March 18, 2025 • 48 mins
Click here to tell us about your favorite car, car story or automotive trivia !
Join automotive enthusiast Jon Leverett on an auto adventure from 90s kid marveling at Mazda RX‑7s to steering a career at Mazda USA. We explore his first car memories, deep dives under the hood of BMWs and Volvos, and insights into automotive technology and car manufacturers. Packed with automotive stories, car culture, and a love for cars that shines through every chapter, Jon’s journey celebrates the driving lifestyle, automotive universe, and the future of cars.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome back to ListenerLand.
You have found to all the carsI've loved before your
authoritative podcast onautomotive nostalgia, where
every car tells a story, everycar has a culture, and so it's
time to plug in DustDoll, get alittle grease under the nails
and slip on the favoritecar-themed T-shirt with my
(00:24):
co-pilot shotgun ride or cry,doug, look at that T-shirt, what
is that?
You like it?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yes, and I do believe in foreshadowing in the
entertainment industry MonsterHorror 7.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Look at that shirt.
The legendary automobile?
Yeah, indeed, and we're goingto find that that's important
because today's guest, who we'regoing to introduce in a few
minutes here, very involved withthe brand, very involved with
the brand as his family wasgrowing up.
But before that, againhousekeeping here I want to
(00:59):
welcome new listeners all overthe world and you know, the past
10 days we've had a bunch ofinternational activity, Doug To
wit, Sydney, New South Wales, iswhere Doug Test the geography.
Where's that?
Australia, you got it.
Welcome back, Australianlisteners.
Sweden, Stockholm we have somelistenership there.
(01:22):
Thank you for returning.
We've been downloaded again overthe past 10 days in Ukraine,
Thank you to our returninglisteners there.
Japan, France, Switzerland Ithink is a new industry as well
as Indonesia, Louisiana, alittle closer to home to me, and
(01:47):
congratulations to ourlisteners.
And this just popped up inPhiladelphia Congratulations on
your recent Super Bowl victoryand everybody's.
I guess you know we're sittingin that little little hole of
time between football andbaseball, so if you're not
enjoying Grapefruit League andwaiting for Major League
Baseball to come back around,hey, you found us.
(02:08):
Welcome back.
So let's see.
All right, I am wearing oh,let's not go any further before
you mention my shirt here, ohyes, yes Tell me about your
shirt, right, so Doug sent methis shirt.
One of our guests here was TomYoung, just one of the most
interesting people out there.
Who did what did he do?
(02:29):
Production design or somethingfor the Dave Letterman show?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
I think he did audio for Dave oh yeah, that's right,
he was an audio or video, Iforget, but he has a master's in
fine arts arts.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
yes, and he uh worked on the letterman show and then
just did this complete 180,decided he wanted to tinker with
ferraris and is now, uh, one ofthe authoritative ferrari uh
restorers in the world and suchan interesting guy and he sent
us a couple of t-shirts.
Check out his episode, you willlove it.
What do you say?
What else?
Speaker 3 (03:09):
am I forgetting here I?
Speaker 1 (03:09):
know we chatted about a few other things earlier.
Doug, what do we got?
Reviews, reviews, that's it Allright.
So it is my off and my oh, wehave a bunch of.
We got a bunch of new reviewshere.
Now that I'm looking and let'ssee, tim C left a podcast, but I
don't think that's Tim Cook.
(03:30):
I'm sorry, the head of Apple,that's one of our other ones.
Should I read that one?
Sure, tim C.
I love this podcast to hearothers like myself fawning over
some old car that uncorks memorysongs and smells from the past.
Whether it was design, what youdid, what you did with it, you
(03:51):
felt attached to it like fewother possessions in your life,
almost like a good dog, andyou're excited to tell others of
these fond memories.
Maybe it was Tim Cook.
Would we remember Tim Cook ifhe were on the show?
I think we would, I think wewould, I think we would.
All right, well, let's not burythe lead.
We have a very special guesthere today.
(04:12):
Yes, the T-shirt wasforeshadowing and, doug, how did
today's guest come into yourlife?
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Yeah, so great question.
So, just with some popularityto the show, we were contacted
by and I'm going to do my bestto get it right but a public
relations person from Mazda USAabout having our guest, who
(04:40):
we'll introduce in a moment onthe show, who we'll introduce in
a moment on the show and Dougis.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I gotta squeeze in here.
Doug is so good at this stuff.
It's amazing all the peoplethat just wind up on the show or
in our lives in circuitous ways.
We make friends, we keep upthese relationships.
So you reached out to them,doug.
Somebody got back to you andhow did it go?
From.
There.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Well, we coordinated, coordinated.
We found uh an rx7 lover bychance who's going to share some
of his early stories about uh,his family of rx7s in his family
.
His family had a family of rx7sI think that's safe to say and
uh, we're going to learn aboutuh his job, hear a little bit
(05:24):
about his job at Mazda USA andwhat he's done and really
interesting career path.
That makes me think a bit aboutour episodes with Weber State
University and their careerpaths to automotive, which is
different than the path Johntook, but John took a very
circuitous path as well.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Been a theme recently and I just can't wait.
Let's get him in here.
John Leverett with Mazda USA.
Pleasure to meet you.
Thank you for coming on ourshow, and what did you think
when you first got this invite?
Who are these two knuckleheads,or what?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Well, good to meet you both.
Glad to be on the show.
Yeah, I mean, I'd heard aboutthe show before and I'd heard
snippets of it before, so I wasexcited about it.
I knew who you guys were when Iwas approached with the
opportunity.
So excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
All right, and yeah, that's what Now?
Can you tell us, withoutkilling us, what you do for
Mazda, or are you some supersecret?
Speaker 3 (06:24):
And your title?
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Yeah, and please don't melt our brains.
It doesn't take much for me,yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yeah, the title of the project manager of strategic
planning and implementation, ifyou really want to get into it,
but launch strategy is theshortened way to say it.
But yeah, so I worked for Mazda, essentially coordinating all
the departments to make sure welaunch a vehicle well, whether
typically that's a new vehicle,whether it's CX-50, hybrid or
(06:51):
MX-5 or whatever it is, and thenkind of in the midst of that
that means obviouslycoordinating with departments
but also making sure the vehicleis aimed at the right person
and has the right content thingslike that to be successful.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah, good point and I remember reading not long.
You look at this phenomenallycomplicated and amazing thing in
your driveway and it takes, youknow it only takes what a week
or two to make one as it kind ofslides through the assembly
line.
But a new launch, a newautomobile or even derivations
of something existing takesyears and years to bring to
(07:32):
market.
And if you think about maybethe North American auto industry
, the way things kind of moveback across the border to be
finished, unfinished and pluggedinto here or there.
Bob, I read a book recently byBob Lutz and he was saying it
(07:52):
can take the better part of adecade from something from
blueprint to thinking about, tosourcing.
Where does it fit in theproduct line?
So I would assume you touchsome part of that right.
Can you speak to yourexperience with that?
Speaker 3 (08:04):
I do, I would assume you touch some part of that,
right?
Can you speak to yourexperience with that?
Yeah, I mean we have probablytwo other teams as well that are
focused at different pointsthroughout the vehicle's life.
I am kind of in between thosetwo teams.
I guess Just depends.
I mean, there's so many thingsvary with launching and creating
(08:24):
a new car, but we do have ateam focused on five, ten years
out, um, whereas I'm more sofocused on the more two, three
year outlook, um, with what'scoming down the pipe.
And then, um, another teamthat's more so negotiating, uh,
the, the next model year andthings like that, um.
But yeah, you're right,especially when it comes to
(08:46):
something like a BEV and youdon't have an electric vehicle
and you don't have an electricvehicle.
So a whole new platform.
You got to source batteries.
That's going to take, you know,a lot more time than the
typical cycle of 10 years ago,where you've got an engine
lineup that you can kind ofrefresh and put into a new model
and that certainly doesn't takeas long.
(09:07):
But yeah, there's a lot ofvariability with the timeline on
coming out with a new model.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Interesting stuff.
So if something is ramping upand this might be too simplistic
if something is ramping up,does something else kind of have
to ramp down.
Are you kind of thinking howthey interweave?
Well, we're going todiscontinue this one model and
try something else over here,but we got to replace it with
something on the same chassis orplatform.
Is that a hard thing to do?
Speaker 3 (09:38):
It is.
Yeah, I mean a lot of that istied to when do you announce a
new model, because you don'twant to announce a model and
then sales of your current modelto tank Right.
But it depends on the model too.
You know we have seen successwith some models where we
announce the replacement andthat boost sales for the current
(10:01):
model, that being the examplebeing CX3 when we announced CX30
.
It actually helped CX3 sales.
So it kind of varies.
But generally, you know, onceyou announce a new model,
theoretically that tanks theappeal of the current model.
But you know we're we've gotcurrent models right now that we
(10:25):
are kind of looking at where wewe need to maintain the
momentum of them right up untilthe replacement and that that's
a hard thing to balance.
But that is a big part of thejob and a lot of that relates to
PR, like how do you communicateto the public while maintaining
your current pace?
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Yeah, ok, doug.
Okay, doug, once I hop in theconversation here.
But but one thing that poppedin my head as you were speaking
was how complex a process thathas to be, because everything's
a competition and other makersare looking at you, you're
looking at other makers and soyou know how do we service
internally the vision, what wewant to do with respect to what
everybody else is.
So you're kind of looking forkind of a lane to jockey into.
(11:10):
But let's bring Doug into theconversation.
Oh, john wanted to saysomething.
Then let's get Doug in Please.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
No, no.
