The Mazda Way

“There was a period when my dad bought a Mazda RX-7, and I turned into a total rotary nut,” Coleman recalled. “When people would ask what I wanted to do, I’d say I wanted to work at Mazda’s R&D.”

Mazda developed its KODO – Soul of Motion design language to capture the moment when energy turns into movement.

Mazda is proud to win its fair share of accolades because the people who know recognize the creativity, perseverance and effort that goes into making a truly excellent vehicle.

As a youth-founded and youth-driven nonprofit, Warm Winters empowers volunteers across the country to work with local ski resorts to repurpose lost and found items, ultimately donating them to local homeless shelters as well as homeless individuals.

Now, thanks to a $10,000 donation from Mazda Drive for Good, Move for Hunger will be able to expand its mission to fight hunger.

In 2014, Jahmal Cole founded My Block, My Hood, My City (MBMHMC), an organization that helps teens experience the world beyond their neighborhood.

For decades Mazda has infused every new model with a quality known as Jinba Ittai – “Horse and rider as one.”

Thunderhill is an adventure like no other, but the day-long competition is much more than a bonding exercise. Preparing the racecars by hand and then racing them helps Mazda improve the cars they offer for sale to the public.

Keiichi Okamoto, a creative design expert, played a key role in the development of the original Soul Red Metallic and Machine Gray Metallic, colors that symbolize KODO Design.

These involve building beauty into spots that mostly go unseen by customers, including fine details such as the openings for the doors and lift gate, the inside of the wheel wells and the fit and finish of the interior.

The ‘Refined Toughness’ concept of blending the strong presence of an SUV with high quality resonated with Takanori Tsubaki, who oversaw the exterior design.

The goal for the new CX-5 development project was an SUV that delivers deeper levels of driving pleasure.

Mazda’s engineers aimed to deliver driving satisfaction to every driver, taking the Jinba Ittai—“horse and rider as one”—driving experience to the highest level possible.

“The product embodies the ideal expressed in the sketch. Everything we did was an effort to realize that goal,” said Tatsunori Iwahara, an interior designer.

The goal of Mazda design is to make the brand irreplaceable to its customers - offering them something beautiful to which they feel a special attachment.

Ruben is a crusader for Mazda’s theory of human-centric design, where the perceptions of the driver are the focal point throughout the development process.

Popular IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe is back with the Mazda Prototype team for the 55th running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

The RT24-P prototype race car is not only a 200-mph rocket on wheels, but is also instantly recognizable as a Mazda because of KODO—Soul of Motion design.

Mazda seeks to make the driving experience more pleasurable. How does it do this? Mazda calls it Jinba Ittai, the connection when the vehicle feels like a natural extension of body.

Through KODO – Soul of Motion design, the barely restrained power of such movement is caught in every Mazda vehicle’s lines and curves.

“What’s so great about Mazda, and design, is that Mazda is the kind of place that really inherits the energy of the people that work here,” Spafford said. “People who stay tend to have this kind of passion.”

Where traditional AWD systems measure only relative wheel speed, the i-ACTIV AWD system monitors 27 different variables more than 200 times per second.

By constantly monitoring different factors around the vehicle, i-ACTIV AWD is able to predict upcoming conditions, allocating engine torque to the necessary wheel to maintain control, stability and forward momentum.

The event focused on the company’s leadership with the RX-VISION concept and the MX-5 Miata RF sports car, then moving on to unveil the latest interpretation of KODO design in the 2017 CX-5 crossover SUV.

For Mazda, a car isn't simply a mass of metal but more like a living creature and SEMA offers us the opportunity to bring it to life.

To showcase the next-generation AWD system they developed, Mazda created its first-ever Ice Academy, hosted in Crested Butte, Colorado.

Stretching back nearly 25 years, Mazda’s collaboration with the American Red Cross began when Mazda asked its local Red Cross chapter to train the Mazda Emergency Response Team.

Since 2012, Mazda Motorsports has been the sponsor of the Project Yellow Light scholarship to inform drivers of the dangers of distracted driving.

