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Ford looking to sell most of its stake in Mazda?

October 18, 2010 at 10:09 am By Anthony Lim Filed Under Cars, Ford, International News, Mazda

Ford logo According to a report by Japanese business daily Nikkei late last week, Ford is looking to sell a majority of its remaining 11% stake in Mazda – reducing it to 3% or less – to Sumitomo group businesses and other companies with working ties with Mazda.

The daily added that the shares sale is expected to lead towards both automakers slowly parting ways in terms of cooperation. Ford, however, has said that the report is mere speculation, and that its ownership stake in Mazda remains unchanged.

In acquiring 25% of Mazda’s outstanding shares, Ford became Mazda’s top shareholder in 1979, and in 1996 gained management control when it raised its stake to 33.4%.

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2011 Mazda BT-50 pick-up truck – first images!

October 14, 2010 at 10:18 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Mazda

As always, a new Ranger will be accompanied by a new Mazda BT-50 (sometimes referred to as the Fighter). The two trucks are nearly identical beneath the different sheetmetal, tub and interior, which by the way Mazda’s designers have decided to take a completely different approach compared to Ford’s straight and macho lines.

The new Mazda BT-50 was apparently inspired by a picture of a lion, which gave the truck’s chief designer Ryo Yanagisawa the impression of a “magnificent predator, with his muscles all bunching up as though he was about to pounce on his prey”. I think the front looks OK but the rear is kind of off.

The interior looks quite car-like and I wouldn’t be surprised if you showed me the interior shot above and told me it came from a regular Mazda passenger sedan.

Mazda hasn’t given out much details on what’s going into the engine bay but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s pretty much the same 2.2 diesel, 3.2 diesel and 2.5 petrol engines that are going into the new 2011 Ranger.
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New Mazda BT-50 interior revealed

October 5, 2010 at 4:13 pm By Anthony Lim Filed Under Cars, International News, Mazda

mazda bt-50 interior

Following on the teaser sketch of its new BT-50 pick-up truck, which is slated to make its global debut at the 2010 Australian International Motor Show in Sydney later this month, Mazda has released a peek into the upcoming vehicle’s interior.

Mazda is tagging the BT-50 as an “active lifestyle vehicle” (a truck isn’t just a truck anymore these days, it would seem), so the interior reflects that focus with a layout presentation that falls in line with the company’s current passenger car standard.

Elements include a symmetrical dashboard that wraps around the front occupants, with lots of smooth, flowing lines throughout and plenty of silver-coloured accents to help offset the two-tone grey monotony. Features include climate control, a centrally located LCD info display panel and an enhanced legibility instrument meter cluster.

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New Mazda BT-50 (Fighter) to debut in Australia

September 13, 2010 at 6:47 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Mazda

Mazda will be unveiling the next generation Mazda BT-50 pick-up truck at the 2010 Australian International Motor Show next October. The BT-50 is a model also known as the Mazda Fighter in certain markets. It’s essentially the Japanese counterpart to the Ford Ranger, sharing some DNA with the American-branded truck. No other information on the truck has been released so far but what we have right now is a sketch of the truck, which is shown above. An all-new Ford Ranger should follow shortly.

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Mazda applies KODO design to the Mazda2 and Mazda3

September 11, 2010 at 5:11 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Cars, International News, Mazda, Videos

We recently featured Mazda’s new Shinari concept, which is the first embodiment of the new “KODO” design language for the company’s future models.

Mazda claims positive reactions from the media, industry and fans. Thus, they thought it would be a good idea to give the general public what the new design language featured on the concept car would look like on existing hatchback models like the Mazda2 and the Mazda3.

To do that, the company have released a video of just that. Not using standard 3D rendering, the video was created by projecting images and colours onto clay models. Like the Shinari concept, design of the car’s look very progressive and new, but don’t get your hopes up too much as this is barely a concept, just a preview of things to come. Enjoy the video above!

