Mazda 6! Straight-six, that is...

  • Thread starter 05XR8
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Eunos_Cosmo
It can't be an RX-anything without a rotary engine.

Just give us an MX-6 and I'll be more than happy.

Yours truly,

an RX-7 owner.
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You know, that would be interesting to see Mazda doubling down on cars while the market shifts towards SUV's. There still *is* a market for cars though it's shrinking..

I could see an MX-6 to sell alongside the M6 and it could go up against cars like the BMW 4-Series.
 
Also NA engines for power and efficiency.

Wonder what Ford could have done if, they kept the deal with Mazda, to help develop the old 4L I6, way before Falcon production ended.
 
Looks like Toyota & Lexus want some of the Inline-Six, Rear Wheel Drive goodness too:

The future generation of several Toyota and Lexus cars will allegedly source their rear-drive platform and inline-six engine from Mazda, according to a rumor citing unnamed insiders from Best Car in Japan. The first of these models could arrive as soon as 2022.

Toyota allegedly plans to use the Mazda-sourced rear-drive platform and inline-six engine first on a successor to its Mark X (pictured below) premium sedan. Lexus intends to implement these parts on a new coupe that would slot between the existing RC and LC.
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Read more at Motor1
 
How is it that little Mazda is the one developing platforms for these giants? Is Mazda the only car maker left without untenable overhead? It's genuinely surprising.

Put another way: How is it that Toyota constantly 'needs' to outsource platforms to other car makers? They are one of the biggest car makers in the world. Are they that obsessed with slashing R&D funding?
 
Eunos_Cosmo
Put another way: How is it that Toyota constantly 'needs' to outsource platforms to other car makers? They are one of the biggest car makers in the world. Are they that obsessed with slashing R&D funding?
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They're not "slashing R&D funding" when it comes to volume cars and trucks. There's almost no risk with funding the Camry or 4Runner in-house. They sell in huge volumes. The cost is justified and the investment is returned many times over. The GT86 and Supra are niche cars. It takes just as much money to develop a small volume sports car as it does a million selling sedan like the Camry. You just have far fewer cars to spread the cost over. So if you could bring a niche car to market for half the price by co-developing it with another maker, wouldn't you? And yes, an RWD sedan powered by a straight-six is far more niche than it used to be. It just makes economic sense to share the costs on low volume cars.
 
:)👍
05XR8
The Mark X is also ceasing production this December. Maybe a possible future rwd Mazda sedan, could be rebadged to replace it.
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Can't wait for the Super Taikyu version. :D I'm gonna miss this one. Also think GT300.
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Eunos_Cosmo
Put another way: How is it that Toyota constantly 'needs' to outsource platforms to other car makers? They are one of the biggest car makers in the world. Are they that obsessed with slashing R&D funding?
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As @Populuxe Cowboy said, they are leveraging a strategic partnership for a new, niche model rather than design it in-house. It makes a lot of sense when 90% of the market will have no idea and just want to buy something with your badge on it.
 
Maybe a mod can merge this thread and the other thread? They are on the same topic. I would suggest a title like "Mazda's Push for Premium" or something. :D:cheers:
 
I want to see it called the RX-7 just to watch the fanboys lose their minds.

Wait I just thought of something better, make it electric with a rotary range extender.
 
Disco_Volante
I want to see it called the RX-7 just to watch the fanboys lose their minds.

Wait I just thought of something better, make it electric with a rotary range extender.
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I would love the second option, as a rotary fanboy. I would love it more if it was a parallel hybrid (I've said this over and over), but even a series hybrid would be pretty cool as long as the performance is there. The first option would be pretty lame (mostly because it's just illogical), but I don't think I would lose my mind over it.
 
I still don't understand the fanboy stuff(I'm old). I know of Fingerboy, but why the added "boy" after "fan"?
 
05XR8
Sure, why not? Mitsubishi are possibly reviving the "GSR" badge, on its ASX CUV. :sly:
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After 50 years of using RX for their rotary-engined cars, it seems to me Mazda would face some fierce backlash from the rotary faithful if they were to start using the RX designation on their reciprocating piston-engined cars. I'm not particularly fanboyish or a purist when it comes to Mazda or rotary-engines, but it seems that Mazda is just too small a manufacturer to risk pissing off the brand faithful by attempting a cynical cash-in on the RX name.
 
Guys I meant fanboys as in annoying people who love X and blindly hate Y because it isn't X. For example RX-7 fanboys who hate the RX-8 because... it isn't the RX-7.

I myself would be surprised and annoyed if Mazda do what I said in my post.
 
Some interesting Trivia relevant (somewhat) to the topic at hand.

The current design chief of Mazda is Ikuo Maeda. He's been with the company since 1982 and was the lead designer on the RX-8 as well as the RX-Vision.

Ikuo's father (Matasaburo Maeda) was the original design chief of Mazda and was responsible for the first generation RX-7. Incidentally, Ikuo has a great amount of respect for his father, and doing a new RX-7 is a career goal for him. I don't know if that makes it more or less likely that any production coupe will bear the RX-7 moniker.
 
Was the SE3P really so much of a sea change as to warrant the name change?

Rotary cars are outside my wheelhouse enough for that to not be just a rhetorical question, though that's certainly how I present it.
 
TexRex
Was the SE3P really so much of a sea change as to warrant the name change?
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I don't see it as a name change. The RX-8 was presented not as a successor to the RX-7, but a new model in its own right. While it's definitely a sports car, it's also a four-door four-seater, so I doubt RX-7 fans would have accepted it as a fourth-gen RX-7.
 
Populuxe Cowboy
After 50 years of using RX for their rotary-engined cars, it seems to me Mazda would face some fierce backlash from the rotary faithful if they were to start using the RX designation on their reciprocating piston-engined cars. I'm not particularly fanboyish or a purist when it comes to Mazda or rotary-engines, but it seems that Mazda is just too small a manufacturer to risk pissing off the brand faithful by attempting a cynical cash-in on the RX name.
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I wouldn't expect Mazda to do the mainstream badge swaps.

Interestingly, Mazda's first rotary car is named "Cosmo"(I don't think the codename used an R either). After that, they made the R100, etc. So, having a non-rotary powered car with an R prefix, would be a stretch.

They've got CX for suvs, been using MX for a few sporting cars, do Mazda go with a new letter in this new generation?
 
TexRex
Was the SE3P really so much of a sea change as to warrant the name change?

Rotary cars are outside my wheelhouse enough for that to not be just a rhetorical question, though that's certainly how I present it.
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It was a different concept within the greater "RX" ethos, in a way that the RX-2, RX-3, RX-4, RX-5, and RX-6 were all different concepts. The RX-7 went 3 generations because it was the same concept: Front mid engine, rear drive, 2 seat [mostly] 2 door coupe.
 
"RX" isn't even a model lineage, but rather a marketing lineage for exports of rotary-powered models (Cosmo, Savanna, Capella, Luce). It's a mess compared to Mazda's current nomenclature, but the common precedent is that it designates the use of a Wankel engine.

Without a Wankel engine, they have a designation for sporty 2-(passenger)-door cars..."MX". Why not "MX-7"?
 

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