Mazda 6 2.2 L BVA

Saturday night, 9:00 p.m., duty calls. iPhone on, I'm ready to roam the streets of the capital at the wheel of my trusty black car serving tourists and Parisians allergic to transport and taxis. You understood, I am VTC. Who says VTC says sedan, and to help me make my choice among the plethoric offer, Mazda entrusted me with the ultimate version of its large sedan: the Mazda 6. Will it be the one that will accompany my nights and make the knowledge of thousands of buttocks from all continents? I do think so...

 

 

 

With a little driver's certificate in my pocket, all I have to do is find a car that I like, since she and I will be one day and night. It will have to have everything it takes to help me achieve the holy grail for a VTC: the 5-star rating in my employer's app. Wanting more original than a Peugeot 508 and less ostentatious than a Jaguar XE, my choice finally fell on the Mazda 6.

Saturday night. While my friends leave for the evening, I go on my side to join my box in which my work companion is resting. Dressed in my best suit and armed with my iPhone, a mixture of excitement and passion drives me before finding her and starting this new Parisian night in her company. Before leaving, I stock up on water bottles and mints in the rear center armrest; it's with this kind of little detail that the fifth star in the app is won, you know...

 

 

The box door opens and I am amazed each time to see this statutory sedan that accompanies my nights. 4.80 m long and 1.84 m wide, my black Mazda 6 turns heads at every street corner... a top-of-the-range side and a real presence, a feeling reinforced by the superb 19-inch varnished rims of my Selection version. Sufficiently rare on our roads to mark those it crosses, I must say that I never tire of admiring the reflection of its line in Parisian windows, accentuated by its 100% LED light signature and its over-tinted rear windows. .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Being comfortable on board is even more important, which is why I chose to invest and not deprive myself of anything by opting for the high Selection finish. iPhone fixed on my air vent and app launched, I am now ready to operate. I leave my near-suburb home in the direction of the center of Paris…

 

 

I pick up my first client when he leaves work, in Neuilly. He's a VTC regular, you know, this overbooked but always cool Parisian who finishes work at 10:00 p.m. then meets friends in a bar, this Parisian who checks Foursquare as soon as he goes somewhere, asks Siri to remind him to get the bread and favors Airbnb over booking.com. Accustomed to hybrid bikes, therefore, but never boarded a Mazda 6. Between two phone calls, he confided to me that he was pleasantly surprised by the comfort of the beauty on the cobblestones of avenue Foch… And I must say that he is not wrong and that even if I got used to it, it is always a pleasure to be on a kind of air cushion and to float above the imperfections of the Parisian pavements in a rolling lounge. Small icing on the cake, I leave the choice to my customers to choose the music played on board during their journey, especially since I am quite proud to see their reaction when they realize that I have a Bose Hi-Fi system and 11 speakers discreetly distributed throughout the car. Our unshaven Parisian is quietly getting into the "after work" mood with a rather nice set from St-Germain,

 

 

 

 

Avenue Foch, Place de l'Etoile, Champs-Élysées, Concorde, Rue Saint-Honoré, we have arrived; I never tire of the beauty of Paris and exploring the extraordinary remains as magical as ever. Hôtel Costes, the smell of candles perfumes the red carpet of the establishment, in front of which a brand new BMW 750 Li sits proudly. My Mazda has nothing to be ashamed of, however, and it looks pretty good under the lights of Paris at night. The moments of transition between a dropped off customer and a customer to pick up are an opportunity for me to savor the silence of my sedan's operation...

 

 

Powered by the in-house SkyActiv-D 2.2 L 175 hp four-cylinder engine, the largest diesel block available, and combined with a pleasant 6-speed automatic gearbox (optional at €2,000), it is a delight to use. I must say that I was quite resistant to the idea of ​​opting for fuel oil, but my activity and my annual 60,000 km proved him right... Especially since the Mazda block, is frankly super pleasant in brilliant by its flexibility of use and its discretion. Neither unpleasant clicking at idle nor disgusting din during acceleration disturbs the tranquility that reigns on board. The one-light engine stop system is activated by pressing firmly on the brake pedal while restarting is done quickly and discreetly, everything I needed to avoid it bothering my customers… Speaking of customers, here is another one to pick up Gare de Lyon; or rather another, since it is a woman.

