A reminder that Mazda is still obsessed with making fun to drive cars. In this video, Dave Coleman revealed that they keep a Lotus Elise around and use it to benchmark steering feel in their cars. Also, apparently just a year after the CX-50 came out, it's already getting refinements to its suspension and steering feel. They didn't even wait for a mid-cycle refresh.
There is no way that 2022 GTI is making just 241 horsepower. Even on that last roll race where the Sonata got a bit of a lead, it was pulling on it. The Sonata NLine makes 291 horsepower. That GTI must be making close to 290 horsepower stock.
Super satisfying car wash video on a beautiful Mazda RX-8. While the RX-7 gets more of the limelight, I have to say that I really the RX-8 design. I wished Mazda would make another similar looking car with suicide doors. I feel like it worked really well on the RX-8. My cousin had one and it was a good car with space for 4 people.
In a previous post, which was a review of the CX-90, I mentioned how the reviewer was able to corner at high speed without corrections on the steering wheel. The CX-90 just basically took the corner, and well, it cornered without needing too many steering wheel corrections from the driver. The Engineering Interview section in this video, explains exactly how and why the CX-90 drives that way. It's actually the most important part of this video in my opinion. You get to see what the Mazda philosophy is when it comes to building cars.
One thing I realized after watching all the engineering interviews, is that the reason why Mazda cannot grow their market share, is because they are not willing to compromise their driving philosophy and principles for the general population. They want to build cars that drive like a Mazda. If you don't like how their cars drive, then so be it. And that insistence on sticking with their way of building and tuning cars, is what keeps Mazda fans like me coming back for more. On the flip side, this is also what stops most of the general public from buying a Mazda.
Lastly, the powertrain and transmission issues mentioned in this video are not new to me. I've seen it mentioned in other reviews. My opinion is that you should probably skip the first and second year models until they sort out all of those issues. This after all is all new for Mazda; brand new inline six engine, brand new 8-speed transmission and brand new rear-wheel drive based architecture. They just need more time to sort out all of those issues. This is a car that will get better and better as the years go by. If I'm shopping for a 3-row SUV, this is still at the top of my list.