Oh yeah, I was just going tosay that's exactly right.
You do want to pay attention towhat your competitors are doing,
while also still findingsomething that's unique editors
are doing, while also stillfinding something that's unique,
like you don't want to alwayshave to respond because you want
to have your own space whereyou know the value like in my
case, mazda brings automaticallyis unique on its own, so we
(11:35):
don't necessarily always have torespond, but that's the balance
of how do we make our productunique yet still have the things
that people are always shopping.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Oh, I like the way you put that.
That's brilliant.
And speaking of unique, I'mlooking at Doug, who wants to
hop in the conversation here,and that t-shirt he's wearing,
that RX-7, was such a unique carback in the day.
But let's get Doug in here.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Doug, yeah yeah, no, that's very interesting.
And obviously a big follower ofcar companies and I've actually
owned four Mazdas, two Miatas,one MX-6, and what was the other
one, sorry?
Oh, my first Mazda, 1986 RX-7,which was the second generation
(12:22):
RX-7, first year of that car,and that was my first stick
shift car actually.
So I learned to drive stickshift on that car.
I had an automatic car and thenI had friends in high school
who had stick shifts.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
I'm like, yeah, this is more interesting and it just
took off from there uh, go ahead, I gotta squeeze in.
I know you want to keep going,but I just I've known Doug a
real long time and I forgotabout that silver MX-6 you had,
which was a gorgeous automobile,it was head turning.
(12:55):
I remember when you hang outwith Doug a lot of it's car
related and you said, let's gohang out, let's go grab lunch.
And Doug says, oh, I want to gotest drive something.
Let's go hang out, let's gograb lunch.
And Doug says, oh, I want to gotest drive something.
So I remember we drove to theto some dealer in his car in
that that silver MX six, and Iremember pulling up oh no, maybe
I was in the showroom and youpulled up in that car and and
(13:18):
all the heads turned.
I mean, it was just a gorgeous,it was literally a head-turning
automobile.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Go ahead.
Doug, I know you wanted tocontinue with something.
It was a I mean, it really was.
So yeah, I have to ask John.
I have so many questions aboutMazda.
But, john, the question all ourviewers want to hear listeners
is when will there be anotherRX-7?
We?
Speaker 1 (13:44):
can't this guy?
Guy's not gonna tell us tradeshe doesn't have trouble john.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Don't get yourself in trouble over us, man, but you
can slip to know will there beanother one, maybe, maybe he's
okay yeah, maybe.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Hey, I appreciate the pressure because the more you
know, the more we get asked it,the the more we've got to do
something at some point.
I think but yeah, I don't knowthough.
Uh, it is always, it's alwaysthe plan, but I know we kind of
talked about it earlier.
But yeah, being an independentautomaker and then with all the
regulatory pressure which mightbe going away we'll see.
(14:15):
But you know, it's just beenhard to.
We've got to build up thevolume and build up the profit
with our SUV so we can afford acar like that, afford to build
that car, because obviously usas car people we might buy one.
But unfortunately it seems likemost people aren't buying
sports cars these days.
But I don't know, surely atsome point this crossover craze
(14:36):
has to die down and maybe thesports car segment can come back
in.
Who knows?
Speaker 2 (14:40):
That would be great.
I know some of the othercompanies are trying to do it,
but yeah, it's a tough marketfor sure.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Yeah, what you need to invent, john, is a sports car
with storage.
Once you've got that figuredout, a zillion dollar idea.
Okay, now John has a veryinteresting path to how he came
to work for Mazda USA.
But before we get there yes,this is a cliffhanger we're
going to put him back in time.
We're going to go 88 miles anhour and let's go back to where
(15:11):
it began, john, what was yourfirst car, how did you get it,
and is your older brother alegend?
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Yeah, my first car was a 1988 Mazda RX-7 GXL.
So that was the top trim,non-turbocharged rotary.
So you know, top trim back thenhad air conditioning, power
windows, leather seats.
It actually had the adjustablesuspension normal and sport
(15:41):
suspension though that didn'twork.
By the time I got the car, um,yeah, that was, that was my
first car.
And uh, I got it from my mybrother.
I bought it from my brother, um, he, it was his first car, um,
and that was the first rx7 myfamily ever owned.
And after that one probablycame somewhere in the
(16:05):
neighborhood of 20 plus rx7s.
Um, and my brother was alreadyon a turbo 2, 1988 turbo 2 rx7.
We called it the red dragon.
That was his car, uh, and so Ibought that, that 88 g GXL from
him and, uh, by the time I hadgotten it it had been sitting
(16:26):
out.
The paint was a little bitfaded, Um, so we kind of did
like a light restoration.
It already had a new engine.
Um, my brother had rebuilt theengine.
That was the first engine heever rebuilt, first rotary he'd
ever or I guess I should sayfirst rotary he ever rebuilt.
And uh, and that I I never hadissues with that engine.
He actually became pretty wellknown, um for rebuilding rotary
(16:48):
engines, um, and I don't know ifI mentioned this, but I was so
much younger than my brother, soI'm getting this first car at
14.
My brother's was already at thatpoint, 23, um, so so he was
already in college and, uh, preme getting a new car, he was
started racing, got his racinglicense when I, when he was in
(17:10):
high school.
So my very formative years wereme growing up around him,
racing, going to the racetrack,having these rx7s around.
I think at one point they wereprobably at one at one time we
had seven, somewhere betweenseven to 10 RX sevens around the
house, uh, or back.
(17:30):
We had a.
We had a barn and a frontgarage, um, so between those two
spots and that's that's what Igrew up around, so, uh, in the
blood, in the DNA, in the familyledger.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
So you said that one car you never had any issues
with.
But I mean you had a populationof cars.
So with that engine, unique inits way, did you ever have any
issues, or were there problemspots that you guys would have
to tear apart and fix?
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Well, I remember I probably went through three
transmissions on that park sevenmy transmission was bad when I
got, it was never really yeahsomebody beat it up yeah, yeah.
Well, I think that thetransmission I got with the car
you know, I think that was theone that my brother drove on,
that's the one I'd learned todrive stick on.
(18:20):
So it started whining reallybad in first gear and then, it
wasn't too long after that, itdropped.
Also, I don't think that thatcar had synchros between first
and reverse, so you had to cometo a complete stop in order to
shift from, and I, you know,wasn't doing that.
Um, and then, uh, the secondone.
Have no idea why that one went.
And the third one is what Isold the car with.
(18:44):
But aside from that, I mean,the only issues I had were just
your old car issues whereplastic became brittle or maybe
a hose would fail because it'sold and brittle or something
like that, but I never hadissues with the engine itself,
wow.
So, yeah, and honestly, youknow, you just learn how to
(19:04):
drive them.
You learn how to drive them,you learn how to maintain them,
and they're pretty bulletproofif, if you do all that, you know
well.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yep, and you know Christian Christian and I were
talking about earlier.
He's like why is a rotaryengine?
What's?
What are the benefits?
Right, and it's really from mystandpoint.
It's really from my standpoint.
It's simplicity, the lack ofmoving parts versus a
conventional engine yeah, Icompletely agree, and you know
that was it was.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
It was my first car, so that's the first car, you
know.
The foreign thing to me waswhen I went to just a piston
engine car after my rx7 becausethen there were more.
I actually went to a bmw afterthe r-7 and I that car was
breaking all the time I felt outof my depth.
I understood a rotary and I'mnot near as mechanically minded
as my brother is, um, but I thatI just felt out of my depth a
(19:56):
little bit on that BMW.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
So did you?
Did you foresee a career withMazda USA from the moment you
put a your foot on the clutch inthat first car, or no?
Was this a dream fulfilled?
Or you said, wow, neat firstcar, great company, we'll see.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Yeah, I don't think so, Although I would joke as a
high schooler like I'm going tobe the CEO of BMW or something
like that, which was so stupidand I was just cause I was a car
person and I liked cars and atthe time I liked BMW.
But maybe you wouldn't say thatright now, but I would just
(20:37):
joke about that.
But otherwise, you know I,there are many other things in
my life that were prettyinfluential.
Otherwise, you know I, thereare many other things in my life
that were pretty influential,One of the things being probably
the house I grew up in, whichwas this really old home that my
dad was constantly working onand restoring and I kind of
lived in this old neighborhoodwith a lot of quaint homes and
my close with our neighbor hehad a really this old kind of
(21:01):
cottage, shingle style cottage,and he was a big Volvo guy.
I remember he had this, he hadseveral Volvos and he had the
740 turbo wagon.
I guess it would have been alate eighties turbo wagon, had
this this houndstooth or plaidblack and white interior, and I
remember my mom getting it,borrowing it one day, because
the minivan that she had was inthe shop and I fell in love with
(21:26):
Volvos.
I just truly fell in love withthat car.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
I thought it was so cool.
Same same yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
And my friend, my other, my best friend, his mom
drove a Volvo wagon.
You know the rear-facing seatsand anyways.
All that to say, I'm gettingoff track, but that's the point
of the whole show, keep.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Anyways, all that to say, I'm getting off track, but
that's the point of the wholeshow.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Keep going.
Yeah, the main thing thatreally probably came into my
mind was architecture.
I wanted to do something withdesign.
At points I thought, you know,I want to be a car designer.
Later that turned intoarchitecture, just as a little
bit of a more practical route,because I wasn't sure how to get
into car design Right, butworking for an auto manufacturer
(22:06):
really was not like a side.
Yeah, I don't know, that justdidn't seem possible maybe, or
realistic, I don't know.
So, yeah, I think architecturereally became more of my focus.
