Mazda6 - talk to me

[defblade]

Been looking around for a family car that's a bit more sensible than the E39 530 auto saloon I'm currently running.

For sensible, read better MPG, less cost of servicing/repairs, more flexible load space. Also, I'm tall, and so is my daughter who'll be in the back, so fitting in a car comfortably is important too.... I've probably tried and rejected a lot of the alternatives you're all about to suggest.

But I did quite like a mazda6 I sat in, although the one I saw was old, tired and tatty... so I was off to the interweb to do some research.

Then thought I'd post here and ask for real world hints and tips

I notice there's quite a jump in price between the older and facelift cars... are the newer ones worth the extra?

Also... the MPS. The quoted mpg, frequent servicing needs and the only-droppable-if-you-fiddle back seats makes it sound like I'd be just as well running the 530 for now, so although that's the most petrol-head model, I don't think there's much point to it for me at the moment... I could be wrong though there's always ManMaths!

[defblade]

I've not been worried about "quick" in a car since I got my full bike licence (although driving with the number of bank holiday bimblers about today, I was glad of a bit of power from the 3 litre every now and then ) so long as it'll pull out onto the DC-way every morning without getting rear ended... and my wife's Aygo and my old 2 litre Grand Vitara are/were fine for that.
Anything sub 10 secs to 60 is fine.
And I just don't get the chance to stretch a car's legs more than 2% of the time - my commute is DC, Mway, then crawl into town (it's the crawl that kills the mpg on the 530!).
This is why I can't see the point of the MPS for me, despite having an itch for one in the back of my head... only advantage would be the wife wouldn't ever realise quite how unsensible it was

[defblade]

Petrol only for me, and I use Waze for sat nav duties (live traffic is very handy when there are ways of avoiding the Mway if you know soon enough that it's on stop).

Hadn't really thought about it being the same platform as the Mondeo ( ), I was impressed a while back by a Mondeo taxi I had (the post '07)... is the Mazda facelift as comprehensive as the Mondeo's? If so, I can why the prices are considerably higher.