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Earlier this month, the NHTSA and Ford Motor Company announced a recall of over 244,000 Ford Escape sport utility vehicles over a concern that the master cylinder reservoir could leak and cause an engine bay fire and with the Mazda Tribute being essentially the same vehicle under the sheet metal – it comes as no surprise that the Japanese automaker is also recalling their compact SUV for the same reason.
This recall affects 52,390 Mazda Tribute SUVs built between April 20th, 2000 and July 19th, 2002 and the recall relates to the same master cylinder reservoir cap that caused the earlier Ford Escape recall. In these vehicles, the master cylinder reservoir cap can leak over time and should this occur, the brake fluid can drip onto the electrical wiring harness that controls the antilock braking system. Brake fluid is incredibly corrosive so if left unattended, the leaking brake fluid can eat through the protective coating on the ABS wiring harness which could lead to a malfunction of the ABS system. Even worse, if the problem is left unattended for long enough, the protective coating could be melted away and with the presence of the flammable brake fluid as a fuel and the unprotected wires as an ignition source – this problem could lead to smoke from the engine bay and eventually, an engine bay fire.
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 FOR the first time since World War I, an imported vehicle has outsold a locally assembled car to be the nation's top-selling new car for the year.
The Holden Commodore's record 15-year winning streak was brought to an end by a Japanese Mazda.
According to preliminary figures obtained by the Herald, the Mazda3's victory was sealed in December when it edged further ahead of the Commodore by about 600 sales after swapping position six times and being separated by just 20 transactions at the end of June.
As a further sign of the swing to smaller cars, Toyota's Corolla also won six individual months last year, including the last five in a row.
Ten years ago, large cars such as the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon accounted for more than one third of the new vehicle market. Now small cars outsell them by more than three-to-one.
Last year was the most hotly contested battle for top-seller status since new-vehicle sales records were kept and marks the end of an era for Holden.
No other automotive nameplate has had such a winning streak; the closest was the Ford Falcon's seven-year dominance over the Commodore between 1982 and 1988. A long line of General Motors Holden vehicles were top sellers from 1950 to 1981.
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IRVINE, Calif., Dec. 9, 2011 -- /PRNewswire/ -- SKYACTIV®[1] TECHNOLOGY, Mazda's all-new fuel-efficient and performance-oriented engineering technology, has been available in the North American market for less than two months but already the awards are piling up. Today, WardsAuto World named the SKYACTIV-G 2.0-liter gasoline engine a winner of its 2012 Ward's 10 Best Engines award. The SKYACTIV-G engine is part of the overall SKYACTIV TECHNOLOGY umbrella, which includes innovative new engines and transmissions as well as stronger and lighter body and chassis systems. These advanced technologies focus on increasing overall vehicle efficiency through lightweight materials and improved design while also increasing responsiveness.
"With SKYACTIV TECHNOLOGY, Mazda has again pushed the boundaries of convention in order to offer consumers world-class vehicle efficiency, best-in-class fuel economy and unprecedented driving dynamics in the form of Zoom-Zoom," said Jim O'Sullivan, president and CEO, Mazda North American Operations (MNAO). "Mazda is a passionate brand, focused on engineering, performance, design and improving on everything in between, and it is an honor to be recognized for these efforts."
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Mazda is a small Japanese car company – fifth in Japanese-brand U.S. sales behind the "Big Three" of Toyota, Honda and Nissan and just behind distant-fourth Subaru – that prides itself on being different, more youthful and more fun to drive. Hence its "Zoom-Zoom" marketing theme and the goofy toothless grin on the faces of most recent Mazda products.
Now Mazda is taking a very different approach to meeting government and customer demands for fast-increasing fuel efficiency that may (or may not) pay off. Instead of betting billions on plug-in and hybrid vehicles, Mazda's approach is a comprehensive effort to substantially increase the efficiency of every element of every vehicle, beginning with engines and transmissions and continuing through bodies and chassis.
Mazda has been working on these efficiency-enhancing technologies for half a decade and is now applying them – beginning with new powertrains in its revamped 2012 Mazda3 compacts (pictured), which join the vaunted 40-mpg highway economy club – under the marketing name "Skyactiv." Some critics say the name is dumb. To some it may conjure images of flying cars or clear, blue skies over active lifestyles. Mazda says it means, "The sky is the limit."
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 Mazda today revealed that a newly developed regenerative braking system for passenger cars capable, the first of its kind to use a capacitor, will improve fuel economy by 10 percent. The new i-ELOOP system will debut on a production vehicle in 2012, and judging by the photo they released, they are referring to the new Mazda6 sedan.
The i-ELOOP system collects energy when you stamp on the brakes and stores it for later use in other on-board electric systems, like the climate control, audio system and other devices. If you’re wondering how this saves fuel, it’s because these devices would have otherwise been powered directly from the engine.
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