Planning on buying a 2011/2012 Mazda 6 but undecided on diesel or petrol...

Feek

Feek

Feek

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My plans to replace the car last year were scuppered but I have to get it changed this year. I'm saving up as quickly as I can and have pretty much decided on a Mazda 6.

I'll be looking at around the 2011/2012 vintage and quite simply can't decide which engine to go for. I don't do a huge amount of miles any more, mainly local pootling around with a 220 mile round trip to the office once a month and the occasional trip to nearby towns.

Looking at either the 2.2 diesel or the 2.5 petrol.

I like the torque from the diesel but as we really don't know what's likely to happen to diesel cars over the next few years, I'm considering the petrol version.

However, I believe it's quite thirsty (certainly compared to the oil burner). I spotted one parked outside someones house around the block and I asked him about it - He said he gets around 30mpg on a run so it's going to be significantly worse around town.

What's the motors opinion on this? Would you go petrol or diesel?
 
Petrol. If you don't do big miles you won't really have an issue with low fuel economy. It's not like there is anything particularly nice about the diesel version anyway.
 
Never driven either and I’ve heard the 2.5 is crap on the mpg’zzz considering how slow it is but for your mileage I would go petrol every time. The extra fuel costs will probably be balanced out by the diesels higher maintenance costs and potential bigger bills with the Turbo etc. Plus a refined petrol is just nicer to drive and will hold its value better than the diesel with all the scaremongering going on.
 
My dad had the Diesel, really nice car to drive actually. In this current market it really depends on price, maybe you can get a nice deal on the diesel.
 
The diesel is nice yep - we have a close family friend with a 61 plate estate 2.2D however he rarely does motorway miles in it and has had a couple of DPF issues as you would expect so has had a regen once. I find the manual gearshift really nice though probably the best I have used!!
 
I'd check carefully as the 2.2 Mazda diesel used to be well documented as pretty awful engines. Injector issues, valve problems, oil issues....

Not sure if the latest generation is still the same though. Personally unless you do mega miles I'd get petrol.
 
My brother has the performance variant with stage 2 remap (not actually sure which engine this is off the top of my head) - not sure what it is like around town but we did the A303, M3 and half way around the M25 the other day (clear run no stop/start in traffic) 48.5 MPG. I've driven the standard petrol version (not 2.5) and found it "gutless" but my brothers is a totally different story.

If MPG isn't too pressing I'd definitely say go for the bigger engine based on my limited experience as they are far more fun to drive.
 
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Funky-Melon said:
I'd check carefully as the 2.2 Mazda diesel used to be well documented as pretty awful engines. Injector issues, valve problems, oil issues....

Not sure if the latest generation is still the same though. Personally unless you do mega miles I'd get petrol.
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A lot of diesel engines have these problems though. They choke up and things start to go wrong.
 
Is your budget too low for a 3rd generation?

The diesels of the mk2 are well known for having problems, and whilst the 1.8 and 2.0 petrols are fine, the 2.5 is hopelessly uneconomical and not that more powerful. I had a lot of problems with the alarm on my mk2 as well which I never fully sorted despite multiple trips to a main dealer. Being a source of annoyance amongst your neighbours because your alarm keeps going off randomnly isn't great.

Overall if I were you, I'd try and spend a little bit more to get one of the newer ones. The 2.0 petrol will need working through the rev range but it's a much nicer place to be than the mk2 which I found quite plastic-y and harsh riding in SL trim with the 18" alloys. Post 2015 has the current interior too, which is again even better with the integrated dash screen.

Post 2015 2.0 Petrols in SE-L trim start around £10k.
 
Im going to compare it to another car

ive been looking at 2011/2012 cars myself too (Focus and Octavia mostly)

I personally; by looking at the stats on the mazda 6 2.5 petrol, i would rather had an octavia instead because with all the engine (2.5L) it is only doing 8.5s to 60 around 35MPG give or take with a high tax cost of £280, were as the Octactia is a 1.8T with more MPG, lower tax band, and a lot more power

Octavia is a pretty good car i believe (had an older generation and now the new one) and can recommend them, no idea on the mazda though
 
ShiWarrior said:
Im going to compare it to another car

ive been looking at 2011/2012 cars myself too (Focus and Octavia mostly)

I personally; by looking at the stats on the mazda 6 2.5 petrol, i would rather had an octavia instead because with all the engine (2.5L) it is only doing 8.5s to 60 around 35MPG give or take with a high tax cost of £280, were as the Octactia is a 1.8T with more MPG, lower tax band, and a lot more power

Octavia is a pretty good car i believe (had an older generation and now the new one) and can recommend them, no idea on the mazda though
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Is the 1.8T octavia not a heavy oil consumption affected engine?
 
If you like the mazda 6 have you considered the mondeo? iirc they are on the same platform(?) and the 2.0 petrol mondeos seem to be quite popular
 
We needed a bigger car for the SWMBO and the kids, ended up with a Mazda5. Plenty of the diesel about but since the mileage would be fairly low, around 8k a year the 2.0 petrol was the one we ended up with.

