Mazda6 diesel engine delayed over low performance, still coming

Mon, Dec 1 2014

Oh Mazda... we had many hopes for the promised diesel four-cylinder in the Mazda6, but those have remained largely unfulfilled, as the oil-burning powerplant has failed to appear on dealer lots following its 2012 LA Auto Show announcement.

Despite engineering issues that forced the company to announce that the program was delayed back in September 2013, Mazda remains adamant that the 2.2-liter Skyactiv-D is still coming to our shores.

"We're still very much committed to diesel," Mazda's North American CEO, Jim O'Sullivan, told Automotive News. "We are still working on getting the performance aspects up to where we want them, and we do have a plan – an engineering road map Â– to get it done."

According to AN, Mazda's initial plan with the 2.2-liter diesel was to build an engine so clean it could get by without an aftertreatment system, which generally accounts for the price premium of diesel engines versus their gas counterparts. The new system has come with performance issues, though, necessitating the delays.

"If [we were] a commodity brand and didn't care about that, it would be on the market right now," O'Sullivan told AN. "But I know the people were expecting something from us, expecting certain drive characteristics and performance, and I didn't want to disappoint them."

While O'Sullivan's defense of the diesel Mazda is admirable, the exec stops short of giving us an indication of when the new engine will finally arrive.

By Brandon Turkus