Mazda6 bridges model gap with 2017.5
Filed under: Weekly test drives, Autos
The Mazda6 always has had sporty lines, and the 2017.5 upgrade adds interior features and such functions as G-Vectoring.
If you had never seen the most recent version of the Mazda6 sedan, and got a chance to spend some time with a 2017 model, chances are you would be impressed at how such an impressive, state of the art sedan could have eluded your notice.
The Mazda6 is the small Japanese company’s flagship sedan, officially midsize in the same way that the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Nissan Altima, Volkswagen Passat, Ford Fusion and Chevrolet Malibu are midsizers.
Flowing, organic lines of Mazda6 conceal upgrades for 2017.5 model.
I had not driven a 2017 Mazda6, although it always has been one of my favorite cars because of its tight handling, sporty performance and flashy appearance. Pretty hard to beat that trio of assets.
When I discussed some test drives upcoming, I asked if the distribution company happened to have any 2018 Mazda6es, and he said they hadn’t seen one, “but we have a 2017.5,” he said.
What I remember about the last Mazda6 I had driven, maybe a 2015 or 2016, was that the interior was basic and simple, which in contemporary vernacular means non-luxurious.
From an engineering standpoint, nobody matches Mazda’s dedication. Others are excellent, but in my opinion, Mazda is on top. The Skyactiv engine technology is just one of those features. A more recent one is the elaborate G-Vectoring technique to limit torque to the outside front wheel in tight cornering, virtually coaxing the driver to turn at the first moment he should.
Rich Nappa leather and soft-touch features are part of the interior makeover.
The G-Vectoring was put in place on the CX-5 and the Mazda3 a year ago, but it missed this cycle of the Mazda6.
So what could knowing a new and improved Mazda6 is coming soon, to upgrade the present car — the 2017 model — to completely redo the interior, to slightly tweak the exterior, and to install the G-Vectoring to the Mazda6?
I had no idea what the 2017-and-a-half would look like, so I paid extra attention to it when it showed up from the Chicago press fleet. It was bright red, or, in Mazda terms, Soul Red Metallic. Mazda, it must be noted, has at least three different red colors for the exteriors of its cars and SUVs, with the newest one being exclusive to the CX-5 compact SUV. That is my favorite of the array of reds, but they all are attractive. The test car was the GT model, which means a few extra sporty touches. Read more
Q60 Coupe means alpha-numeric sports-luxury
Filed under: Weekly test drives, Autos
Infiniti Q60 Sport is a utilitarian sports coupe with turbo V6 power and AWD.
Spend a few days driving up and down the freeway in the Infiniti Q60 coupe and you will be impressed by the power and the handling and the comfort, and maybe most by the knowledge that you look so darn cool in that sleek sporty car.
After you’re fully acquainted with its driving and handling assets, one of the last items you might find is the little rocker switch on the console, just southwest of the shift lever. Look closely, and you realize it is a driving mode selector. Click it and a readout shows that you can select eco, normal, snow, or sport, or sport-plus.
With most of these devices, your car might already be firm enough, and making it firmer could become harsh. The Q60, however, is firm enough but never even hints at harsh, so switching it to Sport-plus turned it into a quite-different ride. Quicker steering, firmer cornering feel, and an engine that goes from swift to swifter, making you feel that you should use the steering wheel paddles to truly appreciate the sportiness yoiu’ve discovered.
The car in question is not just the Q60, but a beautiful rad metallic color that defines its full name — the 2018 Infiniti Q60 Red Sport 400 AWD. Flipping that switch, which goes back to a default “standard” setting when you start up again, transforms the vehicle from a beautiful boulevardiering sports coupe into something that feels like it might have been designed for the track but allowed out on the street.
Sweeping fastback lines imply 2-seater, but Q60 has fair room in the rear, too.
You may be, as I am, forced to stop and think whenever Nissan-Infiniti hits you with a name that starts with Q, or QX where there used to be G and a number. But whatever the designation, the technology remains ever-improving.
If you aren’t currently impressed with what Nissan/Infiniti has been doing with engines in recent years, you haven’t been paying attention. It’s highest-tech 2.0-liter turbocharged 4 is amazing, and Mercedes uses it in its C-Class and smaller sportier SUVs. It is just bringing to market a new concept that involves variable compression, which alters the engines compression ratio and thus provides almost infinite valve-timing range. Read more
Lincoln Navigates back to top of luxury SUVs
Filed under: Weekly test drives, Autos
The 2018 Navigator makes a bold claim at the top of the luxury SUV segment.