The mpg is pretty rubbish with an average currently in the low 30s, and the engine is woefully underpowered as we've had turbos in the last few cars. BUT, it does everything we need it to, and should be extremely reliable for the duration we will have it.

Might have a quick look at remaps now since it's the same engine as the MX-5's.
 
Feek said:
My plans to replace the car last year were scuppered but I have to get it changed this year. I'm saving up as quickly as I can and have pretty much decided on a Mazda 6.

I'll be looking at around the 2011/2012 vintage and quite simply can't decide which engine to go for. I don't do a huge amount of miles any more, mainly local pootling around with a 220 mile round trip to the office once a month and the occasional trip to nearby towns.

Looking at either the 2.2 diesel or the 2.5 petrol.

I like the torque from the diesel but as we really don't know what's likely to happen to diesel cars over the next few years, I'm considering the petrol version.

However, I believe it's quite thirsty (certainly compared to the oil burner). I spotted one parked outside someones house around the block and I asked him about it - He said he gets around 30mpg on a run so it's going to be significantly worse around town.

What's the motors opinion on this? Would you go petrol or diesel?
Click to expand...

I had the 2.2d 163ps in manual for a few months then moved to a new 2.2d 175ps Sport Auto in 2015.

If you can afford a new shape, the cars are worlds appart. Both are really nice though.

Fuel economy on the manual or automatic is not great but diesel is much better than petrol on these. Low 40s to mid 50s depending on speed and cruise and I averaged about 43mpg in both.

Drivers seats on the 11/12 shape like to wobble a lot. It's a new sub base if this happens to fix properly as there are two faults that present one due to the mount clips and the other due to play in the mechanism.

My old shape did 8k miles in 4 months and was a great place to be. My new shape did 50k in 2 years and at the time I purchased it was a toss up between that, a 520d M Sport and E220d AMG Line. Money wasn't the issue but I preferred the new Mazda inside and out plus well specced as standard. Performance on the 175 sport auto was virtually the same too against the last gen 520d/220d.

I moved to a new gen E220d this time though.

Running costs on both manual and auto were low. New shape typically £180-£240 per service every 12.5k. Only needed one set of front tyres at 25k miles.

On both gens with seats down I could get an internal room wooden door in.

Mazda paint is made of cheese though. Front and rear bumpers on all but black and white never match properly (lol) and you can never unsee this. Still an issue on new ones in wrong light.

The diesel is the better performer. The petrol is pretty thirsty in the last gen and slower bar with the 2.5 which is in real world high 20s to low 30s mpg and for a car of such average performance not worth it. The 163ps diesel still feels quicker.
 
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Shivy011 said:
Is the 1.8T octavia not a heavy oil consumption affected engine?
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Some are really bad, so you need to watch out for that.

It's design fault with the engine relating to the piston rings which allow oil in to the cylinders. It's not easily fixable (permanently) and costs £1000s to put right as it requires taking the engine to bits. It can also damaged the cylinders eventually, it that happens it's new engine time!
 
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Nasher said:
Some are really bad, so you need to watch out for that.

It's design fault with the engine relating to the piston rings which allow oil in to the cylinders. It's not easily fixable (permanently) and costs £1000s to put right as it requires taking the engine to bits. It can also damaged the cylinders eventually, it that happens it's new engine time!
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This is spot on. Chain cam tensioner issues are also a possible problem with this engine too. Newer revision tensioner costs £500+ for parts + labour and not sure it fully resolves the problem.
 
Thanks for the feedback - I may up my budget a little and try and get the newer generation. I will be going automatic, after having sworn for nearly thirty years that I'd never have an auto, having had one now for three years or so, I wouldn't go back to manual.

When does the newer gen start, was it 2015?

The 2.5l petrol seems to be very rare so there's a good chance I'll end up with the diesel version. I'm a few months away yet so just getting early ideas in now.

/edit -What gen is this?
 
Feek said:
Thanks for the feedback - I may up my budget a little and try and get the newer generation. I will be going automatic, after having sworn for nearly thirty years that I'd never have an auto, having had one now for three years or so, I wouldn't go back to manual.

When does the newer gen start, was it 2015?

The 2.5l petrol seems to be very rare so there's a good chance I'll end up with the diesel version. I'm a few months away yet so just getting early ideas in now.

/edit -What gen is this?
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Think new gen was 13/14. If auto the 175 Sport Auto is the one to go for with safety pack. You get a fair bit as standard paddleshift, leather, elec / heated seats, led adaptive lights, bose stereo, high beam assist, blind spot detection etc etc.

The newer skyactive diesel engines rev more like a petrol too. They don't sound overly dieselly either.

They did a mini interior face lift end of 2015 which changes the dash to sat nav mounted on top not integrated and an electronic hand brake. This means pre 65 plates are a bit cheaper.
 
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