The Mazda6 has been a victim of the “Yes, but.”  Until this new generation of the vehicle.  Now it is—ideally—just “Yes.”  No buts.

That is, the last-generation 6 is a good car in the midsize category.  But (you see how easy it is for this to slide right in?) has a wheelbase of 105.3 in. and an overall length of 186.8 in.  If you were to have gone to your local Honda and Toyota dealers, you would have found that the Accord has a 110.2-in. wheelbase and an overall length of 194.1-in., while the Camry’s respective numbers are 109.3 in. and 189.2 in.

Which is to say that the Mazda6 came up short.

But with the current Mazda6, size is no longer a limit, no longer a cause for the “but.”  It has a wheelbase of 109.8 in. and a length of 193.7 in., which makes it more than sufficiently sizable.  And it is a car that can now easily give the other two a run for their money.  And the reason is not “Zoom-Zoom” in the speed sense of that term—at least in this case, as the car Driven has a 2.5-liter DOHC 16-valve four that produces 170 hp @ 6,000 rpm and 167 lb-ft of torque @ 4,000 rpm, which is certainly more than respectable, but then there is the 3,309 lb. of curb weight that needs to be propelled—but in the sense of design, both inside and out.

The Mazda6 is, simply, a beautiful car.  The base price for the car Driven was $22,605.  Add a couple of nice option packages (Convenience, which includes dual-zone AC, auto on/off xenon headlights, rain-sensing wipers, welcome lighting system, blind-spot monitoring [this is a great thing to have], cloth and leather seating [a clever combo—as in the best of both worlds], Bluetooth; Moonroof and Bose package) and the $670 delivery charge, and the total MSRP comes to $26,645.

For that money, and for the looks of the car, it isn’t merely a hell of a deal, it is almost a steal.  I’m not exaggerating when I say that it looks like a car that costs at least double that. . .and when you take into account that Moray Callum headed Mazda worldwide design before moving back to Ford in 2006 and that his brother Ian happens to be the design director for Jaguar. . .well, there’s something to be said for sibling similarity.

The car is roomy (passenger volume: 101.9 cu. ft.; trunk capacity: 16.6 cu. ft.), comfortable, and, yes, handles well, in the true “Zoom-Zoom” spirit.  And while I might quibble a bit with the acceleration on getting up to freeway speeds (while this sounds a bit suspect, it seems as though the car actually wants a little more power when the accelerator is mashed), I must admit that the combined city/highway 24 mpg that I achieved was a bit more than pleasing, especially as the digits at the gas station are climbing north.

In a word: Yes.

Vehicle as Driven

Engine: 2.5-liter DOHC four-cylinder

Horsepower: 170 @ 6,000 rpm

Torque: 167 lb-ft @ 4,000 rpm

Transmission: Five-speed with overdrive

Drivetrain: Front-wheel drive

Wheelbase: 109.8 in.

Length: 193.7 in.

Width: 72.4 in.

Height: 57.9 in.

Curb weight: 3,309 lb.

Fuel economy: 21 mpg city; 30 highway