The perceived quality of Mazda's interiors is an area the company would most like to improve, according to chief designer at Mazda’s R&D centre, Peter Birtwhistle.
“If you sit in a Volkswagen Polo you get a really good sense of quality,” he said.
Mazda hopes to raise its standards to that of the VW, but did comment that its pricing would be affected.
“Using better materials of course means that prices may rise slightly and we must balance that without compromising our position in the market as a value brand,” Birtwhistle continued.
The revised Mazda 2, launched earlier this month, has been criticised for its interior finishRead Autocar's first drive of the revised Mazda 2.
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Re: Mazda 'must match VW quality'
Must say I'm with the Italians on this one - 'when a beautiful car breaks, you can repair it. An ugly car remains ugly.' And as I spend more time inside the car than looking at it, something that doesn't look and feel like a 1980's stereo 'stack' from Comet inside does hold a certain appeal.
There's enough indifference and mediocrity in design and materials surrounding us in our throwaway society already, and I would gladly trade most of the 'kit' that consumer peer pressure prescribes as 'must have' items today for a minimalist approach with a bit of genuine visual and tactile appeal.
Look at high-end hifi equipment versus aforementioned stack system for an analogy - the only thing you can do with it is switch it on and adjust the volume, but - apart from being functionally superior in terms of doing less harm to the musical content it is being asked to reproduce - it eschews moulded plastic and flashing graphics for stainless steel, cast alloy, real woods and perspex in shapes that are functional yet interesting.
And if it breaks, I'll gladly repair it or have it fixed rather than throw it in the bin...
Re: Mazda 'must match VW quality'
That would be helpful.
There's excellent, good and bad plastic qualities, fitting them together well another matter. When Bakalite first appeared - an early plastic - it was considered cheap and cheerful material for the masses, preformed easily, not what a real radio or gramophone, for example, ought to be made of. Real domestic luxuries were made of things such a mahogany and brass, car dashes also of wood and metal.
Today, some companies (Fiat 500) incorporate plastic made to look like Bakalite into a car's dash to give it a period look. So much appreciated is Bakalite currently early radios made of it fetch high prices. The cabins of 1970s and 1980s cars were usually made of cheap brittle plastic giving plastic a bad name that lingers to this day.
I am reminded of the delightful key elements in my TVR LE Griffith's cabin fashioned in beautiful solid billet aluminium accentuating the swathes of black leather. Now almost every car manufacturer reaches for that look but more often with molded, silver covered plastic.
Good aesthetics have a lot to do with perceived quality; how one edge fits against another, how one type of plastic and its colour helps the transition from one surface to another, how one surface texture relates to another surface, what depth of black a quality of plastic holds, that sort of thing.
(That's enough anorak aesthetics! - Editor)
Re: Mazda 'must match VW quality'
I have to say my Mk1 MX5 is absolutely not as you describe, the car is faultless although now old in age. The mechanicals have only ever been 100% robust from new, so maybe you had a lemon or the quality control has worsened with time?
As for perceived quality, give me a well engineered car anyday, I don't particualrly care if the dash is soft to the touch etc!