Tag: Rumors

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Derricks Mazda Rumor Round-up

I have made some speculations in the past about things to come and have been fairly accurate thus far so I thought I would take another look into the future with the inside knowledge I have.   Here are my most recent thoughts.

We know that the plant in Mexico that Mazda is building was slated for Mazda 3’s and Mazda 2’s for sale in North America.  The whole plant will be online and running in 2014 with some production being slated for a small car from Toyota which Mazda will be building for them (which just says something about the quality of Mazda if Toyota is willing to have them Mazda build them).  Mazda has said most of the production is slated for Central and South America which I am not sure about.  I am betting that this new plant will be building additional units for the anticipated surge of the new Mazda 3 coming out and here is the reason why.

Mazda-Mexico-Plant

The new Skyactiv chassis Mazda is building cars from was announced to be shared in the next Mazda 2 recently.  This means the Cx5, upcoming Mazda 3, and upcoming Mazda 2 will all be produced on the same platform. That means the tooling, production, power trains, and everything else will be available to build ½ of the Mazda product line in one place.  This one place (Mexico) is a free trade zone for North, Central, and South America giving Mazda the ability to supply vehicles to any western hemisphere market quickly and tax free.

The capacity of the new plant will be 230,000 units by 2016 which is almost enough to supply the US sales with one plant if you look at the 277,046 Mazdas sold in 2012.  I wouldn’t expect all of the supplied models to come from the new plant as Mazda Japan has a majority of their worldwide production capacity still based in Hiroshima, but the potential is there.

My second rumor will be that the new Mx5 will be released next spring or summer.  It was back in 2011 when the patent pictures were dug up by someone and posted by all of the magazines.  With the Rx8 gone and the current Mx5 having gone through a 2nd facelift on the same chassis it is well overdue.  2 years have already gone by and the new Mx5 should be ready to pop.  With the current focus being on the new Mazda 3 I am betting we will get a surprise next spring from Mazda.

Newest-Mazda-MX-5-Miata-patent-drawing

 

-Derrick

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Turbo Potential

With all the talk of the new Mazda 6 Sky-D being released here in the US and the released Cx5 Sky-D in other markets around the world, I got to thinking about all of the fun modifications you could make to the 2.2 dual turbocharged Sky-D Engine.

If you look at the arrangement of the turbo setup on the Sky-D engine, you can see the whole setup is pretty convoluted to 1) keep costs down and 2) package everything in a tight space so you do not burn the insulation and paint off the firewall.

A more comprehensive view of the set-up shows how large the catalyst is that Mazda used in order to meet the strict emissions for diesels in the European market.

Looking over the setup I can see several improvements which could be made to increase the power output of the engine through work on the exhaust side. If you take a look at the engine Mazda announced with the press release about running in the Grand-am GX class with the Sky-D engine, they simplified the twin turbo setup on the engine by setting the turbo arrangement in a more traditional configuration using one turbo to feed the other unlike the stock setup where both turbos feed a common plenum.

The advantage of the race engine is that you are running an intercooler before the second turbo to make the most of the cooling and then you can run the charge from the second turbo into an additional intercooler from there. While the race setup is nice, it isn’t practical for most people on street driven vehicles. I would look at changing the turbo outlet package with a better and smoother flowing downpipe and integrate the catalyst at an angle which is not 90 degrees to the exhaust entry and exit.

Looking at the production turbo setup that Mazda is showing with the new Mazda 6, there are differences in the packaging of the turbos. You can see that Mazda changed the actuators to be more compact against the back of the engine.

Based on the size of the parts, I bet you can squeeze a Garrett GTX35 on the back of the engine and hit a solid 400 hp and 600 wheel torque with some upgraded injectors and pump. When I get one I will have to try it out and report back on how it goes. Incidentally here is a picture of the production Mazda 6 Skyactiv-D engine I wanted to share.

With that monster catalyst relocated, you get a large empty space on the back of the engine which would be perfect for a large waste gate and all of the needed piping to hit that 400hp number. You can imagine the surprise on someone’s face watching a Cx5 walk all over them on the street or the freeway.

Derrick-

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What are the Chances of an AWD Mazda 3 coming to the US

One thing that has been lacking in the US market for some time now is an Awd/4wd small car from Mazda. With the recent releases of the Cx5 and the existence of the Awd Mazda 3 in Japan I have been looking for hints that we will get lucky and Mazda will bring us something fun with the next generation of the Mazda 3. So far there has been no word or hint about it that I have found browsing through releases from Mazda or other news outlets, but there are a few things which are giving me some hope we will see one sometime soon.

First, the Cx5 is available in Awd and the chassis for the Mazda 3 is looking like it will be from the Cx5. Awd experience on the existing chassis should allow Mazda the ability to chase the bugs out before the release of an Awd Mazda 3 if any appear.

Second, the Mazda 3 is already available in Awd in Japan with the 2 liter and an automatic transmission. This really doesn’t lend itself to performance applications well, but it shows Mazda was not willing to give up work on Awd small cars.

