Tokyo 2017: A tale of two Mazdas
Mazda brought with it a beautiful coupé and a somewhat divisive hatch to the 2017 Tokyo Auto Show
Mazda seems to be on a roll at the moment, styling-wise, with their most recent products largely very well-received by the design fraternity. Their Vision Coupé was no exception; the swoopy, beautifully-surfaced fastback sparked a frenzy of excitement on our Twitter timeline and drew almost unanimous praise.
In the metal it was impressive and dramatic, if mildly handicapped by its position in a slightly moody and underlit corner of the Mazda stand. There’s a decent-sized gallery of pictures on the right, so decide for yourself.
Meanwhile, the compact Kai Concept hatch was very much dividing opinions. Its truncated tail and relatively long nose section gave it a highly distinctive look which was not to everybody’s taste. The new inset grille which it shares with the Vision Coupé seemed a little less coherent here too. Again, there are a set of pictures in the gallery – but Mazda’s signature Soul Red paintwork, combined with spotty show lighting, seemed designed to frustrate photography so it doesn’t necessarily show itself off to the best effect here.
