Peskett’s Ponderings: Mazda. The happy car company?
April 17, 2009 by Karl Peskett
Call me crazy, but when I buy a car, or even look at a car, I like it to have a little bit of dynamism about it. A slightly aggressive look even. Something that stares you down, and makes your heart race.
Which is why I love Aston Martin’s DBS, BMW’s M3, and the Lamborghini Gallardo. But now, I’m a bit concerned as to where Mazda’s design language is going. One of our readers alerted us to this recently, and it got me thinking.
To me, a car should have personality, sure, but I think Mazda is taking it a little bit too far. It first concerned me on the MX-5. But now, with the new 3, and the CX-7 sporting that gaping grin, I don’t think that Pixar’s Cars should have been translated into real life.
You want to be excited by a car’s design. You want people to want what you’ve got. Not for 12 year old girls to look at your roadster and say “Awwwww, how cute.”
In music terms, I’m thinking Rob Dougan’s Chateau, not REM’s Smiley Happy People.
Hey, I might be on my own here, but let me know what you think.
Print it: 
Agree Andrew M, most of Mazdas designs seem to age really well. Even thier cars from the early to mid 90s still look good today IMO.
Also, my brother bought a 3 in january and is extremely happy with it after owning a Corolla. Hes always looking for an excuse to go for a drive, even if its just to the shops.
Now for the big question: Will the new 3 continue the success of the last? Maybe the sales of the outgoing model was really good in its last months because people prefer it over the new one.
mazda’s engineering always has cred. no question.
but i maintain the pixar grin looks ridiculous and you cant wipe it off………….
I think i’m with you KP on the mild aggressive looks moniker. Take a newish ‘6′. I think the accord euro and even the new liberty have a better direction in the ultimate allround future looks dept IMO.
Completely agree with your thoughts Car Advice.
Thing is though, when you said “Not for 12 year old girls to look at your roadster and say “Awwwww, how cute.”” your forgetting that in 4 years time Mummy and Daddy may just be buying a car for them… which one will they buy?
In another recent article I read in NRMA mag, they tested the Mazda 2 and new Ford Fiesta, the female tester loved the looks of the “2″ and the bloke thought the “Fiesta” looked much better.
I wonder whether Mazda are looking at being the “Marie Claire” of cars, appealing primarily to the female market? Then putting bonnet lumps on them (aka SP models) for the fashionable boys out there?
Give me an aggresive looking sedan anyday of the week, but dare I say it… “we live in a brave new world” dont we?
The Japanese for many years have had a superstition about putting “un-happy” faces on cars, inparticular inverting the grill – which was why some were surprised by the agressive grill of the Lancer/Evo. But I think the folks at Mazda a bit cannier than that – think about it – young female buyers are begining to be a significant portion of the new small car market – and “cute” generally will work a treat on that segment.
I dropped into a Syd Mazda Dealer on Sat and the yard was full of people looking and test driving the new 3…while I was there 5 people walked out of the showroom after signing up for a new 3….I got to drive an auto 3 neo hatch and a manual SP25 sedan….I still prefer the hatch over the sedan…the 2ltr with the 5spd auto surprised me with its smoothness thru the gears…the 6spd man SP25 only had a few hundred kays on it but I was amazed with its raspy exhaust note and its torquness…..the interiors are nicely set out…..well done Mazda on a great small mid size car and sorting out those small issues from the previous model……now just bring on the MPS….as I red one or black will replace my current MPS 3
Japanese design philosophy takes more focus into personality, positive energy and like fengshui wants to create positive impressions.
I can see the smiley face is part and parcel of Japanese design. Just as the Chinese are very fond of the number 8 in their rego plates and telephone numbers.
The design philosophy extends to the car headlamps and rear headlights. It has to be created with symbols of luck, fortune and aversion to anything to be seen as unlucky.
If you ask what car a Japanese person will buy, of course they will go for cars which have design that look cool and generate symbols of luck.
You don\’t see any East Asians driving cars with 4, because the number 4 sounds like death in the local language.