Who doesn’t want a cheap car going into 2025? It feels as though buying a cup of coffee costs an arm and a leg, regular people become influencers to hope for free food, and gas must be two dollars a gallon. At least Mazda is holding up a middle finger to the changing car market.
When it comes to innovation, Mazda progresses at a pace slower than a snail. It hasn’t stopped selling the MX-5 just because the bottom line whines for profit. It hasn’t embraced electrification the way Tesla has because of poor charging infrastructure. It’s only coming out with a hybrid now because of its affiliation with Toyota, another indicator of not giving up on the internal combustion engine.
Mazda
“Customers are looking for affordable solutions rather than electrified solutions. They are looking for better value,” said CEO Masahiro Moro told Automotive News. “Looking at U.S. customers, they are looking for better, reliable engines.”
Mazda is more interested in improving our current automotive landscape
While other carmakers have committed to full electrification and since backtracked, Mazda is an open vegetarian that doesn’t see the need to go vegan. Not yet, when improvements can still be made to what we have now.
Cleaner fuel means cleaner living. Mazda may not have brought quite so many refinements to the gasoline engine here but overseas, it has managed to strike the balance between efficiency and performance thanks to some truly marvelous engineering. I can never explain things as greatly as an engineer without dumbing it down, but Mazda essentially combined the high compression stroke of a diesel with a fuel injection system in a motor running on Regular Unleaded.
Mazda
And Mazda’s not stopping there. Their first master stroke SkyActiv-X, came out way back in pre-pandemic times. In the age of ditching oil for lithium, Mazda is working on improving it even further, dubbing it SkyActiv-Z and eventually bringing it to the U.S.
The way Mazda does cars is just…different
Mazdas have always been cut from a different cloth, in the way that they get invited to a black-tie event and show up in a bolo tie and fedora. This isn’t a bad thing, per se, but doesn’t always rise to the occasion. Nevertheless, it makes them all the more charming.
Charming is never giving up on making a rotary Wankel engine work properly. Charming is qualifying 19th in your most prestigious race car, and then securing a first-place finish at the most prestigious track before the FIA decided the engine was too loud. Not every car is a hit, but rarely do they turn out to be duds.
Mazda
Best of all, Mazda hasn’t lost its suit of mirrors. It always reflects on its brand heritage and tries to propel it forward to the next generation. Whatever the Iconic SP will be called in production, it will be the rotary sports car Gen-Zers will love, just like my generation fawns over the RX-8 and RX-7.
Even in changing times, it’s hard to beat the way a Mazda tunes a vehicle, especially a small SUV like the CX-5. It was ideal circumstances that saw the CX-5 witness the crossover boom in popularity, and Mazda had a hit on its hands.
Although the CX-5 is now riding on old bones, it has been refined over time thanks to the kaizen philosophy, ensuring it stays number one on company charts. These days, Mazda has a complete lineup of SUVs in varying sizes but made sure to give each a sprinkle of Miata dust.
Mazda
In an EV world, Mazda might come out on top
And now, it looks as if it may win the war against electrification. Battery cars aren’t all they’re cracked up to be once you look past the hype of the Hummer EV. Everything from purchase price to fire risk to the task of finding a charging station — never mind one that works — means they don’t really move the needle forward as we may’ve hoped.
Meanwhile, all I have to do is push the clutch, hit the engine start button, and put the shifter in first. And if I want to, I can put the Targa roof down in a matter of seconds. It’s laughable that Mazda says the MX-5 RF can move up to six miles per hour while operating the top. It’s equally laughable that I can get 40 miles per gallon without really trying.
Mazda
The Mazda MX-5 has been around longer than my parents’ marriage. Here I am, a fully pantsed adult, recognizing what the little roadster has pulled off in just four generations. The ND platform, which my car is based on, is ten years old now. And it feels rich and awarding to drive, like wine in a dark cellar. To get the next cheapest roadster, you have to pay up for bourbon because it comes from Porsche.
A Mazda MX-5 is cheaper to purchase new now than it was in 1989, so go buy one. Don’t worry yourself silly with the repercussions of fiddly electronics and whatever companies throw at you. Moro-san said Americans want cheap cars. Look for the cheap thrill too.