The Mazda 6 is dead! Sure, it died in North America a few years ago, but it’s now dead in Japan. Except it’s not actually out of production in Japan, which means this 12-year-old midsize sedan isn’t actually dead despite being mostly dead. Is it undead? What’s going on here? Sit down and breathe for a second, we’re going to decipher the entire situation for you.
The third-generation Mazda 6 is an important car, despite not selling in massive numbers. Mazda’s sporty sedan was introduced in 2012 and, for a variety of reasons, continued to be competitive in the American midsize sedan market right up until the end of its nearly decade-long American sales run. It received a facelift in 2016 and another in 2018, eventually gaining a substantially revised dashboard, updated styling, and available turbocharged power, but the fundamentals remained the same. Mazda made a midsize sedan that looked great, was efficient, felt reasonably nice, was enjoyable to drive, and didn’t cost an arm and a leg. Through two generations of Honda Accord and several iterations of the Toyota Camry, the Mazda 6 remained a smart, alternative choice. An impressive feat from a relatively small automaker.
Even in its last year in America, the press took notice. Car And Driver put it on a list of the best sedans of 2021, writing that “Although the 2021 Mazda 6 isn’t perfect, it’s one of the classiest entries in this class of family-oriented four-doors.” You know what didn’t make that list? Any Toyota sedan.
However, good things don’t last forever. In addition to bowing out of the American market after 2021, the Mazda 6 went off sale in the U.K. and China at the end of last year. This now 12-year-old midsizer is said to be pulling out of at least one more market imminently, as Motor 1 reports that Japanese market sales will end in April. However, that doesn’t mean the Mazda 6 is dead everywhere.
Australian publication Drive reports that in a handful of markets from a handful of plants, the Mazda 6 is still expected to soldier on.
“We will continue to build Mazda 6 in Japan for Australia and some other markets. This also remains unchanged for its local assembly in Vietnam,” a Mazda Australia spokesperson told Drive.
Hot damn, this means that there’s still demand for brand new versions of a 12-year-old mainstream car. While a few Toyota 4Runner owners are likely looking at our surprise with certain indignation, the midsize sedan is a vastly different market segment from the body-on-frame SUV segment. For 4Runner buyers, old is gold, as everything is proven. In contrast, the midsize sedan market tends to move faster, with Toyota on the cusp of launching a heavily revised Camry.
All of this begs the question: When will the third-generation Mazda 6 actually die? Surely, it’s not terribly long for this world, with only a few select markets continuing to offer it. However, local Vietnamese production may tip the scale, as decoupling production from Japan may yield interesting results. So, let’s make some wild guesses. Bring on The Autopian Third-Generation Mazda 6 Death Pool.
Call me pessimistic, but I have a hunch that the third-generation Mazda 6 will finally be discontinued in 2026. Fourteen years is a substantial lifecycle for any car, and it’s difficult to see sustained production being viable considering the greater crossover-ification of the roadscape. Matt’s a little more optimistic, guessing a 2030 end-of-production. If the third-generation Mazda 6 holds out that long, it will have been made for an astonishing 18 years.
So, what’s your best guess on when the current Mazda 6 will finally exit production for good? Winner gets absolutely nothing but satisfaction in being right, and even then, our lawyers would like you to know that satisfaction in being right is not guaranteed. Drop your best guesses in the comments below – when production finally ends, we’ll go back and see who nailed it.
(Photo credits: Mazda)
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I’m still thinking about replacing my BRZ with one of these once my wife and I have a kid. I think it’s actually looking better now than when it was on sale new in the US
We had a ’15 for about a year between the Passat TDI we turned in and the Chrysler Pacifica we now have. Gorgeous car in blue, a little under-powered, and ultimately not big enough for our needs, which is where the minivan came in.
Hopefully they sell the tooling to Dodge and it soldiers on until like 2039.
Don’t tell me you wouldn’t drive a Mazda 6 with a Hemi. 😉
My guess is they need a medium-sized sedan in markets where that segment is hot (or at least luke-warm) , but they need to finish their development on the new Mazda 60 (?) which will have the RWD architecture and the straight 6 or 4 cylinder hybrid drive-trains. This is taking a long time because they are small and slow. Hope the new I6 sedan has a stick, that would be a riot, that is however extremely doubtful.
This car is an example of timeless design. No matter how long they keep making it, it will continue to look good.
The longroof, while rare, is even better.
Totally agree. The Acura TSX wagon (which came as a manual) is like that as well.
The longer they make it the longer parts are available, which is great for me as I plan on keeping my ’17 (Touring Manual) till it dies. I absolutely love this car, and can’t imagine anything (within rea$on) I’d replace it with. After changing the trans fluid at around ~50k it shifts smoother than ever, and the 2.5 Skyactiv has been flawless and provides just enough punch.
