2014 Mazda 6 2.5L First Drive Review Car and Driver
Mazda Motor Corporation known as simply Mazda, is really a Japanese multinational automaker situated in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan.In 2015, Mazda produced 1.5 million vehicles for global sales, virtually all which (nearly 2million) were created in the company's Japanese plants, while using remainder due to a variety of other plants worldwide. In 2015, Mazda was the fifteenth biggest automaker by production worldwide.Mazda began because Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd, founded in Hiroshima, Japan, 30 January 1920. Toyo Cork Kogyo renamed itself to Toyo Kogyo Co., Ltd. in 1927. In the late 1920s this company had to be saved from bankruptcy by Hiroshima Saving Bank along with business leaders in Hiroshima.In 1931 Toyo Kogyo moved from manufacturing machine tools to vehicles using the introduction from the Mazda-Go autorickshaw. Toyo Kogyo produced weapons for that Japanese military through the entire Second World War, particularly the series 30 through 35 Type 99 rifle. The company formally adopted the Mazda name twenty six years ago, though every automobile sold right from the start bore that name. The Mazda R360 has been available since 1960, as well as the Mazda Carol in 1962.Mazda Cosmo SportBeginning inside the 1960s, Mazda was inspired from the NSU Ro 80 and chose to put a serious engineering effort into development on the Wankel rotary engine in order of differentiating itself business Japanese auto companies. The company formed an enterprise relationship with German company NSU and began with all the limited-production Cosmo Sport of 1967, and continuing to this particular day with all the Pro Mazda Championship, Mazda is one of the sole manufacturer of Wankel-type engines for your automotive market, largely by way of attrition (NSU and Citroën both lost the fight on the design throughout the 1970s, and prototype Corvette efforts by General Motors never made it to production.This effort to get attention to itself apparently helped, as Mazda rapidly did start to export its vehicles. Both piston-powered and rotary-powered models made their way world wide. The rotary models quickly removed for their mixture of good power and lightweight weight in comparison to piston-engined competitors that required heavier V6 or V8 engines to make the same power. The R100 as well as the RX series (RX-2, RX-3, and RX-4) led you can actually export efforts.During 1968, Mazda started formal operations in Canada (MazdaCanada) although Mazdas were affecting Canada around 1959. In 1970, Mazda formally entered the American market (Mazda North American Operations) and was very successful there, going in terms of to create the Mazda Rotary Pickup (based within the conventional piston-powered B-Series model) solely for North American buyers. To this day, Mazda continues to be the only automaker to get produced a Wankel-powered pickup. Additionally, it's also the only marque to possess ever offered a rotary-powered bus (the Mazda Parkway, offered only in Japan) or station wagon (in the RX-3 and RX-4 lines for sure markets). After nine numerous years of development, Mazda finally launched its new model within the U.S. in 1970.Mazda's rotary success continued before onset from the 1973 oil crisis. As American buyers (along with those in other nations) quickly looked to vehicles with better fuel efficiency, the relatively thirsty rotary-powered models started fall out of favor. Combined with being the least-efficient automaker in Japan (when it comes to productivity), inability to alter to excess inventory and over-reliance about the U.S. market, the corporation suffered a huge decrease of 1975. An already heavily indebted Toyo Kogyo was about the verge of bankruptcy and only agreed to be saved with the intervention of Sumitomo keiretsu group, namely Sumitomo Bank, along with the companies subcontractors and distributors. However, the corporation had not totally turned its back on piston engines, the way it continued to generate a number of four-cylinder models through the 1970s. The smaller Familia line for example became essential to Mazda's worldwide sales after 1973, as did the somewhat larger Capella series.Mazda RX-7 (first generation)Mazda refocused its efforts making it the rotary engine a choice to the sporting motorist rather than mainstream powerplant. Starting together with the lightweight RX-7 in 1978 and continuing together with the modern RX-8, Mazda has continued its dedication to the present unique powerplant. This switch in focus also resulted inside the development of another lightweight racecar, the piston-powered Mazda MX-5 Miata (sold since the Eunos and later on Mazda Roadster in Japan), inspired because of the concept 'jinba ittai'. Introduced in 1989 to worldwide acclaim, the Roadster is widely credited with reviving the concept with the small racecar after its decline within the late 1970s.