS-V6 and GT-V6 get a 3.7-litre DOHC engine similar to that found in the CX-9 seven-seat crossover. It produces 272 hp and 269 lb/ft of torque. The only transmission offered is a six-speed automatic with sequential mode that lists fuel consumption as 12.1/8.0L/100 km city/highway. The GS models (four-cylinder, $22,495 and V6, $27,495) come with four-wheel disc brakes with ABS, keyless entry, air Continued on next page