Inside, I can see fewer people loving the two-tone color scheme and sport-oriented layout of the dashboard. It screams more tech-geek-friendly than family-friendly, but the quality is certainly on par with others in its class. My only issue when it came to interior feel was with the controls in the middle of the dashboard. They weren't as nice or substantial as those you'll find in Nissan and Honda right now, but they're not cheap, either. The red lighting around the gauges and buttons is a bit jarring at night; I had to turn the brightness down quite a bit.

The midrange i Touring Plus trim level I tested featured cloth seats that were extremely comfortable during my hour-plus commute to work. The seats' good thigh support was a big factor in that, and that's something often overlooked.

The Mazda6 is also extremely spacious inside. How big is it? It beats even the large Accord in rear legroom, so a family of four shouldn't outgrow this sedan. I fit both a rear-facing infant safety seat and a large, front-facing convertible child safety seat in the back, and there was plenty of room for the front passenger seat to move back. We even tested the infant seat behind the driver, because a reader wanted to know which sedans would be good for twins. Trying to put an infant seat behind the front seat of a car, rather than in the middle of the bench seat, usually requires sliding the front seat far forward, making its location uncomfortable. If you have twins, that means both the passenger and the driver would have to move into uncomfortable seating positions, which I wouldn't advise for safety reasons. The Mazda6 — and the Accord — pass the twin test well.

At 16.6 cubic feet, the Mazda6's trunk is the biggest in the class. It's positively huge.