New Mazda 6.

A few years ago, when Mazda announced work on an all-new platform and an inline 6-cylinder engine, a next-generation sedan was mentioned as a future product as well as a few SUVs. Later, of course, the sedan was canceled and Mazda concentrated on their 4 new SUVs. The CX-60, CX-70, CX-80 and CX-90.

There are no current official plans for a new sedan based on that platform anymore, although I’m sure some early design work had been done.

And yet, we keep seeing illustrations of a possible future RWD/AWD Mazda 6 sedan, now and then. The rumor that will never die. The 2 illustrations above from Digimods Design look very realistic and extremely well made. So much so that they are also showing a pretty dull design, which is probably what Mazda would actually do. The worst part of their new SUVs is the horrible old-fashioned and disproportionate front grille design. To me, the new CX-90 looks nice until you see that ghastly front end.

The photos above show an accurate translation of the new SUVs into a sedan design. And it ends up looking like a sedan from 15 years ago with, you guessed it, an ugly huge grille. Even the new Accord and 2025 Camry have a more modern front end.

If Mazda really wanted to get back into the sedan business, they would need something that leapfrogs what Honda and Toyota currently offer. This, unfortunately, doesn’t.