Mazda 6 gets flexible with two sporty new haulers

Now available for those of us who refuse to sacrifice utility for driving dynamics, or vice versa, are the Mazda 6 sedan's two new versatile siblings, the 6 wagon and 6 five-door, the latter of which is essentially a hatchback version of the sedan. Like the sedan, the five-door comes in two flavors, i-trim, featuring a 160 hp I4, and s-trim, in which a 3.0 liter V6 pushes 220 hp through the front wheels. The wagon's only guise is s-trim, and fortunately, it's possible (and dare I say encouraged) to mate the more powerful engine with a manual transmission. By folding the rear seats, the hatch's cargo space measures 58.7 cubic feet, and the wagon's nearly doubles to 60.4. The five-door comes standard with a sport package, and starts at $21,315. The base wagon fetches $22,745, and for those who also need to be coddled while hauling their stuff, both cars can be kitted with luxury and Bose audio packages.