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Having only driven an RX-8 so far for 2004, I am unqualified to talk about the rest of the line at this point. I will say though, that the styling on the Rx-8 is just marvelous, IMO, but I wasn't in love with the "way" it drove, and did notice the absence of low end torque. High end performance seems to be where it's at with this car, and that pretty much matches any of the Bavarian products I've driven lately as well.
Having said all that - how many Rx-8s have been sold so far, and is it on par with their projections? I don't know, too lazy to go looking.....
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Considering Mazda has already announced that they will use the RX8 platform for other vehicles, I'd say Mazda is pleased.
Plus, Mazda just announced a huge increase in all vehicle sales (and put them in the black), they seem to be on a roll.
-Customer Service needs on improvement.
-Mazda needs to market its name better. One Honda owner I told I drove a Mazda they act like they don't know what the heck a Mazda is. That needs to be changed. What I mean is every young buyer what the heck a Protege 5 is but the older buyer has no clue.
-More single car dealers. Mazda is usually aligned with a Toyota dealer or even a Hynudai dealer. Some Mazda dealer's are next door to a Honda dealer which doesn't help matters either. That needs to be changed. Put dealers where Honda and Toyota dealers aren't.
Not to mention its physical location is between the Acura and Toyota dealers. :-)
Agree: Mazda needs a MUCH better dealer network. People with knowledge on the models and how to properly service them.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
GM is the same way. I see a lot of Buick/GMC/Pontiac dealerships stuck in the same physical location. Too many competing products to do justice to any one of them.
That said, my dealership has one of the top rotary techicians in the country. I hope they pay him as such because he's a real "guru" when it comes to anything regarding RX7s and RX8s. As icing on the cake, he's also an RX7 owner and general rotary lover. His only job at the dealership is to work on the rotaries. Until the RX8 came out, he was stuck working on more mundane vehicles as there were fewer and fewer RX7s to maintain. He's now got much more job security.
There is a loyal Mazda base out there, who are hoping for some support from the company.
Nasser messed up Ford thank god they got somebody in there who knows what they are doing like Bill Ford. I'm not the biggest Ford fan but Bill Ford seems very focused on getting the job dome right at Ford.
On a side note about Ford their quality isn't bad. The 13 recalls on the Focus and the Firestone Tires a few years ago is what kills their reputation. The Tarus has always been reliable. The Explorer is a top seller. I mean Ford's not bad from a quality aspect. Its just when you put Ford parts into a Mazda car but thats a different saubject all together.
Recalls on the Taurus, Windstar, Mustang, Explorer, Expedition, Excursion, Ranger, F-150, 250, 350, Econoline? Minimal, nominal and insignificant.
Now, I'll admit, I have little confidence in the Taurus drive train for a long term performer, which carries over into the Windstar, but the Panther cars (Crown Vic, Grand Marquis, Town Car) are among the finest, long term runners in the world. Check the threads here on them, you won't believe the testimonials they get!
Not every car Ford makes is a great one. But some of them are amazingly good. Just like everyone else. It isn't Recalls that scare me. It's overall design & quality. Mitsubishi won't ever recall a car, or admit an issue with a car, and they've had some horrible safety issues.
Of course all Mazda dealers here are independent and while MOST ppl will always check H/T before Mazda or Nissan, the Pro and MPV sell quite well I think, based on the many I see daily.
Dinu
As far as Mazda is concerned they are not popular in the states because of their lack of brand name recognition. You see Twice as many Nissan's as you do Mazda's and 3 times as many Honda's and Toyota's as you do Mazda's. Look at post 420 for for proof of Mazda's lack of brand recognition.
The 6 looks better than the Accord and Camry. The RX-8 is pretty sleek. The MPV is the best looking mini-van money can buy. Mazda's don't resemble Toyota's at all(well the newer Mazda's anyway.) Mazda went through that spell in the mid to late 90's when they tried to make their cars look like Honda's and Toyota's. I'm not going to diss Ford but the Explorer and Tarus don't make much of an impression on me either when I look at them. The Focus and Maustang is pretty disctictive but the rest no. The Ford Contour that really didn't sell well. I would take any Mazda over any Ford in the styling department. Any Mazda is better looking than any Ford, Chevy, or Toyota. Thats just my opinion. To me when hear about bland Japanese styling its like whats so good about the way an Impala or a Tarus looks? Im not dissing anybody who likes Anerican Cars but I just don't get what so great about the way an American Car looks.
I am a Mazda fan also - I liked the 929 a lot, the 626 for certain features. The Miata is hot, the RX-8 is beautiful. The Millenia is nice, but a tad smallish inside. I would like to see Mazda get some serious backing from Daddy, and make a real impact.
Seriously, we will pass a Pro5 on the street, and I will say "See, that's a Mazda", and they will give me a blank stare? "What is a Mazda?"
It didn't help that the sedans had no distinctive styling features in the 90s to differentiate them from the pack of small and midsizers.
Of course, the one significantly distinctive car they do make, the Miata, is widely recognized, even by my clueless friends! Unfortunately, they are not aware it is a Mazda...
