What Car? Names Mazda6 'Family Car' and 'Estate Car of the Year 2010'

DARTFORD, UNITED KINGDOM – January 15, 2010: The popular Mazda6 has scooped its fifth and sixth What Car? Car of the Year awards being crowned both ‘Family Car’ and ‘Estate Car of the Year 2010’ at the prestigious What Car? Awards held at the Grosvenor House hotel in London yesterday, (Thursday 14th December). The Mazda6 impressed a panel of three judges with its performance, reliability and affordability after evaluating three cars in each of the ‘Family Car’ and ‘Estate Car’ categories.

Now in its 33rd year, the What Car? Car of the Year Awards compares 392 different models across 16 major categories.

Peter Lawson, panel judge for the ‘Family Car’ category commended the Mazda6 for its practicality, comfort, class, reliability and its fun to drive appeal, claiming: “If you choose wisely, you can have all these talents wrapped up in one car: the Mazda6.”

He added: “What’s more, this Mazda’s resale values are stronger than a body-builder’s biceps.”

Steve Fowler, What Car? Editor commented on Mazda’s double triumph: “The Mazda6 Hatchback and Estate outclassed contenders in the ‘Family Car’ and ‘Estate Car’ categories with its overall package of practicality and good looks proving too much for the competition. The Mazda6 ticks all the right boxes when it comes to company car and family car drivers making an informed car purchase”.

The Mazda6 Estate impressed judges with the same attributes of the Mazda6 hatchback yet the extra space and clever mechanisms ‘dazzled’ panel judge Barnaby Jones and beat off stiff competition for the ‘Estate Car of the Year’ title .

The Mazda6 range, priced from £16,115 on-the-road, inspired a decisive reaction from the judges and claimed the ‘Family Car’ and ‘Estate Car’ titles from the Skoda Superb and Ford Mondeo in the ‘Family Car’ category, while the Mazda6 Estate outshone the Skoda Octavia Estate and Mercedes E-Class in the ‘Estate Car’ category.

Jeremy Thomson, Managing Director, Mazda UK added: “We are truly delighted that the Mazda6 has been crowned the What Car? ‘Family Car’ and ‘Estate Car of the Year’. These are the fifth and sixth awards from What Car? for the Mazda6, which is further confirmation why the Mazda6 is one of our most popular models in the range. The current model has sold over 22,000 since launch in 2007 and thanks to its high levels of comfort, flexibility, dynamic handling and great engine, it is no wonder that the Mazda6 continues to attract family and company car drivers.”

Mazda6 is offered with a choice of four powertrains and five equipment levels, in a range of eleven colours. Each of the equipment levels – S, TS, TS2, Sport and Sports Luxury are highly specified within its price band. Specification upgrades on the Mazda6 in 2009 included a new standard equipment feature on 15 models from the £18,440 TS2 - Mazda’s innovative safety-boosting lane change ‘Rear Vehicle Monitoring System’