By 2001 our 1992 Ford Aerostar was heading towards its long home; I was topping up the transmission fluid on a bi-weekly basis, the air conditioning was kaput, the power steering pump was leaking again and I forget what all else. At least the stereo still worked, which helped mask any new noises coming from underneath the Ford’s abbreviated hood. All those ills could have been addressed, but only at great expense and with the understanding that a new list would soon be forthcoming. As the old saying goes, it was time to either fish or cut bait.
To be sure, the Aerostar was a boat, but no longer a useful one, so it was time for another game of car dealership roulette in lieu of either time-honored Pacific Northwest pastime of fishing and/or bait-cutting. The other car residing in the family stable was the Millennial (2000) Honda described here last week. A stable mate was needed to keep it warm at night . . . the question was, which were the most suitable candidates in the early years of the new millennium?
Our needs had changed over the past few years as more children left the nest. Seven seats were no longer required or desired, nor was a vehicle that cast a shadow much longer and wider than Punxsutawney Phil’s. Truth be told, I’d never grown fond or accustomed to wrestling the avoirdupois of a so-called minivan, no matter how practical it attributes. Our Civic proved once again the positive characteristics of what passed in the USA as a small car. However, its utility was somewhat in question given its two doors and problematic rear seat access. It’s one thing to ask a couple of teens to contort themselves in order to get from point A to point B, but forcing an adult or two back there may have offended Emily Post.
A sedan seemed to be in order given the fact that the SUV craze had not yet reached the point where you would be stopped at the gates of suburbia if you neglected to drive one. I had no particular need or desire at that point for an AWD anything, even a Subaru, this despite the fact that the Outback had recently de-throned Volvo as the Official Transportation Device of Tapioca Beach. As my leisure time expanded, AWD began to seem attractive and then practically a necessity as the snowy heights of the Cascades and Olympic Mountains beckoned, but in 2002 we had other priorities in mind, such as . . . handling? Fuel economy? Styling?
As I’d been in the market only recently, I’d driven several of the available candidates in the compact car class. Some had already been stricken from the list. What was needed was an objective look at the updated field with pertinent stats together with subjective knee-jerk comments from the auto scribe peanut gallery. As was so often the case, Car and Driver ably met those demands:
Ten cars! Now that was a test that should easily whittle down the field. A quick perusal seemed to reinforce some of my impressions, although several of the group were mostly unknown to me and would remain so, for better or worse. Examining them in the order they were ranked: Kia Spectra? Those were on sale at the Chevy dealership whose door I refused to darken. Despite the fact that I’d owned a witness protection plan Suzuki (a Swift relabeled as a Geo Metro), the Aerio remained an unknown quantity, chiefly because no dealer seemed to exist within a twenty mile radius. plus its looks remained a little . . . off. The generation succeeding our old Nissan Sentra followed up in eighth and was compared to, well, a Buick. C and D may as well have painted a red ‘A’ on its forehead, or rather a ‘G’, as it was deemed to be a car for Granny. So, in a single bound the Sentra had lost its edge. It bore little relation to what had come before, and certainly wasn’t up to standards of our ’97. The remaining question was: why abandon the enthusiast market you’d nurtured for decades to go chasing Buick?
The Dodge Neon? Deemed as cheap, both in price and materials, but at least it had torque, even though the motor sounded like a leaf blower. A hard pass, then. Next up was the Mitsubishi Lancer, which was all decked out in boy-racer garb, but failed to deliver the real goods. The Evo that came along a few years later would light the world on fire, but this was not the Evo.
Trailing along in fifth place was . . . the Honda Civic. Following in Nissan’s footsteps, if less blatant in its cost cutting binge, the Civic delivered good gas mileage but relatively little else, although ergonomics and interior materials are praised. Quality? Nope. Rattles, poor paint, and panel gaps were panned, which came as no surprise to me as the panel gaps on our previous generation coupe were so shocking I wondered if there were translation problems at the Ohio plant where they the Civics were screwed together. Honda had abandoned the double wishbone suspension from the fifth generation to the chagrin of armchair enthusiasts everywhere. So, the question was, why reward Honda with my hard-earned cash when their current Civic wasn’t as good as the last one?
The Ford Focus was a non-starter given the Aerostar experience was still ringing in our ears and traumatizing our credit card. The Euro Focus may have had some good qualities, but the driver’s seat was sufficiently painful that sticking around long enough to appreciate them may have been an issue.
