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The
Mazda Carol city car |
If Saturday’s report in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper that Toyota subisidiary
Daihatsu will supply minicars to Mazda proves accurate, it could signal the
end of an alliance between Mazda (33.3 percent owned by Ford) and Suzuki (owned
10 percent by General Motors).
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Lacking the funds to develop a full range of models for the domestic market,
Mazda has in recent years turned to Suzuki for help with models that are the
latter’s speciality: city cars and mini-SUVs.
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Mazda’s
AZ-Offroad |
Mazda’s Carol city car, is based on the 800cc mechanicals of Suzuki’s Alto
while the slightly larger AZ Wagon is a rebadged Suzuki Wagon R (there is also
a Polish-built GM version of this).
In the mini-SUV sector, Mazda’s AZ-Offroad is a re-badged Suzuki Jimny and
the Levante is a renamed Vitara.
Such model-sharing is not uncommon in the Japanese industry. For two decades,
certain Mazda models have been re-badged as Fords for sale in Japan and overseas
and Isuzu briefly sold renamed Honda cars after it stopped making its own.
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By GlobalDataToyota and Daihatsu, tipped to forge that minicar deal with Mazda, have at
times shared models and each produces vehicles and components for the other.
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