IT may not offer an automatic gearbox, but the Mazda6 Diesel is a must on any shopping list if you have less than $40,000 to spend, seek exceptional fuel economy and need family-friendly space and practicality. But it doesn’t end there, because – being a Mazda6 – the diesel continues the tradition of a sporty, involving drive, combined with exceptional style and high-quality engineering. Plus there is finally a manual wagon in a range that, quite frankly, has cried out for one for years now.

Mazda GC 626 2.0D sedan
Released: 1983
Ended: 1987
Family Tree: Mazda6Yes, the Mazda6 MZR-CD is actually the company’s second diesel offering in Australia, but it seems to have forgotten the slow and noisy 626 Deluxe 2.0D of the mid-1980s, offered as an option in the first front-wheel drive GC model. Released to almost complete apathy in December 1983 in sedan-guise only, the 2.0D was powered by a 47kW/119Nm 2.0-litre non-turbo four-cylinder engine. Amazingly Mazda persisted with it through the GC’s Series II facelift, but then wisely ditched the diesel when the GD lobbed in late in 1987. Not surprisingly, Ford didn’t bother with a diesel version of the AR Telstar, which was virtually identical to the GC 626 range.
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