The washu is a pathetic attempt at making a concept vehicle. Concepts are the "future" of a company and should be something people can aspire to. Not something that makes your loyal customers gasp in horror. I would rate the release of this as a concept only 2 steps above the release of the Aztec. At least it isn't as visually horrific as the Aztec.

What direction is Mazda trying to grow in? Sporty cars? 6 seater minivans? Pick a track and stick with it. A small manufacturer like Mazda can not withstand the costs of diversifying its product line to this level. Their products will become fragmented and not driven by engineers, but by focus groups and projected numbers based on todays economic status and not true car demand. Look at porsche's attempts at diversification in the past. The current Cayanne is only now being attempted due to the MASSIVE profits they have made through the past 5+ years with specific cars known to be profitable with little focus group envolvement. To save money they have not had an official racing team for years, and only offered limited sponsership to different teams. Mazda is getting into racing this year, and that money drain will be an issue when they need to decide what model to make next. The cost of the design of something like the washu should have been put into the design/testing of a vehicle that fits more inline with Mazda's current mission statment and advertising campain. ( zoom zoom )


An RX-7 type sports car could herald a new day at Mazda, by allowing them to "take back" that which they have lost over the past 7 years. To release even a concept of a stylish, fast, race/image car would attract much more attention to the stylish and sporty rx8 car. The Washu will not attract anyone who would be interested in the rx8 or many of their other vehicles.


Scot

BTW: The low power version of the RX8 does have something different in its engine bay. The specs show it's torque rating to max higher than the high power version, my guess is there are some intake differences, wether in the system or the ports I cannot say.

are they dropping the mx sports tourer concept from last year in favor of the washu? the mx concept was more appealing to me but its hard to tell from one pic.

That's a pretty harsh topic statement there, but everyone is entitled to their opinion. A concept car is just that.. a concept to test the waters of public opinion. Most end up in a dusty garage or the crusher. The Evolv and RX-01 were both concepts and the forefathers of today's RX-8. I do agree with you that the Washu is a fish out of water in Mazda's Zoom-Zoom campaign. I wonder who the target demographic is and how they would be lured into the vehicle? Let's hope Mazda does not fall back into the "jack of all trades master of none cookie-cutter car" mentality that they have recently emerged from. They need to stay on the consumer radar screens.

I don't think it is really fair to say that Mazda is "screwing" their customers. Yeah, the Washer is for hauling your family of 6 to soccer games and that is not what most of us here are looking for. Then don't buy one. If somebody gave me one I would sell it and buy an RX-8!

As for Mazda not being able to "withstand the costs of diversifying its product line to this level" I think you might are overestimating how much diversification is involved here. Mazda is not Ferarri. They have always (or almost always) offered a car in each standard consumer slot from compact to luxury boat. The one sure way for Mazda to go under is to produce nothing but cars like the FD. They are not a specialty shop. They have to generate volume to generate revenue or else the unit prices of their cars would go through the roof.

In my opinion, Zoom-zoom does not mean only producing sports or "sporty" cars, but producing the types of cars that the other companies make but with a focus on driving pleasure.

Thank God that I don't have to drive an Aztek, Washer, or some behemoth SUV, but if I accidentally get married or something and am forced to, I would want one built by Mazda.

I've never been known as one who lacks an opinion when it comes to Rotary subjects. In this case, I feel very strong that Mazda is making a huge mistake throwing money at a concept that obviously has no bearing on products Mazda may be releasing in the upcoming years. Taking the 3-4 million dollars they used on that concept vehicle and putting it into advertising or a special edition of the RX8 would be a much better choice IMO.

In the end, we, the loyal rotorfiles have been screwed by this misuse of funds.


Scot

And please don't remind me of the days gone by with the jack of all trades money losing setup that they had. The 6 and the 8 combined with the new 5 are very exciting and hopefully mazda will be profitable with them.

I agree that this concept has no bearing on future Mazda products. They aren't going to learn to build a better sports car by producing mini-vans. I still have to disagree that

"In the end, we, the loyal rotorfiles have been screwed by this misuse of funds."

Mazda cannot continue to produce rotary cars without financing them through the sale of other less exciting cars. Yes, the 5 and the 6 are great, but they don't cover all bases. Why not just have Mazda product the RX-8 since it has 4 seats and drop the 5 and 6? The answer is that the 8 won't please everyone, or the 5, or the 6. Face it, there are just some people that aren't happy unless they are driving something that looks like a truncated bus. Are they crazy? Of course they are. Do they have money? Oh yeah baby. Combined they have more money than sports car buyers because there are just so many of them.

Mazda stands to make tons of money on cars with mass appeal. The concept costs some money, but I would bet just about anything that they don't lose money in the long term. Once they have the final design down they can just crank them out and rake in the cash. And where does that cash go? Among other things into risky R&D projects like the Renesis and the RX-8.

Finally, it is silly and childish to accuse a car company of "misuse of funds" when they research a new car. Repeat this to yourself 3 times: "It is their money!". They can buy llamas with it if they want to. They are not a government or a charity. If you like what they make, buy it. If you don't, then don't.

Ok, first off, I'm sure that all of us, even those that are only interested in Mazda because of the RX-8, were disappointed that the Washu didn't turn out to be a new RX-7. On the other hand, don't you think that it's a little conceided to assume that the you know what the future holds for automobiles better than the people designing them do? Yes, the Washu is hideous, but I doubt that the Mercury space craft that first broke the boundries of our atmosphere fit into the typical '50s flying saucer image either. The fact is, nobody knows what will be selling in 5 or 6 or 7 years.

Secondly, Mazda already has a minivan on the market, the MPV. When you say "What direction is Mazda trying to grow in? Sporty cars? 6 seater minivans? Pick a track and stick with it", the fact is that there are several tracks that Mazda has been running on for years. Why should they stop now? I see MPVs on a near-daily basis. And for all we know, the Washu could easily be built on the MPV platform.

Mazda has never been, and likely never will be, a purely sports car company. Like Fëakhelek said, this isn't Ferrari.

Lastly, 3-4 million is a drop in the bucket. Spending money on producing the Washu concept is in no way going to hinder the development of a Mazdaspeed RX-8, an new gen RX-7 or any other projects that Mazda has in store.

Just my $.02.

Did they say what the powertrain of the car is? Could it be that they reused the RX-8 chassis??? I didn't see any mention of this.

Reusing the RX-8 chassis benefits all of us, especially the RX-7 loyalists by insuring the future life of the rotary.

I only seen that it had a 3.5 liter V6. I think it was in the NAIAS annoucement page. I would get you a link but I'm trying to work and not miss any news from boowana.

The Cadillac 16 concept cost $3M to put together ($250k Maybach competitor), which is about 3 times more than the average concept car costs according to GM. I doubt the Washer/Dryer cost more than $500k to throw together.

Mazda won't screw up its customers......
The customers screw up (a.k.a. dont'buyed its cars in a sufficent number) Mazda in the past 90's so mazda was forced to go into Ford big arms (big humiliation for some Japanese...i assure!)and don't want to be screwed another time from Ford's top managment for poor sales (a lot of Rx-8 and Rx-7 but no one car selled in big volumes). Survive is the most important thing to do in those hard years for car makers.....Maybe a minivan can give the profits for new games with rotary ;)

Amen Brother. And if we're lucky maybe some new games with the RX-7 too. :D :D :D

It's hard to make 1 type of car and stay in business, Porsche makes SUV's now.