But I will say also in the backof my mind was like well,
architecture is a design fieldand I know that there's some car
(22:28):
designers with architecturebackgrounds and you know,
architecture is kind of thefounding design principle, so
this will, this will translate,you know, scale, proportion,
that kind of thing that wouldtranslate into industrial design
or car design, if I do want todo that later.
So, uh, that was kind of in theback of my mind, um, and then
(22:48):
yeah, that's what I did.
So that is a uh, yeah, a reallycrazy path.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
All right, yeah.
So before we get into that,let's slip into neutral for one
moment here.
So themw 525i that you had, youmentioned it before.
Let's talk about it before wemove on to the volvo.
You're kind of yeah, you'rekind of interweaving all of it,
so um, so what?
What did you think of the bmw?
How did it compare to the first?
(23:15):
I was reading your notes loved.
Obviously much bigger and muchquieter uh, so was that the car?
That saw you through collegewell, no.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
So I had the rx7 in college and you know I would
still have that to this day.
But I got rear-ended um goingto class one day by a girl who
I'm pretty sure was texting inher mustang and she rear-ended
me, launched me into anothermustang um, which launched that
car into a condo accord andhonestly it was pretty
devastating.
I loved that rx7 but it'sfamily yeah, it bent the frame
(23:48):
slightly.
Um, when that whole thinghappened and it was so
frustrating too, you know, I, Ifeel like you say I tell this
story with like a that involvesa couple mustangs and an rx7.
It's like, oh, you're racing.
It's like no, I wasn't just instop and go traffic on the way
to class, like nothing, nothingcrazy, I you know.
And uh, so after that, thespare tire on that rx7 really
(24:11):
took, took a lot of the impact.
It actually didn't look as badas you'd think, yeah, but the
frame got bent.
So when that happened, um, I'dI'd actually already bought the
BMW, maybe about a less, maybenine months before um, as a
little bit of a project.
Um actually ended up rebuildingthe heads, getting the heads
(24:32):
remachined had a burnt valvewhen I bought it, um and then
transmission, but, like I said,I'm not mechanically minded, so
a lot of that ended up to my dadand my brother, uh, which is
probably a little bit of a sorepoint, um, but by the time the
RX seven that got totaled, Iended up in that BMW, um, so
(24:52):
that finished my probably twoyears of college, was was last
two years of college, was inthat Um, and uh, yeah, I I
really enjoyed that car a lot.
Um, you know it had had alittle more power than how well
it had more torque, for sure,than the rx7 inline six yeah
(25:13):
yeah, yeah, and you know the theengine was was also really
smooth.
Um, you know, I kind of felt,you know, that's kind of a
ridiculous car for a collegestudent to have, so it was, uh,
not at all.
It was.
Uh, I kind of felt, you know,that's kind of a ridiculous car
for a college student to have,so it was not at all it was.
You kind of felt like a ballerrolling around campus in this
five season.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
It was it was an.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
M Sport.
It had the BBS deep dishpolished, you know alloy wheels.
It looked good, it was black.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Well, well, well, you know man on campus.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
It had.
You know, it had a poweradjusting steering column and
the power adjustable headrests,All those things that are just
so ridiculous for some collegekid to have.
But yeah, that was fun, but itbroke every other month probably
um, and never cheap to fix,yeah never cheap to fix I could
that driver's side window.
(26:00):
I replaced the regulator everyother month maybe or something
had to realign it every othermonth.
It just would not.
You know, it was just constant.
The cables are constantlysnapping in that window.
Transmission went out again,which is what led me to my car
after that um and uh, but man,when it was running it was a fun
.
It was a fun car yeah, gotcha,yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
The ultimate driving machine, I think yeah,
definitely these bmws.
Uh, yeah, I mean yeah, it wasdefinitely go ahead, yeah, well
it was definitely like.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
You know, I come from the rx7, which was like this
light and fleet and possible funcar.
And then I go to this like verylike sturdy, serious like
German sedan, you know, and youcan still have fun in it.
But it wasn't fun in the waythat the RX seven, like the RX
seven, it was like you could.
You could toss it into anycurve or turn and you knew you
(26:53):
were going to be okay.
The the BMW was like it justwould.
It just flattened out every,every turn.
I don't know it just so.
It was so much heavier orsomething it was fun, it was
just serious right, yeah allright, we spoke a little bit
about the volvo.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Let's chat about that , because I owned a volvo.
Now I didn't have the cool 740,uh, turbocharged wagon, but, um
, what did I have doug?
Speaker 2 (27:24):
740 gle gle yeah white with red interior.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
The red interior was nice.
Yeah, you know, what we volvoowners say is you can't spell
glee without GLE.
But tell us a little bit aboutyour.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Volvo, yeah, yeah.
So once the transmission wentout in that BMW, um, again, I,
you know.
Basically it came down to okay,this is my.
This was after after college, Iwas in architecture, had my my
first you know, big job, um,even though you know, when you
started out as an architect, youdon't really make much money at
all.
Um, but, um, so I was like,okay, I'm going to actually
(28:02):
spend a little bit of money.
Uh, so, um, my requirements wereI wanted a manual again and, um
, I just kept thinking about theway the inline five sounded in
a Volvo.
I just really wanted that.
So that's where the C30 camealong and I ended up getting a
(28:22):
was it 2011 C30R design?
With a six speed manual, youknow, the turbocharged inline
five, black, with the black and,and I think, the new buck or
suede interior, whatever theycalled it and I, and it was a
fully loaded one too.
It had the dine audio, um, soundsystem in it, had the little
flip navigation screen, like Ifelt, right, so cool in that car
(28:46):
, um, but it was funny becauseit was like, you know, not maybe
a week or two after I got it,um, one of my friends, or or
maybe it was a girl that I can'tremember, but um was like,
isn't that um, the twilightguy's car?
And I was like, wait, is itwhat?
Cause?
I didn't, I didn't watchtwilight, I didn't know.
But anyways turns out I think,yeah, edward Cullen in twilight
(29:08):
drove a C 30 and that deflatedmy, my ego there for a while.
But I still love that car, um,and uh, yeah.
So that was my first, that wasmy first car purchase that I
really bought all on my own, um,and then, uh, yeah, I really I
really loved that car.
You know, it was a, the manual,the transmission was not like
(29:29):
that engaging um, but it wasstill fun because it was a
manual, um, and I met my wife inthat car, that's the car I took
to nashville.
When I, when I moved tonashville after architecture
that's the car I took tonashville I kind of did like my
single, my single life in mydating life, in that that volvo
good job which, yeah, it was somuch fun and you know, I always
(29:53):
sorry christian, I always thinkabout the c30.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
I call it like the shooting break right and I
always think about what was30.
I call it like the shootingbreak Right and I always think
about what was it?
A P 1800 was like the old Volvoand that's like the modern
interpretation of it and I Iknow it got associated with that
.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
Yeah, definitely.
That's what I loved about it.
I it was, you know it wasperfect.
I mean you could fit a lot inthere.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Yeah, yeah, it was just a two-door.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Yeah, and that glass hatch that scoops all the way
down to the bumper.
I just thought that was so.
That was definitely like a loveit or hate it thing, but I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
I like design that makes you have an opinion on it
A little daring, a little daring, beautiful, and we started
talking about this a little bitmore.
You're going to school to studyarchitecture.
So let's, let's pick thatthread up again and, if you
could continue that story andlet us know, tell us what
(30:47):
happened in school and in howthat walked you through to the
eventual job you have now.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Yeah.
So, yeah, I did an undergraddegree in architecture and I'd
actually done two years.
Yeah, I did an undergrad degreein architecture and I'd
actually done two years.
I was in undergrad for sixyears because I transferred two
years after being at a private,like liberal arts school that
didn't have architecture, Itransferred from there to a
public university that that hadthe program, because that's when
(31:14):
I fully decided that's what Iwanted to do and I loved it.
I like, I like am not, you know,uh, I'm not the best like test
taker, and architecture wasperfect because so much of it is
what you're at, what you do, um, what you make, what you draw,
what you um, and then you haveto defend what you do, you know
you're, you're standing up infront of professors and
(31:36):
architects talking about yourdesign, what you've created,
defending it in a way, and Ijust really did well with that,
um, more so than just having to,you know, take a test and and
learn things.
Like you know, I do not have amind to be a doctor or to be in
the science field at all.
I just can't.
I can't do it and I'm so, sothankful other people can, but I
(31:56):
had the mind for this, um, sothen, yeah, after that I was
working.
I worked at a firm for a littlebit in school and then worked
for a firm after school forabout two years and uh, you know
, that's when, like, the car bugreally got me.
Um, because I was working at afirm and, uh, it was back where
(32:17):
I grew up and I think, you know,you go to school and you get a
design degree.
You have visions of working atsome fancy firm doing these
massive, cool buildings.
There's everyone's got themoney to spend on the designs
you want to do, and that's notthe reality.
And so I I did get to do somecool things, but you know,
generally I started to get alittle bit like is this it like?
(32:39):
Is this, this is what I'm gonnado for the rest of my life?
I'm already doing it.
Um, and then I just remember,with some of the architects
around me, just being so kind offlabbergasted that I thought
cars were cool, um, or thoughtthat appreciated the design of
(32:59):
cars.
You know, I remember onearchitect in particular being
like yeah, I guess cars aredesigned, aren't they?
And I was like, what?
Like what do you mean are?
Of course they're designed theyare.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Yeah, exactly like you have to think of how every
piece fits, provides function,provides style, it's I mean,
it's the very definition of ofpacking a lot into a small bag
and the type of people that aregonna buy it right, right it in
it because it's an extension ofyou.
