In opening, I would just like to say that I'm still shopping for my dandy Rx7. So I've been talking to a bunch of people that i know and one of them told me something interesting. He said that after '91 or about that time Ford bought out the American branch of Mazda and started fiddling around with the Rx7's. He told me that after 91 they start becoming less reliable becuase of the ford parts in them. Is this the truth or just some BS?

 

Well I don't know what ford had to do with it but from what I hear things tend to break on the FD's, and that they are quite the handful to maintain.

 

Not really, because the RX7's were all made in Japan. They still are, today. Ford cut Mazda's racing budget big time. They're still the only japanese auto manufacturer ( i think) that has won the 24 of Daytona. I'm not too sure about lemans. I'll have to refer to my small library. After the Rotary the rules have drasticaly changed. They kicked SOOOOO much ***.

 

Dunno if I'd call it an alliance. When one company buys 3/4 of another company that would otherwise have gone down the gurgler, alliance isn't the first word that springs to mind...

 

They won lemans, dude...dunno about daytona...

 

Ok, yeah you do have a point of them messing with cars. My 92 626 has some bolts that are metric and some that are standard. My air box is the same as my dads on his 96 Ford F150 so the filters are pretty much interchangable. There is a bunch of other **** as well. For example I believe after 92 there were no turbo cars sold in the Mazda line. Ala My 626 and the Mx-6. So Yeah I think you are right when you come to this however, we own true imports. THey were officially brought to America from Japan so Ford never tampered with them. FD's need a lot of work to maintain and upkeep but when you get some of their bugs out....*cough* 14,000. Than it works fine. And yes Mazda won Lemans and I guess Daytona, see you learn something every day

 

Interesting..but totally BS. RX-7's have always been 100% built in Japan.

The Ford/Mazda mixing of other models is hard to follow... You'll find a lot Mazda engines and transmissions in Ford products.

 

Yeah RX-7's have been built in Hiroshima since the beginning (kinda odd isn't it?)

 

thats why they low in the dark.
the rx-7's have no ford parts in them, almost everything else does though. the 626/mx6 has been made here since 93. the mpv has had a ford motor since 2000. the trucks/triubte are also ford. actually the tributes are bigger p.o.s. than the fd's ever were, its just that they dont come back 9 times for the same thing and there is no expensive parts on it

mike

 

Thats incorrect. The 90-92 'verts and 93-94 RX-7 had the Ford SRS controllers, sensors, and airbags in them.

If you pull a SRS controller from any airbagged pre-95 japanese built Mazda you will find them built by Ford.

Quote:

the mpv has had a ford motor since 2000.

Only the V6 versions and since 2001, not 2000

Quote:

the trucks/triubte are also ford. actually the tributes are bigger p.o.s. than the fd's ever were, its just that they dont come back 9 times for the same thing and there is no expensive parts on it

However Mazda did the body design (including suspension), but typical Ford there are some mechanical and power train shake out issues.

 

I know the only reason I ever owned a Probe was because of its Mazda engine

 

I am sorry to say that Mazdas win at Le Mans did not change alot at Le Mans. The reason that Mazda won was not speed. The top two cars led the race for almost 22 hours before they broke. Amazingly Mazda won through reliability. If you bust out the Road and Track with RX8 on the cover you can read all about it.

 

92 verts ??

 

mazda has not had a 4 cylinder mpv since 95? in the us.
i didnt notice that thing about the airbags though.

mike

 

Unlike the FC coupes which stopped production in 8/91 to make room for the FD production which started 12/91, '92 Model year FC 'verts were built 1/92 through 8/92.

http://www.mazda.co.jp/history/rx7/J...ar/chrono.html

Interior of a 92 vert w/o factory airbag option:

 

Mazda won at LeMans not because of "good luck" or random chance. LeMans is a RELIABILITY race, thats why its 24hrs long. Mazda had the best combination of reliability and speed in 1991, and they won. Plain and simple. Discounting Mazda's win at LeMans is doing a great dis-respect to all the hard work and long hours by the mazda engineers to accomplish what they did. They had a FRACTION of the race budget as some of the big players like the Silk Cut Jags and Porsche.


http://www.2751engineering.com/787.html

 

yuck is that factory tan interior?? and if you keep looking you'll find that jdm doesn't get airbags until 94-95-96

mike

 

Wow! I didn't think there was any 92 7's

 

Typical american ignorance.......if it isn't in america, it must not exist.

 

FYI gentleman.


Tributes are now built in Japan.



Here is the biggest difference when it comes to FORD/MAZDA vehicles.


Ford goes cost over quality while mazda goes quality over cost.

as a tier 1 supplier, mazda performs a white glove test to check for contaminants above numerous requirements while FORD doesn't.

So the new tribute should be a lot better than the first years it was built

 

chill out. They sold the FC until the FD's showed up in early 92.

 

Tributes are Fords. They are not built in Japan. Where are you guys getting your information from?!!??!

 

So when the car that is clearly faster than you at the race track breaks down do you say you had a better car? I have been to Le Mans and I will tell you that it has alot to do with luck. There are so many factors that come into play that luck is a part of it. This years race was a great case in point. The gravel all over the track created tire problems, does this mean that because someone got a flat 2 miles from their pit that the car was engineered as well as the others? Also, the car was not designed by Mazda, they provided the engine. The suspension and the rest were handled by an english company. I will agree with anyone who says that the engine in that car was a marvel of engineering.

 

So whats the big deal? Anything wrong with platform sharing?

There would be no Mazda without Ford money. Ever try to get parts for AMCRenault, Peugeot, Sterling, AlfaRomeo, Daewoo(soon)... and any other automaker that pulled out of the US market or went bankrupt. Nissan is lucky to share Renaults checkbook; otherwise they would be gone.

Without Ford, we would not be able to find new parts that we all need. Take a look at some of the RX7 suppliers. Mazdatrix lists just about everything and its all brand new. If Mazda, the company, disappeared, we would not have any supply of new parts. Kudos to Ford for propping up Mazda. Hell, from what I understand, Mazda actually turned a profit last year while Ford took a loss. With profits come new exciting products(RX8 soon). If profits continue, they will be able to go their own way and customize(or eliminate) the clones even more. If Mazda loses money again, expect more cloning and less exciting cars. Their are rumors of a short wheelbase 2 seater version of the RX8. It might be the new RX7; or even way shorter/narrower/no roof and call it the new Miata. I hope that the RX8 sells well enough to justify different versions of its platform.

And , there are no unreliable Ford parts in the my RX7. I wish I could use a Ford TPS, temp sensors, water pumps, alternators, 02, MAF,and all that other voodoo electrical/mechanical stuff that is available from autozone/pepboys/napa/.... dirt cheap for domestics.

I believe that the US-market clones (Mazda Tribute/Ford Escape) are assembled in Kansas City, Missouri.

Mx6/626/probe shared platforms.
Mercury capri/protege/323/escorts shared platforms or mechanicals.
Mazda pickup/Frod Ranger shared platforms.
Ford explore/Mazda navajo shared platforms.
And there were others.....

 

Talk about cross-platform sharing - does anyone else realize that the Miata's door handles were used in some of the Aston Martins?