This car is so odd. I really like the look of it and I was in the market for a decent sized estate so I went to look at one based on all of the rave reviews the car got from journos about how good it was to drive etc.
Found a decent one only about 15 miles from home at a dealer so went to test drive. They basically gave me the keys and said bring it back in about half an hour. Headed out of the town and on to some nice roads. And…it was bloody awful.
Floor hinged accelerator pedal felt strange, steering was massively light and had absolutely no feel whatsoever, clutch & brake pedals so light I struggled with smooth control. I honestly wondered if I was driving the same car as everyone raved about – felt less connected to the road than I do in a computer game.
Such a shame as I had high expectations and they were properly dashed.
I would have bought one in 2017 if they offered a “Speed” version. The only engine offered at that time was adequate and I was coming out of a WRX, so ‘adequate’ wasn’t going to cut it.
Instead I went with my second choice. Honda Accord 4D with the 3.5L. Loved that car till the Hail Gods took it from me.
My parents replaced their 1999 Nissan Altima with a 2009 Mazda 6, the first one on the lot. A lot of neighbors asked us about the car, the design was nothing that Toyota or Honda were doing at that time, pretty advanced. I remember when we traveled to visit my grandparents, they were so proud of my dad.
This third gen was way better in every aspect (except the back seat, it went down in size) my parents didn’t wanted to replace it with that since theirs was in pretty good condition and reliable as hell.
That note about the back seat is too real. When a close family member was shopping for a sedan in ~2018, he ended up opting for a Kia Forte (an entire size class down) because the back seats were actually usable, still had a stick, and was a little more than $10,000 less. I remember him being disappointed because he liked the way it looked and drove.
I guess 2019 in Aussie. Hopefully replaced with a cost effective and just as attractive variant of their 6 cylinder rwd biased new platform. Once the SUV sales have covered the rnd. Great card, I’ve had every gen Inc the 2022 wagon I drive now. Thans Australia for keeping a good thing going
I think, because of its age, too many people slept on the Mazda 6 Turbo, which is a damn shame. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in the market for a big sedan, but I regret not getting that classy, quick, gorgeous vehicle when I had the chance.
It’s the closest to the millenia S of the 90s that Mazda has come to making a classy, fast luxury car.
The problem I’ve had with the Mazda6 is the same as the Accord, and to a lesser degree, the Avalon. It’s an issue that also led to the current SUV craze. Pretty much all the Asian imports top out too small.
This is simply not a big sedan. It’s medium sized. Maybe on the small side of medium-large.
Lexus and Genesis came closest, but topped out at simply “large” and not anywhere near the bigger side of large. And Genesis came along a bit too late.
The SUV craze was coming anyway, and larger Asian imports would not have stopped that. But I’m sure it would have delayed it a few years, and given us some great luxury cars along the way.
I’d love to have an Audi A8L or BMW 750iL with Japanese reliability. Can you tell?
Well, yeah, the Mazda 6 and Accord are and have only ever been marketed as mid sized sedans, the same class as an Audi A4. Of course they’re not going to compare with an A8L.
At the same time, most brands stopped selling a full size sedan long before SUVs came soon because there just wasn’t enough demand for them. The king of full size sedans, the Crown Vic, has been dead for more than 20 years now, and Mazda hasn’t sold a full size sedan in the US since the 90s. I’m amazed the full sized Avalon and Maxima lasted as long as they did, given that it’s really only the luxury market who still wants them, and even then, in particularly small numbers. I’d be surprised if the A8 and 7er live longer than one more generation, given the former sold less than 2300 units last year.
The problem is also that Toyota does make the car you want but just doesn’t offer it here in the US: the Century.
You can’t call the Maxima a “full sized” sedan. It’s barely a full sized car.
The Maxima is tiny. It’s an Altima in fancy clothes. Every exterior dimension (length, width and height) is less than an inch different. In some years, the Maxima’s passenger volume is actually smaller than the Altima’s. The EPA classifies both as mid-sizers, which to me seems generous.
Calling it the “Maxima” is some strange long-running Japanese joke that I never appreciated.
I would argue that large sedans died off mostly because most domestic makers never updated them, and the Japanese never actually sold them here. Note how the Chrysler 300 was a solid seller for its entire run.
I’ve been pining for a Toyota Century or a Nissan President of some sort for years.
I guess I hadn’t considered that the Maxima was the same length as an Altima when it drove like a boat the way full sizers are supposed to.
As for the Chrysler, I think that was the only full size sedan you could get for most of the last 2 decades, other than the Japanese ones we mentioned, and the short-lived Taurus, so that’s like saying the Mini Cooper was a solid selling subcompact sporty car; there’s not much competition.
