MX-5: The Next Generation

What you can’t see very clearly in the picture below is the 25^th anniversary Mazda MX-5 zooming along on that highway:

Arguably, it could actually be a picture of the 2016 Mazda MX-5, which Mazda recently confirmed will be, according to Jim O’Sullivan, president and CEO, Mazda North American Operations, “arriving soon.”

The next-gen MX-5 is to be revealed in Monterey, California, on September 3. Monterey is where Mazda Raceway is located.

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Mazda showed a chassis for the vehicle last April at the New York International Auto Show. It is part of the suite of Mazda SKYACTIV Technologies. While there is a considerable amount of attention paid to things like the SKYACTIV engines, SKYACTIV is really an engineering approach that addresses vehicles in a more holistic manner, with every aspect of the vehicle addressed.

For the 2014 Mazda6, for example, they developed entirely new front and rear suspension systems (the focus was to provide both low- to mid-speed agility and high-speed stability without sacrificing comfort) and an electric power steering system. Oh, and they reduced chassis weight by 14% compared with the previous-generation car.

Again this approach will be taken for the 2016 MX-5.

Earlier this month when June sales numbers were released, Mazda reported that it was its best June in 10 years, and that it had a 16.5% year-over-year increase.

Mazda is a small player in the U.S. market, with, according to Autodata, 1.9% of the market.

Yet there is no other company in the industry that punches well above its weight the way that Mazda does.