Miata Mailing List: July 1999, Message #468

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Following are excerpts from an interview of Mark Field (Senior Managing Director in charge of Sales, marketing, customer service, Mazda) that appeared in Wheels magazine (Australia) August 1999.

Editor: "What does Mazda want to be?"
MF: ...."three words that describe it: stylish, insightful and spirited. What we mean is...styling that invites attention rather than demands it. Insightful we mean exceptional functionality......And then spirited, we define that as responsive ride and handling. Somebody asked me the other day how I would describe responsive ride and handling. To me thats not going 0-100km/h the fastest...it's the combination of suspension, the powertrain, the transmission, so that whenthe customer gets in the car and starts driving a smile comes on their face."

Editor: "Which ones (current cars) are closest?"
MF: "...Let's take the MX-5. Thats a product that really embodies the brand DNA....(it) was insightful, in that it was innovative, it's a product that's spirited, it's not the fastest car on the road but when you drive it it puts a smile on your face; it has that responsive ride and handling and it's got distinctive styling.

Editor: "Pretend the MX-5 never existed. Would Mazda start that project now?
MF: "The answer absolutely is yes..."

I thought the last comment sounded like a fairly typical sales guy comment. Somehow, considering Mazda's recent financial history and despite Ford's monetary injections I doubt our beloved roadster would be conceived by Mazda today. I'll have to ask Bob Hall his opinions considering he writes for Wheel's magazine nowadays (thank god he was with Mazda in the 80's!!)

Ramon Singh
drtooth@miatadriver.com
MX-5 Club of NSW (Australia) #558
99 Twilight Blue
88 Toyota Corolla (The I don't care where I park car)

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