You drive down the street andyou say, well, I'm gonna make an
assumption about that person itis a very public personal
(33:32):
display of you know how you feelabout design wealth, yeah yeah,
definitely.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
So you know that all was kind of brewing in my mind
and I finally got to the point Ihad been applying for jobs
mostly with mazda or volvo, Iwould say, um, I was still
pretty picky, I wasn't just likecarte blanche, whoever will
take me, I was.
I was being, you know, specificwith these oems I wanted to
hopefully work for and I justnever heard anything.
And I get it because, like, myresume at the time was just all
(34:00):
architecture, yeah, just didn'tmake sense.
So I, um was like all right, Ijust got to do something.
Um, I got to get something carrelated on my on my resume.
So that's when I decided, allright, I'm going to move to
Nashville.
I had this friend that keptnagging me like, hey, we need a
roommate, we need a roommate,you got to come to Nashville.
Like, move to Nashville, be ourroommate.
(34:20):
I was like, okay, so I finallydid and, um, I didn't have a job
.
But within a month, um got a jobat the Mazda dealership in
Nashville, which it was betweenMazda and Volvo.
I actually was offered theVolvo spot too, um, but the
Volvo spot too.
(34:40):
But I, I, just I, it was thedumbest position, it was the
dumbest thing.
I don't know why.
I said no to Volvo because Ihadn't gotten Mazda yet.
But then, um, cause my drivingrecord wasn't great at the time.
So Mazda, the Mazda dealershipwas like we can't insure you.
Um, and the, the owner of thatdealership, really took a chance
on me.
He was like well, let me seewhat I can do.
Um, and in between that time ofthem being like we can't insure
you, volvo had offered me a jobat their dealership.
(35:03):
The volvo dealership hadoffered me a job and I said no
to that.
And then, a few days later,mazda, the mazda dealership had
given me a job.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
So that was pretty crazy, yeah, so what were you
doing at the dealership?
What, what did?
Speaker 3 (35:16):
I was just a sales.
Yeah, I was a sales person, you, you completely did a 180 yeah,
what you've been doing.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Yeah, you know it was .
Speaker 3 (35:24):
It was crazy too because, um, you know, I'm I'm
leaving the degree, I'm leavingthe field, I got my degree right
, but most of my family andfriends were like, yeah, no,
that makes sense, you should.
That makes sense.
Like you going to work for at acar dealership or working with
cars, that makes sense.
Like I really didn't get muchpushback in terms of leaving
architecture, even though that'swhat my life had been for so
(35:46):
long.
That was pretty cool.
And then I really loved workingat.
You know, I didn't like that.
I'm not.
I didn't like working oncommission and I didn't like.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Right.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
I don't like sales, but it was a great dealership to
work at.
Um and I really like beingaround cars.
I was like I became the go-tocar guy.
Um, you know when, even on usedcars, you know, uh, if, if one
of the other people was showinga car and they didn't know how
something worked, they'd comegrab me.
Um, and I, you know, I remembershowing, you know how to put an
(36:16):
FJ in four-wheel drive that wewere selling and how, to, you
know, do different things withthe FJ.
And I had never done any ofthat before.
It just made sense to me.
So I just, you know, wasshowing how to do that.
I'd never driven an FJ but,yeah, I really liked it.
I mean, you know we would haveto test cars, do emissions
testing in Tennessee, and ifthey didn't pass, you know,
(36:38):
usually sometimes they wouldn'tpass that they had been sitting
for so long.
So you start a car up and runit through emissions.
It's not going to pass, soyou'd have to drive it overnight
.
Um, so I would.
I got, you know, drive a RangeRover.
Uh, take it home.
You don't want to use a lot.
Uh, you take a Range Rover home, you know, drive it.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Clear it out a little bit I can just see these senior
architects watching you drivepast the firm in a different car
every day.
Yeah, he really did belong in adealership.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
This guy thinks about one thing.
Yeah, yeah, so yeah, go ahead.
No, no, yeah, I was there forseven months and or maybe I was
there for eight months, but Istarted that job in January,
late January, and then bySeptember I had moved to
Jacksonville, florida, to workfor Mazda North America.
(37:31):
So I was there just enough timeto get that on my resume and
then also meet my now wife.
So it was kind of a whirlwindperiod of time, but it was super
significant for me.
It kind of really brought me towhere I am now.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
So did you the job that you moved to Jacksonville
to get with Mazda.
Is that roughly what you'redoing now, or did you?
Did you kind of work your wayup?
Speaker 3 (37:57):
Yeah, I, definitely I .
This is my fourth position withMazda.
That starting position was, um,I was a specialist, um, so I
was an analyst, um for whatever,and I was out of a region
office, not not the maincorporate office out of
California, which is where I'mbased now.
Um, but, uh, yeah, I just didanything to help support the
(38:20):
dealers in the Southeast and tosupport the reps and the
managers out in the field, um,in that in the Southeast region,
which was, I think, virginia,florida, over to like maybe,
maybe, alabama or something likethat.
Um, so, yeah, and then afterthat I I became a rep and that's
what brought me up to Virginia,which is where I live now, and
(38:43):
then I became a service rep andI was over at the DC Metro and
then I became launched thestrategy manager three-ish plus
years ago or so, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
So how long have you been with mazda on the whole,
from jacksonville to up invirginia, where you're at, and
uh, I think.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
I think just over seven years, maybe eight years
or so, I think congratulations,that's a lot.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Thanks.
That's.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
That's a lot to pack in it is a lot to pack in.
And it's kind of funny too,because I, I feel like you know,
our, our generation, my, mygeneration, gets the rep of not
staying anywhere very long anduh, I, but I'm like man, I've
really been, I've really been,so I've actually stuck it out,
you know, for a while, therebeing architecture for two years
and the dealership for a fewmonths.
(39:31):
I was like, oh gosh, I'm astereotype.
But now I've, uh, I've beenwith mazda, yeah, for for quite
a while, feels like at least.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Good deal, let's bring Doug in.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
So what?
Before we ramp down, I did wantto ask so what's the most
exciting project that you've ledsince you've been at Mazda?
Speaker 3 (39:53):
Yeah, probably MX-5.
I mean, anything MX-5 relatedis just automatically the most
exciting to me, um.
So when we did, you know we hadwe had the significant updates
for 2024, um, where you know,new headlights, taillights,
refresh design wheels, and Iremember driving um the old
(40:14):
against the new um, old beingthe 23 model against the new 24
before I think before we hadannounced it, um, but there was
some steering feel improvements.
There was a new differential umin the 24, uh that we were
driving so that we couldunderstand the changes and
really see the changes, and thatwas just so fun.
I mean it's like moments likethat for me as a car guy.
(40:35):
Then I'm like, ah, this is justthe best.
Um, just getting to drive cars.
They just dropped it off atyour house and said, here, drive
.
At that time I was actually in.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
I lived in California .
Speaker 3 (40:47):
Um, so I I I've been back and forth to Virginia a few
times but, um, I was inCalifornia.
So, yeah, I just went into theto the R and D office and that
was, you know, half the day wasdriving those cars and, um,
that's, that was probably themost exciting.
And that followed by the 35thanniversary mx5 that's right,
that's this year, that was thisyear, yeah.
(41:08):
So, um, just any, you know, notonly is that exciting for me,
but that's, you know, the pillarof our brand.
You know, that's the, it's kindof our halo car and that's kind
of the car that's that reallyembodies all of Mazda's values,
you know.
So it's just really fun to todo anything and to have that
(41:31):
specific line to work on.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
Yeah, yeah, no, that's exciting.
And yeah, I remember, my firstMiata is a red 1990.
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Oh nice.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
That was my first convertible man.
It was the best car.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
Yeah, yeah, my uncle had an early 90s Miata in the
midst of all those RX-7s, soyeah, I got the bug that way too
.
Speaker 2 (41:59):
Yeah, yeah, that way too.
Yeah, no, that's awesome.
Yeah, and 30 years later, right, it's still very sought after.
There's always the thing what'sthe saying about a Miata?
I forget.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
Miata is always the answer.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
Miata is always the answer.
Whoever coined that and I don'tthink it was Mazda it was
brilliant, yeah, yeah, it isbrilliant, for sure.
Yeah and um.
So we, I do want to ask andwe've talked a lot about mazda
cars and bmws and rx7s, volvo,um what would be your dream car
(42:33):
or what car are you lookingforward to at some point in the
future?
Speaker 1 (42:38):
yeah, um interesting and you can't say rx7, because
your whole family.
Okay, so go ahead.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
Yeah, no, I I mean I feel like I I have my, I have a
dream car for every use case, um, if that makes sense, like that
.
Uh so, and I still kind of havethis a little bit of this goal
of owning a car from everycountry that makes one.
So you know, I've got Germanyand Sweden and Japan down, but
(43:06):
overall I think I've really beenpretty taken by the Lotus Amira
of late With the superchargedV6 and the manual transmission.
I just really like the idea ofbeing able to buy a car like
that new and keeping it forforever, um, and passing it down
.
But I also really love, likethe 96 Porsche 911 wide body
(43:30):
career S.
I just that is like peak nine11 styling for me Yep, yep, nine
, nine, three, yep, that's theone.
Yeah, yeah, it's the.
It is the one and everyoneknows it.
So I don't know if I'll everget to that.
But, um, on a more on a morepractical note, I'd really just
love to find a, uh, mid 2000smazda b4000, four by four with
(43:52):
the manual.
Nice, um, I'd love to just havea little work truck, but those
are impossible to find with themanual.