If you had a lot of what they call “disposable income” and you wanted to take the family on vacation, you might charter a plane. You would not pick something small, and instead might choose a gigantic 747.
No, wait a minute. They’ve discontinued the 747, so we can’t charter one.
But then again, the Lincoln Navigator seemed destined to become a historical footnote a few years ago, too, right along with the Chevrolet Suburban and Tahoe, Cadillac Escalade, Ford Excursion and all other manner of humongous SUVs, because of our quest for improved fuel efficiency and better emissions. And now we seem to have forgotten all of that, and luxury-vehicle seekers are lining up to drop six-figure checks on the biggest, baddest and most luxurious trucks and SUVs on the market.
With that, the 2018 Lincoln Navigator speeds onto the scene with power and all-wheel-drive grip, as if to declare itself biggest, baddest, etc. So maybe there’s hope for the 747, too.
The only problem is, it appears that even auto journalists can’t decide what’s a truck and what’s an SUV anymore. Years ago, preparing for the car of the year and truck of the year awards at the Detroit Auto Show, I voted to not expand to add utility of the year as a third category. Nobody cared. My concern was that with a huge crop of mid and compact SUVs hitting the market, there might be years when a legitimate truck wouldn’t be coming out new, and leaving trucks with SUVs would keep the integrity of our votes intact. The decision went the other way, and this year we see the result: There are no new trucks, so the committee decided to make the Chevrolet Colorado midsize pickup one of three finalists, even though it was just a cladded-up, off-road version of an existing truck. The other two finalists would be the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator, both of which used to be large SUV by anyone’s measure. justification to evaluate them as trucks was they are body on frame.
Wider, though a tad shorter than a Suburban, the Navigator is roomy throughout, including the third-row seat.
Whatever. Turns out, he Navigator won truck of the year. I remained a skeptic right up until a recent week when a new 2018 Navigator 4×4 Reserve was delivered for me to road test. It was shiny black, as anyone could tell from a glance out the window. Except it was not. Another illusion. When you got close, you could tell it was a subtle, not-quite-black, dark color, with some red to it.
Officially, it is listed as “Burgundy Velvet Tinted Clear Coat,” and it was stunning, making the bright chrome grille and stylish 22-inch alloy wheels jump out at you. Your first impression is that this is a bi-i-i-ig SUV. Gigantic. It is so big that when I later saw one from a distance, the view from the rear corner made me think I was looking at one of those new extra large Suburbans. THAT big.
Walk up and stand next to it and the Navigator will dwarf you. It is 76.1 inches tall, with a 221.9-inch length, 131.6-inch wheelbase, and a 79.9-inch width. At 6,330 pounds, the Navigator can tow 8,100 pounds of trailer.
Part of its illusion of size, which is no illusion but more fact, is the flashy wheels are 9.5-inches wide and 22 inches in circumference. Now, we aren’t going to estimate the price, but let’s assume buying replacement 22-inch tires will cost more than a reasonable consumer might be interested in paying.
However, I do have to restrain my usual sarcasm when dealing with trucks or SUVs I would normally accuse of being too big, because people are plunking down enormous quantities of money to buy these beasts. And the fellow in the White House is ordering his new EPA puppet to roll back former President Obama’s strict emission and fuel economy standards, to the applause of all the U.S. manufacturers who want nothing more than to unleash the largest of large trucks with the least economic of engines in a return to the 1970s, presumably.
Clean and elegant inside, the leather and wood is in stylish abundance in the Navigator.
Interesting, but one of the most impressive things about contemporary cars and trucks is that these companies continue to make higher and higher technology engines that produce more and more power yet still get more and more miles per gallon. Somehow, U.S. manufacturers would trade all that for cheaper-to-build, less-efficient engines that are more foul-running and will get worse fuel economy.
The test Navigator provided a sticker sheet that discreetly neglected to list a base or as-tested price. Checking a few car magazines, we can deduce that a Navigator will cost a base price of about $75,000 up to about $98,000, with gusts up to and over the magic $100,000 barricade.
Seems to me, prices like that could make foreign-make engines and the vehicles that come wrapped around them more popular, simply because intelligent people might prefer 30-plus miles per gallon to 15. I got a top of 19 mpg. But we can just wait to see if the U.S. manufacturers cut the sticker prices of these giant SUVs once the EPA says they can make less costly engines.
Continental grille recaptures various touches from Lincoln’s luxury car past.
