Mazda Refuses to Talk About Mazdaspeed’s Future

[Lokiel]

http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2017/04/is-mazda-prioritizing-premium-over-performance-.html?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ClubRoadster.net_breaking&utm_source=ClubRoadster.net20170428

I think this sums up Mazda's thoughts on Mazdaspeed editions:

"It’s up to the customer. And performance car customers are few and far between. Moreover, Mazda doesn’t want to do performance cars purely for the sake of performance at any cost. Masahiro Moro is on record as saying the execution of the Mazdaspeed 3 was “childish.”

Given that the Mazdaspeed Miata (sold as an SE here in Australia) was "half-arsed" (didn't even have a boost gauge), I suspect that Mazdaspeed editions were only ever afterthoughts or indulgences.

[NitroDann]

Cant profit selling niche cars for regular person money.

[smy0003]

There's already so much choice when it comes to hot/hyper hatches. So much choice. Almost every small car is sold as a souped-up supercar hunter now.
Mazda is obviously happy selling normal cars to normal people, and are doing it exceptionally well (in Aus at least). I doubt a reinvention of the MazdaSpeed3 would be successful.
Mazda still have the MX5, and how many companies can say they sell a RWD roadster anymore?

[davekmoore]

.... and they can sell that for a sensible price because it uses parts from mainstream models. The volume they would sell at does not permit a profitable Mazdaspeed MX-5, or any other Mazda (the SE/Mazdaspeed Miata was only "created" to try to boost sales at the end of the NB's life). If you need something more interesting there's the Golf R, RS3, and plenty of others which are properly interesting, whereas an MX-5 SE was, well, meh.

Or move to the States and get a V8 Miata. https://www.flyinmiata.com/V8/ND.php

[Lokiel]

Many of us who started with a Mazdaspeed MX5 (aka SE in Australia) have long recognised the fact that it was a "half-arsed" implementation that could be improved on in every area.
It was introduced to prolong the sales of the NB but crippled from the factory because it would easily have blown away the next generation NC in terms of performance and possibly vultured sales from Mazda's rotary offerings.

Thankfully we have aftermarket providers to serve the niche of added performance&handling.
There's some excellent aftermarket components available now for NAs and NBs are more being developed all the time.
That really says a lot for Mazda's NA/NB platform which is over 20 years old now.

Mazda are one of the smallest Japanese manufacturers so they need to concern themselves with producing quality volume-selling cars (which they do, the 3, 6, CX-9 and ND have been highly lauded).
If Mazda produced a factory ND with the handling and power that many of us want, it would cost about the same as a Boxster.
At least with aftermarket add-ons, that cost is distributed over a long period so doesn't hurt as much (unless you actually track the cost of every mod you've ever done and realise that you could have bought that Boxster instead and it would have been awesome for the first ~100,000km; after that, fixing the oil leaks will cost at least A$6,000).

[zero00]

https://www.carsales.com.au/dealer/deta ... 2105/?Cr=0

See this one Lokiel?

I will stick with my '89 Mazdaspeed NA - rare and fun!

[Lokiel]

^



THOSE RIMS!!!