But that's what I'm currentlykeeping my eye out on, trying to
get something for houseprojects and things like that.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
Yeah, no, I like it.
I always tend to think in carsthat cars for different use
cases and in fact I'm currentlylooking for a JDM Japanese
domestic market.
Suzuki Cappuccino.
Oh nice, the right-hand drivejust a micro Miata, if you will,
(44:28):
from the 90s.
Speaker 3 (44:29):
Do you know about Dunkin' Imports?
Speaker 2 (44:32):
Yep, I do.
Okay, Christian, I've actuallybeen there, I've actually been
there.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
Have you ever been.
Speaker 3 (44:40):
Yeah, yeah, oh, it's not far, far from you.
It's 30 minutes down the road.
Yeah, yeah it's about fivehours for me, which is probably
a good thing yeah, yeah, yeah,my dad was looking at mini
trucks a year or two ago, so wewent there and yeah and they're
all the rage yeah, yeah, theyare.
Yeah, that's fun that'll be acool car to have.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
Yeah, yeah, It'd be fun, fun and different and uh,
you know cars and coffee andother events.
Like I bring my DeLorean, butI'm uh it's like almost too
careful with that car, sosomething a little smaller and
and uh, and it's a stick shift,but man, I just miss flinging a
car in the corners.
That's not the car to do it in,yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
Yeah, and like a different dream car for each use
case, because the car that youknow, your dream car cruising
the beach may not be the dreamcar to drive to Alaska tomorrow.
So you know, know therequirements.
So, yeah, as as we uh, as weguide the podcast toward the the
off ramp here, uh, I got onelast question for you, john.
(45:47):
I can't leave you with Doug.
He will talk to you all nightabout cars and I know you want
to eat dinner, so I just uh.
On the way out here, I got toask you just look so happy.
I cannot remember a guestsmiling as much as you did.
So I have to ask you what isyour favorite thing about
working for Mazda?
Speaker 3 (46:09):
Oh man, what's my favorite thing working about
Mazda?
I think I do.
Really.
I really enjoy how much I touchin my current position.
Um, I like that I kind of getto see all the different um
sides of what's going on,whether it's marketing or
whether it's, you know, on thespec product, spec side of the
(46:31):
business, or even incentives orwhatever.
I I really enjoy kind of havinga full picture of what it takes
um and what's needed, even ifI'm not necessarily I'm not the
one doing all those things, butI'm.
I get to see all those thingsand that's just really cool.
Um I I really enjoy uh beinginvolved and kind of having the
(46:51):
the insight to all thosedifferent uh parts of the car
company.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
great answer, answer, what a great answer.
What do you think about thatanswer, doug?
Speaker 2 (47:01):
I think only at Mazda could somebody do that One
person be able to do that at acompany has to be a company like
Mazda.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
Well, I think that might be, yeah, one of our best
on the way out answers we'veever had.
Well, john, it was an extremepleasure meeting you, chatting
with you, getting to know youand hearing a little bit about
your past, your family and yourworld today.
Speaker 3 (47:28):
We appreciate your making the time yeah it was
great to talk to you both.
It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
Absolutely.
Well, you have just heard thehigh-revving, low-mileage
late-model heard around theworld.
Well, you have just heard thehigh-revving, low-mileage late
model heard around the world.
Yes, even in Sweden, inIndonesia.
Authoritative podcast onautomotive nostalgia.
He's Doug.
Get him at Doug at CarsLovecom.
I am Christian.
Reach me at Christian atCarsLovecom.
He was John Leverett with MazdaUSA.
(47:54):
If you like the show, pleasefollow and tell a friend.
If you don't like the show, dothe same thing.
Check us out at carslovecom.
The website is newly revamped.
You're going to love it,especially the reviews.
Write one for us.
I'm sure we'll see you at thenext local car show, showroom,
race strip or concourse.
So we appreciate you listening,we'll see you next time.
Thank you, Listenerland.
Welcome back to ListenerLand.
You have found to all the carsI've loved before your
authoritative podcast onautomotive nostalgia, where
every car tells a story, everycar has a culture, and so it's
time to plug in DustDoll, get alittle grease under the nails
and slip on the favoritecar-themed T-shirt with my
(00:24):
co-pilot shotgun ride or cry,doug, look at that T-shirt, what
is that?
You like it?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yes, and I do believe in foreshadowing in the
entertainment industry MonsterHorror 7.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Look at that shirt.
The legendary automobile?
Yeah, indeed, and we're goingto find that that's important
because today's guest, who we'regoing to introduce in a few
minutes here, very involved withthe brand, very involved with
the brand as his family wasgrowing up.
But before that, againhousekeeping here I want to
(00:59):
welcome new listeners all overthe world and you know, the past
10 days we've had a bunch ofinternational activity, Doug To
wit, Sydney, New South Wales, iswhere Doug Test the geography.
Where's that?
Australia, you got it.
Welcome back, Australianlisteners.
Sweden, Stockholm we have somelistenership there.
(01:22):
Thank you for returning.
We've been downloaded again overthe past 10 days in Ukraine,
Thank you to our returninglisteners there.
Japan, France, Switzerland Ithink is a new industry as well
as Indonesia, Louisiana, alittle closer to home to me, and
(01:47):
congratulations to ourlisteners.
And this just popped up inPhiladelphia Congratulations on
your recent Super Bowl victoryand everybody's.
I guess you know we're sittingin that little little hole of
time between football andbaseball, so if you're not
enjoying Grapefruit League andwaiting for Major League
Baseball to come back around,hey, you found us.
(02:08):
Welcome back.
So let's see.
All right, I am wearing oh,let's not go any further before
you mention my shirt here, ohyes, yes Tell me about your
shirt, right, so Doug sent methis shirt.
One of our guests here was TomYoung, just one of the most
interesting people out there.
Who did what did he do?
(02:29):
Production design or somethingfor the Dave Letterman show?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
I think he did audio for Dave oh yeah, that's right,
he was an audio or video, Iforget, but he has a master's in
fine arts arts.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
yes, and he uh worked on the letterman show and then
just did this complete 180,decided he wanted to tinker with
ferraris and is now, uh, one ofthe authoritative ferrari uh
restorers in the world and suchan interesting guy and he sent
us a couple of t-shirts.
Check out his episode, you willlove it.
What do you say?
What else?
Speaker 3 (03:09):
am I forgetting here I?
Speaker 1 (03:09):
know we chatted about a few other things earlier.
Doug, what do we got?
Reviews, reviews, that's it Allright.
So it is my off and my oh, wehave a bunch of.
We got a bunch of new reviewshere.
Now that I'm looking and let'ssee, tim C left a podcast, but I
don't think that's Tim Cook.
(03:30):
I'm sorry, the head of Apple,that's one of our other ones.
Should I read that one?
Sure, tim C.
I love this podcast to hearothers like myself fawning over
some old car that uncorks memorysongs and smells from the past.
Whether it was design, what youdid, what you did with it, you
(03:51):
felt attached to it like fewother possessions in your life,
almost like a good dog, andyou're excited to tell others of
these fond memories.
Maybe it was Tim Cook.
Would we remember Tim Cook ifhe were on the show?
I think we would, I think wewould, I think we would.
All right, well, let's not burythe lead.
We have a very special guesthere today.
(04:12):
Yes, the T-shirt wasforeshadowing and, doug, how did
today's guest come into yourlife?
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Yeah, so great question.
So, just with some popularityto the show, we were contacted
by and I'm going to do my bestto get it right but a public
relations person from Mazda USAabout having our guest, who
(04:40):
we'll introduce in a moment onthe show, who we'll introduce in
a moment on the show and Dougis.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
I gotta squeeze in here.
Doug is so good at this stuff.
It's amazing all the peoplethat just wind up on the show or
in our lives in circuitous ways.
We make friends, we keep upthese relationships.
So you reached out to them,doug.
Somebody got back to you andhow did it go?
From.
There.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Well, we coordinated, coordinated.
We found uh an rx7 lover bychance who's going to share some
of his early stories about uh,his family of rx7s in his family
.
His family had a family of rx7sI think that's safe to say and
uh, we're going to learn aboutuh his job, hear a little bit
(05:24):
about his job at Mazda USA andwhat he's done and really
interesting career path.
That makes me think a bit aboutour episodes with Weber State
University and their careerpaths to automotive, which is
different than the path Johntook, but John took a very
circuitous path as well.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Been a theme recently and I just can't wait.
Let's get him in here.
John Leverett with Mazda USA.
Pleasure to meet you.
Thank you for coming on ourshow, and what did you think
when you first got this invite?
Who are these two knuckleheads,or what?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Well, good to meet you both.
Glad to be on the show.
Yeah, I mean, I'd heard aboutthe show before and I'd heard
snippets of it before, so I wasexcited about it.
I knew who you guys were when Iwas approached with the
opportunity.
So excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
All right, and yeah, that's what Now?
Can you tell us, withoutkilling us, what you do for
Mazda, or are you some supersecret?
Speaker 3 (06:24):
And your title?
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Yeah, and please don't melt our brains.
It doesn't take much for me,yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yeah, the title of the project manager of strategic
planning and implementation, ifyou really want to get into it,
but launch strategy is theshortened way to say it.
But yeah, so I worked for Mazda, essentially coordinating all
the departments to make sure welaunch a vehicle well, whether
typically that's a new vehicle,whether it's CX-50, hybrid or
(06:51):
MX-5 or whatever it is, and thenkind of in the midst of that
that means obviouslycoordinating with departments
but also making sure the vehicleis aimed at the right person
and has the right content thingslike that to be successful.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah, good point and I remember reading not long.