Ironically, companies like Ford have already made the plunge to high-tech, and they have done a good job, mostly. The Navigator, for example, comes with a 3.5-liter V6 EcoBoost engine, which means it is twin-turbocharged and can be tuned to turn out a lot of power. It is also used in the F-150 Raptor. The test vehicle shows 450 horsepower at 5,000 RPMs, and 510 foot-pounds of torque at 3,500 RPMs from its 3.5-liter V6. That is more horsepower than Cadillac can extract from the 6.2-liter V8 in its 6.2-liter V8.
Once you open the door on the Navigator, you realize how happy you are to spot the grip handles to let you pull yourself up and in. That’s before you spot the moving running board that is coming out to meet you. Handy.
The black leather front bucket seats are wide and comfortably supportive, and as you settle into it and start fiddling with the 30-way electric adjustments of your bucket, you are also taken by the overriding feeling of luxury, which is everywhere.
And then you push the button and start the Navigator, and all you need is someone to point to where the gearshift might be located. The 10-speed automatic with overdrive is shifted by a thin, horizontal row of push-buttons, located along the lower edge of the radio-navigation screen and above the lower dash-center stack-console area where you might expect to find a modern shifter.
Worked great, though, once you got used to it and it shifted readily with the paddle shifters on the steering wheel.
Second-row seats slide forward to allow easy access to the spacious third row.
Driving the Navigator was easy. For such a big beast, it handled well and gave back only moderate sway, which you could eliminate by switching the mode switch from normal to “excite,” which tightens the steering, stiffens the suspension and holds shift points longer.
A panoramic sunroof adds to the luxurious feel, but with all that room you also feel guilty if you have fewer than six occupants. Opening the rear door shows off a roomy second row area, with a fold-down center armrest to go from three seats to two and a console. One of the neat features is that when you want to put someone — and we’re talking children or adults — into the surprisingly roomy third-row seat, you fold the outer second-row seat forward and it slides what seems like a foot forward, which presents an easy-access opening to hop through and reach the far rear.
I had fun wrestling with the second-row seats, then I learned that there is a power switch that controls fold-tip-slide action. No wrestling is required.
Ruggedness contrasts with the classiness of a family touring vehicle.
Naturally, the Navigator has all the latest safety gadgets, for lane warning and control, surround view of any and all things approaching from any and all directions, blind-spot alert, a 20-speaker audio upgrade, and all the connectivity gizmos you might want, including some things you didn’t know you wanted, like a wireless charging pad.
What would you expect from the Navigator, which we can welcome as 2018 truck of the year in a year when big trucks are making a big — and we mean BIG — comeback.
Audi eases — or adds to — sedan-SUV debate
Filed under: Weekly test drives, Autos
If you choose wisely, you can get either an Audi Q5 or A5 sedan with the same drivetrain.
Maybe we can all get along, after all — that is, those who demand to buy, own, drive, and put fuel in an SUV, and those who resist the SUV trend and think we should all be driving cars.
Audi is in the position of many car-makers these days, and doesn’t particularly care which you choose, because it provides several excellent examples of both from which consumers can choose.
The remarkable thing about Audi is they can reach any reasonable compromise, with midsize vehicles such as the A5 Sportback 2.0T sedan, and the Q5 2.0T midsize SUV, which might provide the best example of how you can pick either one, and not possibly miss.
By absolute luck of a scheduling quirk, I got one of each of those Audis to drive for the same week in wildly fluctuating mid-winter weather that went from surprisingly mild to unsurprisingly harsh, sometimes in the same day. Such is life in Duluth, Minnesota, on the glorious — and sometimes unyielding — North Shore of Lake Superior. A blizzard here, some below-zero temperatures there, and all in all, it gave us a fantastic opportunity to try, and to appreciate, all of the creature features that make Audis among the world’s finest driving machines
Coupe-like sleekness is the calling card of the midsize A5 Sportback.
While the A5 Sportback has its wonderfully sleek lines — better, I think, than the longer Sportback version of the longer, costlier and more exotic Audi A7 sedan — the Q5 is a very neat size that drops in between the larger Q7 and the compact Q3, and has a unique look of its own.
The worldwide trend of the last few years has been to try to meet new and exacting emission and economy standards by reducing engine size without eliminating driving satisfaction, and the answer has been to use turbocharged 4-cylinder engines where V6 or even V8 power-plants formerly resided. It’s a technique that everybody is trying to perfect, and the advantage Audi has is that it, and parent Volkswagen, have for years been using and perfecting a 2.0-liter 4-cylinder, turbocharged engine to give V6-type power with far better fuel efficiency.
