Is the 2014 Mazda6 wagon coming to America?
With crossovers and small SUVs squeezing wagons out of the market, will we see the Mazda6 wagon in the U.S.?
- North American Car, Truck and SUV of the Year (NACTOY) Awards Juror
Today, photographs of the 2014 Mazda Mazda6 wagon were unveiled ahead of its upcoming debut at the 2012 Paris Motor Show. Aside from the obvious increase in storage space and resculpting behind the B-pillar, the details are nearly identical to those of the sedan that was unveiled in Moscow earlier this year and will also be making an appearance in Paris.
The automaker's Skyactiv-G direct-injected gasoline engine will make an appearance behind the "Kodo" grille in 2.0-liter and 2.5-liter displacements. The Mazda6 wagon should also be available with standard and high-power versions of the Skyactiv-D 2.2-liter, turbocharged clean-diesel engine. Expect the automaker's new i-Eloop capacitor-based regenerative braking system to make an appearance here as well. Additionally, the rest of the vehicle will be built from the ground up with the automaker's Skyactiv philosophy of lightweight construction and efficient technologies.
While the 2014 Mazda6 sedan is pretty much guaranteed to end up at your local North American dealership sometime next year, the fate of the wagon outside of the European and Asian markets is still up in the air. That's possibly due to the fact that the U.S. wagon market has been all but completely replaced by small crossovers and SUVs. In light of the 2013 Mazda CX-5 crossover also receiving a Skyactiv-D variant in the near future, bringing the Mazda6 wagon to the U.S. could create consumer-confusing overlap in the automaker's lineup and the potential for the two vehicles to cannibalize each other's sales.
Don't get me wrong; I'd love to see 2014 Mazda6 wagons prowling the streets of my city, but I also won't be surprised if Mazda chooses to place its North American bet on the CX-5 crossover, which has already met with acclaim from drivers and the automotive press, rather than take a gamble on potentially weak sales of the 6 wagon. We won't know for sure what Mazda plans to do until the automaker makes an official announcement -- perhaps as early as the official unveiling at the Paris Auto Show later this month.
What do you think? Do you want wagons or are you happy with the rise of the crossovers? Sound off in the comments below.