FAMILY CAR REVIEW: 2018 MAZDA6

The boot of the Mazda6 is deceptively spacious! You do have to bend down and in to put things in and out, unlike in an SUV, and although there is room for an emergency nappy change you do have to bend down to do it! When the boot is empty it will fit 12 shopping bags.

The boot space and its functionality are really important. I like to have a big boot space and little side wells or areas I can divide things into. So something I don’t want to move around while I’m driving such as Tulsi’s lunch bag or her wet swimming gear can be sectioned off in a little well where it’s not going to spill or get squashed by the rest of the things in the boot.Hooks for securing shopping bags to are also favourites of mine, I like being able to secure the bag containing more fragile things like eggs so they don’t move around on the journey. I measure the boot space in freezer shopping bags, prams and dogs. Not because I think all there is to a mum’s life is food shopping, prams and dogs (although it can feel like it sometimes!!) But because these are visually measurable items we can all associate with. For me, the car company boot measurement of litres is not an amount I can easily visualise and 400L in one car may differ in usability to that in another due to the configuration or shape of the space.

The Mountain Buggy Duet twin stroller fitted in the boot with five shopping bags in with it.

The Britax Flexx tandem stroller fitted in the boot with nine shopping bags.

The Mountain Buggy Urban Jungle single stroller fitted in the boot with eight shopping bags around it.

The Mountain Buggy Nano fitted in the boot with 12 shopping bags around it.

The parcel shelf is fixed so you can't carry a dog in the boot.

Inside the cabin, the storage is minimal but functional. There are two cup holders in the central console that will hold reusable and disposable coffee cups but they rattle around in there. My large refillable water bottle fits in the cup holders too.

The central console storage box is small but it has two USB, an AUX and a 12V sockets inside it.

There is a small area in front of the gear lever that I found good for holding my phone but the USB lead had to trail to the central console storage box.

The front door bins will hold a large refillable water bottle but my wallet and an iPad didn't fit. All the doors do have little wells in the handles which I find really useful for putting little things in like the keys when putting my daughter in and out of the car!

The glove box was tight and only just fit my wallet and iPad with the manual.

There are lit vanity mirrors in both front visors and a glasses case in the ceiling, it is lined so it won't scratch your lenses.

In the back the door bins are well sized to hold a large refillable water bottle, they are not lined so anything in there will rattle around.

There are small map pockets in the back of both front seats that would hold an iPad but not conceal it.

There is a fold-down armrest in the central seatback, that has two cup holders at the end of it. They would hold a reusable or disposable coffee cup but not a large refillable water bottle. There is also a phone charging tray in the armrest too with two USB charging points in but this does have a lid so little fingers can't access it! One big negative is the heated seat controls that are right by the cup holders and NOT covered over!? So if you use the cup holders for your child's cup or bottle then they can play around with the heated seat controls!

There are front and rear parking sensors in the Mazda6 I tested, and there is a button on the top right of the media screen to minimize the visuals.

There is also a button by the driver's right knee to turn the parking sensors on and off, as well as lane departure and i-stop or auto engine cut out.

The i-stop is not too disturbing for passengers in the Mazda6. There were many occasions I didn't even notice the car had turned off and on so it definitely doesn't shudder to a stop and start like some cars do and wake sleeping, little passengers!

I find this function really disturbing for sleeping babies, you have just got your baby to sleep in the car and you stop at lights and the engine turns off! Sometimes they will stay asleep but when the engine shudders to a start again it shakes baby awake and all your efforts are ruined!! Even coming to a stop at lights with the engine running can be enough to wake a sleeping child so turning the engine off and on again will definitely do it! I have driven routes I know have roundabouts rather than lights just to avoid coming to a stop for any length of time!!

The indicators were not noisy or disturbing; they are quite a quiet tick sound. The windows are pretty quiet to open and close and the doors open nice and quietly, but they do close with quite a thump that would disturb a sleeping baby. I found I could come to a stop and leave the engine running and get out of the car without an alarm sounding.

Since becoming a mum I spend A LOT of time parked up somewhere with a nice view while my daughter is asleep in the back! If it's hot I need to leave the engine running and the aircon on but I do like to get out and drink my cuppa tea in the fresh air while enjoying the fact my limbs are free from said dangling child!! SO this is a very important test as I have found that sometimes I have been held hostage by a cars BEEEEPING alarms when I have taken off my seatbelt or opened the door while the engine is still running!! (I only stand outside the car, I am not a bad mother!!)

There is no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto in the Mazda6 but by the end of 2018 Mazda says that all new Mazdas will come with it and older models can have it installed (for a fee), which will be fantastic!

The sat-nav voice is relatively easy to mute and adjust on a sliding scale within the guidance screen settings and I found it easy to locate and use.

Road and engine noise in the Mazda6 is excellent! It is such a smooth car to drive that it made no noises that were disturbing for passengers at all. I actually forgot how smooth and enjoyable other styles of car are because I've been driving so many SUV's!!

Becoming a parent I soon realised there are some noises and sounds I feel are unnecessary and I could happily live without if it meant my baby stayed asleep!! That often the distraction of my screaming, distressed baby is more dangerous when driving than not having a lane departure warning for example. If it is the lane departure warning beeping that creates distress with my baby then which is safest? It’s where I think we need to be able to strike a balance and choose when we can mute the warnings or swap them to a vibration in the steering wheel or flashing light perhaps? A lot of these noises come with the increase in technology and especially linked to safety features and alerts. For me these all have their place. Another thing I have realised is I spend my time in a lot more places where small children roam; parks, beaches, play gyms, swimming lessons, daycare centre etc. I have become more aware that when I’m reversing or manouvering in the car parks I have to tripple check for small children running around behind me or being in my blind spot when reversing. For this I LOVE reversing cameras, I just don’t like their beeping sounds!! I have become so much more aware of safety and potential accidents or hazards since having a child and so I love the peace of mind that I get from the cameras and sensors combined with my own vision from windows and mirrors as I don’t trust cameras alone.

