Good place to start as the new MX-5 is pretty awesome.

an suv on the mx-5? it wont be any larger than a golf or clubman, but on the other hand mazda hands down has the best design team in japan so by default it will at least look good.

That would truly live up to the “sport” utility vehicle moniker, unlike many of the sedan-based crossovers trying to carry that banner.

Just don’t make it similar to the Suzuki X-90, that’s all I can really say.

CTS: I agree

CTS: glad you added “…in Japan”. Just about had me ready to freak

Haha yeah I had to re-read the article after seeing SUV and MX-5 in the same sentence. Haha maybe Mazda is going to pull a Mini and possibly come out with an SUV Cooper. I’ll tell you what haha that’d be interesting to see.

That is going to be awesome! And what would the city car be? Mazda1, kind of following the footsteps of the 121 in the 90s?

An SUV based on the MX-5. CX-1 or CX-0? You can stretch out the chassis and architecture all you want, but I think the final product will just fall apart. SUVS shouldn’t fit into little itty bitty roadster chassis or even anything based on those chassis. The SX4s, the 3-series variations, the Dacia Logan variants, and the Skoda Octavias go far enough.

Excuse me? Does anyone remember the original Mopar Minivan based on the K-Car? Anyone? And for those of us who are into bizarre and oft forgotten powertrain combinations, how about the old 2.2 hooked up to a five speed in the 1st generation Caravan that came out of the box weighing about 2700lbs. Granted that was a time before the dinosaurs or multiple sticks of dynamite placed in strategic positions in your dash in case you swerved off the road while trying to get a glimpse of tit while getting a blowjob.

My point is, everything doesn’t have to be 3500lbs to be safe. Nor does everthing have to morph into what 20 years ago would have been considered a full size vehicle just to hold your bitchy wife and two screaming rugrats to the summer’s latest Disney money gabbing remake of ‘Dumbo does Dallas’.

Mazda, I’m hoping, has a great idea. Build it smaller; build it lighter, and most importantly give it some zoom-zoom. Seriously, after 10 hours of kissing ass Daddy might enjoy throwing something into a four wheel drift on the way to the theatre ( as long as ’she who must be obeyed’ doesn’t notice ).

I do.

A small crossover on the MX-5 platform sounds like a very intriguing proposition. If anyone can pull off this type of combo, it would be Mazda (although I would love to see Pontiac try it too).

As far as the city car, I’m sure it will be interesting for its class. I just don’t find this segment very exciting. Maybe Mazda will change my preferences and expectations.

Hm.

The Miata has a GVW that’s barely capable of supporting two full-size adults (I want to say it’s something like a 300lb occupant capacity). Obviously anything going on that platform would require a complete replacement of every single suspension component and probably a whole lot of strengthening — suddenly your new SUV isn’t quite as light as expected.

I’m sure they’re considering something like this, the engineers got to sit around and think of things like this all day, but it’s probably about #104 on Mazda’s priority list. Maybe if the Mazda5 had been selling well they’d move it up, but that foray into the “Let’s create a smaller, lighter vehicle for an existing segment and see what happens” didn’t work so well. The Mazda5 isn’t selling poorly, but it’s not exactly a hot seller either, and there’s rumor it might not even make it past the Mazda3s coming redesign.

Mazda just wants to be prepared (and rightfully so) in case the energy markets REALLY go crazy and the demand for small, light vehicles that have real practicality springs up much higher than it is today. I imagine this is nothing more than a pie-in-the-sky idea right now, but one that Mazda can quickly bring to fruition with one of the shortest engineering cycles in the industry combined with arguably the most flexible manufacturing facilities in the industry.

“That would truly live up to the “sport” utility vehicle moniker”

Building something off a platform that also has a “sports car” on it (which, with Miata, is debatable) doesn’t make it sporty at all.

A Mazda RWD Mini-fighter. I see nothing wrong with this. Many people are realizing they don’t need an SUV that can climb a 45 degree grade on loose mud. A car that can haul the family and stuff and get decent fuel mileage. Add a little sporting kick for the twisty roads. Imagine that.

City cars are small and derive creature comfort from clever packaging. Anyone who sat in the RWD small car knows that comfort is not a strong suit of RWD small car. The shaft tunnel digs into interior space and there are greater parasitic losses from RWD then FWD and those losses will affect economy. I really like Miata, but I don’t see how it will translate into city car better then Mazda-2.

autonut:
Unless I am misreading or misunderstanding the article, I think Mazda is interested in only developing the SUV/crossover on the MX-5 platform. I don’t think the article really specifies any platform (or any other details for that matter) for the city car.

so theyre really building a station wagon

and TOZO, Audi has officially stated that the platform that underpins the 09 A4 and the A5 can be stretched for use on the A8. Mazda makes stellar cars, they arent some 22 year old puerto rican ricer trying to pull some rediculous crap. They pay millions of dollars to engineers to figure out **** like this, i think they probably know what the **** they are talking about.

Point being that platforms can be made to be used for many different applications