Solarstar101

Rotary powered lotus anyone? lmao...

TALAN7

Give Lotus engineers the rotary and all of it's blueprints (whatever), and watch what they achieve!

77mjd

Unfortunately anything that would come from that would be out of most people's price range.

If Mazda could just put out one affordable kick *** car (looks and performance) that gets everybodys attention they could begin digging out of their own hole. You know...the kind of car that would make the average non car enthusiast do a double take if they saw one. Instead they are chosing to Toyotaize their entire lineup so it is as bland and boring as can be.

Shinari anyone?

zoom44

I seem to be missing something- are you saying shinari is bland and boring?

TALAN7

The shinari is beautiful. I'd love an 8 based off of that, as long as it had 4 doors, more power, more torque, better reliability, better gas mileage. That's a lot of wants.

Bladecutter

Heck, why not just ask Mazda to produce RX-8 direct injection rotary replacement kits, and we can have our current cars with more power, and better fuel economy right now?

Basically, you give them $xx,xxx amount of dollars, and they give you a new engine and ecu, which has the direct injection system setup and ready to run. Just swap everything out, and away you go.

But I'm only saying that since we're wishing for imaginary stuff right now, anyway.

I still believe their best bet is to make a luxury arm, so that they can charge more money for a slightly more upscale version of the same vehicles they are already currently selling, at a greater profit, regardless of how the Yen is to the Dollar. Then they can have that company be targeted towards the owners of Porsches, BMW's, Audi's, and Alfa Romeo when they arrive next year.

There isn't a single car company out there that this business model is not working for.

BC.

77mjd

I'm saying the Shinari is the attention getter Mazda needs...something that stands out in a crowd. I'm not sold on the fact that the sky active tech will sell itself...they've got to produce some attetntion getting body styles to get people to notice.

TALAN7

I would've spent more money to purchase a revised engine when I swapped mine just over a year ago. If only Mazda had the money to keep developing the rotary, and the gumption to put out a new engine for swaps. This just goes to show you THE main issue with the rotary. No one else is making them.

Mazmart

iTrader: (12)

Mazda, in their present financial position, are definitely not concerned with designing, manufacturing and selling upgrade kits to retrofit things to cars they no longer sell in most markets in the world.

Paul.

Spin9k

+ any engine upgrade kit to the RX-8 would need complete new emissions cert. which would be impossible anyway as it is not sold anymore.

zoom44

then how are they "toyotaizing" all of they're entire line-up if each new car version is being made in the image of Kodo design found on Shinari?

TALAN7

This is getting scary. I'm seeing Mazda commercials all over the tv as well as internet banners etc. They are really trying to get some other company's attention. If Mazda does get some backing they really have to knuckle up. They really need a halo car that competes. The RX8 wasn't it. If I was Mazda, I would team with Audi, Rotary Supercars, whoever and create the hottest rotary supercar out there. Even if it's out of my price range, they need a halocar.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

Look at the attention the BRZ is getting.

A permanent hardtop model based on the Miata chassis with a higher output would probably be that halo car you want.

Did you know that Cosworth designed a supercharger WITH Mazda for the NC before the NC was even released? It was intended to be a factory Mazdaspeed.

http://flyinmiata.com/tech/dyno_runs...percharged.pdf


100% match with factory ECU, parts, even looks OEM under the hood. And enough power in the NC that traction becomes a significant problem. Runs low 13s without additional mods. Found one guy that has trouble with wheel spin in 3rd gear on 255 width tires (they are 195 or 205 originally)

Even if that raw value ($4,600) is added to the base price, you are talking a car with quite a bit of the power potency that so many people look for, for under $30,000.

Though, just like it's "too late" to produce an NC with the series 2 Renesis in it, it's too late for that as well. The ND is quickly nearing production.

Spin9k

We could hope Mazda would broaden their sights on the new ND, and not just moderize the past models. Developing the ND as hardtop and roadster could put them in a very competitive position. At the same time if they managed a better P/W ratio besting anything they've done before that would be icing on the cake and help move them upmarket a tad.

My guess from all I read is they have done none of the above.

77mjd

Because we all know by the time a production model rolls out the styling will likely be watered down to the point of boring. Hopefully I'm proven wrong.

HiFlite999

iTrader: (2)

The only car industry partnership I can see working is with Tata. With limited financing and limited time, I see no upside to a luxury division. Toyota/Lexus made it work well. Nissan/Infiniti is a toss-up. Honda/Acura is an abject failure.

The upside of Mazda at present is exactly the lack of gas-guzzling large cars/trucks. When gas hits $5/gallon, watch sales of the big end of the market plummet. At that point, the key for Mazda becomes the 3 with automatic transmission. If Skyactiv and the new line of associated automatics works as well as it should, there's an opening here. (Who wants a Focus with their DSG fiasco or any car with a CVT?)