The seatbelt removal alarm sounds when a seatbelt is removed while the car is being driven and a light display appears above the rearview mirror alongside the airbag warning lights.

In the back, there are two sets of ISOFix points; a pair in each of the outer seats. They are within plastic guides and are nice and easy to locate and connect to.

There are three top tether anchor points in the fixed parcel shelf behind the rear headrests. They are within plastic guides but I found them sooooo difficult to connect to because of the small space you have to work in because of the sloped rear windscreen and the low ceiling that I nearly cried when it came to undoing them because it was even harder to get them undone!!

I was so surprised to find I could fit three child seats in the back! I installed the rear-facing Britax Graphene and forward facing Maxi Guard and Kid Guard Pro.

The seats are upholstered in perforated black leather so sand, crumbs and spills wouldn't clean very easily out of all the little holes! There is room to feed bub in the back with only one child seat installed.

I found really difficult putting bub in and out of their child seats from outside the car, in both a rear and forward facing child seat because of the low roofline and sloping downwards at the back of the car doors. You really have to watch their heads (and your own) when posting them in, and especially when bending in to do up their child restraints.

Australia being a country of weather extremes- blazing sun and torrential rain, mean you may find it easier to put Bub into their seat from inside the car sometimes. If it’s hot you can get the air-con going, cool the car down and not stand out in the sun while you fasten them in or shelter from the rain and not get soaked yourself whilst you’re doing it. So it is important to test whether Bub can be easily installed from either direction!

The seats in the front of the Mazda6 were quite comfortable, I did find the seat bases a little long (I am 164cm) so they stuck in the back of my calves a bit.

I couldn't wear a ponytail with the front seat headrests either which was frustrating too!

I had spent hours styling my hair this morning to get this ponytail just right too… said no new mum ever!!!

The second row of seats is quite comfortable to sit in but I fear someone taller than my 164cm would have trouble with headroom as the roof slopes down so much at the back. The central seat especially just has no headroom! The central seat base is very hard and so is the backrest.

The second row doesn't slide and adjust for legroom, however, there is a good amount of legroom throughout the Mazda6 even with rear-facing child seats installed.

The steering wheel is fully adjustable in and out and up and down. The cruise control uses the buttons on the right on the steering wheel, they are easy to use but the cruise control struggles to stick to the set speed on undulating roads at 60km/h.

There are four thin aircon vents across the front of the dashboard, two in the centre and one at either end, I found them ample to cool the cabin.

There are also two for the rear passengers, in the back of the central console storage box.

The controls for all of them are on the front dashboard, they are easily reached while driving and simple to use. The dashboard of the Mazda6 is simple and uncluttered which makes the buttons and controls easier to navigate.

Visibility in the Mazda6 was quite poor out of the back, the rear window was quite small and the rear side windows slope down at the back, which does look very nice on the outside of the car but on the inside it creates blind spots in the back corners, especially when reversing. Also for rear-facing passengers, this has the same effect and I know with my daughter it could mean the difference between screaming for an entire journey or not!!

One thing I have noticed since being a mum is I hate it when I reach a destination or get home from being out and Tulsi has either done really well in the car or she is screaming her head off and I have done really well to keep it together for the entire journey (usually the latter!!) and it takes 10 minutes to park the car! It can be really stressful. One test is how easy cars are to park in our tight apartment block carpark,the Mazda6 although it is low, the visibility was at the right height so I found it good for reverse parking.

There are lit vanity mirrors in both front visors.

The Mazda6 is a great car to drive, it is very smooth, nippy, agile and fun to drive and I thought, ‘ah, this is what cars used to feel like before we all started driving SUVs!!'

There are well-positioned handles above both rear doors that hold a child's toy.

The Mazda6 I tested had keyless entry but I found the doors locked too quickly, meaning I would get out of the driver's side and by the time I'd got to my daughter's door, the car had locked itself and I'd have to unlock it again before I could open her door!!

You can press the button on the key to unlock the tailgate but it doesn't lift open electrically.

The Mazda6 scored a five-star ANCAP safety rating in 2012, getting a total of 35.44 out of 37 overall. For the frontal offset test, it got 14.44 out of 16 and 16/16 for the side impact test. It got 2/2 for the pole test and in the pedestrian protection test, it was rated acceptable.

Six airbags come as standard; there are dual frontal airbags as well as front side airbags and curtain airbags for the front and rear passengers. It doesn't state if these are head or full-length curtain airbags though.

As standard, the Mazda6 comes with anti-lock braking system (ABS), auto door locking (ADL), blind spot monitoring (BSM), driver attention alert (DAA), dynamic stability control (DSC), electronic brake force distribution (EBD), along with emergency brake assist (EBA), emergency stop signal (ESS), forward obstruction warning (FOW), engine immobiliser, high beam control (HBC), hill launch assist (HLA), intelligent speed assistance (ISA), lane departure warning (LDW), lane-keep assist system (LAS), rear cross traffic alert (RCTA), smart brake support (SBS), smart city brake support (SCBS) forward & reverse, traction control system (TCS), traffic sign recognition (TSR) and whiplash-minimising front seats

Some of these safety features are also features that drive me crazy as a mum! Like the lane departure and forward collision alert or the parking sensor beeping sound. I want all the safety technology AND to be able to mute the sound when Tulsi’s asleep!