well, this post got me curious - so on my way back home from a mountain bike ride this evening i stopped by the mazda dealer to see if they had any MTX 6s's. didn't expect them to be open, but they were...and they had a couple of manual V6 ones on the lot, surprisingly enough. so, i took one for a test-drive. dark gray, pretty well loaded - sticker of $25xxx.
my thoughts? one of the closest things on the market today to a CSVT - mainly b/c one of the things that makes or breaks a car for me is how it sounds, and the duratec in the 6s sounds darn good. not much of an exhaust note, but i'm sure that can be remedied easily.
the clutch was a bit soft and spongy, and the shifter seemed a little less direct and had longer throws than i remember from my CSVT, though bear in mind it has been 2 years since i owned it. might be a good use for a mild short shift kit, but i'd have to live with it for a little while and see if i got used to it. for one thing, i have to remember that i'm now accustomed to a miata, which has an even better feel and shorter throws than my RSX-S - a paragon of manual-tranny precision itself.
highway acceleration and midrange power overall seemed pretty stout - maybe not quite as frenetic as i recall from my CSVT, but still impressive nonetheless. very comfortable cruising at 80+ mph, as well - something that my jeep doesn't do all that well (at least, not without reminding me that the gas mileage at those speeds is abysmal when driving a brick). the car also seems to have a lot more room in the back than the contour....both in the back seat and, to a lesser extent, in the trunk.
interior fit and finish seemed good, though i wonder how the long-term ownership experience will treat the silver-painted parts and the harder-plastic bits...probably fine, but that was just my initial reaction.
all in all, two thumbs up. my brief test-drive definitely impressed me....not that it's an M3 or anything, but for a low-to-mid-20k car, i really enjoyed it.
my .02...