The Toyota Corolla? I mean it was in third place, after all, but still seemed to be damned with faint praise. Interior materials are applauded, which confirms my dim recollections from two decades ago. Competency is the watchword. Passion? What’s that? Still, it finished two spots above the Civic, something that would have been unthinkable only a handful of years before.
Hyundai takes the runner up spot, which seems shocking in detail. I never drove that particular iteration of the Elantra, but I would have predicted it to finish mid-pack, at best. We tend to think of desirable Hyundais as a relative recent phenomenon, but it seems progress had been noted even twenty-odd years ago, particularly surprising when its Kia sibling was more or less slammed.
We don’t need no stinking Civic.
And so we arrive at the trophy winner: the Mazda Protégé. Mazda hadn’t been on my radar for whatever reason, aside from the RX-7 and the Miata. Rotary-engined Mazdas were a delight (I’ll always remember the bell that rang when you reached the redline) but I’d never driven the more conventional sedans, although the mid-80’s 626 had caught my eye. Car and Driver’s assessment of the current compact Mazda made an impression, though, and when I saw the new Protégé in the flesh, I was immediately smitten. A front end update had turned a rather anonymous car into something of a looker. At the same time the rear end was positively Audi-esque, and the interior was frankly leaps and bounds ahead of our Civic’s simulated elephant hide and cardboard furnishings. Driving the car only confirmed C and D’s verdict . . . it was a joy on the road. The motor sang a sweet song as it delivered its 130 horsepower without the gearbox stirring required in our Civic. Add to the little red car’s overall demeanor the fact that the dealer experience was easily the most straightforward and stress-free of my decades-long experience. The Mazda dealership in Seattle was in truth the oldest in the United States, the flagship, and, lord be praised, completely non-predatory. I established a relationship with them that would last until they sold out to a competitor, sad to say, earlier this year.
Purposeful styling. No gee-gaws allowed. Spoiler is whack, though.
Who put the trash out?
Our Mazda LX as delivered was the color of the car in the above photos, not quite the Soul Red that graces various current models, but still borderline stunning. At the same time Mazda USA was featuring a special edition that came loaded with alloy wheels, sunroof, power most things, together with cruise control, all at a bargain basement price. Standard equipment included a DOHC 2.0 liter four–400 cc’s up on our Civic–a five-speed manual and an AM/FM stereo with CD player.
Not a rotary 🙁
Rear seat space not so bad.
Pull-up handbrake nostalgia.
Twenty years on, the little Mazda is still one of the favorite cars I’ve owned: clean in styling, spirited in acceleration and handling, comfortable for driver and passengers alike with the caveat that riders in the rear should be on friendly terms. But most of all, Mazda had a strange kind of underdog appeal that stirred and fostered loyalty.
You may wonder about applying the notion of loyalty to what is after all an industrial concern mass-producing consumer products. ‘Loyalty’, in fact, is an outmoded word that may soon drop from common usage given that those institutions commonly demanding or fostering fealty no longer seem interested in reciprocation. Nations, institutions, employers . . . the list goes on, and the contemporary attitude rampant in our day could be summed up as: take it or leave it.
Mazda, though, comes with a story, and we humans cling to stories even as most other customs and conventions fall away. Most automobile companies have some kind of mythic founding story and are often named after an inveterate tinkerer or some early guiding light, from Ford to Ferrari, Oldsmobile to Duesenberg, Renault to Bugatti. Mazda, however, is the only car company named after a god, in this case the Zoroastrian god of light. And after all, who goes around naming their company after deity? Well, Jujiro Matsuda did.
The Man and the first Mazda
As Mazda’s founder, Matsuda came from the same kind of humble background as Soichuro Honda, with a similar rags-to-richs story. He started work as a blacksmith’s apprentice but soon went on the grander ventures, including his own manufacturing firm, building rifles for the Tsar of Russia and the Japanese Imperial Army. Then in 1921 he was asked to right the sinking ship of the Toyo Kogyo company located in Hiroshima, which made . . . artificial cork. Matsuda demonstrated little interest in cork and soon went back to what he knew, which was making machines. Toyo Kogyo was re-named Mazda, and soon began the manufacture of motorized tricycles.