For example, take the latest 2.0-liter Audi 4 with direct injection, and turbocharging. You can tweak it through the computer up to 252 horsepower and 273 foot-pounds of torque. That is sufficient to move the A5 Sportback to its more-agile best, through Audi’s traditional quattro all-wheel -drive system, regulated by a 7-speed S-tronic automatic transmission that is not only smooth shifting, but can be manually overridden by steering-wheel-mounted paddles.
Graceful arching back of Q5 provides room and utility to serve as family SUV.
And, get this: That exact powertrain can be placed on a stiff, rigid platform, and then you could set a sleek, artfully crafted A5 Sportback body on it, or you could set a neatly contoured midsize Q5 SUV body on it. In this case, both vehicles have the 2.0 turbo 4, with the same 7-speed transmission, the same quattro AWD system, and with even the same horsepower and torque figures.
For those wondering how to afford one over the other, the sticker prices also are very similar. The A5 Sportback with the Prestige package goes up from a base price of $42,600 to a sticker of $55,400. The Q5 with the Prestige package starts at $41,500 and lists as equipped for $56,100. Read more
2018 Mazda CX-3 churns on true vector through snow
Filed under: Weekly test drives, Autos
Seeking shelter with Mazda CX-3 was only to t — it loved the snow.ry to keep it clean
By John Gilbert
Last summer, I had the occasion to test a 2017 Mazda CX-3 for a week, and while I was impressed overall, even though there were a couple of things that concerned me. What didn’t concern me was the flashy design and appearance of the CX-3, which has an interesting assortment of creases and contours, all of which harmonize into a thing of beauty that other SUVs, and even Mazda’s larger ones, can’t match.
I continue to stress that my belief is consumers should select the “smallest utility vehicle that is large enough,” because enormous, truck-based SUVs that nearly went the way of the dinosaur when the gasoline prices spiked, spend most of their days hauling around a lot of extra size and weight and guzzling fuel during the 90-percent of their driving devoid of the van-full of people and/or camping gear.
From that standpoint, I suggest continuing to road-test SUVs smaller that what you may desire, until you find one that meets your demands and still is more compact and agile to drive and can easily get twice the fuel economy of the big ones. The competition in that CUV (compact utility vehicle) is ferocious, and continues to get broader and more competitive by the month.
Compact size gives up storage and rear seatroom, but CX-3 style and zoom-zoom prevails.
Look at Honda, with its Pilot, then its smaller CR-V, and now an even more compact HR-V. Toyota has the Highlander, then the 4Runner, and then the compact RAV4, and now has spread out into various smaller runabouts that may or may not even offer all-wheel drive — which is the primary reason folks wanted SUVs/CUVs in the first place. And Nissan has the Pathfinder, the Murano, down to the Rogue, and now the Rogue Sport, and a new one, the Kicks (as in, “Get your Kicks”) that is smaller still.
Mazda created the compact CX-5, which seemed perfectly aimed at the CR-V and RAV4 and Rogue, and they came out with the larger CX-9, and the smaller CX-3. All three perform with the best, and have the added and undeniable edge in sporty “fun-to-drive” that lives up to Mazda’s “Zoom-zoom” philosophy.
Last summer, while I had to admit the CX-3 was cramped in the rear seat and stowage room, it was amazingly fun to drive and agile, and I truly prefered the smaller 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine to the larger and more powerful 2.5. The statistics showed the EPA esdtimates were only about 1 mpg different, but in my driving — smooth, steady, but with gusts of gustro — I was able to coax that CX-3 with the 2.0 up to 38.4 miles per gallon. And taht’s with AWD.
At a price of about $25,000, the CX-3 seemed to have all the assets that a couple with little kids, or an aging couple whose kids are gone, might want. My only reservation was the rear seat. And then my older son, Jack, who is about 5-11, and helps me a lot in creating this column and chipping in with my wife, Joan, to expand my experiences with test-drivers, arrived for a visit. He volunteered to hop into the rear seat, even though we warned him that it wouldn’t be comfortable.
Clean, contemporary interior design is refreshing change from usual complexities.
He folded himself just slilghtly to fit into the rear door, and once inside, exclaimed that it was fine — not expansive, but spacious enough and designed to comfortably house a couple of adults. So as I gave the CX-3 back, I had to put a question mark next to the one concern I had.
Six months later, in the harshest time of winter in Duluth, Minnesota, I got a new 2018 Mazda CX-3. It, too, was gleaming pearlescent white, and it looked striking, even against the snow, which kept falling in differing dosages throughout the week. It looks pretty much the same as the 2017, and the magazines all kissed off the new one as being virtually the same. It’s not.
