Mazda enters battleground

With Holden's just-launched Epica stealing the limelight now, it hasn't taken long for one of its rivals in the mid-sized car fight to come out swinging.

Mazda this week added more features to its revamped Mazda6 lineup while lowering the price, which Mazda says gives it more value for money.

The sedan, hatch and wagon have been rebadged to come in Sports, Classic Sports and Diesel variants. The former slow-selling Limited version which was the entry level to the Mazda6 sedan range has been dropped. There have been no changes to the all-wheel drive model, the MPS.

The entry model is now the Sports, priced from $28,990 for the six-speed manual sedan. It replaces the old Classic that sold for $31,980.

New trim, alloy wheels and a rear spoiler on all but the wagon versions have been added to its already comprehensive equipment list that includes six air bags, a six-stack CD player, auto air conditioning and remote locking.

Next comes the Classic Sports ($39,990), which replaces the old Luxury Sports ($40,955). It adds dynamic stability control and comes with bigger wheels, sunroof, leather seats, Bose sound system and power-adjustable driver's seat.

The turbocharged Diesel wagon and hatch have similar equipment levels to the Sports and will sell from $35,205.

The biggest-selling feature is fuel consumption — a claimed 5.9 litres per 100km for a mix of city and highway driving, giving it a potential 1000km range on a single tank of fuel.