The most poignant story of Matsuda’s life, however, began on the morning of August 6, 1945, his 70th birthday. Apparently it is customary in Japan to get a haircut on one’s birthday, so bright and early on that August day, Matsuda managed to win a footrace to the door of the barbershop, beating out a likely much younger competitor. This victory would have lasting implications, not only for the honorable Jujiro Matsuda, but Japanese industry, as well. His haircut was finished at 8:00 a.m. sharp, at which point he left in his chauffeured car for the Mazda plant. At 8:15, the Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb 50 yards from the barbershop chair Matsuda had recently vacated. By that time he and his driver had reached a point far enough away from Ground Zero to survive, although their car was flipped over and both were ejected. Bloody but unbowed, Matsuda managed to reach Mazda headquarters, which remained standing, one of the few major structures in Hiroshima that wasn’t completely destroyed. The future Mazda CEO converted his plant into a makeshift hospital to treat the survivors of the blast, and then into a temporary city hall.
Whether Jujiro Matsuda’s philanthropy arose from a desire to atone from the manufacture of weapons is difficult to say, but naming his rescued company after Ahura Mazda, the god of harmony, peace, intelligence, and wisdom likely shows a desire to put that past behind him. Matsuda would only live until 1952, but his son, Tsuneji took over the company and steered it all the way until 1979, when Ford took a large stake in Mazda. Whether or not peace and harmony followed is open to debate, but the company did survive.
With that background and its hometown of Hiroshima, you might expect Mazda to have a few quirks, and it would have quirks aplenty in its lifetime, the chief one being its single-handed promotion of the Wankel engine. Long after NSU, Mercedes, Citroën, and GM gave up on the rotary, Mazda kept the flame lit, all the way up to the current day, when as rumor has it, the company will install its latest iteration in a hybrid car, its sole purpose being to top up the batteries when needed, which seems an ideal application for the compact motor. Running at a steady speed for short periods will minimize its fuel consumption and maximize the life of the rotary seals, which were always the rotary’s Achilles heel.
787B: All knees shall bow.
Mazda’s willingness to stick its neck out in favor of the rotary is the stuff of automotive legend, but the bottom line is ultimately what matters in any business. As a relatively small company, Mazda couldn’t afford to squander too many resources on the rotary, and realized early on that the inherent issues of the little beer keg of a motor weren’t going to be engineered away easily. They resorted to conventional engines for most of their line-up, even as they refused to give up on the rotary dream, the culmination of which was the 787B, a little car that defied the odds and major automotive powers to win at LeMans. Mazda entered three cars in the 1991 24 hour classic. Number 55 started 19th and essentially ran the 24 hours flat-out after testing showed the four rotor, 2.6 liter rotary was as reliable as an old nail while delivering better fuel mileage than the larger C1 cars. Against the might of Mercedes, Jaguar, Peugeot, and Porsche, the 787B ran like a freight train through rain and shine, taking advantage of its fuel economy (ironic, given the rotary’s reputation as a gas guzzler) and fewer pit stops than the 3.5 liter Group C1 cars. In fact, the team gambled by keeping Johnny Herbert out rather than bringing the car in for a final top-up. Herbert had been ill for most of the race, unable to eat anything but ramen and suffering dehydration during his long stints in the cockpit. At the end of the race he was unable to celebrate as he was unconscious in the track medical center.
RX-7’s. Nostalgia, deux.
So . . . the stuff of legends, the kind of stories that bely its position as the maker of mainstream vehicles aimed at the mass market. Along with the bespoke racing machines, the RX-7 and RX-8 would burnish Mazda’s reputation, as would the Miata, although those cars struggled to be produced in meaningful numbers. In the end, Mazda would have to funnel its creative energies into creating memorable cars in the dead center of the market, something all manufactures struggle to do. An alliance with Ford from 1979 until 2008 would aid in engineering development, but in the long run the tie-in probably helped Ford more than Mazda as the American company was able to capitalize on Mazda’s small car prowess to improve its own forays into the lower tiers of the market. Mazda still had to forge its own path while competing with its much larger Japanese competitors, namely Toyota, Nissan, and Honda.
Zoom, zoom would come along a little later. By then the Ford partnership was toast and Mazda was left largely on its own in a world where vast investment funds seemed to be in order if your company was going to survive and remain competitive. Yet, Mazda still carves its own path.
Zoom-zoom starts here. Protégé 5.