Yeah, the 300 was flying solo in the market, but I do know several who bought big SUVs because they wanted a large sedan but couldn’t bring themselves to buy Stellantis/DaimlerChrysler products.
Compared to the competition? I’d take the Mazda6 over everything else without hesitation. I had a 2014 and drove it for much longer than any other car I’ve owned…it was just too good to give up. I kinda miss it still.
So yeah… Go Australia! Get another 12 years out of it. I bet it’s still the nicest looking sedan on the market then too.
A couple more years sounds about right. Give Mazda a chance to do something more of a hybrid.
i will question: does Mazda have any Zoom Zoom left? Yes, the Miata still exists. But with the drift towards SUVs, I’m not sure the buying public cars.
I had both a Gen 1 and Gen 3 Mazda 6. Both manual transmission. Wish I had kept the Gen 3 one longer. a 2016 base Sport with a manual. As few as the dealer stocked, I would put that car into Holy Grail category.
I’ll say they finally kill it off in 2027.
I had a 2015, and it was probably the most dependable thing I ever owned. I put 145k miles on it the eight and a half years I owned it. Never did I do anything more than change the oil every 5k miles and put on new tires every 50k miles. It was a great family sedan.
Another long-on-the-tooth car soldiering on is the mighty Mitsubishi Outlander Sport
I feel like the Outlander Sport was born long in the tooth.
I think they’re just making spare parts/cars to replace body panels and shit when they rust 😛
Sure it’s been around for 14 years, but most of the ones on the roads are still pretty new because the old ones rusted out LOL
Maybe the Mazda6 will the basis for the next generation Dodge Charger/Chrysler 300. They need a new 20yo platform to use 😀
I live in a super snowy and a really high-salt-usage area/state. I’ve never seen a rusty Mazda6 of this generation. Rusty Mazda’s seem to have all disappeared in the early 2010’s as new generations of each model came out.
Now, three year old pick-up trucks (regardless of brand) with early signs of bubbling paint on the rear wheel arches? Hell yeah, lots of that around here. But not a single third gen Mazda6 that’s rusty I can remember. Same goes for the current gen Mazda3 and the previous generation, any generation CX5…
In the Rust Belt and most of the 2nd and 3rd gen Mazda 6’s I see are free of visible rust, unlike the 1st gen which started rusting at the slightest hint of road salt. I do agree the only vehicles which seem to rust while relatively new are pickup trucks.
I’m also in the Rust Belt. And just so you know, “Rust Belt” comes from the economic/industrial decline of the area, not from the weather and/or salt usage.
still works tho
Hope mine doesn’t die anytime soon. It’s a 2016 Touring model that I bought brand new (fresh off the delivery truck) in October 2015. Paid it off in September 2019 and have been enjoying life sans-car payment ever since. Only 78,000-ish miles on it now thanks to a short commute pre-COVID and working from home during the pandemic and ever since. It is the perfect mix of fun and efficient/reliable.
Hauls myself, my wife, and our two kids (ages 7 and 4) just fine. We’ve even taken it on our Florida vacations three separate times now. It will make it from our home in northwestern Kentucky to the state line of the Florida panhandle on one tank of gas.
Annual rustproofing is key
Recent Mazda’s really don’t need it.
I live in Kentucky and it hardly ever snows here, and Mazdas haven’t had rust issues since the Protegé5 and first generation Mazda3/Mazda5. 🙂
Too bad Mazda didn’t follow up with the inline 6 powered concept they showed a few years ago hinting at being this cars replacement. This gen of 6 was very attractive. I have a friend that has one with around 160k on it now. Turns out that beautiful soul red paint is not cheap to match after a fender bender.
Turns out that beautiful soul red paint is not cheap to match after a fender bender.
It’s perfect for my bicycle rebuild though.
Don’t lose hope yet…Google “Mazda 6 RWD”
I’m surprised this article makes no mention of it; rumored or otherwise.
Mazda red is the best red. A neighbor has one and I always gawk.
I hear that about Mazda’s soul red paint a lot. I had my rear bumper repained for about $750 and it matches perfectly. Honestly I have no idea if that’s a good price (the dude who hit me paid it).
Too soon.
If I ever win the lottery I will buy two 6s: a saloon/sedan and an estate/station wagon. I’ll install a Ferrari V8 in the s/s, and V8 with AWD in the e/sw. I would keep the bodywork as close to spec as possible, and scare the sh*t out of pedestrians and boy racers when I rev them at the lights!
scare the sh*t out of pedestrians
You find that fun do you? Why not blow coal on them while you’re at it.
I never thought about that, but now you mention it….. It was a joke. A joke. Sticking Ferrari engines in a couple of Mazda 6s is definitely on my bucket list tho’.
