The 2015 Mazda6 represents an endangered species. Don’t worry, Mazda is in no immediate danger of going defunct, in fact it’s currently in a real renaissance period. What makes this particular car a dying breed is the fully manual gearbox.

For the 2015 model year, the number of midsize sedans available in America with a three pedal layout has dropped by nearly half. Both the Ford Fusion and Hyundai Sonata have lost their stick shift options as a result of extreme customer apathy, leaving only the 6, the VW Passat and the Honda Accord.

The Mazda6 features a prominent front splitter

Now in its sophomore year, the current generation 6 stands apart from its midsize sedan contemporaries in a number of ways, starting with the way it looks. Last year, Mazda adopting a new styling direction with sweeping curves and prominent grille that replaces the previous smiley face look.

The shape of the sweeping greenhouse is not actually that different from the last generation but the more upright fascia gives this car and its siblings a decidedly in-your-face stance. The blunt front profile contributes to what looks like a more horizontal hood that looks longer than competitors such as the Chrysler 200. Especially from the front three-quarters, the effect is that this almost looks like a longitudinal engine rear-wheel-drive car.

Both the mid-level Touring trim that I drove and the top Grand Touring edition replace the 17-inch alloy wheels on the base Sport with 19-inch rolling stock that does an excellent job of filling out the wheel wells and enhancing the appearance of athleticism. By the way, this car doesn’t just look athletic, it possesses the “Zoom-Zoom” spirit of Mazda, but I’ll come back to that.

Inside, the Touring goes from cloth covered seats to a synthetic leatherette that proves once again, that genuine animal hides are no longer needed to get the same effect as leather. The coverings aren’t quite as supple as the premium skins in a luxury car, but they are at least as good as much of the low-end leather I’ve experienced. The seats themselves are comfortable and supportive and offer enough adjustment for pretty much anyone to get properly positioned. The 111.4-inch wheelbase means there is also plenty of room for a pair of adults to sit comfortably in the rear cabin for a road trip.

Every 2015 Mazda6 gets a 5.8-inch color touch screen display flanked by a series of mode buttons that are replicated on the center console surrounding a rotary control knob. A Tom-Tom-powered navigation system is available on Touring and standard on the Grand Touring. As usual, Tom-Tom provides good routing directions and real-time traffic updates are available as well.

Unfortunately, unlike smartphone-powered mapping solutions, the point-of-interest database is limited and the ability to find a coffee-shop with voice commands was substandard. Also like most built-in voice recognition systems, the recognition worked OK, but the functionality was limited and extremely cumbersome. Again, I’ll take Google Now or Siri any day over anything offered by an automaker.

My tester was also equipped with a blindspot indicator system with cross-traffic-alert which is especially handy when backing out of a parking space flanked by larger trucks and SUVs. The Grand Touring trim offers an optional radar-based adaptive cruise control and collision warning plus a camera based lane departure warning.

Propulsion for all 2015 models comes from Mazda’s excellent direct-injected, 2.5-liter SkyActiv-G four-cylinder. With 184-horsepower and 185 pound-feet of torque, you’ll never mistake this for an old MazdaSpeed 6, but it’s more than adequate for the vast majority of commuters.

The clutch pedal effort is light and the shifter moves smoothly between the gates making driving even in stop and go traffic easy. If like me you are one of those increasingly unusual people that prefers to take control of the gearbox, you’re unlikely to be disappointed by what Mazda has to offer in the 6.

While I can live without radar cruise control systems, I would have liked to try out the Grand Touring with the Technology package for a single feature that is currently unique in the industry to Mazda, the oddly named i-ELOOP regenerative braking system.

Mazda i-ELOOP regenerative braking system

Mazda doesn’t currently offer a hybrid version of the 6, but i-ELOOP uses a smart alternator that essentially goes into an idle mode during acceleration to reduce the load on the engine and improve fuel efficiency. In this mode, the electrical system mostly draws energy from the battery instead of the alternator. During coasting and braking, the alternator engages to provide some extra engine braking and recover kinetic energy that is stored for later use.

Unlike, other such systems, Mazda uses a supercapacitor to store that energy. The supercapacitor can absorb energy faster than a battery, enabling the system to recover more energy for later use. In combination with active grille shutters, the i-ELOOP-equipped 6 gets an extra 2 mpg from the automatic transmission version on the EPA driving cycles, boosting the ratings to 28 mpg city, 40 mpg highway and 32 mpg combined. The six-speed manual I tested gets a sticker of 25 mpg city, 37 mpg highway and 29 mpg combined. In my driving, I got an average of 27.5 mpg in some unseasonably cold weather that dipped down to 10 degrees in mid-November.

At just under $25,000 including delivery charges, the Mazda6 Touring is very competitively priced and has a more athletic demeanor than most of its competitors. If you’re in the market for a family sedan that your kids won’t know how to shift, the 6 is worthy of consideration and buying one is the only real way to convince Mazda and other manufacturers to save the stick.

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