Jim O’Sullivan, President and CEO of Mazda North American Operations announced plans to bring the Mazda2 to the US to a group of dealers in Palm Springs, Calif. The Mazda joins fellow B-car segment Euro entry the Ford Fiesta, which shares close DNA with the Mazda2. Why the rush to bring B-cars to market? Because American drivers just might fancy a perky hatchback with excellent fuel economy.
“You’ve asked us for it for a while now, and we’ve been studying the market to make sure we can make a business case for it across North America,” O’Sullivan told dealers. “As consumers’ tastes and attitudes toward small vehicles have changed, we now believe strongly there is a place in our lineup for a car below our current least-expensive car, the MAZDA3. MAZDA2 will be true to everything that makes our cars stand apart from the competition: it will be stylish, fun-to-drive and a heck of a value. In short, it will be Zoom-Zoom.”
More Zoom-Zoom to come.
More on Mazda2:
Autobloggreen.com
Leftlane News
Automobile
Live from Detroit, we caught a glimpse of the Allied Media Conference after party at the Furniture Factory on Saturday night with Monica Blaire, DJ Dez from Slum Village and DJ Sicari providing a down and dirty Detroit funk celebration for the attendees from around the country. The infectious energy was palpable with hundreds of mostly 20-somethings partying after engaging discussions about social justice and alternative media conducted in panels that ran throughout the weekend in the heart of the Motor City. In the backdrop of the current times with journalism in a state of flux, this conference is poignant, important and growing more powerful. Here are the next generations of journalists taking an interest in Detroit, outside of those who once focused on new car glitz and now centered on the auto industry woes.
Sessions included presentations from a Los Angeles immigrant group that coordinates using mobile phone technology to spread messages and others that explored pop culture’s arms focusing on shows like Heroes and Gossip Girl to provide a model for restructuring messages. Another panel highlighted Spread Magazine’s balanced coverage of sex workers, without playing into the stereotypes perpetuated by sensationalism.
Here’s a blurb on another panel that has us jazzed about what happens in the trenches of discussion as corporate media declines:
Journalism is essential for an open and healthy society, but it hasn’t always been open or healthy. The AMC network does a lot to change this. We expand journalism by sharing skills, building infrastructure, and breaking down barriers. Yet many audiences, including those who are sympathetic to our politics, dismiss our work as “advocacy” or “amateur.” Now the entire institution of journalism is in crisis, especially as the print-based, advertising-supported model declines. This is an opportunity to promote our participatory models, but to do that we need to shift the public frame of journalism to encompass a broader range of journalists. This discussion will draw on the knowledge of all participants to figure out how to make that shift and gain widespread acceptance for our work.
Word.
Editor’s Note: We’ll be posting Detroit stories as we hear them from the field. Here we hear from former Detroiter Carolyn C. from Bowling Green, Ohio whose family has been struck directly and indirectly by the auto industry woes. We’d like to hear from you, too.
My step dad was laid off from the auto industry. He still resides in Walled Lake. My brother was laid off in January, although not from a car job, but from a computer aided design job in Farmington Hills area. (Note: Farmington Hills is a suburban industrial hub home to automotive R & D centers and technology corporations, including up until recently Nissan Design, which left Michigna in January.) And while my husband and I live in Bowling Green, tons of jobs have been lost and even our store is posting such huge losses that we will be leaving to return to the military jobs we once had. FYI.
So we’re home from the auto show. Lots to think about in tangible terms, like the green car coup and the electric car rage, and in the intangibles — all the conversations, speculations, reflections and rallying cries. We need an evening to digest this deluge of information.
Fuel for thought: I did run into Chevrolet General Manager Ed Peper — probably one of the most congenial, decent people in the car biz. While he’s positive most of the time as one would expect of a high-ranking exec, Mr. Peper has a manner that makes you believe him. “We’re going to make it,” he told me. “It’s not going to be easy, but our product speaks for itself. We have more vehicles that get over 30 mpg than any other OEM.” I hope he’s right. Detroit is counting on it.
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