14 Mazda 6 VS 13 Ford Fusion Synapsis
 

Considering my daily beater(driver) is in need of replacement I have been looking for a replacement, at first I saw the new 6 and immediately feel in love with everything about the car, even the little 4 banger had me impressed. But since I will be purchasing new and will be keeping it a couple years I wanted to make sure I wasn't blinded by the Mazda badge ( since all of us here are quite Mazda biased) and wanted to see if there was anything available that I might like more. So I started researching any and all manufacturers and came across nothing, until I went to the local auto show and saw a new Ford Fusion being demo'd, now originally I thought great another Ford. Long story short I started doing my research on it and this is what I found and since no one has done a direct side by side comparison of the two just a lot of banter and debate about the 6 in general is about all you can find on here. Here is my side by side comparison of the two cars broken up into three key aspects Interior, Exterior, and performance. The cars and trim in question are.

2014 Mazda 6 GT Price point as tested 30,494 (base Price, No options)
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2013 Ford Fusion Titanium FWD Price Point as tested 33,525 (with a few options I want) base price is 30,745
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Exterior
First glance at both cars and its apparent there where designed independently and are targeting there own specific audience.

The Mazda
The entire shell of the vehicle down to individual body lines the aggressive front facia and fenders, swirled together with the simplistic yet refined rear tail lamps the one word that everyone can agree on to sum up the body is sporty. There is no denying that the Mazda resembles a car that is much faster than it actually is (unfortunately).
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All in all it is a very attractive car but I feel it may have been designed to be to sporty, its bold and obnoxious to a point. Designed for a younger generation(or someone that wants to feel younger). It just seems to lack refinement.

The Ford
Yes, we can all argue that it stole most of its looks from Aston Martin, but if Subaru built its next car to look like a Lotus would you complain?? (Yes but you would probably still buy one) First look it strikes me as a boring sedan, but once I look past the Ford logo, the body lines has a certain elegance to them and the stance on the car makes the front facia turn aggressive to a point.
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The Ford has a very elegant subtle presence on the road, it will get the occasional head turn but all in all it wont be drawing to much attention to itself

Interior

The Mazda
Right of the bat you will notice that even in the base model you are loaded with features, that only seem to get more impressive as you go up in trim, it is leagues away from any interior Mazda has done to date( Except the CX-5 as it is the exact same interior down to the stitching on the seats) with exceptional build quality and premium material choices everything has perfect fit and function
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The interior of the Mazda complements its exterior in that it too is bold and somewhat outlandish it doesn't seem to have a sense of harmony more of a strive to be eccentric in its design as to hint that they were afraid of it being another boring overlooked sedan.

The Ford
First thing you will notice is the lack of crude buttons surrounding you, the center console is a single entity with pressure sensitive switches that seamlessly incorporate you into the car. After you get past the lack of buttons you will notice the cockpit array of elegant intervention taking you into a car that seems luxuriously designed years ahead of what it should.
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The level of refinement in the Ford is somewhat unnerving, the amount of interconnectivity, customization and general maze of submenu's and complexity may leave some in an array of panic. It is all very sleek and much of the functionality goes unnoticed almost begging the question of why is it there to begin with.

Performance

The Mazda
Equipped with the new Skyactiv-G engine and Skyactiv transmission the Mazda 6 has a performance aspect that one would not associate with a family sedan, it is down to its core a sporty car there is not denying this. I did test it in a manual transmission as well but I found it to be less refined and almost a crude version of the precision offered in the automatic (yes I just sad that to my own dismay). The shifts are spot on with little to no hesitation or delay, the sport override is an excellent feature allowing you to seamlessly take control over the vehicle at any time. The amount of exhilaration will have you feeling like your in a faster car than you really are. As far as sports cars go there is no comparison the Mazda will never leave you thinking your driving a family sedan.

The Ford
Equipped with the new 2.0l Ecoboost, this car puts down some impressive numbers of 241BHP (Premium Fuel) and 270 ib-ft of torque one would almost directly assume it would crush any 4 banger in its class. And although it does do that in a straight line with the fasted 0-60 and 1/4 mile times of any of its class competitors, it doesn't have that sports car feel to it. It does allow a manual mode it the selective Auto gear box but it doesn't offer the precision that one would expect from a car of its caliber, and to the average driver one would not notice a difference.


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Synopsis
Both cars are exceptional automobiles one does not simply out weigh the other in the end it will come down to the selected individual wanting to purchase one. The Mazda is a fun car there is no doubt it is aggressive bold and exhilarating to drive. It stands out and one will never overlook it for a boring sedan. The ford requires a certain individual to appreciate its subtle refinery, although it will not leave you feeling like your behind the wheel of a car faster than it is it will leave you with the aspect that you are in a much more luxurious car than you are. It will almost tempt you to question if you are really even in a Ford.

What an excellent critique. You need to work for one of the magazines :).
I love the side by side pics too.

Paul.

What can I say my Mazda dealer knows a Ford dealer they let me borrow both for today. I figured I would leave an unbiased review as I have purchased one of the two but I will leave that out as its irrelevant to what I wanted to do here

Given how european fords are built i'd go with the mazda 6 if i had to buy a sedan.

Curious which won your vote

I just bought a 2014 Mazda 6 and I love it and its 38 mpg!

Congrats!

Which version did you get?

BC.

Post pics...

I got the touring the middle of the road version and ill post some pics tonight after work.

Here are some Pics
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The Mazda 6 look really changed since it began in 04. It was sportier before than now. Now the look of the 6 is a family sedan. I still like the look of my 6 than the recent ones. But anyway, congrats on the new 6... ;)

Killer, the Touring looks great granted it's not the GT. How do you like the leatherette seats?

I am wondering if that center console trim piece around the shifter, and HVAC vents are interchangeable with the CX-5. Hmm...

The seats are really nice the quality its great! and i would say the only big different between my Touring a GT is the tech package and seats. My tough screen has everything but NAV and XM radio and didnt see the need for the 600 dollar upgrade for that when my phone has NAV and i can stream Pandora.

Goggle "ford fusion transmission problems" and get 850,000 hits. While new, the Mazda auto tranny, IMO, is ingenious and has fewer ways to go wrong while still delivering high efficiency. I also question the longevity of a turbo engine when used routinely for short commutes. Also, Ford's EPA ratings of late seem quite optomistic compared to real life use. Mazda's have been criticized for being low, but many owners seem to achieve them in daily use. (On my advice, a guy at work bought a Skyactiv Mazda3 which he reports as getting better than EPA.) One advantage of the Ford is, of course, there are a zillion of them around, so repair options will be more numerous than with any Mazda.

The rest comes down to intangibles. Personally, I enjoy driving in a relatively unique car. Likewise "luxury", I find overrated. Today's fancy doo-dads become tomorrow's maintenance headaches. Is "climate control" really any better than manual heat-fan-selector knobs? This is particularly so with electronic gadgets. The multi-disc CD player was a required luxury a few years ago, but looks positively quaint today. I'd rather my money go into the basic engineering. It's easy to update the stereo on an older car, impossible to update the rear suspension or transmission.

YMMV.