Our Protégé came toward the end of the Ford era, at a time when Mazda was remaking itself. One of the harbingers of zoom–zoom was the Protege 5, a hatchback riff on the regular sedan. Essentially, it varied only by degrees, and the performance remained pretty much the same, but image is often everything and the hatchback proved to be popular and gave a glimpse of the future. Together with the similarly equipped ES sedan, it pointed the way toward the Mazda 3 and the hey day of the ZZ culture.
Our Protege LX wasn’t peak Zoom, then, but for a compact sedan it certainly held its own, as the Car and Driver giant test had suggested. On the other hand sporting pretenses are all well and good in a small economy car, but after all, the focus point remains economy, both in purchase price and running costs. So, what was the verdict on the Protégé at the end of the day? Predictably, its fuel economy didn’t match our Civic HX, but by every other measuring stick it was superior. Aside from tires, brakes, and a timing belt service, it needed nothing. Unlike the Civic, it never used oil. It ran like a 787B train until the day of its death, and aside from a shift knob scarred by too many rock and roll star rings, it looked like new.
Oh yes . . . I just mentioned the day of its death. We’d just returned from a trip to PDX, or Portland in non-PNW parlance, and had dropped our youngest daughter off at choir practice in Edmonds when a domestic sedan ran a stop sign and T-boned the Protégé on the passenger side. Had my daughter been there . . . it’s best not to reflect on those things. The car was destroyed. I was unhurt, as was the offending driver, a single mother, and her two children. I have no idea what she was thinking as she blew through a stop sign, but she was probably just another distracted driver, a distracted driver in this case with no auto insurance in force, as I came to find out the following day when I called her purported insurance company with the information she’d provided.
And so . . . our pre-zoom, zoom dreams were dashed and we had to pay a $500 dollar deductible to our insurance company. I would hear occasionally from our insurer and the process dragged on for years. When the final verdict came through, nothing was collected from the offending party and given that apparently she had no funds to collect it’s probably best that the matter ended there. On the other hand, I wish she’d been honest at the scene of the accident rather than leading me to believe that she was covered. Perhaps she didn’t want to admit the truth in front of her children. So be it.
In the end, the Protégé was the beginning and not the end, but that is a story for another day. Its memory lingers on the level of the other cars that left their mark, the ones I loved, if I’m allowed to debase the word by applying it to something as mundane as a transportation device. Loyalty is another word that may be misapplied to a mere car, but it also applies, as we shall see next week. Zoom, zoom.
Ten cars in one test! Just what you needed. I really like your elimination process.
“… Kia Spectra? Those were on sale at the Chevy dealership whose door I refused to darken…” .
I have made similar pledges/refusals over the years and must say that honoring such refusals helps to maintain one’s sanity by preventing the old “what was I thinking – why did I go back” regret.
“… Had my daughter been there . . . it’s best not to reflect on those things…” .
Oh my goodness… so much to think about when something like this happens. My biggest concern about small cars like the Mazda vs. a domestic sedan is exactly this. Thank goodness for choir practice in Edmonds.
A very thoughtful and enjoyable COAL.
Edmonds? I grew up there, near 224th and 80th. Went to Esperance (long since demolished) for one year before it closed, then Westgate elementary before moving to Catholic school (Blessed Sacrament) in Seattle. Would have gone to Woodway before it merged with Edmonds. As luck would have it (I was in the Navy and was briefly stationed in Everett), my oldest was born at Stevens (now part of the Swedish Empire).
Thank you, RL. I’ve kept my word on returning to the Chevy/Kia dealer, not that the temptation up to this point has been too great . . .
Seems like twenty years ago a small car still had a fighting chance against even a domestic sedan, but I’m not too confident any of my small cars could have withstood an Escalade or any large U.S. pickup. I wonder how much bigger they can get.
And yes, I’m grateful for choir practice, but without it I wouldn’t have been in Edmonds that day!
We live about in Shoreline, about five minutes from Edmonds, which is one of my favorite places in Western Washington. I drive by the old Edmonds-Woodway High School two or three times a week, and see the new one frequently, too. It’s just down the road from Stevens, so close to where you grew up. My daughter worked as an RN at Stevens before it was swallowed up by Swedish. BTW, we had snow last week! The whole place shut down, as usual…
This is a car that I always had a little bit of a thing for. It was the Protoge5 that I had a REAL thing for. Sadly, Mazdas of that era were major rust-making machines in my climate. It was like they were made from recycled Studebakers and International Scouts, then dipped in a salt brine before painting. In a reverse CC effect, it was about 2 weeks ago that I saw a gorgeously pristine and rust free Proto5 in traffic. The Arkansas plates explained the lack of rustedness, but once again my heart was all aflutter.
