The redesigned 2014 Mazda 6 sedan carries a base price of $21,675 including shipping charges. That's a $155 increase over the 2013 model.

Mazda redesigned its midsize sedan and incorporated the brand's SkyActiv fuel efficiency technology.

The SkyActiv suite includes a 2.5-liter gasoline engine that can be paired with either a six-speed manual or six-speed automatic transmission. The engine is rated at 184 hp at 5,700 rpm and 185 lb-ft of torque at 3,250 rpm.

With the manual transmission, the Mazda 6 is rated at 25 mpg city/37 mpg highway/29 mpg combined MPG. The automatic does slightly better at 26 mpg city/38 mpg highway/30 mpg combined.

Those numbers put the 2014 Mazda 6 amid the crop of redesigned midsize sedans launched for 2013, including the redesigned Nissan Altima that achieves 27 mpg city/38 mpg highway/31 mpg combined when equipped with a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine and continuously variable transmission.

Mazda will make the SkyActiv 2.2-liter diesel engine available in the Mazda 6 in the second half of this year. Final specifications and pricing will be released then.

The gasoline-powered 2014 Mazda 6 is on sale now and available in three trims.

Standard equipment on the base i Sport includes the manual transmission, push-button start, air conditioning with pollen filter, power windows with a driver-side one-touch up/down feature, a tilt-and-telescopic adjustable steering column, steering-wheel-mounted audio and cruise control functions, 17-inch alloy wheels and auxiliary and USB connection ports.

With the optional automatic transmission on the i Sport, added features include Bluetooth phone and audio connectivity, a 5.8-inch color touchscreen display, a rearview camera, HD radio, Pandora Internet radio compatibility, SMS text message receipt and delivery, automatic emergency notification and voice commands.

The mid-level i Touring trim is $25,290 with shipping charges. Additional equipment includes 19-inch alloy wheels, dual-zone automatic climate control with rear-seat vents, leatherette-trimmed sport seats, a six-way power driver's seat and a switch for operating functions on the 5.8-inch display screen.

The Touring Technology package, a $2,000 option, adds a navigation system, Bose 11-speaker surround sound system, keyless entry, automatic on/off headlights, rain-sensing windshield wipers, an auto-dimming rearview mirror with Homelink, an auto-dimming driver's side outside mirror, heated outside mirrors and the new brake support system that reduces brake pedal travel if a potential collision is detected when traveling at speeds less than 19 mph.

The top-of-the-line Mazda 6 trim is the i Grand Touring, which is $30,290. It builds on the i Touring with Touring Technology package and adds platinum silver 19-inch alloy wheels, a power moonroof, a rear lip spoiler, bi-xenon high-intensity discharge headlights with auto leveling, leather-trimmed sport seats with heated front seats, an eight-way power driver's seat with power lumbar support, a four-way power front passenger seat, steering wheel-mounted paddle shifter and Sirius satellite radio with four months free.

Two package options are available with the i Grand Touring. The Mazda Radar Cruise Control and Forward Obstruction Warning package ($900) adds those safety features. The Advanced package will be available in the second half of 2013 and adds those safety features and lane departure warning, high beam control and a braking energy regen system, named i-ELOOP, for a fuel-efficiency boost. Pricing has not been released.

In an automotive landscape dominated by platform sharing, technology exchange and any number of other cross-fertilization/cost-saving/amortization exercises, it's actually pretty rare that we get to drive a new car that is as "all-new" as this, the 2014 Mazda6. With brand-spanking new Skyactiv architecture throughout – engine, transmission, body and chassis all included – this 6 represents a new era of flexible production and cutting edge running gear for the happily lithe car company.

Our own Jonathon Ramsey did a cracking job of running the Mazda6 through its First Drive paces a few months ago, and sufficiently impressed upon us just how good looking a car this is for the midsize sedan segment. Suffice it to say, now, then, that this is easily the most interesting (and quite possibly the most beautiful) midsize sedan in the segment today. However, as Mr. Ramsey reviewed a fully contented example of the 6 – one equipped with the six-speed automatic transmission – we took advantage of Mazda's North American launch event of the car to suss out the base Mazda6 i Sport, complete with its six-speed Skyactiv manual gearbox. This may not shock you, but the stripper's pretty good, too.



