Barring a last-minute hitch, it looks like Ford and Mazda will soon be severing the ties that have bound them for the last four decades. Though the U.S. maker has yet to issue a formal confirmation, it's negotiating a deal that would have it sell off most or all of the remaining 11 percent stake it holds in its Japanese affiliate.
It appears that Mazda is as eager as Ford to go its own way.
No, it isn't a bitter divorce. Ford and Mazda will likely still maintain some ties - in Thailand, for example, where their suburban Bangkok plant has just begun producing an all-new generation of compact pickup trucks, including the Ford Ranger. But the two makers are already unwinding their manufacturing alliance in booming China.And, perhaps most importantly, they'll likely curb future product development programs that helped both companies squeak through the hard times of the not-too-distant past. One of the earliest examples of that alliance was the old Ford Escort, the U.S. maker's first attempt to build a so-called "world car."
More recent examples include the B-car platform that eventually went on to become both the Ford Fiesta and Mazda2. Conventional wisdom is that these are virtually identical subcompacts - but as I was reminded during back-to-back drives this past week, there's a surprising amount of difference between the American and Japanese production vehicles. Though they may have started out working together, the two companies soon branched off, yielding some surprisingly different results in terms of design and, more importantly, driving dynamics.
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Paul A. Eisenstein is Publisher of TheDetroitBureau.com, and a 30-year veteran of the automotive beat. His editorials bring his unique perspective and deep understanding of the auto world to Autoblog readers on a regular basis.
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TheDetroitBureau.com on Autoblog with Paul Eisenstein originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 29 Oct 2010 11:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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