Is Mazda Withholding The ‘Good Stuff’ From North America?
Mazda is partly owned by the Ford Motor Company, therefore a significant portion of Ford’s fleet utilizes various Mazda platforms for vehicles that they sell. The Ford Fusion (and Lincoln MKZ and Mercury Milan) are based on the Mazda6 platform, while the Ford Escape (and Mercury Mountaineer) share much with the Mazda Tribute.
What are often concept cars to American and Canadian drivers are vehicles already built and driven elsewhere. This holds true for Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and for Mazda.
One Mazda vehicle which may soon find its way to the US as a Ford brand car is the Mazda Verisa. The Verisa is a tall hatchback (or mini MPV) powered by a 1.5L I4 paired with either a 5 speed manual or 4 speed automatic. Retailing for the equivalent of about $16-18,000 in Japan, the car has been in production since 2004. In 2006 some important styling changes were made and, reportedly, a new model is on its way.
The Verisa Stylish V is one of the latest upgrade packages for the vehicle which includes bright molding for the front and rear bumper, grille, door sills and rear gate, front fog light with bright bezels and exhaust pipe finisher. Likely, the new Fiesta being planned for the European market will look a lot like this vehicle when it debuts, the same car will finally find its way to the US market as a Ford Fiesta in 2010.
Though the Mazda Verisa has been sold exclusively in Japan since its inception, it could find its way here, but repackaged. Even if Mazda does choose to sell the Verisa stateside, can you imagine the offense Nissan would take as its small car, the Versa, is similarly name?
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