When it comes to bonds, there’s a special one that Mazda holds dear to its heart -- the bond it has with military service members and their families.

Takaki Nakamura is an engineer who develops new cars at Mazda, but his job does not entail coming up with parts for the suspension or creating a beautiful form.

Earning the reputation as a premier cycling event in the country, The Mazda Foundation Million Dollar Challenge raises more than $1 million dollars each year to help promote an active lifestyle for those with physical challenges.

This second episode in the new series focusing on the MX-5 RF hardtop introduces Kouichi Matsumoto, who led development of the retractable roof.

Mazda Motorsports developed a program in 2014 that uses the excitement of Mazda racing to inspire and educate high school students about the various career paths they can choose from by studying the STEM disciplines.

Through sponsorship of the Food Prep Room in the SPCA’s Dog Adoption Building, Mazda has helped keep the room supplied and ready to take in animals.

Aimed to be be just much a driver’s car as it is a practical family-hauler for seven, here are nine features that may surprise you about the Mazda CX-9.

The People Behind the MX-5 series features interviews with engineers and designers involved in the development of the fourth-generation model.

We race because it is the ultimate expression of a passion for driving and the race track is the perfect environment to showcase our history of continuous innovation.

Mazda and Omaha Mazda Dealers donated $29,000 to the Children’s Hospital & Medical Center Foundation as part of Mazda’s Drive for Good® Event.

As a driving force behind tuning the all-new 2016 Mazda CX-9’s lauded BOSE Premium audio system, it might come as some surprise that Mazda engineer Matthew Valbuena didn’t go to school for engineering.

Mazda’s engineers want nothing more than to introduce as many people as possible to the joy of driving a car that moves exactly as you expect.

For the interior trim of the all-new Mazda CX-9 Signature, we partnered with Fujigen Guitars to source the same Rosewood they use on the fretboards of their guitars.

The Mazda6 was designed to be a driver’s car as much as it was designed to be a family car.

A sweeping single piece of aluminum adorns the dashboard, emphasizing the width, as if it was a sharpened knife. See the design inspirations in the all-new Mazda CX-9 here.

By using a valve to increase the velocity of exhaust leaving the SKYACTIV®-G 2.5T engine and recirculated through the turbo, turbo lag is virtually eliminated.

To-date, Mazda Foundation has donated one-half million dollars to My Stuff Bags Foundation, helping the organization reach the milestone of providing My Stuff Bags to one-half million children.

Since the Battery Tender Global MX-5 Cup presented by BFGoodrich Tires, will be racing on Father's Day, at Road America, we asked a few of the racers to describe their dad in one word.

The intricacies of this hand stitch add a unique dimension to the steering wheel of the CX-9 Signature. Making your drive that much more special, and enjoyable.

“Giving back is at the core of what we do." See how Mazda is helping those without cars and rewarding those who are donating their old cars through Vehicles for Change.

The aim of the MX-5 RF design is to offer the excitement of open-air driving with the convenience and comfort of a hardtop.

Our ‘KODO – Soul of Motion’ design philosophy is reflected in CX-9. ‘KODO’ captures the powerful beauty seen in an animal pouncing or a human leaping into action.

By offering an experience customers naturally want to seek out, Mazda can deliver a premium experience that customers expect and deserve.

Even as a small car company, Mazda uses more clay for hand-crafted models than any other automaker.

During the Kamakura period in Japan, mounted archers believed that the key to mastering their skill was to “achieve a oneness” between horse and rider. In Japanese, this is known as Jinba Ittai, (jin-ba ee-tie) or “horse and rider as one.”

The MX-5 Miata is a symbol of Mazda’s car-making philosophy, “Jinba Ittai,” which means horse and rider as one and expresses the type of fun-to-drive roadster engineers have intended to build since day one of the vehicle’s inception.

The Mazda Road to Indy is the most comprehensive and successful open-wheel racing driver development program in the world. In the 100th-running of the Indianapolis 500, 24 (of the 33) drivers have graduated from the Mazda Road to Indy.

