2017 Mazda 6 vs Volkswagen Passat

What's the difference?

The Mazda6 GT wagon looks stunning and is great to drive, but it doesn’t have the cargo capacity of rivals such as the Passat and Superb. As for the GT grade, I’d be looking at the Touring instead – it’s about $5K less and you’re only really missing out on the proximity key, which is great, but not $5K great. Good on you for considering a wagon, too. It’s the thinking person's alternative to an SUV.

Europeans have long had a crush on sportscar wagons and the Passat 206 R-Line represents a good combination of practicality and performance, in a premium package, at good price; an excellent reason not to buy an SUV.

The Mazda6 sedan is a good-looking car, and even as a wagon it’s appealing, with that sloping roofline, those curvaceous wheel arches and long bonnet. The shape isn’t new either – sure there have been updates, but this model came out in 2012 and it doesn’t look out of date. 

Can you tell it’s a GT from the outside? No. Well yes, but only by the wheels and headlamps – the GT has 19-inch alloy wheels and LED headlights, but so does the top-of-the-range Atenza.

Inside, the Mazda6 GT wagon’s stylish cabin has a premium feel with leather seats and an excellent fit and finish. All the touch points throughout the cockpit are soft or padded, and all the controls, from the paddle shifters to the climate buttons, are perfectly placed and feel refined.

There are spots where the cabin is showing its age – that head-up display once seemed cool but now appears dinky and the display is tiny and antiquated by Volkswagen and Skoda standards these days.

How long is the Mazda6 wagon? It might not look like it, but the wagon is shorter end-to-end than the sedan. The dimensions don’t lie; the wagon is 4800mm long, the sedan is 4865mm.

Compared to its rivals, the Mazda6 wagon is 110mm longer than the Subaru Levorg and 33mm longer than the Passat wagon, but 71mm shorter than the Mondeo wagon and 61mm shorter than the Superb wagon.

Don’t be fooled, though, longer doesn’t mean it has a bigger cargo area - all will be revealed in the practicality section below.

The new-gen Passat sits on the same MQB platform as its Golf, Audi A4 and Skoda Superb Volkswagen Group siblings, only it’s scaled to suit the car. 

The Passat and Superb wagons share a huge amount of DNA but they aren’t identical twins. A quick peek at the dimensions show the Passat wagon to be 89mm shorter than the Superb at 4767mm end-to-end and 32mm narrower at 1832mm wide.

The Passat is also arguably better looking than the Superb. Rumour has it Skoda designers have Post It notes stuck on their computer screens saying, "Don’t forget. Must not be as pretty as a Volkswagen!”

The Passat 206TSI R-Line wagon is easy to pick from the other Passat variants thanks to its sports body kit, LED headlights and specific badges.

If you were to press your face up against the glass you’d see R-Line leather seats, alloy pedals, paddle shifters and a flat-bottomed steering wheel. If this was an airline the interior would be business class – not over the top, but seriously handsome. 

Just an aside, and I know it’s not the done thing, but I think the Superb’s interior is plusher.

Nobody buys a wagon by accident. You get a wagon because you’ve preempted regular situations when you’re going to have to carry stuff. Lots of stuff. Wagons are basically utes with a roof for people that don’t get dirty.

So not much point in getting a wagon if the cargo capacity doesn’t meet your requirements. The Mazda6 wagon has 506 litres of boot space, while the sedan version has 474 litres. Yes, that sounds like the wagon is small, but the big hatch opening and being able to fold the seats down opens up a 1648-litre cargo area.

The Passat wagon isn’t as long as the Mazda6 wagon, but its cargo capacity is 650 litres, or 1780 litres with the seats folded flat. The Superb has an enormous 660 litres or 1950 litres with the second row folded. The Levorg’s cargo area is smaller than the Mazda’s, with 489 litres, and so is the Mondeo’s, with 488 litres.

Cabin storage is good with two cup holders up front and two in the back. There’s also a large centre console storage bin and bottle holders in the doors, too.

As for humans, I’m one of those (but a tall one at 191cm) and I can sit behind my driving position with about 20mm of space. Headroom is also good back there.

The Mazda6 wagon’s coupe styling looks great, but the rear door opening is smaller because of it and I noticed this meant bending more to put my toddler into his car seat.

Let’s get straight to the point, the cargo capacity of the Passat 206TSI R-Line wagon is 650 litres and that’s enormous. That’s 35 litres more than the latest Volkswagen Tiguan mid-sized SUV’s boot and 70 litres more than the even bigger Toureg’s cargo space. The Subaru’s Levorg is a smaller wagon, and with only 486 litres can’t match the Passat’s boot capacity. But the Skoda Surperb wagon beats it with 660 litres.

With the rear seats folded flat the luggage capacity of the Passat wagon increases to 1152 litres.

The cabin is cavernous and thanks to a wheelbase of 2791mm rear legroom is limo-like. I’m 191cm tall and can sit behind my driving position with a full hand-span distance between my knees and the seat back.

Many cars are called five seaters – but ask the person mashed in the middle of the back row if they agree and in most cases they’d disagree violently. But it would have to be an extra portly human who would say the same about the Passat wagon.

Headroom is also excellent – even with a sunroof. You couldn’t wear a top hat, but a bowler would fit perfectly.

The centre fold down armrest in the back row has three cupholders – two regular sized and an espresso hugger, while up front there are two more normal cupholders. All doors have big bottle holders.