It is hard to remember a time when a Hyundai and a Kia were so different. But this was a decade before either of them ended up on my radar (or got past my general unwillingness to consider).
And there are few things worse than having a car you really love crashed out from under you. I have lived through that twice. Fortunately nobody in your family was hurt. As for the uninsured driver, I have spent many of my working years in that sandbox. For my money, the lady told you she was insured because she didn’t want to get arrested or ticketed for driving without insurance. It is a sad fact today that there are lots and lots of uninsured drivers out there – sometimes they are having a tough few months, sometimes it is just a way of life.
The Protege5 would have been my first choice, too, but my practical side didn’t want to pay the necessary surcharge when the sedan was essentially the same car. But I still look at them with admiration. Rust isn’t much of an issue in our climate, but I’ve definitely seen affected Mazda’s in places where they salt the roads. Evidently, Mazda didn’t get a handle on corrosion until midway through the first Mazda 3’s, although some seem to push it up even farther. Not many survivors left in any case.
I’m sure you’re right about the legal angle of driving without insurance. That would explain her reaction to the accident, although she didn’t seem to be unduly worried about the whole thing given the seriousness of the damage. I guess if you realize you can skate, then why worry?
Thank you for the Mazda origin story; I am quickly coming to the conclusion you are also a great storyteller!
We area committed Mazda family; now owning a CX-5 (wife; in Soul Red!) and a CX-9 (me; old Italian males, at least the ones in my family, have always gravitated to big cars, and the big CUV now takes the place of the Buicks and Oldsmobiles of old).
Our daughters are grown, but one also drives a CX-5. I find that with Mazda, if you test-drive one, you will probably buy it; and for once she listened to me when I told her to give it a try.
I continue to be puzzled why Mazda has not made bigger inroads into Big-3 Japanese territory. It may be as simple as the fact that young people (when they think of cars at all; it astounds me how little most of my daughters’ friends care about cars at all, and when they do, it’s all about the touchscreen) simply gravitate to the ones they see on TV ads, which Mazda; perhaps for budgetary reasons, does not utilize anywhere near its home base rivals.
Whatever the reason, it’s a shame, because Mazda stands head and shoulders above the Big 3; including with respect to the dealer experience. I won’t drive anything else so long as Mazda continues to steer its current course.
Thanks, Alan!
We also have a CX-5, although in dark blue metallic. It does seem big, but as I tell my wife, it’s about the same length as her old Civic, which she refuses to believe. Of course it’s wider and much taller! I’ve been in all the CX-5’s competitors and I wouldn’t trade it for any of them. I’ve only ridden in a CX-9 . . . looks like a replacement is on the way.
I know what you mean about Mazda’s position relative to the Japanese Big 3, and throw in Subaru while we’re at it. At least in our part of the country, though, the CX-5 seems to be a huge hit as I see them everywhere. It’s to the point where you don’t wave anymore because there are too many! I also see a lot of CX-30’s and a few CX-50’s, although the roll out seems slow on those. I had a CX-30 rental last year and didn’t like it nearly as much as the CX-5, although it was only a Sport so lacked many features. I think the styling of the CX-5 is classic and will endure. Nothing in the class approaches it.
All the Mazda’s in our family have been exceptionally reliable. You’d think that would attract buyers, as Consumer Reports has ranked Mazda highly for years, but you’re probably right, people buy what they see on TV.
From my perspective, as a big Mazda fan, a significant element is the location and quality of dealerships. Honda and Toyota, given their sales, have established a consistent quality of dealerships, regularly spaced, far and wide (I am speaking generally, and your personal mileage may vary). I would choose Mazda first, but Mazda, Honda, and Toyota are all top-rank for daily drivers. We have a local Honda dealer just around the corner, and they are everything one would wish for in how they treat their customers, so Honda it is, for us. The closest Mazda dealer is far away and an unknown quantity.
One not-quite deal breaker for the Mazda is how they generally have no front bumpers to speak of. While few current bumper systems will do much in a big or even medium sized bump, the Mazda appears vulnerable in those inevitable parking lot front end “taps” that occur sooner or later.
