Station wagons have been as soon as so mainstream in American tradition that even Ford’s Mercury Division bought three utterly totally different wagons with faux-wood flanks as late as 1982 (Toyota additionally bought three wagon fashions right here that 12 months). Minivans and SUVs have killed off all however a handful of wagon fashions by now, and trendy automatics have almost eradicated the handbook transmission from automobile showrooms… however these developments did not cease Mazda from providing the Mazda6 station wagon with the incredibly-rare-for-the-21st-century V6/handbook powertrain mixture. I managed to identify certainly one of these hen’s-teeth machines at a snow-covered yard in northeastern Colorado a number of weeks again.
The Mazda6 changed the 626 right here for the 2003 mannequin 12 months, and People may purchase a Mazda6 wagon from 2004 via 2007. For the reason that Mazda5 minivan confirmed up right here for 2006, adopted by the CX-7 and CX-9 SUVs the following 12 months, the calculation to dump the station wagon made sense.
Nonetheless, a tiny however vocal minority of American drivers want wagons to taller and fewer car-like equipment. Although I am a Technology X-er with a 1970s childhood, my household had a Chevrolet G-Sequence passenger van as a substitute of the same old Kingswood Property or Nation Squire, so I do not shed many tears over the departure of the wagon from daily-driver relevance on our roads (that stated, my day by day beater driver lately is a 2004 Subaru Outback wagon… with 5-speed handbook).
Consider it or not, the five-on-the-floor handbook was the bottom transmission in all however the very costliest trim ranges of the 2005 Mazda6. I want the five-on-the-tree column-shift handbook, however that setup by no means actually caught on in North America.
Weirder nonetheless, you possibly can purchase your new Mazda6 long-roof with a handbook transmission bolted to the V6. That is as a result of whereas the V6 was an choice on different bodystyles, it was the one engine supplied on the wagon. That meant you had 220 horsepower in a automobile that weighs simply over Three,400 kilos, with three-pedal driving enjoyable on faucet.
Naturally, some junkyard shopper extracted the engine and transaxle, ideally to de-slushboxize one other Mazda6.
There have been extra three-pedal wagons accessible new in 2005 than you may suppose. There was this one, the Ford Focus, the Subaru Outback (which, shockingly, could possibly be bought new right here with a handbook transmission right through 2014), the Subaru Impreza (and its Saab-badged sibling, the 9-2x), the Saab 9-5, the Volkswagen Passat, the Volkwagen Jetta, the Volvo V70, the Volvo V50, the Audi A4 Avant, the BMW Three-Sequence, the Suzuki Forenza, the Jaguar X-Kind (no, actually!) and the Suzuki Aerio. As for 2022 wagons with manuals… effectively, there’s the Mini Cooper Clubman and the Subaru Crosstrek and Impreza, for those who contemplate these vehicles to be real wagons.
Winter tires and a handbook transmission on a two-wheel-drive automobile do exactly tremendous on Colorado roads throughout snow season, supplied you could have a little bit of floor clearance (and even for those who do not, in my expertise). Nevertheless, all-wheel-drive is now seen as a necessity when there is a quarter-inch of the white stuff on the mall parking zone, in order that was one other strike in opposition to this front-wheel-drive automobile’s resale worth.
It is at all times good once they rent good character actors for automobile commercials. Observe the automated transmission on this advert, due to course they’d give the dog-owning detective an computerized.
Skip to about 2:20 to witness the “Zoom-Zoom” motion of the Atenza wagon (because the 6 was identified in its homeland).