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Paris 2010 debut: Mazda Shinari 4-door coupe concept

August 31, 2010 at 4:18 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Cars, International News, Mazda

Mazda has unveiled a new concept called the Shinari at a private press event held in Milan recently. This new four-door coupe concept will give the public a hint to the future direction the Mazda family will take in terms of design language.

Given the designation “Kodo”, it replaces the oddball Nagare design language that we’ve all become accustomed to, most recently seen on the latest version of the Mazda5 M{V. In Japanese, “Kodo” translate to “soul of motion” and the creation of the design was a joint effort between Mazda’s design studios in Japan, U.S. and Germany.

General Manager of Mazda Motor Corp design division Ikuo Maeda had this to say when asked when the new design language will appear on new models, “this design will lead to the next generation of Mazda design and will lead to other elements.”

Apart from the usual, Mazda also unveiled their plans of wanting to compete with luxury carmakers and has confirmed that they will be improving the quality of their interior levels. “We want to play in the same group as BMW and Audi. On fit and finish we want the same level of quality, ” said Derek Jenkins, director of design for Mazda North America.

The Shinari will make its official debut at the Paris Motor Show on the 30th of September this year. Check out the picture gallery after the jump.
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Ford and Mazda invest $350 million in Rayong plant for next generation pick-up trucks

August 28, 2010 at 11:42 pm By Jacob Alexander Filed Under Cars, Ford, International News, Mazda

Auto Alliance Thailand, a joint venture between Mazda Motor Corp and Ford Motor Co, have announced that they will be investing US$350 million in its pickup truck plant to prepare for the production of next generation pick-up trucks. This is likely the next generation Ranger/Fighter.

Production of the redesigned pick-up trucks is expected to start sometime mid-2011, according to Ford. The factory will be retooled and upgraded for the production of the pick up trucks. The new investment would mean that since 1995, both companies have invested about US$1.85 billion in the AutoAlliance Thailand facility.

Models produced by the AutoAlliance factory are exported to more than 130 markets around the world. This includes the Mazda2 and Ford Fiesta models, produced at the Rayong plant, exported to other markets including Malaysia (we’ll get it sometime soon). The JV also celebrated 1 million units produced in July 1997.

One question that we have in mind is whether the new Ranger/Fighter will follow the One Ford plan, where Ford will develop global models and then tailor them to different markets via equipment instead of market-specific models. Our current generation Ranger is quite different from the Ranger in the US, which is larger. The next generation Ford Focus is one example of a car that has been ‘unified’ under the One Ford plan.

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Mazda design: Nagare no more, yesterday once more?

August 11, 2010 at 11:50 am By Danny Tan Filed Under Cars, Concept Cars, International News, Mazda

Are you a fan of the current Mazda look, with its curvy shapes, smiling mouth and eye-catching jewelry? It all started with the Nagare concept shown at the 2007 LA Motor Show, where the carmaker showed off a car that “flowed”. A couple of concepts later – Ryuga, Hakaze, Taiki and Furai – the Nagare design language was in full flow (pardon the pun), as Mazda tried to implement it onto its road car range.

They’ve finally managed to apply the Nagare design in full with the new Mazda5 (as shown in Geneva), before killing it. Yes, the Nagare design language is dead.

Creator of Nagare, Laurens van den Acker, left the company for Renault last year, and the brand’s European design boss Peter Birtwhistle was recently quoted as saying: “Nagare is done. After the 5, it’s highly unlikely that there will be another Nagare car. Mazda has moved on.” He adds that Mazda top guns in Japan aren’t fully convinced with the Nagare look, which the Brit describes as “particularly difficult to apply to a boxy people carrier shape.”

So what can we expect from them next? Birtwhistle told Auto Express that Mazda is aiming to become “more like a Japanese Alfa Romeo, producing cars which are great to drive, but crucially that also have the right premium feel, particularly inside.” Mazda’s global design chief Ikuo Maeda, who led the RX-8 and Mazda2 design teams, is the man in charge.

