Mazdaspeed Rumor

I visited 3 different dealerships yesterday to see if I could find some info about the Mazdaspeed. Of course I knew that if I was to find any good info, a dealership would be the last place to go. Anyhow, 2 of the dealerships hadn't even heard of the Mazdaspeed yet and I saw that as being pathetic. The 3rd one had some pretty new info. According to this guy only 250 dealerships in the US were going to be given the specific rights to sell the Mazdaspeed and that those 250 haven't been chosen yet. He also said that the engine was to be rated 205hp. Taking that into consideration, the 170 hp number that was given in all the press releases looks to be at the wheels. Of course, I don't believe anything a dealer tells me and they all have a pretty bad habit of talking out of their asses. So that's why I'm posting this in the Rumors forum. It would be nice if the hp was 205 at the crank though. I just wanted to share this info with you guys.

That goes along with the rumor I posted here several months ago. A Mazda rep on the west coast has been driving a MSP for about 9 months and reported to my dealer that the car put out 217HP with the turbo and mods. Doing the math--that would end up putting 170HP to the axles.

Interesting stuff....and probably best to stay in rumors for now...even tho it's entirely possible that the 170 figure is at the wheels(damn it's frustrating with that figure...why can't Mazda just say if it's WHP or not). I had the exact same problem when I asked about the Mazdaspeed...my dealer didn't even know what it was. That's exactly the reason why I don't put much stock in what the dealer people say...I swear they just make stuff up.

The problem with this is that it is starting to seriously compete with a lot of the other mazda products. While performance should be a priority for mazda (what with their zoom zoom push) each car has to stay in its category. A protege is supposed to be a econo car and the mazdaspeed a econo car with a little balls. But when you are pushing over the 200hp mark, fuel economy is gone, insurance starts to move quickly skyward and then there goes your market share. They have the Miata and new 6 (not to mention the RX-8) to cover the 200HP+ range and I hope that the mazdaspeed protege does not exceed 180hp any time soon (or else it just isn't a protege).

I would rather see a lower sticker price, better fuel economy, and better refinement then more hp. A 200+ hp protege is going to cost an extra what? Like 3K-5K? And with that much money there are a lot of other choices that come on to the market that are on more dedicated plateforms.

My 2 cents...
Claeren.

My Mazda dealer knows a bit about it. The salesman that sold us our ES has dibs on the first one they get so he's paying attention to any information that comes down the line. Foothills Mazda in Spokane WA is one of the West coasts leading sellers of Proteges so they work real close with Mazda North America. Makes it kind of nice as they at least stay informed.

There are a huge number of 3rd gens here compared to other places I've been. They don't outnumber Honda Civics yet but you still see them everywhere. Foothills also got 5 MP3's which is a pretty decent number for just one dealership in a city of 100,000 (although the surrounding area accounts for closer to a million). They got 3 blue ones and 2 vivid yellow ones. Also, Mazda North America asks them 1st if they want any tester or sales program cars. They just had an MP3 a couple months ago that MNA had as a demonstrator for the west coast. A sales rep went from dealership to dealership with it to show it off. It had 22,000 on it and they still had it priced at 18,600. They also had it sold before it had been on their lot for a day.

Claeren said:

The problem with this is that it is starting to seriously compete with a lot of the other mazda products. While performance should be a priority for mazda (what with their zoom zoom push) each car has to stay in its category. A protege is supposed to be a econo car and the mazdaspeed a econo car with a little balls. But when you are pushing over the 200hp mark, fuel economy is gone, insurance starts to move quickly skyward and then there goes your market share. They have the Miata and new 6 (not to mention the RX-8) to cover the 200HP+ range and I hope that the mazdaspeed protege does not exceed 180hp any time soon (or else it just isn't a protege).

I would rather see a lower sticker price, better fuel economy, and better refinement then more hp. A 200+ hp protege is going to cost an extra what? Like 3K-5K? And with that much money there are a lot of other choices that come on to the market that are on more dedicated plateforms.

My 2 cents...
Claeren.

Click to expand...

I hope you don't consider yourself a car enthusiast. I mean, technically you could call yourself an auto enthusiast, but saying that the MS-P is possibly a bad move by mazda is absurd. If you look at the price range that the MS-P might possibly be in, you should begin to realize that 200HP isn't all that far off. As for refinement....you said it yourself, "A protege is supposed to be an Econo car", and if an Econo car is what you seek, then maybe you should consider spending more money on another car. In almost all cases more refinement means more money and in some cases it means less performance. Take the VW Jetta's & GTI's, they are very nice refined compact cars, but they definately aren't the track demons that the Protege MP3 was or MS-P's will be. Just my $.02 cents USD. If I want more refinement I'll buy Audi or an Acura.

check out the "Official Info" post in the mazdaspeed forum

Geez man - I guess disagreeing with you means that your not a car enthusiast?

All i am saying is that at 200HP it is not a traditional Mazda 3 series car, for god sakes it will have more power then the 5 or 6 series! Would it make sense to have 200HP civic and 180HP preludes? Or would it make sense to have 300HP Cavaliers and 280HP Camero's? Of course that is not the case and those numbers are all made up but the point is that if you want a name to have some meaning it has to have certain perameters. People who buy into a long standing name or tradition should be able to have a fairly good idea of what you have based on name alone. In the future is 'protege' going to mean a car with between 130 and 200HP, in sedan or wagon, maybe turbo charged, whose base insurance falls somewhere between $900 and $2000/yr, with a price between 18k and 28k (CDN$), and whose fuel economy is somewhere between 40 and 20MPG? Because to me, when you do that, you risk trying to be everything to everybody. One wrong move and half your demographic can be eliminated or alienated from your nameplate.

If mazda wants to try that go ahead - just beware of the danger of doing so - that is all i am saying. Because if i can go out and buy a 260 HP car for a few thousand more then the new protege mazda will be in trouble (like an Altima for example). And if i can buy a 220HP car that is a dedicated sports car (ie: RSX-R) or a similiar car without turbo and 180HP (Sentra V), verses a sedan in sports car clothing, for the same price mazda will also have a very hard time selling. It is easy selling to an enthusiast like you but mazda also has to convince non-mazda lovers to buy in to their sales pitch too.

Claeren.

Well, the good thing is that the MS-P is a limited production car and since it is limited production, Mazda isn't interested in selling to a large market, much like Acura wasn't looking to pitch the Integra Type R to the masses. They are making the MS-P for people who want a compact performance car not people who are seeking more refinement and better gas milage or an economy car, much like what they sought out to do with the MP3 and succeeded. Just for clear things up a bit, the Protege and Altima aren't in the same class, so one should expect the Altima to be better. I think it's safe to say that the Mazdaspeed line of vehicles is Mazda's attempt in persuing a niche in the market.

You make an excellent point when you state that the Mazdaspeed Protege will be a limited edition car. This is great way to 'walk that line' because it allows excitment to be brought to the name plate and model line without overwhelming or taking away from what that nameplate (in terms of sales numbers) really is. Being able to sell the protege special editions at a low cost depends heavly upon maintaining strong sales numbers of the normal models... actually the relationship between the two incarnations of the protege, performance and economy, is interesting...

Claeren.

Not to mention the free advertising for mazda everytime you park you car somewhere.....we get questions all the time and people looking at our MP3....really it is a mazda ?

The limited editions make people look at the car as they rarely see one...that is one reason to sell it for less