Third, Mazda has really been pushing the “we are a green company, but we are also a performance company”. With the SkyActiv brand being integrated into the fleet of vehicles, the next performance car will definitely include a variant of the direct injected motor. Mazda has done the Awd manual gearbox with the Mazdaspeed 6 but that was the last stick transmission we saw released that way.

My dream next gen Mazdaspeed 3 would be a 2.2 Sky-D manual transmission awd Mazdaspeed 3. If you change out the secondary turbo with something larger to increase the top end power you could do Awd burnouts for days with 350+ wheel torque.

So far the only pictures we have seen of the next Mazda 3 is the one above. I expect we will see more on the future 3 at the end of the year after the Mazda 6 finishes up being released.

Derrick-

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Fiat. Again.

I wrote a post about rumors of a Fiat/Mazda partnership in March and here we are several months later and the rumor of Mazda and Fiat working together has become a reality.

The official news is that Fiat is going to share Mazda’s upcoming Mx5 chassis in a new Alfa Romeo roadster of some type. Contrary to my other blog post on the topic, I am ok with this. Mazda will be able to re-coup some of the engineering and production costs from the Mx5 and I don’t see the Alfa and the MX5 really competing for the same buyer.

Reading between the lines on the announcement, I expect we will see the news of Mazdas being built in Fiat owned plants in the coming years and would expect it to be the new Skyactiv platform vehicles (aka Cx5 and new generation Mazda 3).

Assembling vehicles in the EU would benefit Mazda by allowing them to lower prices and be more competitive in the European market. Along with the Mazda plant being built in Mexico, Mazda has several bright spots in their production plans that will compliment their great sales numbers making them more competitive on the global market.

I do have some doubts about the quality of vehicles being built outside of Mazda plants in Japan. The Mazda 6s built in the auto alliance plant in Michigan seemed to be ok but the reliability stigma around Fiats and Alfas from the 70s and 80s makes me question the alliance’s long-term value.

Officially Fiat has said it does not want to purchase a stake in Mazda and wants to finish the Chrysler purchase in the near future. I’m not too sure I believe the statement offered by Fiat but at this point we will have to wait and see what happens.

There is an interesting side story in all of this. Mazda has agreed to have Sollers in Russia build the Cx5 and Mazda 6 for the Russian market. This deal was made after a deal for Fiat and Sollers fell through to have Sollers build vehicles in a joint venture.

With this move, the Mexico plant, and the agreement with Sollers in Russia, I see a great path for Mazda to move forward on and I look forward to seeing how this goes.

-Derrick

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The Journey from Concept Car to Production

the recently released Mazda CX5 has been met with rave reviews for both its styling, ride quality and fuel efficiency and initial sales of the vehicle reflect that. In Japan Mazda has sold 8000 units in the first month with an expectation of only selling 1000.

When the first rumors came out about the CX5 years ago there was picture of a vehicle released which you can see below.

The picture was essentially Mazda 3 with Mazda 2 headlights and some changes made to the body of the vehicle to give the general idea of what Mazda was shooting in a small cross over SUV.

The actual concept compact SUV was since designed fresh from the ground up with no hand-me-down components so when the vehicle concept debuted, the Minagi, it reflected Mazda’s transition to the KODO style.

There are several styling effects on the car which you can tell would not make it to production, for example the mirrors and the bar across the headlights, but it really showed what the CX5 was going to be.

The released CX5 below is the final production vehicle which has been on sale now for a month.

Almost all of the body styling from the Minagi concept stayed on the production vehicle. The headlights were changed to meet government regulations and the showy mirrors were replaced with something more practical that would survive a hit from another car, wall, or inanimate object.

For the replacement of the current Mazda 6 we have been teased with pictures and concept vehicles but looking at them you can really see what we are going to get for a new Mazda 6. Mazda showed off the Shinari concept car back in 2010 seen below.

This was a great concept vehicle with really accentuated Kodo styling shown off in a very aggressive way. This is also a pretty big jump from the current Mazda 6 styling that makes the current Mazda 6 it look really dated.

The Takeri concept which was introduced last fall at the 2011 Tokyo Auto Show was confirmed to be the redesigned 2014 Mazda 6 by Mazda executives at the 2012 New York Auto Show.

In this concept vehicle, the roof line grew from the chopped top look for the original concept as well as some cleaned up styling areas around the front bumper and the grille area.

Looking at the jump between the Minagi and the CX5 you can get a good idea of what the new Mazda 6 will look like when it is released. The headlights will be changed a little bit, the mirrors will get changed to a different style and DOT crash bumpers would round out the changes.

Based on the release of the Cx5 and the what we can see of the Takeri concept, the new Mazda 6 will be a good-looking car. The production version of the new Mazda 6 will be unveiled this fall at the 2012 Paris Auto Show, and the car will go on sale in spring 2013..

-Derrick