The Mazda back story is well told here. A few small additions, I understand that Mazda’s World War 2-era production plant was protected by a hill situated between it and the A-bomb epicenter, protecting it from major damage, in yet another random but fortuitous circumstance. Mazda and Hiroshima are closely wedded and the company and the city still really support each other, as Flint and Buick once did, or Toledo and Willys. Finally, the 787B going “flat out” for 24 hours was the way to go. Barring an accident or a non-engine failure of some sort, it maximized the design advantages of the rotary. Once up to temperature and driven within the rpm limits of the engine, as disciplined race car drivers will or at least should do, the engine will run forever. Wear and failure in a rotary come from the temperature dynamics of warming up a cold engine and driving it when it is not fully temperature stabilized. Mazda also got “lucky” in that the more powerful and capable cars all faltered, in one way or another, in that one year. But, as is said, “to finish first, one must first finish”.
Matsuda didn’t totally escape the “self-naming” thing, as “Mazda” and “Matsuda” are very close.
The Mazda origin story was very interesting, thank you. One item caught my eye, the use of a rotary as a battery charger in a hybrid. In 1973 when I worked for EPA, we had a NY inventor named Victor Wouk come in with such a package in a Buick Century. Of course, Li-Ion batteries were nowhere near the horizon of reality. The combo proved to be ineffective from an emissions standpoint and the project never progressed.
Thank you . . . Mazda’s story is just one of those little things that makes the company appealing to me. Wish more people had the occasion to hear it.
Interesting that the rotary battery booster idea goes back that far! I’d never heard that, so I appreciate the heads up. We’ll hope that Mazda’s effort works out. Seems like a perfect use for a rotary.
looked at KBB values for 2002 Protege v/ Civic, mid level models w/ auto
Civic is worth much more today than the Mazda
Well, that doesn’t surprise me at all. When I think back on how much more reliable our Mazda was compared to our Civic it is a bit frustrating to think how entrenched conventional wisdom can be. Maybe the rust issue had something to do with it, though. Rust wasn’t a problem in our locale, so it wasn’t on my radar.
Mazda has always remined me of Honda in the 1980’s when it was on a roll and could seemingly do no wrong. In 1989 I was looking for something to replace my not so great Renault Encore and I had decided a small wagon would fit the bill. I looked briefly at a Chevrolet Cavalier wagon but the interior was totally cheap and given my experiences with a 1980 Buick Skylark I was very reluctant to go down that road again.
I stopped at the local Ford dealership and looked at an Escort-not my cup of tea, and then looked at a 1988 Mercury Tracer wagon. It was basically a restyled Mazda 323 but it had a great interior and drove great. I drove it for about seven years and really loved it.
The comparison with Honda is something I come back to again and again. I really was a Honda fan and I know they still make some good cars, but there’s nothing there that appeals to me. It’s shocking to me how badly styled many of the Japanese cars have been in the last decade. Mazda has been the striking exception. You have to wonder if stylists for the other Japanese companies look at Mazda with a sense of shame–why can’t they design something to that standard?
I remember the Tracer wagon, but never had the occasion to drive or ride in one. Seems like it was a sleeper during its existence…another well kept secret?
I come back to the Honda comparison again and again. I really was a Honda fan but nothing they build today interests me, largely because I find their styling underwhelming, if not borderline offensive; they have completely lost their mojo when it comes to the way their cars look. I sometimes wonder if stylists for the other Japanese carmakers regard Mazda with a sense of shame–why can’t they design something to that standard?
I barely remember the Mercury Tracer–it definitely flew under the radar. Would have been great to have a 323 wagon, for sure.
My wife bought a new Protege four door sedan like this in bright red with a manual transmission. It was an excellent car, needing only tires and maybe a battery over the ownership. It was fun and solid. Replaced a Civic and gave a good enough experience to lead to our purchase of two subsequent Mazdas. For her next car (a Ford), the dealer did not want the Protege in trade and it ended up being sold wholesale to the original Mazda store.
But no more Mazdas as there is now no dealer in the largest city in Wyoming and we have discovered bland Toyota goodness. They cost more, look worse and are not as much fun but there are plenty of dealers and do have that extreme reliability.
Oh, that’s a sad story. Are you in Cheyenne? Seems like opening a Mazda store might be a great business opportunity! But maybe not as people accustomed to buying Toyotas, Hondas, and Nissans may not even consider Mazda.
Love your description of Toyotas…cost more, look worse and not as much fun!
