Mazda6 wins ‘Large Family Car’ award

The hugely-popular Mazda6 has won the ‘Large Family Car’ category of the Environmental Transport Association’s (ETA) 2007 Car Buyers’ Guide published in London yesterday.

At the awards ceremony, Mazda Motor Corporation was ranked as runner-up in the ‘Motoring Innovation Award’ section of the guide for developing the world’s first environmentally friendly Coating Technology for use during car manufacture.

The Mazda6 2.0 Diesel with six-speed manual transmission as standard, which returns more than 47mpg on the combined cycle, was awarded a 10-Star ETA Green Ranking and was selected as the best ‘Large Family Car’. For scrutiny by the ETA, vehicles are divided into 10 categories: City cars, Supermini, Small family, Large family, Small MPV, Executive, MPV, Off-road, Luxury and Sports.

“The stylish Mazda6 kick-started the change in perception of our brand in 2001 and since then the Mazda Corporation has completely renewed its product line-up,” commented Rob Lindley, Managing Director of Mazda Motors UK. “The Mazda6 has become our top-seller in the UK and in its latest form, with diesel power and a six-speed transmission, it is an extremely fuel-efficient, refined and safe car – an achievement acknowledged by the ETA award.”

Mazda’s innovative coating technology, called the ‘Three Layer Wet Paint System’ is already operating at its Hofu Plant1 facility in Japan. The new system reduces the emission of CO2 and of volatile organic compounds (VOC). By integrating the primer coating process into the top coating process, less energy is required and a 15 percent cut in CO2 is achieved. In addition, newly-developed low-solvent paint plus the introduction of more efficient spraying robots, has reduced VOC emissions by 45 percent.

First published in 1992, the ETA’s annual buyers’ guide sets out to champion the least environmentally damaging vehicles. It names and shames both winners and losers, rated in terms of engine power (in relation to engine capacity), CO2 emissions, fuel consumption (on the cold-start urban cycle), external noise (during a 31mph drive past) and safety (pedestrian impact rating).