You may think you have a tough job, and you probably do, but if you make a living building and selling automobiles, chances are you're really busting your hump. This is a horrible business, a predator-filled savanna, and you—Mr. Lease Manager at the Kia store in Portland, Maine, or you, Mr. Swing-Shift Foreman in Windsor, Ontario—are a small, vulnerable marsupial. Everybody's worried, no one more than the boss.  After years of dull styling, the 2014 Mazda6 has a revamped look that should turn a few heads. Dan Neil joins The News Hub.  For example: Would someone please check on the well-being of Audi's former head of research and development, Wolfgang Dürheimer, who was coldly dismissed by the VW Group board last week after less than a year? The job was "too much" for him, said Audi Chief Executive Rupert Stadler. Oof. That'll look nice on the résumé.  Among the many injustices in the car business is styling. A company can build an automobile with great performance, efficiency, value, safety, and back it up with pitch-perfect messaging, only to have whole enterprise come up short because of one awkward swage line, one not-quite-there proportion, or—famously, notoriously, in the recent case of Mazda —a weird, zany grille. You know, the one that smokes crack.  Mazda styling came down with a bad case of meh there for a while, but as you can see in the 2014 Mazda6, it's feeling much better.  It almost seems immoral, doesn't it, that the work of all those great engineers is subject to the whim of some "stylist"? What kind of job is that, anyway? Styling is so trivial, so nonessential, so artsy-tartsy. Powertrain, noise-vibration-harshness, chassis dynamics—those are hard. You can do styling on a cocktail napkin.  For about a decade now, the shapers of Mazda's global image have put styling front and center, with highly evolved concept cars and flowery disquisitions on Japanese aesthetics and new directions. The previous styling language was called Nagare, which translates as "flow," a quality of least-resistance liquidity rippling across the skin of the machine. It was a nice thought, but on Mazda's small production cars (the Mazda2, Mazda3 and Mazda5), the design theme seemed crowded.  And somewhere, somebody signed off on the madcap, toofless grille, which was nothing but an unforced error.  “Mazda delivers its usual tight, nimble drive, now with good looks to match.”  The new form vocabulary is called Kodo, which the company liberally translates to "soul of motion" (my Japanese mother-in-law rolled her eyes at that). The actual translation is probably closer to "new grille." And on the Mazda6, it does look smart, with a taut, graphical bit of brightwork tracing the bottom of a more formal grille opening, flanked with narrowed bi-Xenon headlamps with the same bent-paper-clip theme. The supercool element is a faux chin splitter, a sharp aero blade jutting from beneath the lower intake. I was mindful of that at curbs.  The Mazda6 is the second to sport the Kodo lines, after the CX-5 compact utility, and the company just unveiled a full-face transplant for the Mazda3 as well.  I regret that the following is so nerdy, but here goes: The reason you, me, anybody cares about the Mazda6 is because of its looks, and the reason it is so eye-catching has to do with the axle-to-dash ratio—that is, the horizontal distance between the front-wheel centerline and the dash, relative to overall length. Front-drive cars typically have long front overhangs and short hoods. Longer hoods convey luxury, status and aspiration. Think of the long hood of a Mercedes-Benz SLS, for instance, or a Duesenberg. Think of a Jaguar XK-E. It's practically Jungian.  In the new Mazda6, the windshield pillars—the A-pillars—are pushed rearward a full 4 inches, relative to the outgoing model, giving it long-hood proportions comparable to those of a rear-drive car, which is a fairly big move in terms of manufacturing. There are some downstream costs in doing that. But again, the Mazda6 couldn't be a great car unless it first succeeded in looking great.  The Mazda6 is a clean-screen redesign, no more platform sharing with Ford . It sits grille-to-stylish-grille with the Ford Fusion, Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Chevy Malibu and Hyundai Sonata. There has been a lot of turnover in this segment recently, and all of the products are relatively fresh.  You want your numbers fix? Fine. The 6 is a midsize, five-seat, front-drive sedan, about $21,000 to $31,000, with two interesting engines slated for the North American market: one a high-compression, direct-injection 2.5-liter gasoline four-cylinder (184 horsepower, 185 pound-feet of torque, 38 miles per gallon on the highway with regular gas); and the other, the claimed world's lowest-compression diesel in a production car, a 2.2-liter four (148 hp, 280 pound-feet of torque, an estimated 44 mpg on the highway) running at a 14:1 compression ratio. A typical figure is around 18:1.  The benefits of low-compression diesel include being able to use an aluminum block instead of steel, which shaves a couple of hundred pounds off the vehicle weight; lower compression is inherently quieter, too. The engines, and two super-efficient six-speed transmissions, one auto and one a stick, are part of fuel-saving technologies Mazda calls collectively "Skyactiv."  I'm liking the whole Skyactiv initiative. For one thing, I think it means Americans may be able at some point to buy a diesel Mazda6 with a six-speed manual transmission. Make it a wagon and you've created nearly the perfect car.  Powertrain: Naturally aspirated direct-injection, 16-valve, in-line four-cylinder with variable intake valve timing; six-speed automatic transmission with manual-shift mode; front-wheel drive.  Horsepower/torque: 184 hp at 5,700 rpm/185 pound-feet at 3,250 rpm  0-60 mph: 7.5 seconds (est.)  EPA fuel economy: 26/38 mpg, city/highway  Cargo capacity: 14.8 cubic feet  And it's notable the direction that Mazda powertrains are going. The gas engine is a naturally aspirated four, not turbocharged. And not a hybrid, either; but as part of Skyactiv, the Mazda6 will have a de minimis regenerative-braking system, using the car's braking and coasting energy to charge a battery and a capacitor that will run the car's "hotel loads" (lighting, audio, climate) for up to a minute.  Our test car came in the model's signature color, a nice, grown-up pearlescent ruby. Maxed out at $31,490 delivered, it was a ton of automobile for the money: 19-inch wheels, moonroof, heated leather seats, navigation system, Bose audio, rearview camera, push-start, Bluetooth, the works. Production of the 6 was moved back to Japan from Flat Rock, Mich., when the platform-sharing program with Ford ran its course.  The new 6 drives like a champ, not surprisingly, with decently taut suspension tuning, good reflexes and very tidy control of body roll in corners. The meaty 19-inch sport tires do help. The neurons of the same guys who set up the Mazda3—a fantastic-handling front-driver—are clearly at work here. The e-steering is responsive at turn-in, linear and tactile, and the brakes are right there. Mazdas are nimble and composed up to their limits, and the 6 is no exception.  The gas-engine-and-automatic pairing is similarly flawless, almost imperceptible at low speed but bright and wide-awake when pushed to pass. I reckon zero to 60 miles per hour in about 7 seconds. Love that transmission, too.  So who won, the stylists or the engineers? Well, the Mazda6 is a great, efficient, fun-to-drive machine in a field of machines that can be described likewise. What people will buy is the styling.  Which is to say, the engineers won.  Email Dan at rumbleseat@wsj.com and follow him on Twitter @Danneilwsj  A version of this article appeared June 29, 2013, on page D12 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Mazda6: More Than Just a (Finally) Pretty Face.
Mazdas have long been tight and nimble driving machines, but their recent styling left something to be desired. With the new Mazda6 sedan, looks and performance are aligned, says Dan Neil.