73JPS

I'm a bit of a Lotus fan. When I think about the zoom zoom thing, and even historically the general focus of many of Mazda's cars, it seems to me they remind me alot of Lotus. Light. Focus on handling before brute power. Fun. Often innovative. Stuff of that nature. Almost like Mazda is always a sports car company that happens to build the odd sedan and family hauler to pay the bills (or not pay them, as it were...) Conversely, I think of Nissan in more pedestrian terms. Like they have a little more trouble getting the "sport" in "sports car", because that is not the primary focus of the company. Something about the 350Z just seems a tad compromised, even if I can't quite put my finger on why. So it got me thinking: "Mazda is to Lotus as Nissan is to...???" . Help me fill in the blank. Or slag the whole concept. Whichever.

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Grimace

Can't finish your sentence for you... Nissan is like... um... Renault? :D
But at any rate, I agree that Mazda is as close to a Japanese Lotus as you can get. (Eerie coincidence that a Lotus is a japanese flower?)

Case in point: Mazda Miata. A Lotus Elan where bits don't fall off.
Comparison here that reveals lots of similarities:
http://users.erols.com/elans4/ElanMiata.htm



Mazda's design philosophies (keep it light and in tune with the road) are in-line with Lotus. Thank goodness.

73JPS

Yes, thank goodness Mazda didn't follow all of Lotus' philosophies. Colin Chapman, when addressing the lack of reliability of Lotus cars, once snapped: "Of course they break! That's what Lotus ownership is all about..."