18 months? dang.

Ford should raid these guys and figure out how to do that with their product!

Why wasn’t anyone at Ford able to see the trend in time?

This is one case where they did. Mazda changed from wanting to release a new MPV to changing it to the new CX-9. Ford replaced the Freestar with the CX-9’s sister-car, the Edge.

Both companies were faced with decidedly horrible Minivan sales in the US. At least Mazda could blame it on the fact that the MPV was old, Ford had no excuse for the deplorable Freestar. In the end, both were replaced by CD3-variant platform crossovers.

This is great news. More Mazda=more worthwhile products in a sea of s***.

Seriously… Mazda is one of the few good makes in the sea of junky entry level cars. Now, I just wish that Mazda made a RWD or AWD car with some decent power. I know the MSP6 is nice, but it has heat issues. If the MSP3 was AWD, I would be driving it right now.

MPV was great, but small. You could get a RWD first model.

atourya: i see you’re not with the “Miata-is-a-sports-car” crowd.

It ain’t

I’d hold out on the “this is great news” reaction until we see exactly what they mean by “designed for North America”.

“Designed for North America” is why our next-generation Mazda6 is likely to pale in comparison to that available overseas — it’s going to be bigger, heavier, have its’ design ‘toned down’ a bit to appeal to our less-progressive tastes, and have a a busier (read: uglier) interior than the beautiful next-generation Mazda6/Atenza images we have seen from shows in Europe and Japan.

The reason the market is a “sea of sh**” is BECAUSE so many companies designed their cars “for North America”.

There’s good reason why people here lust for the automobiles available overseas, but a European or Japanese lust for a car designed for North America is a rare thing indeed.

As long as Mazda keeps its U.S. market image in mind, I say the more Mazdas the better. Hopefully, Mazda realizes its brand appeal in the U.S. lies in the fact that their products are not Toyota/Honda wannabes. Most of their U.S. products (excluding the Tribute and B-Series Ford clones) have an edgier, sportier look and feel than most mainstream offerings.

If the CX-9 is any indication of Mazda’s perception of their brand image in the U.S., then I think any upcoming products made specifically for the U.S. market should be distinctive and brand appropriate. The CX-9 offers a sportier package in the large crossover segment that is populated by more mundane offerings such as the Pilot, Highlander, Taurus X, Veracruz, and Outlook (I consider the Enclave to be a very worthy adversary to the CX-9). It gives the U.S. market a product in a hot vehicle segment without compromising Mazda’s brand image.

I agree with some of you that have stated that it is amazing that Mazda adapted to changing market conditions so rapidly. Instead of giving us an updated version of a minivan that failed to make much of an impact on the market, they quickly changed gears and morphed an underachiever into a segment winner.

mazdaman: I chose the Enclave over the CX-9, but the latter is still a good choice. Hell, if I win one from Circuit city, I’ll save $40K.

Both Pilots and both Highlanders are jokes, and can’t sanely be compared to the CX-9. Taurus X has been bloated and overpriced since it was the Freestyle, and the Veracruz is nice but too small. My third candidate was the Tribeca.

As long as Mazda doesn’t share any parts from Ford, then it will be good. The only thing thats keeping Fords from being any worse than they already are is the fact that Ford is using Mazda and Volvo components.

Pd: what if they share mud flaps? Is it then “Just a POS FORD?”

semiintelligent organism!

Mazda is not my first choice for cars, but they are definitely high on the list. More Mazdas can only be a good thing.

I own a MPV and I like it for the reason it usually gets drubbed for and that is size. It is/was the smallest minivan on the market and had the sportiest looks. I didn’t need a gargantuan minivan and my wife liked it because it drove like a midsize sedan. I see a lot of them around Atlanta so I don’t know if it is as much of a failure than it is the market segment for a small minivan is just to small for any vehicle to be a big winner. Hell, the CX-9 has less room than the MPV and it is selling better because it is in a different segment and it doesn’t hurt it is a hundred times sexier.

I hope mazda doesn’t use ford parts. They don’t need to, mazda is very advanced that they don’t need to rely on fords “engineering” but ford does rely alot now on mazda. any little bit thats from ford in a mazda you will recognize it soon enough becaus that will be the first bits to cause problems.

Mazda would be MY first choice of car compared to dismal crap such as pretty much everything made by Ford or GM

I remain skeptical. If being NA exclusive product means some rebadged Ford or a less substantial platform, then I’ll take the global car. However, it looks like Mazda knows what they are doing, so we’ll see. First test is the next Mazda6. It’s tough when there is a “nicer” Mazda6 overseas if Mazda NA f*** this one up, kind of like the current Focus (or the lack of one) situation.

Cookie:

You nailed it!

LP640: Too bad you don’t have an appointment with a guillotine!

SigmaHyperion- I agree that the NA might be toned down, but that still will make those Mazdas better than 75% of the other cars on the road. I do want the next-gen 6 to be as close to the recently unveiled ones. That’s my next car!

Hopefully, the Mazda6 from Frankfurt will come here, as is.
Then they can begin

what i cant understand is how the CX-9 is so great and the Edge sucks ass

Edge rules, you bastard A4! CX9 is an egg. Mazda thinks Americans like eggs. Well, they do! I think the CX-7 is a much better design with a powerful enough engine.

cookie4me- Good choice. A friend of mine had a second generation Mazda MPV, really nice vehicle. It was really boring though, and the interior was very bland. What do you expect from a minivan? I guess a less bland interior.