August will see the launch of the Mazda6 2.3-litre Sport saloon at an on-the-road price of £20,000 and will be available in Titanium, Silver or Pacific Blue.

The Mazda6 2.3-litre Sport saloon is a new addition to the highly acclaimed Mazda6 range. The Mazda6 has already notched up many awards in the UK and Europe for its stunning styling, outstanding driving dynamics, superb engines and driving enjoyment.

The awards include Scottish Car of the Year, Auto Express Auto1 UK Champion, Association of Ulster Motoring Writers Car of the Year, What Car? Estate of the Year, Fleet News Best Upper Medium Car, Fleet World Best User Chooser and runner-up in the European Car of the Year.

The Mazda6 2.3-litre Sport Saloon includes leather upholstery, sports body styling kit, fog lamps (in body kit) and exhaust tail pipes over the five-door Sport with the option of satellite navigation.

Mazda6 was a completely new car platform developed to compete as a true ‘driver’s car’ with the best brands from Germany in the important midsize market segment, without compromising Mazda's core strengths of durability, quality, reliability and customer satisfaction. It symbolises the insight, ideas and innovations of a company that has been reborn to create it and is the first full-scale embodiment of the Mazda brand DNA.

Mazda’s development team set three key goals in order to create the Mazda6 as a worldwide benchmark in the midsize vehicle segment: to retain the strengths of Mazda’s rich heritage as an innovator in developing cutting-edge performance and technology; to meet or beat the driving dynamics, performance and refinement of the best European midsize vehicles; and to exceed the quietness and refinement of the best Japanese midsize vehicles.

In particular the Mazda6 delivers in five key areas, which Mazda identified as vital for success: stability, steering responsiveness, predictable handling, braking power and ride comfort.

Naturally safety was at the forefront of the development programme and as a result the Mazda6 has been engineered to meet or exceed crash safety standards in all major world markets. The comprehensive passive and active safety technology includes smart new dual-stage air bags as part of a system of up to six airbags for the Mazda6, plus a new Crashable Pedal design and ABS with EBD as standard across the range. Security has also been a high priority with a Thatcham category 1 security system across the range.