Good-looking Mazda 6 draws more glances than sales

Beauty rules in bare-it-all America, the land of white teeth, buffed brown bodies and perfect posteriors.

It’s a requirement in Southern California and some neighborhoods in Dallas, where really shiny people live on streets named Sculpted Drive and Lean Lane.

I wish I could play. Sadly, I usually back into the bathroom just to avoid the mirror’s reflection of all those dents and scratches left by life’s mean parking lots.

“Where did that new line on my cheek come from and where in Hades is it headed — to McKinney?”

My pretty is just not quite up to par.

But we certainly can’t say that about the 2016 Mazda 6, easily the best-looking midsize sedan on the market.

Great lines and fine curves cut and swoop subtly, giving the car unusual presence for an economical, family-oriented sedan.

So why doesn’t the slinky 6 sell better in the nip-and-tuck, hot-waxed U.S., especially when most of us would look pretty darn spiffy in it?

Beats me. But through June, Mazda managed to sell only 32,307 of the comely 6s, compared with the front-running Toyota Camry's 215,816 sales, according to Automotive News. Even Chevy's struggling Malibu outperformed it, managing 96,520 sales.

Another little mystery in life, I suppose.

Nonetheless, even though overshadowed by lesser sedans, the 6 still pops.

My metallic gray Grand Touring model sported an unusually long, graceful hood for a front-wheel-drive sedan, giving it the sturdy feel of a larger rear-wheel-drive car.

It faces the midsize world with a big, upright blacked-out grille and fairly subtle projector headlamps.

Mazda likes lines, and the 6 wears them well. One accentuated a slight curve on top of the front fender, disappearing into the front door. Another emerged quietly from the back door, creating a strong shoulder over the rear fender.

Meanwhile, a relatively short trunk and gracefully curved top kept the look flowing.

Small overhangs front and rear pushed the big sedan’s 19-inch gray wheels and 225-45 tires to the corners of its body, giving it a taut, muscular stance.

Now, if I could just learn to like the car’s soft 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine, I’d pronounce it the best thing since casual dating.

A little sleepy

Part of Mazda’s “SkyActiv” family of engines, the 2.5 packs all sorts of goodies, including high compression and direct fuel injection.

But the 184-horsepower engine just felt sleepy to me, particularly under 3,000 rpm. Though rated at 185 pound-feet of torque, the motor’s twist doesn’t arrive in full until 3,250 rpm, making the 3,400-pound sedan feel kind of sluggish.

On paper, the 6 looks pretty slick.

Sixty mph arrives in seven seconds, which is certainly acceptable, and the car can hit 92 mph in the quarter-mile, according to Car and Driver.

In addition, the 6 is rated at a highly impressive 28 miles per gallon in town and 40 on the highway.

But when merging with traffic on scenic, billboarded Central Expressway, the power always seemed to arrive a little late and with a shout, not a roar.

Lacking low-end surge, the engine felt refined but had no grit — and I’ll take a whiskey-drinker over Miss Manners any day.

Fortunately, the well-programmed six-speed automatic kept the engine at a decent boil once the car got moving, upshifting and downshifting smoothly.

Moreover, the 6, which arrived with a window sticker of $33,395, had the sort of slightly firm, long-legged ride that you generally find in something costing several thousand dollars more.

Though limited by front-wheel drive, it turned into tight corners with reasonable glee, able to hit them pretty crisply for a car designed to be a peanut-butter-and-jelly people-carrier.

High-speed twisties could induce some body lean, but the 6 never felt off-balance or ungainly.

Likewise, the steering was well-weighted — neither too heavy nor too light — as well as fairly tight and quick.

Better interior

For 2016, the 6 also got an improved interior, which was immediately apparent in its sleeker dashboard.

In fact, the interior felt even more near-luxury than the carefully crafted exterior.

Mine was stitched in a creative black and white, featuring off-white seats that had a great, slightly ’60s Americana feel to them.

Squint and you could almost be in a ’65 Malibu SS — only nicer.

The black upper dash featured high-end-feeling pliable plastic with a hood over the instrument panel stitched on the edges.

Rather than cluttter the center of the dash with some oversized, distracting center stack, Mazda fitted the 6 with a tablet-size display screen high on the dash. The screen was mounted above a low-key horizontal panel that contained the climate-control knobs.

Sometimes, those tablet display screens look silly and contrived, but it felt OK in the contemporary Mazda 6 — as did a great off-white panel at mid-dash that matched the seats.

A broad black console was trimmed on the edges with off-white leather, while the black plastic door panels offered off-white centers and armrests.

The off-white seats, which provided good legroom and headroom in back for your bullying boss on those monthly lunch outings, featured perforated centers with supportive bolsters.

But I never figured out why Mazda tacked on a heads-up display using a small, clear screen that stuck up from behind the instrument panel. It looked like something Bubba at Pep Boys had tacked on.

Also, the interior was a well-designed, nicely executed place. Why did Mazda put the stereo tuning buttons on that tablet display screen, forcing the driver to look at the screen when changing a station?

I wouldn’t advise trying it in traffic.

First, though, fix the engine, Mazda. Give us an optional version with another 30 or 40 horsepower, even if you have to sacrifice a couple of miles per gallon in fuel economy.

Or even better, give us that engine and the torquey diesel you’ve been promising for the last two years.

Still, this is an exceptional midsize sedan. With all that Mazda got right in the 6, a few extra horsepower doesn’t seem too challenging.

AT A GLANCE: 2016 Mazda 6 i Grand Touring

Type of vehicle: Five passenger, front-wheel-drive midsize sedan

Price as tested: $33,395

Fuel economy: 28 miles per gallon city, 40 highway

Weight: 3,363 pounds

Engine: 2.5-liter four-cylinder with 184 horsepower and 185 pound-feet of torque

Performance: 0 to 60 mph in 7 seconds

SOURCES: Mazda USA; Car and Driver

Follow Terry Box on Twitter at @TerryBoxdmn.