AutoCouple: She says ... 2016 Mazda 6 provides a lesson in 'less is more' - TriValley Central
Last week the 2016 Mazda 6 rolled into town and blew me away with its sexy looks and impressive performance. Just another family sedan like the Camry and Accord, this redesigned Mazda turned heads as if it came out of an Italian design studio and took off in traffic like it had a V8, or at least a turbocharged V6. . In reality, the new 6 comes from Hofu,... With no five-on-the-floor like my old Capris, this one makes do with “six-in-the-tree,” a phrase my husband says he coined for a six-speed automatic that can be operated with steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters. Sensing there was more to this story, I Googled the phrase and learned that, in the early days of automatic transmissions, car enthusiast magazines would differentiate between manuals and automatics with automotive slang: “four on the floor” — a... “three on the tree” — a three-speed automatic operated by a lever on the steering column. Getting back to the less-is-more Mazda 6, with four cylinders and a device that harvests untapped braking energy, using it to power the A/C and other accessories, it easily averages over 30 mpg in town and on the freeway. Just like it sounds, this increasingly popular fuel-saving device actually closes like a window blind when the air-cooled engine does. Source: www.trivalleycentral.com