You look at this phenomenallycomplicated and amazing thing in
your driveway and it takes, youknow it only takes what a week
or two to make one as it kind ofslides through the assembly
line.
But a new launch, a newautomobile or even derivations
of something existing takesyears and years to bring to
(07:32):
market.
And if you think about maybethe North American auto industry
, the way things kind of moveback across the border to be
finished, unfinished and pluggedinto here or there.
Bob, I read a book recently byBob Lutz and he was saying it
(07:52):
can take the better part of adecade from something from
blueprint to thinking about, tosourcing.
Where does it fit in theproduct line?
So I would assume you touchsome part of that right.
Can you speak to yourexperience with that?
Speaker 3 (08:04):
I do, I would assume you touch some part of that,
right?
Can you speak to yourexperience with that?
Yeah, I mean we have probablytwo other teams as well that are
focused at different pointsthroughout the vehicle's life.
I am kind of in between thosetwo teams.
I guess Just depends.
I mean, there's so many thingsvary with launching and creating
(08:24):
a new car, but we do have ateam focused on five, ten years
out, um, whereas I'm more sofocused on the more two, three
year outlook, um, with what'scoming down the pipe.
And then, um, another teamthat's more so negotiating, uh,
the, the next model year andthings like that, um.
But yeah, you're right,especially when it comes to
(08:46):
something like a BEV and youdon't have an electric vehicle
and you don't have an electricvehicle.
So a whole new platform.
You got to source batteries.
That's going to take, you know,a lot more time than the
typical cycle of 10 years ago,where you've got an engine
lineup that you can kind ofrefresh and put into a new model
and that certainly doesn't takeas long.
(09:07):
But yeah, there's a lot ofvariability with the timeline on
coming out with a new model.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Interesting stuff.
So if something is ramping upand this might be too simplistic
if something is ramping up,does something else kind of have
to ramp down.
Are you kind of thinking howthey interweave?
Well, we're going todiscontinue this one model and
try something else over here,but we got to replace it with
something on the same chassis orplatform.
Is that a hard thing to do?
Speaker 3 (09:38):
It is.
Yeah, I mean a lot of that istied to when do you announce a
new model, because you don'twant to announce a model and
then sales of your current modelto tank Right.
But it depends on the model too.
You know we have seen successwith some models where we
announce the replacement andthat boost sales for the current
(10:01):
model, that being the examplebeing CX3 when we announced CX30
.
It actually helped CX3 sales.
So it kind of varies.
But generally, you know, onceyou announce a new model,
theoretically that tanks theappeal of the current model.
But you know we're we've gotcurrent models right now that we
(10:25):
are kind of looking at where wewe need to maintain the
momentum of them right up untilthe replacement and that that's
a hard thing to balance.
But that is a big part of thejob and a lot of that relates to
PR, like how do you communicateto the public while maintaining
your current pace?
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Yeah, ok, doug.
Okay, doug, once I hop in theconversation here.
But but one thing that poppedin my head as you were speaking
was how complex a process thathas to be, because everything's
a competition and other makersare looking at you, you're
looking at other makers and soyou know how do we service
internally the vision, what wewant to do with respect to what
everybody else is.
So you're kind of looking forkind of a lane to jockey into.
(11:10):
But let's bring Doug into theconversation.
Oh, john wanted to saysomething.
Then let's get Doug in Please.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
No, no.
Oh yeah, I was just going tosay that's exactly right.
You do want to pay attention towhat your competitors are doing,
while also still findingsomething that's unique editors
are doing, while also stillfinding something that's unique,
like you don't want to alwayshave to respond because you want
to have your own space whereyou know the value like in my
case, mazda brings automaticallyis unique on its own, so we
(11:35):
don't necessarily always have torespond, but that's the balance
of how do we make our productunique yet still have the things
that people are always shopping.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Oh, I like the way you put that.
That's brilliant.
And speaking of unique, I'mlooking at Doug, who wants to
hop in the conversation here,and that t-shirt he's wearing,
that RX-7, was such a unique carback in the day.
But let's get Doug in here.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Doug, yeah yeah, no, that's very interesting.
And obviously a big follower ofcar companies and I've actually
owned four Mazdas, two Miatas,one MX-6, and what was the other
one, sorry?
Oh, my first Mazda, 1986 RX-7,which was the second generation
(12:22):
RX-7, first year of that car,and that was my first stick
shift car actually.
So I learned to drive stickshift on that car.
I had an automatic car and thenI had friends in high school
who had stick shifts.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
I'm like, yeah, this is more interesting and it just
took off from there uh, go ahead, I gotta squeeze in.
I know you want to keep going,but I just I've known Doug a
real long time and I forgotabout that silver MX-6 you had,
which was a gorgeous automobile,it was head turning.
(12:55):
I remember when you hang outwith Doug a lot of it's car
related and you said, let's gohang out, let's go grab lunch.
And Doug says, oh, I want to gotest drive something.
Let's go hang out, let's gograb lunch.
And Doug says, oh, I want to gotest drive something.
So I remember we drove to theto some dealer in his car in
that that silver MX six, and Iremember pulling up oh no, maybe
I was in the showroom and youpulled up in that car and and
(13:18):
all the heads turned.
I mean, it was just a gorgeous,it was literally a head-turning
automobile.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
Go ahead.
Doug, I know you wanted tocontinue with something.
It was a I mean, it really was.
So yeah, I have to ask John.
I have so many questions aboutMazda.
But, john, the question all ourviewers want to hear listeners
is when will there be anotherRX-7?
We?
Speaker 1 (13:44):
can't this guy?
Guy's not gonna tell us tradeshe doesn't have trouble john.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Don't get yourself in trouble over us, man, but you
can slip to know will there beanother one, maybe, maybe he's
okay yeah, maybe.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Hey, I appreciate the pressure because the more you
know, the more we get asked it,the the more we've got to do
something at some point.
I think but yeah, I don't knowthough.
Uh, it is always, it's alwaysthe plan, but I know we kind of
talked about it earlier.
But yeah, being an independentautomaker and then with all the
regulatory pressure which mightbe going away we'll see.
(14:15):
But you know, it's just beenhard to.
We've got to build up thevolume and build up the profit
with our SUV so we can afford acar like that, afford to build
that car, because obviously usas car people we might buy one.
But unfortunately it seems likemost people aren't buying
sports cars these days.
But I don't know, surely atsome point this crossover craze
(14:36):
has to die down and maybe thesports car segment can come back
in.
Who knows?
Speaker 2 (14:40):
That would be great.
I know some of the othercompanies are trying to do it,
but yeah, it's a tough marketfor sure.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Yeah, what you need to invent, john, is a sports car
with storage.
Once you've got that figuredout, a zillion dollar idea.
Okay, now John has a veryinteresting path to how he came
to work for Mazda USA.
But before we get there yes,this is a cliffhanger we're
going to put him back in time.
We're going to go 88 miles anhour and let's go back to where
(15:11):
it began, john, what was yourfirst car, how did you get it,
and is your older brother alegend?
Speaker 3 (15:19):
Yeah, my first car was a 1988 Mazda RX-7 GXL.
So that was the top trim,non-turbocharged rotary.
So you know, top trim back thenhad air conditioning, power
windows, leather seats.
It actually had the adjustablesuspension normal and sport
(15:41):
suspension though that didn'twork.
By the time I got the car, um,yeah, that was, that was my
first car.
And uh, I got it from my mybrother.
I bought it from my brother, um, he, it was his first car, um,
and that was the first rx7 myfamily ever owned.
And after that one probablycame somewhere in the
(16:05):
neighborhood of 20 plus rx7s.
Um, and my brother was alreadyon a turbo 2, 1988 turbo 2 rx7.
We called it the red dragon.
That was his car, uh, and so Ibought that, that 88 g GXL from
him and, uh, by the time I hadgotten it it had been sitting
(16:26):
out.
The paint was a little bitfaded, Um, so we kind of did
like a light restoration.
It already had a new engine.
Um, my brother had rebuilt theengine.
That was the first engine heever rebuilt, first rotary he'd
ever or I guess I should sayfirst rotary he ever rebuilt.
And uh, and that I I never hadissues with that engine.
He actually became pretty wellknown, um for rebuilding rotary
(16:48):
engines, um, and I don't know ifI mentioned this, but I was so
much younger than my brother, soI'm getting this first car at
14.
My brother's was already at thatpoint, 23, um, so so he was
already in college and, uh, preme getting a new car, he was
started racing, got his racinglicense when I, when he was in
(17:10):
high school.
So my very formative years wereme growing up around him,
racing, going to the racetrack,having these rx7s around.
I think at one point they wereprobably at one at one time we
had seven, somewhere betweenseven to 10 RX sevens around the
house, uh, or back.
(17:30):
We had a.
We had a barn and a frontgarage, um, so between those two
spots and that's that's what Igrew up around, so, uh, in the
blood, in the DNA, in the familyledger.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
So you said that one car you never had any issues
with.
But I mean you had a populationof cars.
So with that engine, unique inits way, did you ever have any
issues, or were there problemspots that you guys would have
to tear apart and fix?
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Well, I remember I probably went through three
transmissions on that park sevenmy transmission was bad when I
got, it was never really yeahsomebody beat it up yeah, yeah.
Well, I think that thetransmission I got with the car
you know, I think that was theone that my brother drove on,
that's the one I'd learned todrive stick on.
(18:20):
So it started whining reallybad in first gear and then, it
wasn't too long after that, itdropped.