A couple of the features are important to Northern drivers, such as a heated steering wheel, automatic dimming and brightening headlights, and a little trick called “G-vectoring.” This is something a few automakers are getting into, but Mazda is, as usual, ahead of the technology race. When you have g-vectoring, it means your car will turn in and corner and slalom tightly in much quicker-reacting form. In Mazda’s scheme, it is a safety characteristic that redefines Zoom-zoom beyond reason.
Mazda designers blended style into every contour and crease of the CX-3.
As a driver, when you decide to make a quick turn or lane change, you know what’s coming, and you may or may not be impressed at how th vehicle responds. Your wife/passenger is more surprised, and goes through enough of what they call “head-toss” to be uncomfortable, tending toward car-sickness.
Mazda noted that what makes the car respond more quickly and more smoothly is to reduce the power to the outside front wheel just slightly, as it simultaneously softens the same wheel. That seems to conflict with the idea of stiffening the outer wheel, but the softening inspires your instincts to turn fully, and as you start to turn, the power and suspension reduction on the front outside wheel makes you realize your timing for the turn works. Besides, it only affects your steering instincts for a millisecond.
The real-world evidence that it works is that in a normal car, you swerve or turn or change lanes abruptly, and you find the urgent need to correct your steering input, which sometimes leads to over-correcting and the need to correct the correction. That, I’ve always maintained, is what throws you out of control. With Mazda’s brilliant technique, you may not feel any difference, and shrug it off as insignificant. But Mazda’s research shows that the driver rarely or never needs to correct, or over-correct, because the car goes where it’s steering more smoothly.
Your front-seat passenger will not notice the difference, either, but will get home without the queasiness or stiff neck.
While small, the is CX-3 has adequate storage room for hiking gear, light luggage.
Mazda put G-vectoring into the 2017 Mazda3, and Mazda6 sedans, and into the new CX-5, but the newest model of the CX-3 was already out, and missed the technology. That didn’t mean it was a bad car, but if you’re going to get a vehicle, you want it armed with the best technical tricks — particiularly in Minnesota, where we have hundreds of car-seeking deer who want to dash out and bang into any size or shape vehicle that might pass between them and their dusk watering path. Swerving smoothly doesn’t sound as catchy as Zoom-soom, but it is part of the idea.
What impressed us both was that even when the snow piled to inches that became a foot or so, the small, compact CX-3 stormed through it, you should pardon the expression. The Touring and Grand Touring varieties of the CX-3 have 18-inch wheels, and all-season tires, which could, of course, be upgraded to a more winter-beating variety. My favoirites remain Nokian WR-3 or WR-2 all-seasons.
But I also have to take issue with Mazda designers and engineers, who move to the larger wheels and tires for improved sporty handling, but without regard for another theory of mine. If you take a 16 or 17 inch wheel, mounted with a tire, then you increase the size of the wheel to 18 or even 20 inches, you must reduce the width of the tire sidewall to make it the same fit. In so doing, every time you hit a washout or nasty rough patch of pavement, the less cushioning provided by wider tire sidewalls is transmitted directly to you in the passenger compartment with jolting harshness.
We didn’t find our CX-3 too harsh, although it has a neat little toggle switch on the console that you can click into “sport” setting. It firms the suspension, quickens the steering and allows the exceptional 6-speed automatic to hold its shiftpoints longer. We found the CX-3 actually felt better in sport mode.
I was briefly disappointed when my readings disclosed a best gas-mileage figure of 30.2 mpg, until I realized that we spent much of our time with the CX-3 when temperatures were either single-digits or below zero, and every car or truck I’ve ever tested can’t match its best mileage of summer during severe cold. You want to warm up the car briefly, and severe cold simply requires the computer to let in more fuel to the air-fuel mixture.
Imagine the audacity of Mazda, to put round knobs in the CX-3 for simple controls!
Another word of praise is due for the 6-speed automatic transmission, built in-house by Mazda. You can still get a 6-speed Mazda manual shift for the CX-3, which is outstanding, but almost all competitors have given in the the CVT trend, and the annoying hummmmm of the continuously variable transmission reduces driving satisfaction, in my opinion. If you don’t believe me, test-drive any competitor with a CVT, then drive the CX-3 with its smooth-shifting and quick 6-speed automatic, and with the available paddles on the steering wheel, you will be zoom-zoomed to appreciate the difference.
Now we’re torn. We’d like to purchase a small, fuel-efficient SUV, and we have several in mind. We know the CX-3 can’t be set up to tow, and it has limited storage space behind the rear seat, and we have that cramped getting into and out of the rear seat. But with all things considered, the CX-3 has moved back up to the top of the class.
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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