New RWD Mazda6 With Inline-Six Reportedly On The Way

While an article about an incoming new saloon powered by a straight-six sounds like something from a fair few years earlier than 2023, but then, Mazda isn’t exactly following the herd right now. If the rumours are to be believed, the company really is cooking up a spangly new Mazda6 with such an engine.

It’s not as outlandish a claim as you might think. Mazda, with its ‘right-sizing’ ethos, has developed an all-new six-cylinder engine to go in a family of cars sitting on its new, premium architecture. It’s a big shift for Mazda, featuring a longitudinally mounted engine driving the rear wheels predominantly, although all-wheel drive versions are available. 

Currently, the fresh platform is used for the CX-60 and CX-80 SUVs and the North America-specific CX-70, and while we all hoped it might underpin a 6 saloon in the future, Mazda hasn’t said if it will. However, according to Japanese publication Best Car, Mazda has been buoyed by the success of the CX-60, which is outselling the CX-5. 

This proves the push further up the market is working, and that a premium saloon might just sell well too, even if the appetite for such cars has waned in many territories. 

Should a new Mazda6 emerge, it could well be available with both the new inline-six diesel and petrol engines from the company, each of which displaces 3.3 litres. The petrol version is expected to make a healthy, but perhaps not Earth-shattering 334bhp in its pokiest form under the bonnet of the inbound CX-90, another North American special. 

The diesel, meanwhile, is available in two states of tune - 200bhp, and 251bhp. The oil burners could be joined by another option in the form of Mazda’s 2.5-litre inline-four petrol-based plug-in hybrid. 

The North American market is said to be a focus for the new car, so there’s a chance a new 6 wouldn’t come to Europe at all, especially given the crappy state of the saloon market here.