Also, I don't think that thatcar had synchros between first
and reverse, so you had to cometo a complete stop in order to
shift from, and I, you know,wasn't doing that.
Um, and then, uh, the secondone.
Have no idea why that one went.
And the third one is what Isold the car with.
(18:44):
But aside from that, I mean,the only issues I had were just
your old car issues whereplastic became brittle or maybe
a hose would fail because it'sold and brittle or something
like that, but I never hadissues with the engine itself,
wow.
So, yeah, and honestly, youknow, you just learn how to
(19:04):
drive them.
You learn how to drive them,you learn how to maintain them,
and they're pretty bulletproofif, if you do all that, you know
well.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yep, and you know Christian Christian and I were
talking about earlier.
He's like why is a rotaryengine?
What's?
What are the benefits?
Right, and it's really from mystandpoint.
It's really from my standpoint.
It's simplicity, the lack ofmoving parts versus a
conventional engine yeah, Icompletely agree, and you know
that was it was.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
It was my first car, so that's the first car, you
know.
The foreign thing to me waswhen I went to just a piston
engine car after my rx7 becausethen there were more.
I actually went to a bmw afterthe r-7 and I that car was
breaking all the time I felt outof my depth.
I understood a rotary and I'mnot near as mechanically minded
as my brother is, um, but I thatI just felt out of my depth a
(19:56):
little bit on that BMW.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
So did you?
Did you foresee a career withMazda USA from the moment you
put a your foot on the clutch inthat first car, or no?
Was this a dream fulfilled?
Or you said, wow, neat firstcar, great company, we'll see.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
Yeah, I don't think so, Although I would joke as a
high schooler like I'm going tobe the CEO of BMW or something
like that, which was so stupidand I was just cause I was a car
person and I liked cars and atthe time I liked BMW.
But maybe you wouldn't say thatright now, but I would just
(20:37):
joke about that.
But otherwise, you know I,there are many other things in
my life that were prettyinfluential.
Otherwise, you know I, thereare many other things in my life
that were pretty influential,One of the things being probably
the house I grew up in, whichwas this really old home that my
dad was constantly working onand restoring and I kind of
lived in this old neighborhoodwith a lot of quaint homes and
my close with our neighbor hehad a really this old kind of
(21:01):
cottage, shingle style cottage,and he was a big Volvo guy.
I remember he had this, he hadseveral Volvos and he had the
740 turbo wagon.
I guess it would have been alate eighties turbo wagon, had
this this houndstooth or plaidblack and white interior, and I
remember my mom getting it,borrowing it one day, because
the minivan that she had was inthe shop and I fell in love with
(21:26):
Volvos.
I just truly fell in love withthat car.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
I thought it was so cool.
Same same yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
And my friend, my other, my best friend, his mom
drove a Volvo wagon.
You know the rear-facing seatsand anyways.
All that to say, I'm gettingoff track, but that's the point
of the whole show, keep.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Anyways, all that to say, I'm getting off track, but
that's the point of the wholeshow.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Keep going.
Yeah, the main thing thatreally probably came into my
mind was architecture.
I wanted to do something withdesign.
At points I thought, you know,I want to be a car designer.
Later that turned intoarchitecture, just as a little
bit of a more practical route,because I wasn't sure how to get
into car design Right, butworking for an auto manufacturer
(22:06):
really was not like a side.
Yeah, I don't know, that justdidn't seem possible maybe, or
realistic, I don't know.
So, yeah, I think architecturereally became more of my focus.
But I will say also in the backof my mind was like well,
architecture is a design fieldand I know that there's some car
(22:28):
designers with architecturebackgrounds and you know,
architecture is kind of thefounding design principle, so
this will, this will translate,you know, scale, proportion,
that kind of thing that wouldtranslate into industrial design
or car design, if I do want todo that later.
So, uh, that was kind of in theback of my mind, um, and then
(22:48):
yeah, that's what I did.
So that is a uh, yeah, a reallycrazy path.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
All right, yeah.
So before we get into that,let's slip into neutral for one
moment here.
So themw 525i that you had, youmentioned it before.
Let's talk about it before wemove on to the volvo.
You're kind of yeah, you'rekind of interweaving all of it,
so um, so what?
What did you think of the bmw?
How did it compare to the first?
(23:15):
I was reading your notes loved.
Obviously much bigger and muchquieter uh, so was that the car?
That saw you through collegewell, no.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
So I had the rx7 in college and you know I would
still have that to this day.
But I got rear-ended um goingto class one day by a girl who
I'm pretty sure was texting inher mustang and she rear-ended
me, launched me into anothermustang um, which launched that
car into a condo accord andhonestly it was pretty
devastating.
I loved that rx7 but it'sfamily yeah, it bent the frame
(23:48):
slightly.
Um, when that whole thinghappened and it was so
frustrating too, you know, I, Ifeel like you say I tell this
story with like a that involvesa couple mustangs and an rx7.
It's like, oh, you're racing.
It's like no, I wasn't just instop and go traffic on the way
to class, like nothing, nothingcrazy, I you know.
And uh, so after that, thespare tire on that rx7 really
(24:11):
took, took a lot of the impact.
It actually didn't look as badas you'd think, yeah, but the
frame got bent.
So when that happened, um, I'dI'd actually already bought the
BMW, maybe about a less, maybenine months before um, as a
little bit of a project.
Um actually ended up rebuildingthe heads, getting the heads
(24:32):
remachined had a burnt valvewhen I bought it, um and then
transmission, but, like I said,I'm not mechanically minded, so
a lot of that ended up to my dadand my brother, uh, which is
probably a little bit of a sorepoint, um, but by the time the
RX seven that got totaled, Iended up in that BMW, um, so
(24:52):
that finished my probably twoyears of college, was was last
two years of college, was inthat Um, and uh, yeah, I I
really enjoyed that car a lot.
Um, you know it had had alittle more power than how well
it had more torque, for sure,than the rx7 inline six yeah
(25:13):
yeah, yeah, and you know the theengine was was also really
smooth.
Um, you know, I kind of felt,you know, that's kind of a
ridiculous car for a collegestudent to have, so it was, uh,
not at all.
It was.
Uh, I kind of felt, you know,that's kind of a ridiculous car
for a college student to have,so it was not at all it was.
You kind of felt like a ballerrolling around campus in this
five season.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
It was it was an.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
M Sport.
It had the BBS deep dishpolished, you know alloy wheels.
It looked good, it was black.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Well, well, well, you know man on campus.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
It had.
You know, it had a poweradjusting steering column and
the power adjustable headrests,All those things that are just
so ridiculous for some collegekid to have.
But yeah, that was fun, but itbroke every other month probably
um, and never cheap to fix,yeah never cheap to fix I could
that driver's side window.
(26:00):
I replaced the regulator everyother month maybe or something
had to realign it every othermonth.
It just would not.
You know, it was just constant.
The cables are constantlysnapping in that window.
Transmission went out again,which is what led me to my car
after that um and uh, but man,when it was running it was a fun
.
It was a fun car yeah, gotcha,yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
The ultimate driving machine, I think yeah,
definitely these bmws.
Uh, yeah, I mean yeah, it wasdefinitely go ahead, yeah, well
it was definitely like.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
You know, I come from the rx7, which was like this
light and fleet and possible funcar.
And then I go to this like verylike sturdy, serious like
German sedan, you know, and youcan still have fun in it.
But it wasn't fun in the waythat the RX seven, like the RX
seven, it was like you could.
You could toss it into anycurve or turn and you knew you
(26:53):
were going to be okay.
The the BMW was like it justwould.
It just flattened out every,every turn.
I don't know it just so.
It was so much heavier orsomething it was fun, it was
just serious right, yeah allright, we spoke a little bit
about the volvo.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Let's chat about that , because I owned a volvo.
Now I didn't have the cool 740,uh, turbocharged wagon, but, um
, what did I have doug?
Speaker 2 (27:24):
740 gle gle yeah white with red interior.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
The red interior was nice.
Yeah, you know, what we volvoowners say is you can't spell
glee without GLE.
But tell us a little bit aboutyour.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Volvo, yeah, yeah.
So once the transmission wentout in that BMW, um, again, I,
you know.
Basically it came down to okay,this is my.
This was after after college, Iwas in architecture, had my my
first you know, big job, um,even though you know, when you
started out as an architect, youdon't really make much money at
all.
Um, but, um, so I was like,okay, I'm going to actually
(28:02):
spend a little bit of money.
Uh, so, um, my requirements wereI wanted a manual again and, um
, I just kept thinking about theway the inline five sounded in
a Volvo.
I just really wanted that.
So that's where the C30 camealong and I ended up getting a
(28:22):
was it 2011 C30R design?
With a six speed manual, youknow, the turbocharged inline
five, black, with the black and,and I think, the new buck or
suede interior, whatever theycalled it and I, and it was a
fully loaded one too.
It had the dine audio, um, soundsystem in it, had the little
flip navigation screen, like Ifelt, right, so cool in that car
(28:46):
, um, but it was funny becauseit was like, you know, not maybe
a week or two after I got it,um, one of my friends, or or
maybe it was a girl that I can'tremember, but um was like,
isn't that um, the twilightguy's car?
And I was like, wait, is itwhat?
Cause?
I didn't, I didn't watchtwilight, I didn't know.
But anyways turns out I think,yeah, edward Cullen in twilight
(29:08):
drove a C 30 and that deflatedmy, my ego there for a while.
But I still love that car, um,and uh, yeah.
So that was my first, that wasmy first car purchase that I
really bought all on my own, um,and then, uh, yeah, I really I
really loved that car.
