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- 2003.5 Titanium Gray MSP #1699
I got my issue of Motor Trend the other day & this full page ad was on one of the first few pages:
http://www.milispeed.com/steele/Mazda/MSM.jpg
Then today I got my Road & Track, which had the same ad in the same location. They also had a First Drive article on it (with the 1st pics of Titanium I've seen!):
http://www.milispeed.com/steele/Mazda/RnT_MSM.jpg
It says they have more pics on their site, but I checked & found none. I did find out that they are giving one away.
This is the link for the contest info:
http://www.roadandtrack.com/zoom/
Now for my rant...
Maybe I'm the only one, but I find the recent wave of Mazda 3 ads (these things are literally EVERYWHERE) & now these MSM ads to be very upsetting. The MSP was Mazda's first Mazdaspeed car in the US & we hardly got any kind of advertising at all & most of the stuff we did get was only when the 03s came out. I'm sure those would have sold out just fine, but then Mazda decided to introduce the 2003.5, which more than tripled the total # of MSPs. IMO, they should have accompanied this move with advertising similar to the 3 & MSM stuff I've described. I have no idea why, but they failed to do so & as a result, Mazda dealers across the US were stuck with MSPs sitting on the lot, which lead some of the dealerships to slash the prices in a desperate attempt to sell them. While this may have been beneficial to some who were lucky to get a great deal, the end result was that most major tuners decided against producing parts for the MSP because of its limited production status & the double talk coming from Mazda itself: compare the attitude of the MSM Road & Track ad with the attitude you find at a typical Mazda dealership (after you bought the car & you drive it hard or mod it) or MazdaUSA (regarding Mazdaspeed's pseudo-role as an aftermarket tuning division like Mopar). MazdaUSA even features a modded P5 on their site (http://www.mazdausa.com/MusaWeb/displayPage.action?pageParameter=perTunerProfile10), but I doubt you'd receive the same admiration if you took a similarly modded car (especially an MSP, which was supposedly designed to appeal to people just like that) to a dealer. To top it all off, I look at the MSM & I get the feeling that Mazda put a lot of effort into making this a great car whereas the MSP owners got the shaft (to a degree). Don't get me wrong, I still love my MSP, but the MSM's MSRP is only $4500 more than the 03.5 & it seems to me like they get a whole lot more car for the $$.
http://www.milispeed.com/steele/Mazda/MSM.jpg
Then today I got my Road & Track, which had the same ad in the same location. They also had a First Drive article on it (with the 1st pics of Titanium I've seen!):
http://www.milispeed.com/steele/Mazda/RnT_MSM.jpg
It says they have more pics on their site, but I checked & found none. I did find out that they are giving one away.
This is the link for the contest info:
http://www.roadandtrack.com/zoom/
Now for my rant...
Maybe I'm the only one, but I find the recent wave of Mazda 3 ads (these things are literally EVERYWHERE) & now these MSM ads to be very upsetting. The MSP was Mazda's first Mazdaspeed car in the US & we hardly got any kind of advertising at all & most of the stuff we did get was only when the 03s came out. I'm sure those would have sold out just fine, but then Mazda decided to introduce the 2003.5, which more than tripled the total # of MSPs. IMO, they should have accompanied this move with advertising similar to the 3 & MSM stuff I've described. I have no idea why, but they failed to do so & as a result, Mazda dealers across the US were stuck with MSPs sitting on the lot, which lead some of the dealerships to slash the prices in a desperate attempt to sell them. While this may have been beneficial to some who were lucky to get a great deal, the end result was that most major tuners decided against producing parts for the MSP because of its limited production status & the double talk coming from Mazda itself: compare the attitude of the MSM Road & Track ad with the attitude you find at a typical Mazda dealership (after you bought the car & you drive it hard or mod it) or MazdaUSA (regarding Mazdaspeed's pseudo-role as an aftermarket tuning division like Mopar). MazdaUSA even features a modded P5 on their site (http://www.mazdausa.com/MusaWeb/displayPage.action?pageParameter=perTunerProfile10), but I doubt you'd receive the same admiration if you took a similarly modded car (especially an MSP, which was supposedly designed to appeal to people just like that) to a dealer. To top it all off, I look at the MSM & I get the feeling that Mazda put a lot of effort into making this a great car whereas the MSP owners got the shaft (to a degree). Don't get me wrong, I still love my MSP, but the MSM's MSRP is only $4500 more than the 03.5 & it seems to me like they get a whole lot more car for the $$.