The much bigger opening is with Skyactiv-D. With it, they have an opportunity to be the first Japanese alternative to VW. 60 mpg Mazda2s and 50 mpg Mazda3s will provide more free press than they can possibly afford to buy. Success with diesels in general and Skyactiv-G may also earn Mazda a wide rep as an "engine" company, much like BMW is with their inline 6s and Honda was with their 4s. (No engine to date from Mazda has been outstandingly good, though the rotary was outstandingly different).

I have some hope Mazda understands and is following this path.

There is a smaller and cheap slot available as well. New car electronics will increasingly look like this: https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-interior-audio-electronics-24/my-new-carpc-project-honeycomb-here-i-come-225539/
Specifially, the entertainment/nav system in cars will simply be a mounting dock for smartphones and tablets. This will especially be so if proposed restrictions on in-car systems go into force. It's a rare case where de-contenting a car will be percieved as a plus.

Many "ifs" must go right, but it's not hopeless and maybe, just maybe, we get Skyactiv-R before I get shot by a jealous husband and can't enjoy it.

zoom44

Minagi

cx-5

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

Mazda needs to work faster.

Skyactiv-g is good and has the potiential. But honestly right now its 13:1 compression is not all that impressive, sinply because hyundai has it on their elantra over a year ago, and they are getting all the attention.

Gas went up by 50 cents in less than a month, now regular cost about 3.95 a gallon in nyc. Im happy that my sonata hybird uses regular and if i drive like a grandma i can get 32 mpg in the city. Like i said in the other thread i was thinking of trading the 2010 mazda3 to a cx5 awd but the mpg numbers on the awd kinda disappointed me. Mazda needs to get the numbers better, put more ads out to tell people that "we have cool cars and we can do 40 mpg too!"

Mazda6 should get better material.

Mazda priced their cars way too close to each other.

Another problem with mazda is generally speaking their services sucks. Compare to hyundai which fixes my **** no questions asked, give me 50 bux to have some recall done on the car. Mazda can learn a thing or 2 from that

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

huh?

2011 Elantra article:
2012 Elantra from the OEM website: http://www.hyundaiusa.com/elantra/specifications.aspx
So, no.

77mjd

I'll agree that Mazda needs to work a little faster in bringing this revamped lineup to market. Look how fast Hyundai keeps churning our new stuff and how successful it has been. Mazda is hurting themselves by constantly lagging behind other brands in bringing their new stuff to market.

If we don't see another rotary powered car, I'd like to at least see Mazda try a 2 door sports coupe like the Genesis Coupe and the next generation 6 would be the car to do it on. There is definitely room in that market for more players.

And +1 on the Mazda service network...they need to improve drastically but I don't know how much control MNAO actually has over that.

godesshunter

Not really sure what the big deal is. According to :

http://www.jama-english.jp/statistic...omobile_export

Their export numbers look good. For the 2011 calendar year they put out more cars than Honda. For 2010 They were #2 behind Toyota over all the Japanese brands

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

My memory is wrong. Its actually my sonata hybrid that has 13:1 compression ratio. You can check.

But either way, thats even more sad consider hyundai got the same kind of mpg with less compression and it still came out more than a year ago. My point is still valid : mazda needs to work faster, way faster

hookedonfonix

I think your right. Mazda even announced record sales for this January.
http://www.mazdausamedia.com/content...2-record-sales

hookedonfonix

I think the problem is less about the technology or R+D. It has more to do with cost of production and exporting while dealing with a unfavorable exchange rate. I'd imagine they are trying to find partners so that they may share production facilities in or near target markets so that they can avoid these costs.
Maybe teaming up with Fiat might be a good idea. Fiat is in financial trouble at the moment and probably would welcome a reduction in costs for running facilities. It also maybe be able help Mazda gain a larger influence in the European Market. Mazda could also help Fiat deal with some of their reliability issues. Besides I think it would be pretty cool if they put a rotary in this.

pking1122

Mitsubishi wouldn't be bad partner in the sense that Mazda has more leverage in the deal. Mitsubishi's non-sportscars suck, but the Evolution has a lot of appeal and stands alone in the brand as a respected model. Maybe they can expand on that, and integrate the 'Sky' philosophy as opposed to committing suicide by making the Evo a hybrid as rumored. Mazda could gain the benefit from Mitsubishi's AWD system, and merge the Lancer and Mazda 3 underpinnings for the new models. Conversely, with Toyota and Subaru teaming up on the FT86/BRZ platform, Mazda make a RWD coupe with R3 like handling built around the 4B11 Turbo engine. The deal wouldn't be bad if Mazda served as the Hyundai to Mitsubishi's Kia so to speak.

Someone mentioned for Mazda to make a luxury brand. That would be great, but they would need to engineer better V6, and V8 engines.