Mazda Takeri Carries the Kodo Standard Forward

By PHIL PATTON Courtesy of the New York Times

 

Kimimasa Mayama/Bloomberg NewsMazda Takeri concept, in Tokyo on Wednesday.

At the Tokyo auto show this week, Mazda unveiled the Takeri concept car, the clearest indication yet from the automaker of the future shape of the Mazda 6 midsize sedan.

While the Mazda 3 has persisted and evolved as an attractive and stylish alternative to rivals of the same size, the Mazda 6 has stood out less and been overshadowed, particularly in the American marketplace, by big sellers like the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, as well as the Hyundai Sonata and Kia Optima.

Mazda intends to make the new car a rival for eye and checkbook using the automaker’s new Kodo design language. After the CX-5 crossover, which grew out of the Minagi concept, the Mazda 6 is expected to be the next vehicle to carry the new look.

 

Kodo was originally articulated by the Shinari concept car, shown in Milan in August 2010. The Mazda design chief Ikuo Maeda defined Kodo as “soul of motion.”

The Kodo theme involves muscular forms and flowing profiles, conveying a sense of compressed energy and power. By contrast, the earlier, more passive and natural language, called Nagare, was based on waves.

Mr. Maeda has said that Kodo evoked the power of a crouching feline predator, like a panther or leopard, and Mazda’s description of the Takeri referred to the shoulder of a cheetah, poised to pounce.

The more muscular and biological shapes of the new car, as well as the evocations of fierce cats, might be raising eyebrows at Jaguar.

That said, Kodo has been dialed back a bit from the more sensuous Shinari, but the elements are there. A bold metallic band links the bottom of the Takeri’s angular, six-pointed grille with the centers of the headlamps. The piece, which Mazda calls a signature wing, radiates the energy of a quick stroke of calligraphy. It makes the lamps appear to be aggressive eyes. The raised fenders are joined by a narrowed, Coke-bottle waist, in a wedge shape.

The Takeri evokes, but also moves beyond, the exaggerated front fender theme of the discontinued RX-7 sports car, which was suggestive of an open-wheel racecar. Though no such news came out of the Tokyo show, a successor to the RX-7 was a priority for Mr. Maeda, he has said. He is the son of Matasaburo Maeda, who designed the first generation of the RX-7 in the 1970s.