The early 2000’s Sentra had an enthusiast following with the SE-R Spec V. Also, many survive to this day here in winter land. I had a 2005 and should have kept it longer.
I’d completely forgotten about the SE-R Spec V–I haven’t seen one for a long time. Definitely not a Buick!
Excellent choice; the best small car for some years (323/Protoge).
Yes, for really benefited, most of all by using the 323/Protoge platform for the gen2 US Escort. It was a huge upgrade over the gen1.
The Protege immediately moved on from the platform that was under the gen2 Escort. Shopped every small car in 1995 and bought a new Protege. It was a class act. Unfortunately, all Proteges except the sport model were powered by four hamsters on a wheel, and the sport model was the same price and performance as a base 626. I learned patience.
Our 2002 Protege with the 2.0 liter moved pretty well, but Mazda has never been known for their engines, aside from the rotary, that is. The tests still complain about the 2.5 in the SUV’s, unless they test the turbos and then they complain about the gas mileage…
The early Miata engine was a very sweet iteration of the 1.6 liter DOHC, as was also done well, at various times, by Alfa Romeo and Toyota.
Someone could write a thesis on Mazda and the American consumer. I imagine part of the story is that for Mazda the U.S. is not the number 1 priority as other markets seem to be more important. The CX-5 may be something of a breakthrough model for them, though, as sales seem very strong.
You have to wonder if Ford regrets breaking up with Mazda. Their SUV’s might be better with Mazda input.
The US is by far Mazda’s largest market, as it is for all of the Japanese brands. The US accounts for over one-third of all their global sales. Japan accounts for only 13% of their sales.
I should have qualified that statement…Toyota, Honda, And Nissan all have substantial manufacturing facilities in the U.S. Mazda has a relatively small joint venture with Toyota that is just coming online. Many vehicles from the big 3 are designed expressly for the U.S. market. None of the Mazda models are, aside from possibly the CX-9. Subaru is in the same boat as the big 3, but even more so. I was surprised that I saw no Subarus in Austria and Italy a couple of months ago, and very few Hondas. Mazdas were fairly common. You’re certainly right that the U.S. is important to Mazda, but it may influence the design process less than is the case with those other Japanese manufacturers.
Mazda sells well in this market both new and ex JDM, there is no difference to the export models now unlike other ex JDM cars where things are left out, their roadholding on wet roads isnt at Peugeot/Citroen levels of ability but neither is anything else and Mazda diesels are ticking time bombs, however what I see in daily traffic is Mazdas everywhere.
Interesting…does Mazda sell mostly SUV’s in NZ, or are sedans a large part of the mix? I imagine its the same there as in the U.S. My daughter and son-in-law bought a Mazda 3 last year (giving them a more economical alternative to the family Honda Pilot for city driving), but of course the SUV’s dominate.
We don’t get the diesels in the U.S., aside from a very few that came in the CX-5 for one model year, I believe. Sounds like that may be fortunate?
Thanks Steven for a very enjoyable read. I too have always had a thing for Mazdas, although I’ve never owned one. I’ve been tempted. I did once provide long-term shelter for a friend’s first generation RX-7 that looked exactly like the one in your photo. That was a fun ride, particularly since my daily driver at the time was a diesel VW Rabbit.
It seems that you made an excellent choice with the Protege.
Thanks, Jeff! I’ve always wanted to have either an old RX-7 or a Miata in the garage to tinker with but just never got around to it. I drove quite a few of the original RX-7’s back in the day. You never get tired of the rotary, except I guess when you have to replace the rotor seals or during frequent stops at the gas pump.
I had a Protege all picked out, but lost the vote, 1 to 1, in favor of the Honda Odyssey minivan. In-laws had a Protege 5, which was a nice car, but the roof was a bit low for a wagon (ingress/egress, and headroom), and holding five people, (implied by the name?), was a bit optimistic as well. The Protege 5 was really more of a car for two, that happened to be a longroof—nothing wrong with that!
I’m familiar with losing those 1 to 1 votes! As I recall, though, my wife thought we should just buy another Civic when we were looking for a car, but once she saw the Mazda she was sold. Fortunately, she likes driving small cars so another minivan wasn’t on the radar.
It’s interesting that the Protege5 looked like a station wagon but had few of the attributes aside from a bit larger hauling capacity. It really was a sports car. Interesting, too, that when its successor was introduced it looked like a conventional hatchback in the VW Golf mold rather than misleading folks with station wagon looks…