Mazda aims for design pizzazz
James O'Sullivan is chief executive for Mazda North American Operations and managing executive officer at Mazda Motor Corp. Mazda, famed for bringing back the affordable convertible sports car with the Miata , is seen as a feisty Japanese company that is using a bold ad campaign to compete with more staid Asian competitors. O'Sullivan, 53, spoke with Globe reporter Royal Ford at the recent New York International Auto Show.
Q: What's the difference between European and Asian auto design these days?
A: A lot of the Asian design, a lot of the brands, are very much more ''commodity." Take a look at a lot of our Asian competitors. There really isn't a lot of emotion to it.
Mazda though, where we've been able to differentiate ourselves from some of the more commodity brands, really our strength has been our design. Now we've got CX-7 and CX-9 [crossover SUVs] which are really more European. I'd say Mazda has more European styling, more passion to it, more emotion to it.
Q: How do you balance your Zoom-Zoom promotional program, which implies speed, with safety?
A: You've got to remember, it's not the 0-60 stuff with Zoom-Zoom. What it really represents is the total package. Yeah, it's performance, but it's also drive dynamics which is great handling, great braking, good stability. And you can incorporate good safety into that. Zoom-Zoom is about having fun when you drive. It's the exhilaration. It's the whole package.
Q: Are you guys toying with the notion of multiple airbags and traction control as standard safety fare?
A: Absolutely. The thing is, a lot of that stuff is now more affordable. We are looking across the board: traction control, stability control, side air curtains. Safety is a big piece of it and for all manufacturers it's going to need to be.
Q: Being a small company -- compared to General Motors or Ford (Ford does have a business stake in Mazda.) -- isn't that an advantage these days? Doesn't it make the company more manageable?
A: It's allowed us to be relatively nimble. I'll give you a perfect example: CX-7 and CX-9 from design phase to Job One (first production) -- 16 months. Granted, we used a lot of current architecture. That allows you to be very fast, very nimble, and make very quick decisions. But you do have limited resources, so in some areas you don't have all the big stuff you'd like to have for heavy lifting. But I tell you, that's where the relationship with Ford comes in handy. I mean, they let Mazda be Mazda, which is really great.
Q: Will you ever call a car a ''hatchback" when you launch it?
A: Well, we'll call them five-doors. It is what it is.
Q: Why does the hatchback have a bad connotation? Why don't people just say it?
A: I don't think it's got a bad connotation. People just relate to ''five-door." It's American consumer taste. Hatches as you know do really well in Europe, but for some reason but for some reason they have not really resonated here in the US.
Q: Four years ago I would have said Mazda was a West Coast-centric company. I couldn't even get them to test drive. And now with your team here on the East Coast, the message is: Here's Mazda. Is that a conscious thing?
A: It is a conscious thing. There's a lot more of a regional focus now in terms of what we can do. It's a great product to tell stories about. When you got the Mazda6, RX8, Mazda3, MX5, Miata, CX-7, CX-9 in the last 36 months, I mean, that's a lot of product for a pretty small car company.
Q: Can you ever build anything to top the Miata?
A: Let me put it this way: That's basically our soul. CX-7 can very well do that in terms of crossovers with the soul of a sports car relative to that competitive segment. MX5 Miata has got its own cult following.
Q: What kind of car do you drive?
A: I drive a Mazdaspeed6, and I love it. Two-hundred-seventy-four-horsepower, six-speed manual transmission, all-wheel-drive. It's basically the same architecture that's under the CX-7.