 

 

The life of VTC has a sociological aspect since the customers we accompany quickly feel confident and engage in us. After the Parisian at 100 an hour, here I am now with an "anti-everything" Versailles forty-something. Returning only from a weekend in Marseille but yet loaded with two imposing suitcases (which do not scare my imposing 480 L trunk), she made me her diary/psychologist while she took her home. Versailles is a bit of a border between town and country for us, who are used to not exceeding 70 km/h from the ring road or the two airports, you know… So I started using the MZD Connect multimedia system. with exemplary ergonomics, present throughout the manufacturer's range, from the MX-5 to the CX-5.

 

 

 

 

Revolted by the repeated delays of the SNCF, the policy for employment of our government, the cries of babies in 1st in the TGV and the total absence of service of Marseille taxis (here is a surprise!), her nerves relax, however, when she enters my Japanese sedan and her tense buttocks come to rest on my white perforated leather upholstery. I make it a point of honor that my passengers feel good, and the traditional bottle of water and mints accompany the tunes of Nina Simone that she chooses to enhance our journey. I must say that I'm not unhappy to go beyond the Périph', especially since the six gears of my auto box follow one another with disconcerting fluidity and speed. Once on the A13, I quickly find myself becoming the master of the left lane: my 2.2 L has not given in to the downsizing trend and even if it delivers its power rather late (the 175 hp are expressed at 4500 rpm. /min.), I can make my torque of 420 Nm speak from 2000 rpm. Offering linear revivals and accelerations, the general behavior of the car remains typical comfort, so much the better for my use, and we cruise gently at 130 below 2500 rpm, well helped by my adaptive cruise control who takes care of accelerating and braking for me depending on what is happening in front of me, up to 200 km/h in case a customer asks me to drive him back to Germany. I can make my torque of 420 Nm speak from 2000 rpm. Offering linear revivals and accelerations, the general behavior of the car remains typical comfort, so much the better for my use, and we cruise gently at 130 below 2500 rpm, well helped by my adaptive cruise control who takes care of accelerating and braking for me depending on what is happening in front of me, up to 200 km/h in case a customer asks me to drive him back to Germany. I can make my torque of 420 Nm speak from 2000 rpm. Offering linear revivals and accelerations, the general behavior of the car remains typical comfort, so much the better for my use, and we cruise gently at 130 below 2500 rpm, well helped by my adaptive cruise control who takes care of accelerating and braking for me depending on what is happening in front of me, up to 200 km/h in case a customer asks me to drive him back to Germany.

 

 

 

 

I am also assisted by a plethora of driving aids (fatigue detector with alert in the event of lack of steering wheel hold, head-up display, blind spot alert, automatic switching to high beam, directional lights, lane keeping assistant and automatic emergency braking up to 150 km/h) which allow me to concentrate on the essentials: my client. This one is also delighted with the silence on board on the motorway and the space in the back for its legs. The icing on the cake, a smile even appears on her face when she realizes that her rear seat is heated… That's first class travel, ma'am.

 

 

 

 

The castle of the Sun King is looming, Versailles here we are. I leave in front of his private mansion our quadra all dapper and loaded like a mule. Arrived with a relative misanthropy, the atmosphere on board transformed her, it's crazy what cars can do to women... When unloading her imposing suitcases, I said to myself that something was really missing important on my Mazda 6: an electric tailgate. Even as an option, it is impossible to enjoy the pleasure of pressing the key so that the trunk opens on its own, and creating an additional “wow” effect for my customers.