Osamu Fujiki, an expert fabricator with Mazda’s design team, creates new value by using different materials to show off the beautiful forms that are the foundation of interior cabin design. As he works with the ever more beautiful and innovative forms, he gives a unique aesthetic identity to the cabin space through an ingenious mix of elegance and playfulness.

Norio Terauchi, the Mazda design team’s clay modeler, sees the designer’s paper sketch and recognizes his vision, allowing him to create a three-dimensional object with his outstanding skills. That is the moment when what was merely an idea gains a distinct identity. Terauchi infuses a soul into the form as he sculpts the clay.

With his spray gun in hand Kazumitsu Tamai stands facing a beautifully finished model. His sharpened senses spot the subtlest of color changes across a perfectly harmonized physical design. With highly efficient movements, he paints color over color until he achieves a perfectly uniform finish. Tamai is another key member of the outstanding modeling team at Mazda design. And though his meticulously controlled hand movements he adds vibrant brilliance to the 3D hard models he works on.

Through support from companies such as Mazda, the Red Cross is able to maintain a variety of resources and equipment that allows the organization to be ready to respond anytime, anywhere to help people affected by disasters.

With more than 4.5 million produced since its introduction as a 2004 model, Mazda3 is Mazda’s best-selling nameplate in the world and reached 1 million sales faster than any Mazda before or since.

The Northwest Mazda Dealers donated $90,450 to the Seattle Children’s Hospital on April 12 as part of the Mazda Drive for Good program.

With an organ-type accelerator pedal, the driver's heel is placed on the floor, and the driver's foot and the pedal follows the same trajectory.

The clay model played no small part in this process, and Mazda would have none less than a master of clay modeling to help develop the award-winning car.

Ever noticed that if you look at Mazda’s logo, all the letters, except the letter D, are in lower cases? Find out more about the history of Mazda's logos.

Racing really does improve the breed, and Mazda uses motorsports competition as a laboratory to ensure all of its cars embody the soul of a sports car.

Fresh from unveiling the 2017 MX-5 RF, Mazda was recognized by automotive journalists from around the world during the annual World Car of the Year Awards presentation at the New York International Auto Show.

The CX-3 may be a triumph of Mazda’s acclaimed KODO design, but there’s also beauty in the smallest details. Four up-and-coming designers behind the company’s latest compact crossover take us on a macro tour of their latest creation.

The lead designer of the team responsible for the styling of the 2016 MX-5 and owner of his own hand-crafted leather accessories business in California.

Mazda’s advanced technology works to enhance any driving experience.

A horse and rider communicate through tactile response. The horse adjusts its gait to allow the archer to release his arrow. Mazda aims to create the same relationship between car and driver.

Mazda employees against Mazda dealers in the longest endurance race in America, the National Auto Sport Association’s 25 Hours of Thunderhill.

Mazda created another nearly perfect 50/50 balance in the new MX-5 Miata. Mazda put their car to the test to find out if all their hard work paid off.

Defying convention is what keeps Mazda at the forefront of desirability for people who love to drive.

Mazda Drive for Good is a winter charitable event the proceeds of which are derived from the sale and leasing of Mazda automobiles. The company donated $100 for each car sold or leased during the inaugural year in 2014. For 2015, the donation has been increased to $150 per car.

After witnessing his performances in the 2014 season, Mazda Motorsports offered Dwyer a full ride with the Freedom Autosport team for the 2015 racing season.

SKYACTIV Technology couples increased fuel efficiency and engine output from meticulous design and advanced engineering. This innovative technology coupled with the monozukuri philosophy—a simple and minimalistic approach to production—continues to enhance the drivers' experience.

One of the reasons Mazda’s cars provide so much driving pleasure is the people who craft them love to drive, too. While it’s natural to consider the part the engineers play in achieving this, the design staff has a significant role in the process.

Although different, the hatchback and sedan are built upon a shared passion for driving excellence, fueled by a new era of Mazda design and engineering.

Inventory shortages and supply chain issues may prolong the car-buying process, but this doesn’t mean that driving home a new Mazda is out of reach.