A number of concepts are being designed under the “thrusting motion” theme and Maeda will select a winner in September. The chosen design will debut at the Paris Motor Show along with the name of Mazda’s new design philosophy. Interestingly, Nagare creator van den Acker is set to show off his best for Renault in Paris, so the stage is set!

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Mazda 8 MPV now officially available from Bermaz!

July 9, 2010 at 2:32 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Local News, Mazda

Now this is one car that I’m pretty sure a lot of you are already familiar with. Way before the Proton Exora was launched, Photoshopped photos of the Mazda 8 were floating around the internet with its Mazda badge replaced by a Proton badge, and the styling actually looked pretty believable as a Proton.

The Mazda 8 is a large MPV, much larger than the Mazda 5. It’s wheelbase of 2,950mm exceeds that of the Toyota Alphard, but the Alphard is slightly longer. In general the two MPVs are in the about the same size. They are large with a tall roof and feature sliding doors, though the bodystyle of the Mazda 8 is more similiar to the likes of the Kia Sedona (Naza Ria). The Mazda Biante is more similiar to an Alphard.

Although it has been available since 2008 from Naza World, this time it is available officially through Bermaz, the Mazda dealer. Naza World’s price for the Mazda 8 was RM198,888 back in February 2008, and the new official Bermaz price is slightly cheaper at RM195,404.20 OTR with insurance.

Under the hood is a normally aspirated 163 PS engine with 203Nm of torque at 3,500rpm. It’s a version of the 2.3 litre engine in the first generation Mazda 6 but tuned differently – as you can see peak torque is achieved at a lowish RPM, but unfortunately torque seems a little on the low side for something that has to pull all that weight and people around. We’ll find out if this is the case if we ever manage to secure a test drive unit from Bermaz.

Now this is where the difference between the Bermaz model and the Naza World model comes in – the Naza World model features a turbocharged version of the 2.3 litre engine instead, but it’s been two years so I’m not sure how much Naza World is selling the Mazda 8 now. Of course, the Bermaz car comes with a warranty from the official distributor.

The 2.3 litre engine is mated to a 5-speed Activematic transmission. There are two airbags at the front, and curtain airbags for the rear passengers. The third row splits 60:40 and the second row seats are captain seats which are able to slide back and forth by about 80mm.

If you want to check out the Mazda 8, you can head on to Mid Valley this weekend where the Mazda 8 is on display until Sunday. Look after the jump for some pix of the Mazda 8 from Japan – there are a mix of the pre-facelift and post-facelift model in the photo gallery just in case you want to compare.
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New Mazda Premacy launched in Japan with 2.0L DISI

July 1, 2010 at 10:15 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Mazda

The new smiley faced Mazda Premacy (known as the Mazda 5 here in Malaysia) is now officially on sale in Japan, with suggested retail prices of between 1,799,000 to 2,314,000 yen, including sales taxes. Not sure when Bermaz will be bringing it in as the new Mazda 5 but perhaps a few grey importers like Naza World will get to it first.

The Mazda Premacy is available with i-stop in Japan, which is Mazda’s unique idling stop system that can automatically stop and restart the engine nearly instantly to save fuel. The i-stop model grades (20S and 20E FWD) offer the highest fuel economy of any two-litre minivan in Japan, rated at 16.0 kilometers per litre (km/l) according to Japan’s 10-15 mode test cycle, while the same models with power sliding doors are rated at 15.0 km/l.

All FWD models of the Premacy in Japan are powered by a direct injection 2.0 litre engine making 150 PS at 6,200rpm and 186Nm of torque at 4,500rpm, mated to a 5-speed Activematic automatic transmission. The 4WD version uses a regular 2.0 litre DOHC engine mated to a 4-speed EC-AT automatic transmission.

The design might strike some as being unusual – the classic minivan shape is covered by various creases in the bodywork inspired by the “Nagare” concept. The drag coefficient for the new Mazda Premacy is just 0.3 cD. Look after the jump for some newly released photos of the new Premacy as well as two other previously published galleries – from the original unveiling and from the Geneva show this year.
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