Driving Notes

We'll get right down to the meat of it: The manual transmission is far better than the average do-it-yourself gearbox in this segment. Throws of the gearlever are light, short, and easy to put home with confidence. The clutch pedal, similarly, is very low-effort, but with a broad catch point that's simple to operate in every driving situation we encountered. This isn't a hewn-from-billet shifting experience, naturally, but it is a manual transmission that can be used with satisfaction in spirited driving, or mindlessly on the shopping run. The transmission is just perfectly suited to the power delivery of the smooth 2.5-liter motor, too.

The Sport trim car we tested had zero options – quite a rarity in the media fleet. Still, we found the cabin to be pretty accommodating and comfortable. The most noticeable interior bits on this base-level are the all-cloth seats and the old school head unit where the touchscreen display usually lives. The seats were fine – soft to the touch and seemingly resilient, with just a bit of gloss and texture to make them feel upscale without the cowhide. The head unit, meanwhile, while perfectly functional (and sure to be embraced by the Luddite set in our comments section), was both drab and old-fashioned looking. Naturally, the instrument panel was designed to accommodate a touchscreen – this is the 21st Century, after all – so its lack of one hampers the design. For one thing, the lack of color and brightness afforded by the display makes the dash look sort of dark and dreary by comparison.

So, just how inexpensive is the base model Mazda6 i Sport? The literal answer is $21,675 after the $795 destination fee has been added on. That's pretty good, we thought. The relative answer is, of course, slightly more complicated. In a tooth-and-nail segment like this one, you'd expect pricing among the heavyweight players to be very close, and it is. Still, the new 6 is almost the class-leader. Comparing optionless, base-model MSRPs, plus destination charges, we find this: Toyota Camry is $23,030, Nissan Altima is $22,550, Honda Accord is $22,470 and Ford Fusion is $22,245. Volkswagen's most basic Passat is just $21,640 though – about a night at the movies with your wife (not the kids) cheaper than the Mazda.

Mazda is in zero danger of loosing its ballyhooed Zoom-Zoom appeal with this 6 – the handling experience is impressive. While we were perhaps a bit less bullish about the car's nimbleness on our test drive through some very hilly, winding Texas Hill Country roads than when cruising through the French countryside (again, see our First Drive), we still found the thing to be pretty tossable. Reactions to steering inputs, especially, were impressively fast for a car this big and long. The steering experience itself was a bit weightless, with not enough of a transition from on-lock to off-lock feeling of heft, but still very accurate and easy to modulate in a quick corner. Suspension response was admirable, too, on fast switchbacks. For all of that, the cruising ride didn't suffer, though road and tire noise on the freeway was higher than we'd like.

Mazda will doubtlessly sell a lot of examples of this new Mazda6 based on its stunning sheetmetal and high levels of content in the middle/upper trims. Good to know that the base car is still pretty sweet then; and still a pleasantly differentiated product in a segment filled with one-upmanship.

LOS ANGELES -- Mazda has postponed the U.S. launch of its diesel-powered Mazda6 mid-sized sedan until April because of delays in emissions testing, the company said today.

Instead of hitting showrooms before year end as planned, Mazda6 sedans powered by the automaker's Skyactiv-D 2.2-liter turbodiesel will arrive in late April, Robert Davis, senior vice president of U.S. operations for Mazda North American Operations, disclosed to Mazda employees today in a letter obtained by Automotive News.

Mazda later confirmed in a brief statement that the diesel launch would be delayed until late-spring 2014, "to accommodate final emissions testing and certification."

The delay is a speed bump in the company's plan to become the only Japanese automaker to sell a diesel-powered passenger car in the United States. While most other automakers have launched hybrids, plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles to meet tougher fuel economy standards, Mazda charted its own course by making diesel-powered vehicles a key part of its fuel economy strategy.

In the letter, Davis said final emissions certification testing on the powertrain is taking longer than the company expected.

"I know we had discussed it being in showrooms before the end of the year, and everyone involved in the program is disappointed it will not be, but final certification testing -- the results of which are looking encouraging -- is taking longer than we had initially expected," Davis wrote.

A Mazda source close to the situation says that in lieu of the Mazda6 diesel, U.S. dealers will receive about 4,000 additional units of the Mazda6 sedan with regular gasoline engines in the first quarter next year than initially planned. The car is in short supply after sales more than doubled compared to the prior year in June, July and August.