According to the ND MX-5 program manager and company’s product ambassador, Nobuhiro Yamamoto, the new Mazda MX-5 will ensure that people enjoy the ride and he also said that this car is a turning point regarding the fate of the company.
He was responsible for the production of a second, third and fourth generation of the vehicle and although there were some difficulties, the MX-5 would offer a lot to the customers.
Yamamoto-san said: “Unfortunately, the popularity of the sports car has been declining, and we as a company have to make a business out of it. “So, we have to make a hard choice sometimes. And there’s only so many cars available in the market that are affordably-priced sports cars. So MX-5, in a sense, is very important to remain in the market, and it’s also important for Mazda, so we’d like to keep this very important car for the future.”
The Mazda product ambassador wants to ensure that the new car is also appealing to regular buyers, as it is to the Mazda aficionados. This model needs to be original and respected, as he stated.
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Furthermore, he said: “And I believe the MX-5 is exactly what our vision is showing. My personal point of view is that when we talk about the future direction of the vehicle, there is two things: one is, how are we going to make a vehicle, and the other one is, how are we going to enjoy this vehicle. So, one is talking about the product, the other is talking about the meaning…How, and what sort of direction we’re going to take is more talking about how to make a vehicle, but we’d like to respect how the owner would feel by owning those vehicles, and we want to always keep that in the vision when we develop the future products.”
He also added: “And, as you know, we are a small company – we only have a two percent of share in the world, and Australia is unique in the sense that we have 10 percent of share. But we’re not aiming to satisfy 100 people. We’d like to have even 10 people who really enjoy and who love our product, and who continue to love our product. So we shouldn’t lose sight of looking after those people.”
We still don’t know whether the company will add a hybrid or even electric option to the MX-5 and what lies in the store for RX-7. However, Yamamoto-san hopes that the fans will continue to support the brand.
He said: “I will not comment anything about what is the future for RX-7, but we exhibited the Mazda RX-Vision (pictured above) at the 2015 Tokyo motor show, and it has a rotary engine, and that shows our vision for the future direction. And in that, we’d like our customers to see where we are heading, and we’d like customers to support our vision towards the future.”
