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Did mazda 3reviews the car buying public abandon affordable lightweight open-topped sportscars, or did manufacturers abandon them? Either way, mazda spotted a gap in the market and in 1989 released themazda mx5mazda 3,mazda 3reviews
mazda 3reviews Conceptmazda mx5mazda 3,mazda 3reviews
The concept for this car is rumored to have grown from a conversation that automotive journalist Bob Hall had with Kenichi Yamamoto, the managing director of mazda in mazda 3reviews spring 1979mazda 3,mazda 3reviewsTwo years later when Bob Hall joined mazda's product planning department, the mazda mx5took one step closer to productionmazda 3,mazda 3reviewsmazda North America (MANA) soon went to work producing mazda 3reviews several designs, meanwhile mazda's Tokyo design studio was producing designs of it's ownmazda 3,mazda 3reviews
In April 1984 the design sketches were presented to head office, at this stage the Tokyo mid-engined coupe mazda 3reviews design looked more promising, but MANA didn't give upmazda 3,mazda 3reviewsIn August of the same year, the teams met again at Hiroshima to compare full sized clay models mazda 3,mazda 3reviewsThis time there was mazda 3reviews no contest and MANA's two seater rear wheel drive design was selectedmazda 3,mazda 3reviews
A British company, International Automotive Designs (IAD) were charged with the task of building a working prototype mazda 3,mazda 3reviewsThis mazda 3reviews was completed by August 1985 and the plan was to ship it straight to Japan for review in marketing clinics, but Masataka Matsui, head of the Testing and Research division had other ideasmazda 3,mazda 3reviewsmazda 3reviewsInstead the car was taken to Santa Barbara, California where it could be viewed by potential buyers in it's main target marketplace mazda 3,mazda 3reviewsThe car was an immediate hit and in the mazda 3reviews words of one of the engineers we had people chasing us down the street asking us who made the carmazda 3,mazda 3reviewsThe car's future was assured and in January 1986 the project was mazda 3reviews given the official go-aheadmazda 3,mazda 3reviews
Concept mazda mx5mazda 3,mazda 3reviewsClick to see signed print bought in miata.net auction 1997 At this point serious consideration was given as to how the car mazda 3reviews should be builtmazda 3,mazda 3reviewsA crucial decision had to be made , whether to build the car on an existing floor plan or to start from scatch and build a new one mazda 3,mazda 3reviews
mazda 3reviews mazda decided that it had the opportunity to build exactly the car it wanted and that there was no point in building it, if they didn't build it rightmazda 3,mazda 3reviewsThe attention to mazda 3reviews detail and the amount of effort put in by the teams was astoundingmazda 3,mazda 3reviewsFor example Toshihiko Hirai the Product Program Manager made an audio tape of his favourite car exhaust notes and mazda 3reviews played it over and over until he had decided on exactly the right soundmazda 3,mazda 3reviewsMeanwhile, back in California, Rod Bymaster was searching for a name for this new car mazda 3,mazda 3reviewsFinally one mazda 3reviews day he came across the word 'Meed' in the dictionary which was derived from the old German word Miata meaning 'Reward'mazda 3,mazda 3reviewsThe name stuck and the mazda mx5was badged the 'Miata'mazda 3reviews in North Americamazda 3,mazda 3reviews
In August 1988 the car was presented to a select group of car magazine editors at the mazda test track in Miyoshi mazda 3,mazda 3reviewsThey loved the car, but mazda 3reviews were sworn to secrecymazda 3,mazda 3reviewsThe first spy pictures appeared in 'Autoweek' in November 1988 and in June 1989 mazda held a press conference to announce the launch of their new light-weight sports mazda 3reviews carmazda 3,mazda 3reviewsSince then the mazda mx5, has collected awards, rave reviews and a place on the short list for car of the centurymazda 3,mazda 3reviewsThe rest, as they say, is History mazda 3,mazda 3reviewsBy: Jon beal |
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