Mazda to make cars for Toyota for the NA market
 

I read this morning where Mazda has been contracted to make and rebadge a Mazda2 for Toyota. The cars are to be built at Mazda's, yet to be online, plant in Salamanca. Supposedly to boost Toyota's sales in the North America markets of Canada and Mexico and US?

Looks like Toyota liked the idea of the 86/FR-S manufacturered by another automaker so well that they wanted to do another venture.


http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dl...t-mexico-plant

Not gonna lie, a joint venture Toyota/Mazda sports car would make me very happy. Can't say I'm too excited about the Mazda2 though.

The Mazda2 looks like the size of a Yaris or xD and might have to replace one of them but if it costs less for Toyota to make I guess why not? Could be Toyota's next downmarket sporty car that the 86 chief engineer has been talking about. But if it's exclusively for the NA market and not JDM then probably not.

The Mazda2 is soo much better than the Yaris, but I wonder why they're doing this considering Toyota already has the Yaris.

Why would they do this considering Mazda is already selling the 2 and 3 in the U.S. as it is, and will continue to do so after the rebadge? I don't know, it just seems redundant to me. But seeing as the fun associated with Japanese cars has now concentrated into Mazda, it makes sense for Toyota to try to inject some fun into their consumer car lineup.

Still, I wish Mazda had a monopoly on that, dammit!