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
About Mazda's sedans I think the 93-97 626 did differentiate from the pack. The 98 626 was nice looking but it didn't really differentaiate itself from the pack. Remember the Ford tranny destroyed early to mid 90's 626's sales. The Millenia was distinctive looking but its a Mazda and not an Acura or a Lexus.
RV banker:
About the Tarus its not a bad car but I just don't find anything flashy about it. It lacks pizzaz in the styling department. The Altima, Passat, and 6 have pizzaz to them. Of course I liked the pre-2001 Honda Accords so I guess I am one that shouldn't talk about "pizzaz".
The Ford Tranny in the 626 was the same one used in the Ford Contour I think.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
The transmission in question is Ford's CD4E, which in Mazda applications is designated LA4A-EL. The only vehicles currently using it, to my knowledge, are the Escape/Tribute siblings, and it had to be substantially reworked to handle 4WD; it's not doing too badly.
In the CR 2004 Buying Guide, which just came out, the '95 and '96 trans have dropped to below average, though it's still only the half-black dot, as opposed to the solid black dot earned by the '94 every year.
I mean, look at Mazda. Small, and got swallowed up. There are only two independent Japanese manufacturers left today: Toyota and Honda. And even Mazda competes in more segments of the market than Honda does, albeit in some cases with rebadged Fords (Tribute, B-series truck).
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Dang, that would be strange. Toyota in control of Mazda, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Ford, Mercury, Volvo, Lincoln, and Land Rover. I wonder if they'd keep all of the brands? Platform sharing?
How about Lincoln Town Car based on the LS430? What about a FWD Camry based 4 door entry level Aston Martin? A small Lincoln based on the Corolla? The possibilities are endless!!
I think GM is straightening itself out and it knows what it customers want now. I mean I was reading in an article today about GM's new Design Chief. I mean in the early to mid 90's GM was doing exterior designs by different comitee's. You can't do that. GM made alot error's in product decions in the 80's/early 90's. I think having Bob Lutz in there will improve things. Beyond his tenure at GM I'm not so sure what the future of GM will be. Lutz has alot of authority whenever he's at different automotive companies. I'm not the biigest GM Fan but what they are doing with Cadillac currently I have to some faith in GM.
Toyota already runs another Japanese company - Daihatsu. I think it would do a good job with Mazda if it owned it. Similar to what Ford has already done with it, only no rebadged Toyotas sold as Mazdas! :-)
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
If anything, I would think Honda is the most vulnerable to be bought by either GM or Ford. I doubt Honda would be of interest to Toyota because of the overlap in products and the fact that Honda doesn't have anything Toyota needs.
Doubtful, but if Honda was bought out by GM or Ford, they could use Honda's car expertise and Honda could use GM's/Ford's truck expertise.
Mazda is currently the shining star for Ford, currently. And that's because Ford is allowing them to "do their own thing".
I never could understand Land Rover's place in the world given the high end SUVs currently offered by the likes of Lexus, Lincoln, Caddy and Infiniti....all of them offering better iterations of the SUV than Land Rover offers.
Of course, both of these trucks have been super-luxed up, and in the case of the Range Rover, heavily modified to provide the fast sporty car-like ride that buyers of luxury SUVs now expect. The result is you might be in trouble taking either truck off the road nowadays, at least in stock form.
Agree that no-one among GM, Ford, and Toyota is buying any of the others. Mazda has its brightest future in years. If Ford had to pick only one of the foreign divisions it could keep, I would think they would be smart to pick Mazda.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
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then they got that arab guy (was he libyan ?) running the company and everything went crashing down. Ford was doing good here so they thought they could waste money on extremely stupid purchases like land rover, aston martin, jaguar etc. So instead of spending money on Lincoln to make an awesome luxury division (what Cadillac is doing now) and mercury a different brand than Ford and continuing to improve the Ford models they blew all their money. Now instead of gaining market share they are loosing it rapidly and not updating products like the should. If Ford stayed on its course it would be closer to GM's market share and with GM's turnaround they could have togather fought off the japanese invasion that has occured in full force. Nope instead they blew their money on useless brands nobody cares about. Plus Ford was really making big improvements on the quality front, now they are one of the worst mfg.
The one exception is Mazda, that turned out to be a good investment, thought it may not be different enough to not steal sales from Ford. They serve different markets really, but there is so good overlap. But they have captured the youth market good with Mazda with attractive products.
It really is a shame what they did to Ford.
That bit of humor aside, I just wanted to point out that unless you meant the insinuation, noting the previous Ford heads country of origin would be considered a no no. But I won't be judegemental.
I'll re-assert that I feel Ford is continually shooting itself in the foot with the whole ridiculous pressure on suppliers to drop prices on parts, and the bottom line, resulting in absolutely crappy quality pretty much across the line, and precipitating their own decline. I don't see them making any real attempt to rein in quality and take control. Sad, but true.
And if you mean Jac Nasser, wasn't he Australian or something?
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
anyway Ford's engineering in the mid 90's far surpassed Mazda if you asked me. The only car Ford had designed by mazda (is there more?) was the probe and that wasn't a very good car.
The Escort was basically a Protege, one of the reasons for it being one of the better cars Ford has produced in the last fifty years.
The Ranger's perennial success is based on the foundation of its "launch years" in the 80s, when it was a rebadged Mazda.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)