Story: DAVID WILKINS
THE new Mazda 6 promises to be a much more attractive proposition for company car buyers than the old one – thanks to a set of efficiency tweaks Mazda has bundled together under the name SKYACTIV.
Lower fuel consumption means fewer visits to the pump, while reduced emissions ease the company car tax burden – and residual values experts CAP reckon the improvements should produce a big boost in resale prices compared with the out-going model, as much as 7.5 per cent over three years and 60,000 miles.
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The Mazda 6 matches or betters its competitors on company car tax, but returns better performance and economy
On that basis a diesel-engined Mazda 6 saloon should be worth 31.6 percent of its original value compared with the Vauxhall Insignia (average value 23 per cent), Ford Mondeo (28 per cent), VW Passat (29 per cent), Honda Accord (30 per cent) and Toyota Avensis (31 per cent). The Audi A4 and BMW 320d EfficientDynamics retain a bigger percentage of their original value, but they’re a lot more expensive to start off with.
Jeff Knight, Editor of CAP’s Monitor guide, said: “Key from a fleet perspective is emissions; like the recently launched Mazda CX-5 the Mazda 6 has been built around the manufacturer’s SKYACTIV Technology. This enables the 150ps diesel engine to deliver a CO2 figure for the Saloon of 108g/km placing it at least one company car tax band below virtually all the competition.”
Mazda thinks that once buyers have done the company car comparisons, the most popular version of the new Mazda 6 for business buyers will be the 2.2-litre SKYACTIV-D Saloon SE-L Nav with a P11D value of £23,140. That has the 150 PS 108g/km engine, and delivers an impressive 67.3mpg.