Thanks OG. I'll get there soon and will be sure to look you up.

You know, what you mentioned about Mazda "refining rather than redesigning" has always been Honda and Toyota's approach. Maybe it's just a Japanese thing but whatever it is it's the right approach. It's a long term approach and one that pays big dividends as time goes by. All I know is the more I researched Mazda (and especially the CX-5) the more intrigued I became. TBH, you planted one of the seeds that helped make me look in Mazda's direction...along with others who had the same opinion of the company. If you hear it from enough people there must be something to it. They have evolved into being a premium carmaker. I see Toyota and Mazda continuing to merge across the board but allowing each a good deal of latitude to develop their own products. That would be unlike, say, Chevrolet and Buick where their cars were essentially identical but with different bodies. I'm not all sure how Toyota and Mazda will differentiate, perhaps one emphasizes hybrids and the other gas engines. Toyota already has Lexus so it doesn't need another luxury identity. I don't know but it will be interesting to watch. Thanks for the link. I'll get over there soon.

 

Toyota and Mazda do share some component production. Unlike GM, where you have Chevy and Buick, that is a case of badge engineering. It's all one company. They use the same chassis. Toyota has shared design and production with numerous other companies over the years. The Geo cars were a collaboration of GM and Toyota. I drove lift trucks for most of my 45 years in a factory. We loved the 9000 pound lift capacity Toyota lifts with the GM 4.3 V-6. When GM dropped that engine, we went with Lisle lift trucks. Not as powerful, but adequate. It also had a Porsche engine in it since Porsche built the lift trucks. Here's the last truck I used the day before I retired.



They let me order the lift trucks so that moisture by the wheel isn't rain. It's condensation from the a/c unit. I took care of my guys!

To be honest, I'd never heard of the CX-5 in detail. I bought a Consumer Reports list of used cars. The only hard thing I was looking for was I wanted red. White and Silver disappear in the rain during the day. Red and other definite colors at least show up as dark spots. CR praised the CX-5 but said the infotainment system was the one weak spot. I can say they were spot on with their report.

Honda and Toyota were trading the top spot in reliability for years but Mazda is nudging in there.

 

I remember those Geos. Came close to buying one. Was it called a Metro? Not sure. I ended up buying a Saturn. What an idiot I was! Biggest piece of junk I ever owned. Once I figured that out I ditched it like a bad habit.

 

The Geo wasn't much batter.... The metro had a whopping three cylinder engine.... We had to replace on under warranty at one point, the engine came in a small crate, that the truck driver carried into the shop in one hand.....

The Tracker was pretty cool though.

 

Oh, Geez. How embarrassing.

 

The Geo Prism was a sort of decent car.

 

A Toyota Corolla by another name.

 

Toyota Crapola!

 

OG,