 

 

Well, now that I'm far from Paris and before returning to the jungle of the 20 arrondissements, I might as well do some sightseeing and linger for a few moments on the beauty of the city and its narrow streets. Hey, by the way, speaking of narrow streets, it reminds me of this taxi parked in double line and not giving a damn about what is happening behind. You all know this taxi that makes me have work today: he drives a white Skoda Octavia with an RTL ad on the doors, listens to RMC After-foot while insulting any cyclist circulating on the bus lane and only speaks to you when he announces that his credit card terminal, although new, is out of service. This French service which gives color to tourists as soon as it picks them up at the airport. Fortunately,

 

 

Motivated by this noble mission to offer an alternative to the ordeal of taxis, I set off again. The evening is mild and my stomach cries out for hunger. Unable to take the time to stop to eat, I go to Ronald's to take a few calories and saturated fats, just to hold on until I leave the nightclubs. Not wanting to disturb the exquisite smell of the leathers of my sedan, I stop along the Seine and chain the American culinary festivities while admiring again and again my four-wheeled companion, lingering this time on its passenger compartment.

 

 

When I chose it, I knew that I would not be on board an Audi A4 or a Mercedes C-Class. Not being a tycoon of Germanic rigor, I was looking for the best compromise between practicality and comfort, while being able to enjoy a whole pleasant to live in, without frills, and pleasant to use. The Mazda 6 represents this alternative and demonstrates a real move upmarket by the manufacturer with quality materials (leather, foamed plastic and polished aluminum) and more than convincing finishes. I must say that in some aspects I even prefer my Japanese car to the German ones, like the multimedia screen, perfectly integrated into the center console (hello Class C). So yes, I don't (yet) enjoy a 100% digital cockpit like on the Audi A4 and the design of my counters is a bit sad,

The night is mild, The Avener's latest album resonates in the car and my last client of the evening is a regular. In a hurry to get home and myself in a hurry to finish my night's work, I bring him back by mutual agreement at a brisk pace... To avoid the night work on the Périph', I get back to the quays then the N118 via the Bois from Boulogne. Between cops, dealers, prostitutes and drunken partygoers, I don't linger there and go in the dark, with the only guide being the excellent lighting provided by the adaptive LED lights.

 

 

 

 

What is good with my sedan is that in addition to shining on the motorway, it also knows how to be agile in the turns of the N118, thanks to a perfectly calibrated damping which juggles between a relative flexibility to preserve a high level. of comfort and a welcome rigor so as not to literally crash into each curve and suffer an unpleasant roll. The chassis as well as the steering are sufficiently communicative to feel the limits of the car, and one thus climbs without difficulty the fun curves of the climb of Sèvres. Lacking a bit of power for my taste but weighing only 1.4 tonnes, the Mazda 6 and its 175-horsepower four-cylinder engine is still fun to drive, helped by an automatic transmission with perfectly staged gears and even equipped with paddle shifters. Brilliantly passing the fateful ordeal of climbing the N118 and leaving behind us a unique view of Paris and La Défense at night, our imposing sedan really surprised me with its behavior, which is always very healthy and very reassuring. A welcome versatility for a car that is intended to swallow terminals…

 

 

Especially since the 62 L tank and the SkyActiv technologies laid out by Mazda engineers (and in particular the i-ELOOP, the braking energy recovery system which powers the car's comfort functions, such as the air conditioning) make it possible to not having to visit service stations too often... After my night, punctuated by Parisian shopping and Ile-de-France trips without necessarily trying to eco-driving, my dashboard shows me an (honest) average consumption of 7.2L/100km.

 

 

It's five o'clock, Paris is waking up, as Jacques Dutronc would say. After having chained the kilometers and the smiles (not always honest but the 5 stars in the app, it will be sought) to my passengers, it is time for me to go home and offer a well deserved rest to my Japanese. Carefully parked and pampered to set off again the next day, I tell myself one last time that I made the right choice by taking a Mazda 6 rather than one of its many German rivals… Displayed at €40,250 in this finish haute Sélection BVA, this is where it stands out by offering a hyper competitive price and a complete standard equipment without cutting corners on the rest. The Mazda 6 is the perfect car for racking up the miles: the care taken in its life on board,

In short, where Gabriel described the station wagon as "winter sports approved" , the sedan has all the qualities required to win the title of "VTC approved".