The 3.5 V6 in the Alitma is a great motor. I don't think you can go wrong with any car that has it. Great pick.

I was a bit surprised at the comment about the Mazda 6 with the V6. I thought it was a very nice motor with plenty of power. Maybe when I drove it, it was in comparison to the other cars we were testing such as an auto Acura TSX.

Keep us updated on the Altima. I owned a 95 SE for 3 years.

Pee Oh Ess

I was going to park on the railroad tracks to get rid of it, but I was afraid the train would stop in time.

Actually, I like the way the new ones look and the performance data. Can't see myself in one though...

How did everyone miss the Subaru Legacy 250 HP, 250 torque, and AWD. I drove all the cars above including G35's etc and none of them compared at all. The Subie car feels tossable compared to all those common people movers. Only one that felt like a sports car and the AWD is a blast. If you launch it hard you get to 60 in under 6 seconds.

The Altima was a good choice though!

Good choice on the Altima Kurt, very nice cars. New Legacy is a sweet car, but isn't it over 30k for the turbo one?

It's $30K msrp for the limited with all the trimmings (short throw shifter, momo wheel and shift knob, sub, wheel locks etc.). They deal and a fully loaded (truly loaded no more options) one can be had for $27K easy. You can also get a turbo without the Limited package which is leather and moonroof basically for under $25K.

What the @#$%? Nobody throws me a link? :(

I'm very pleased with my Mazda 6.

Only problems i've had are a leaky steering rack- rack was replaced under warranty @ 900 miles on the odo.- and a misaligned door. Local Mazda shop did a great job of making everything right.

I'll agree with the motor being a little down on power. Maybe the auto. saps a bit of power? Mine's an '04 5 speed auto. It's good off the line but it doesn't feel like 220 HP of pull in the upper RPM's IMO? I had to chase down some jag in a Grand Am the other day because he cut me off, and I had a hard time catching up to him so I could give him two big middle fingers! :D But for a V6 station wagon it gets around just fine.

The '03, '04 Jatco 5 speed autos are know to be a little problematic. They run hot. Luckily the wagon has a trans. cooler which is a big help according to the experts @ mazda6tech.com The new Aisin 6 spd. auto is supposed to be much improved. I agree that these autos have a hard time picking the right gear. Seems you gotta tip into the throttle easy when you're on the roll and begin to accelerate- like exiting a corner for example. Torque convertor always seems to unlock when you lift off the throttle. I don't like the Jaguar-esque shift gate either. That's ghey.

One thing that stands out in a good way is how the car handles. It's very precise and smooth-feeling. Actually inspires confidence in you. And not only does it feel good. It does good. When I brought the car home, I had my mother drive it while I followed in my 92 Laser. On a interchange ramp, she freakin' dusted me! I couldn't catch her!!! The suspension on this car is pretty trick (design-wise) considering it's a sedan. No struts. Coil-overs front & rear. Brakes are kinda weak. But that could be the stock Mazda pads.

One thing that stands out in a bad way is the road noise. Seems it's a combination of the lack of sound deadening- you sometimes hear gas sloshing around in the tank- and the Michelin Pilot MXM4 tires (215/50-17). One more data point that supports my "never had a Michelin tire i've liked" theory.

The utility of the car is great. It did a great job of hauling stuff to Jerry's EuroEast like Souk said. And last month I took it to Arkansas on a fishing trip, loaded to the gills (no pun intended, since we didn't catch jack!) and it didn't miss a beat. Got around 27 MPG. But that's easy to do when you draft somebody towing a boat all the way there! :D

My car is the base wagon with ZERO options aside from the auto. trans. In base form it is very well equipped. Traction control, power windows & locks & mirrors, nice CD audio w/steering wheel controls, climate control (I dig the ambient temp. feature & use it all the time!), speed control, cheap cloth seats, plenty of storage cubbies, triple-sealed full window frame doors, 220 HP 3.0L variable valve timing V6. All in all it's a pretty nice car. Solid quality so far @ 3 months and 3400 miles. :confused:

I really only bought it because of the MFG $4000 rebate price. I wasn't looking at them specifically with the intent to buy one. I just stumbled across it. But it's really grown on me. The styling is kinda sporty, but not too gaudy. I get lots of compliments on it, if you can believe that. I'd recommend NOT getting the Sport package on the 6. The side skirts look goofy to me. I think my wagon looks much better than a Sport packaged sedan or wagon.

I'll race Kurt's Altima anyday. That 3.5 is a ticking time bomb.................. :p ;)

Oh, and my car was $22K out the door.

Kevin, I can't believe I left a fellow bastard out of this thread! For what it is worth I think the Mazda 6 may be one of the best buys for the money out there today. No doubt I had to take a step up money wise to get the Altima. The difference between the Altima I bought and a similarly equipped 6s was about $3K, but to me was money well spent. And next time you are headed down to Arkansas, let me know!

Uh.... second post. :)

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. (or something like that :D )

Yeah, but this horse didn't get a email to alert me to this topic. So I didn't even get lead. You just left me out there in the pasture with flies all over my a$$. :confused: :D

Congrats on the purchase Kurt. I too was looking at Maximas and Altimas. I really would have liked that bad boy 3.5 V6. But it seems the wagon has really been a great find thus far.

When I was rolling up 44 and saw Jefferson City, I thought, "Hey, that's where Kurt lives!" But I of course had no number to ring you, nor would the fellow fishermen have wanted to extend the trip any longer. It was the all-time crappiest trip! :D Next time, i'll certainly give you a heads up.

We had a passat for 4 years but got rid of it at the end of the lease. We were very happy with it but it was 4motion and all our driving was in town - so we got about 26 mpg tops. On the highway we could get into the 30s easy. We rented a Mazda 6 a couple of times and didn't feel like the gas mpg was very good; also we always experience performance problems with rented cars because of one thing: Our other car is a porsche.

Brakes, Acceleration...etc - never there.