I’ve been on the receiving end of attention seeking jerks who thought blasting a horn or their straight pipes in my ear was funny. It’s not.
Revving a Ferrari engine for the purpose of scaring the s#it out of people even as a hypothetical is no better. If you like the idea of a Ferrari engine in a Mazda by all means go for it.
If it were me I’d go with a Busso.
Maybe it’ll do the wierd Australian market thing and live almost forever with a couple tweaks here and/or heavy styling changes
Certainly one of the best looking sedans in recent memory.
Next up on damn good design?
You post a Mazda 6 article referencing global sales, and don’t take the opportunity to include a shot of the gorgeous wagon variant? For shame, sir!
If they had sold the Mazda 6 wagon I’d have one now.
Ditto. And I have the cred of having actually bought a new wagon (tourx).
My brother-in-law has a 2018 wagon (Australia). It’s glorious.
If our decrepit Toyota Noah ever decides to call it a day (although that might require a natural disaster or nuclear holocaust) a 4WD Mazda 6 estate would be the heart-before-head replacement.
Why would they kill it? R&D is paid for. Every competitor stopped making a competitive model. Not every wants an SUV. Along as it meets government regulations built it and sell it cheap. It is money, no new expenses just keep stamping out parts. No CVT transmission, all problems worked out. This is why Stellantis is so successful. Most people want a decent looking reliable car that doesn’t get them spurned. And frankly it is only new designs that get owners spurned for driving old models.i don’t care my DD is a 2001 I bought new. I will drive it until it’s a antique or classic and then some. A 1 owner 23 year old car well taken cate of. But yeah people want a new car every year. I prefer the $100,000 in my pocket as opposed to $500 a month payment for the 20 years of no payment.
“Every competitor stopped making a competitive model.”
Honda Accord and Toyota Camry have entered your chat.
Well OK not every competitor yet. I don’t understand it. I am tired of SUVs myself.
My current family car is a 2006 Honda Odyssey EX. I bought it in 2016 with 107kmi on the clock for $3600 from the original owners. They hit a road cone on the highway, sustained very minor cosmetic damage and wanted to get something new. I spent $400 getting that fixed. It has given us 30,000 + trouble free miles. It hasn’t asked for anything other than standard maintenance. Nothing has broken, never been stranded. It is comfortable, efficient, and incredibly practical. I won’t be impressing anyone on the parking lot, no. But half of them are probably worried about paying their cell phone bill. Plus, I bet I could sell it for more than I bought it for, back then. So what have I saved vs a new car $50k? Give or take? My wife intends to drive this Pdyssey until it turns into dust. That’s fine with me.
A wise and logical decision.
Did they adjust the valves before you bought it, or have you since? It’s a commonly overlooked maintenance item at around the 100k mark on the Odyssey, and frequently skipped because it’s nearly $2,000 to have done at the dealership. That’s a big maintenance expense, but it’s an engine-killer if you don’t get it done soon enough. Most other V6s have hydraulic valves and don’t need this attention, but the Hondas do.
More important than the valve adjustment that PaysOutAllNight pointed out is the timing belt service. It is an interference engine, so if the timing belt goes, valves hit pistons and an engine replacement bill is born.
Just as well get the water pump done and belt tensioner done at same time since you gotta take the same parts off to do that also.
$2000 at the dealer is a big expense, but if you go with an independent shop, make sure they use the good parts, not just any parts.
So I just brought it in to have a leaking valve cover gasket done as well as the timing belt. With an oil change and whatnot it was about $1700. That was the first thing I’ve done that wasn’t tires, oil, or brakes. This was my mechanics suggestion since I bought it with 106kmi. He reasoned that unless I have proof that it was done at 100kmi, I should assume it wasn’t. Balancing a $900 belt job vs a new engine, I had it done. I think I just learned about the Honda V6 valve adjustment thing from an article on this site. Or maybe that other car site. It is going on my list to do. She is going back in for some loose suspension thing in the front, I forgot which, so maybe we’ll do it all.
Here’s hoping that DD is a Pontiac. Nothing raises a fat middle finger to the haters like a Pontiac.
Damn…Now I want a Pontiac.
Nope but another bygone nameplate Isuzu Vehicross
Close enough. Isuzus have their own pathology…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_1ASmweXYs&t=12s
I have a Mazda6 (a 2016 that I mentioned above). Everyone around me seems to drive a new SUV or truck but I rock the paid-off family sedan. Thank goodness, too, since inflation kicked our royal asses the last year or so.
Bingo
I personally hope it never dies, and once Mazda’s sales of parking lot warrior CUV’s take off, they will introduce a new model based on their new PHEV platform or with the I6.