Masaya Kodama

Not carried over just because it sells

The previous model had grown to account for a quarter of Mazda's sales, and it was still only about four and a half years since its launch. Even so, Kodama, the program manager, judged that evolving the car mattered more than conservatively extending its life, and went ahead with a full redesign. Carrying over the basic concept because a model sells well is not the developers' way of thinking, he says; they think about how close they can get to the ideal and how to overcome weaknesses. One weakness was the rear seat: hearing that it had no recline and held the upper body too upright, making long drives tiring, the team changed the seatback angle from 22 to 24 degrees and made it recline to 28 degrees.