Mazda 6: car review

Price: £19, 302
Top speed: 129mph
0-62mph: 9.5 seconds
MPG: 51.4
CO2: 129g/km

I can’t sing. I mean I really can’t sing. A bagpipe with a strangulated hernia sounds more musical. It’s so bad I don’t even sing on my own, in the bathroom, with the taps running. Which might explain why I have a full-blown man-crush on Gareth Malone, the nation’s favourite choirmaster. Could he be the man to cure me?

Last week, when I stepped into the new Mazda 6, my first thought was not that this was a stylish car from Japan with a clever engine and excellent handling which was going to offer a realistic challenge to the German hegemony of the premium large family car sector… No, my first thought was: “This is the same car Gareth has.” I know that as I’ve watched every episode of The Choir.

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Gareth has an ear for a four-part close harmony, but does he also have an eye for a decent car? Mazda isn’t as big an operator as most of its more voracious competitors, so it works hard to position itself as the more interesting, more informed option. It’s the thinking rep’s fleet car; the middle-class Mondeo. It is a roomy and reliable family loader – like all Mazdas it’ll run like clockwork while slashing your fuel bills. But it’s not some tedious mile muncher: it offers stand-out, front-drive handling, too. Power comes from either a 2-litre petrol or a 2.2-litre diesel. Both are calm, responsive and indefatigable. And the efficiency figures look like typos, at 51.4 and 68.9 mpg – surely these are for a city runaround, not a large saloon?

The 6 has been fully designed in keeping with Mazda’s SKYACTIV methodology. It’s lighter, greener and smarter than the outgoing model. It’s also a lot better looking, with swooping lines accentuating its handsome grille. Mazda loves a catchy name. This car hasn’t simply been “redesigned”, it has been created through the prism of KODO: Soul of Motion – a design language which apparently was inspired by the smooth power and admirable agility of a cheetah. It’s bristling with smart, life-assuring safety aids all grouped under the brand’s new i-ACTIVSENSE control hub. Driver dynamics get to work to integrate the engine, transmission, chassis and body to enhance the car’s JINBA-ITTAI – a sense of connectedness between you and your car.

It’s easy to snigger at this sort of stuff, but I’ve rarely sat in a car that I’ve felt more instantly at one with. It’s intuitive, approachable and easy to live with. No wonder Gareth always looks so calm and unflustered when he arrives at his next audition.

Email Martin at martin.love@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @MartinLove166