The ride height of SUV’s tends to make putting small children into car seats and taking them out a lot easier on the back. Having a toddler myself, I know this to be true and would say this is one of the greatest strengths of an SUV. But while the Passat 206TSI R-Line wagon is indeed lower, its rear doorways are large – both wide and tall, with a roofline that’s as flat as a table. That somewhat makes up for the lack of ride height.

It also means just getting yourself in and out is a lot easier – especially good for those who are tall or aren’t as agile as they used to be.

The Passat 206TSI R-Line wagon lists for $59,990 ($2000 more than the sedan) making it the king of a line-up which starts at $35,490. 

You may be paying a lot more than for the entry variant, but the extra dollars unlock the most and best features of the range. 

There’s proximity unlocking, 19-inch 'Verona' alloy wheels, three zone climate control, adaptive cruise control, an 8.0-inch display with the 'Discover Pro' media system that includes sat nav, eight-speaker stereo, reversing camera and parking sensors. 

The standout standard features are the leather seats, the LED headlights, the stunning 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster, auto parking and a suite of advanced safety kit.

The Superb 206 TSI lists for $52,690 but doesn’t get some of the Passat's fancier toys like LED headlights and a digital instrument cluster.

Our test car’s optional panoramic sunroof and Harvard Blue metallic paint brought its price up to $62,690.

The Mazda6 GT wagon is available with a diesel or the 2.5-litre petrol engine which was in our test car. Producing 138kW of power and 250Nm of torque, the engine is smooth, quiet and has plenty of oomph.

This is a front-wheel-drive car and the transmission is a six-speed automatic. 

Did you just jump straight to this section? Can’t blame you if you did. The Passat 206TSI R-Line wagon engine is a special thing. The 206kW/350Nm 2.0-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder is the same heart that beats inside the revered Golf R, and like that hot hatch the Passat 206 TSI is all-wheel drive. A six-speed dual clutch automatic transmission shifts gears unfathomably quickly.

The Golf R version of the engine has the same power output but it pulls harder thanks to 30Nm more torque. In the 0-100km/h sprint the Passat 206TSI R-Line wagon trails it by only 0.7s 

Mazda says the wagon with the 2.5-litre petrol engine and six-speed auto should use 6.6L/100km when driven on a combo of urban, country and city roads. Our car spent most of its life with us in the city and our trip computer was saying we were averaging 10.2L/100km. 

Serving suggestions – they’re just a guide whether its fuel for your body or for cars. Volkswagen reckons the Passat 206TSI R-Line drinks at an average combined rate of 7.4L/100km. Country roads, highways, the 25km daily city commutes and day care drop offs saw our test car return 13.7L/100km according to the trip computer. Please note: I tend to drive like I'm trying to outrun an atomic blast.

Mazda’s ‘thing’ is making cars that are fun to drive – the company takes this seriously, and when a new car is launched they devote a lot of time explaining the pains they went to in making the car engaging to pilot.

And the effort seems to pay off; Mazdas really are good to drive, and the Mazda6 is no exception.

Steering is smooth, well-weighted and accurate, the engine is responsive and has a sport mode (which is actually sporty), and the six-speed auto gets the drive to those front wheels well. There were times, though, that the front wheels would lose traction - especially from a standing start on a hill.

Handling is good and the ride is comfortable, too. Although the lower profile tyres on the GT grade (225/45 R19) do mean you’ll feel the bumps and cracks in the road more than the thicker-walled tyres on the lower grades.

And finally, a wagon will almost always be better to drive than an SUV, and that's because it has a lower centre of mass and that gives it superior handling. Just like a car. Because that's what it is.

The Passat 206 TSI R-Line is a bit of a sleeper in that it’s far more powerful and agile than its fairly sedate appearance would let on. Sure, it’s not as quick as a Golf R, and it sure doesn’t feel as ‘chuckable’ as the hot hatch either, but the Passat 206 TSI R-Line is impressively dynamic.

From a standstill there’s only a slight pause between mashing the accelerator and the jump into hyperspace as the turbo spools up and all 350Nm of torque charges in at 1700rpm.

Our test loop through some great bush roads showed the wagon to not only power out of corners well, but the balance, poise and grip is excellent. As we swung it through the corners we could feel its width and length, but in a low-slung grand tourer way.

The ride on 235/40x19 low-profile Pirelli Cinturato P7 tyres is on the firmer side, but you can adjust the suspension from comfort to sport settings for a soft or harder ride. The cabin was quiet even on coarse chip roads, the steering was quick and sharp, and those sports seats were still comfortable and supportive after two hours straight.

A special mention needs to be made about the LED headlights – these are brilliant, literally – the uniform, bright light provides excellent visibility which is so vital on dark Australian country roads.

This latest generation Passat scored a maximum five-star ANCAP rating. Coming standard on the 206 TSI R-Line is some great advanced safety kit such as rear traffic alert, blind spot and lane keeping assistance and auto emergency braking – although this only works at speed under 18km/h.

For child seats there are three top-tether anchor points and two ISOFIX mounts across the second row.

Under the floor you’ll find a full sized spare alloy wheel along with more tools than you’ll ever need to change the wheel.

The Mazda6 wagon is covered by Mazda’s three-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty. Servicing is recommended every 12 months or 10,000km and is capped at $305 for the first service, $333 for the second, $305 for the next, then $333 and back to $305.

The Passat 206TSI R-Line wagon is covered by Volkswagen’s three-year/unlimited kilometre warranty. Servicing is recommended at 12 month/15000km intervals. The first five services are capped at $3471 in total.