You know, it was a, the manual,the transmission was not like
(29:29):
that engaging um, but it wasstill fun because it was a
manual, um, and I met my wife inthat car, that's the car I took
to nashville.
When I, when I moved tonashville after architecture
that's the car I took tonashville I kind of did like my
single, my single life in mydating life, in that that volvo
good job which, yeah, it was somuch fun and you know, I always
(29:53):
sorry christian, I always thinkabout the c30.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
I call it like the shooting break right and I
always think about what was30.
I call it like the shootingbreak Right and I always think
about what was it?
A P 1800 was like the old Volvoand that's like the modern
interpretation of it and I Iknow it got associated with that
.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
Yeah, definitely.
That's what I loved about it.
I it was, you know it wasperfect.
I mean you could fit a lot inthere.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Yeah, yeah, it was just a two-door.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Yeah, and that glass hatch that scoops all the way
down to the bumper.
I just thought that was so.
That was definitely like a loveit or hate it thing, but I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
I like design that makes you have an opinion on it
A little daring, a little daring, beautiful, and we started
talking about this a little bitmore.
You're going to school to studyarchitecture.
So let's, let's pick thatthread up again and, if you
could continue that story andlet us know, tell us what
(30:47):
happened in school and in howthat walked you through to the
eventual job you have now.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
Yeah.
So, yeah, I did an undergraddegree in architecture and I'd
actually done two years.
Yeah, I did an undergrad degreein architecture and I'd
actually done two years.
I was in undergrad for sixyears because I transferred two
years after being at a private,like liberal arts school that
didn't have architecture, Itransferred from there to a
public university that that hadthe program, because that's when
(31:14):
I fully decided that's what Iwanted to do and I loved it.
I like, I like am not, you know,uh, I'm not the best like test
taker, and architecture wasperfect because so much of it is
what you're at, what you do, um, what you make, what you draw,
what you um, and then you haveto defend what you do, you know
you're, you're standing up infront of professors and
(31:36):
architects talking about yourdesign, what you've created,
defending it in a way, and Ijust really did well with that,
um, more so than just having to,you know, take a test and and
learn things.
Like you know, I do not have amind to be a doctor or to be in
the science field at all.
I just can't.
I can't do it and I'm so, sothankful other people can, but I
(31:56):
had the mind for this, um, sothen, yeah, after that I was
working.
I worked at a firm for a littlebit in school and then worked
for a firm after school forabout two years and uh, you know
, that's when, like, the car bugreally got me.
Um, because I was working at afirm and, uh, it was back where
(32:17):
I grew up and I think, you know,you go to school and you get a
design degree.
You have visions of working atsome fancy firm doing these
massive, cool buildings.
There's everyone's got themoney to spend on the designs
you want to do, and that's notthe reality.
And so I I did get to do somecool things, but you know,
generally I started to get alittle bit like is this it like?
(32:39):
Is this, this is what I'm gonnado for the rest of my life?
I'm already doing it.
Um, and then I just remember,with some of the architects
around me, just being so kind offlabbergasted that I thought
cars were cool, um, or thoughtthat appreciated the design of
(32:59):
cars.
You know, I remember onearchitect in particular being
like yeah, I guess cars aredesigned, aren't they?
And I was like, what?
Like what do you mean are?
Of course they're designed theyare.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Yeah, exactly like you have to think of how every
piece fits, provides function,provides style, it's I mean,
it's the very definition of ofpacking a lot into a small bag
and the type of people that aregonna buy it right, right it in
it because it's an extension ofyou.
You drive down the street andyou say, well, I'm gonna make an
assumption about that person itis a very public personal
(33:32):
display of you know how you feelabout design wealth, yeah yeah,
definitely.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
So you know that all was kind of brewing in my mind
and I finally got to the point Ihad been applying for jobs
mostly with mazda or volvo, Iwould say, um, I was still
pretty picky, I wasn't just likecarte blanche, whoever will
take me, I was.
I was being, you know, specificwith these oems I wanted to
hopefully work for and I justnever heard anything.
And I get it because, like, myresume at the time was just all
(34:00):
architecture, yeah, just didn'tmake sense.
So I, um was like all right, Ijust got to do something.
Um, I got to get something carrelated on my on my resume.
So that's when I decided, allright, I'm going to move to
Nashville.
I had this friend that keptnagging me like, hey, we need a
roommate, we need a roommate,you got to come to Nashville.
Like, move to Nashville, be ourroommate.
(34:20):
I was like, okay, so I finallydid and, um, I didn't have a job
.
But within a month, um got a jobat the Mazda dealership in
Nashville, which it was betweenMazda and Volvo.
I actually was offered theVolvo spot too, um, but the
Volvo spot too.
(34:40):
But I, I, just I, it was thedumbest position, it was the
dumbest thing.
I don't know why.
I said no to Volvo because Ihadn't gotten Mazda yet.
But then, um, cause my drivingrecord wasn't great at the time.
So Mazda, the Mazda dealershipwas like we can't insure you.
Um, and the, the owner of thatdealership, really took a chance
on me.
He was like well, let me seewhat I can do.
Um, and in between that time ofthem being like we can't insure
you, volvo had offered me a jobat their dealership.
(35:03):
The volvo dealership hadoffered me a job and I said no
to that.
And then, a few days later,mazda, the mazda dealership had
given me a job.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
So that was pretty crazy, yeah, so what were you
doing at the dealership?
What, what did?
Speaker 3 (35:16):
I was just a sales.
Yeah, I was a sales person, you, you completely did a 180 yeah,
what you've been doing.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
Yeah, you know it was .
Speaker 3 (35:24):
It was crazy too because, um, you know, I'm I'm
leaving the degree, I'm leavingthe field, I got my degree right
, but most of my family andfriends were like, yeah, no,
that makes sense, you should.
That makes sense.
Like you going to work for at acar dealership or working with
cars, that makes sense.
Like I really didn't get muchpushback in terms of leaving
architecture, even though that'swhat my life had been for so
(35:46):
long.
That was pretty cool.
And then I really loved workingat.
You know, I didn't like that.
I'm not.
I didn't like working oncommission and I didn't like.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Right.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
I don't like sales, but it was a great dealership to
work at.
Um and I really like beingaround cars.
I was like I became the go-tocar guy.
Um, you know when, even on usedcars, you know, uh, if, if one
of the other people was showinga car and they didn't know how
something worked, they'd comegrab me.
Um, and I, you know, I remembershowing, you know how to put an
(36:16):
FJ in four-wheel drive that wewere selling and how, to, you
know, do different things withthe FJ.
And I had never done any ofthat before.
It just made sense to me.
So I just, you know, wasshowing how to do that.
I'd never driven an FJ but,yeah, I really liked it.
I mean, you know we would haveto test cars, do emissions
testing in Tennessee, and ifthey didn't pass, you know,
(36:38):
usually sometimes they wouldn'tpass that they had been sitting
for so long.
So you start a car up and runit through emissions.
It's not going to pass, soyou'd have to drive it overnight
.
Um, so I would.
I got, you know, drive a RangeRover.
Uh, take it home.
You don't want to use a lot.
Uh, you take a Range Rover home, you know, drive it.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Clear it out a little bit I can just see these senior
architects watching you drivepast the firm in a different car
every day.
Yeah, he really did belong in adealership.
Speaker 3 (37:07):
This guy thinks about one thing.
Yeah, yeah, so yeah, go ahead.
No, no, yeah, I was there forseven months and or maybe I was
there for eight months, but Istarted that job in January,
late January, and then bySeptember I had moved to
Jacksonville, florida, to workfor Mazda North America.
(37:31):
So I was there just enough timeto get that on my resume and
then also meet my now wife.
So it was kind of a whirlwindperiod of time, but it was super
significant for me.
It kind of really brought me towhere I am now.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
So did you the job that you moved to Jacksonville
to get with Mazda.
Is that roughly what you'redoing now, or did you?
Did you kind of work your wayup?
Speaker 3 (37:57):
Yeah, I, definitely I .
This is my fourth position withMazda.
That starting position was, um,I was a specialist, um, so I
was an analyst, um for whatever,and I was out of a region
office, not not the maincorporate office out of
California, which is where I'mbased now.
Um, but, uh, yeah, I just didanything to help support the
(38:20):
dealers in the Southeast and tosupport the reps and the
managers out in the field, um,in that in the Southeast region,
which was, I think, virginia,florida, over to like maybe,
maybe, alabama or something likethat.
Um, so, yeah, and then afterthat I I became a rep and that's
what brought me up to Virginia,which is where I live now, and
(38:43):
then I became a service rep andI was over at the DC Metro and
then I became launched thestrategy manager three-ish plus
years ago or so, gotcha.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
So how long have you been with mazda on the whole,
from jacksonville to up invirginia, where you're at, and
uh, I think.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
I think just over seven years, maybe eight years
or so, I think congratulations,that's a lot.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
Thanks.
That's.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
That's a lot to pack in it is a lot to pack in.
And it's kind of funny too,because I, I feel like you know,
our, our generation, my, mygeneration, gets the rep of not
staying anywhere very long anduh, I, but I'm like man, I've
really been, I've really been,so I've actually stuck it out,
you know, for a while, therebeing architecture for two years
and the dealership for a fewmonths.
(39:31):
I was like, oh gosh, I'm astereotype.
But now I've, uh, I've beenwith mazda, yeah, for for quite
a while, feels like at least.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Good deal, let's bring Doug in.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
So what?
Before we ramp down, I did wantto ask so what's the most
exciting project that you've ledsince you've been at Mazda?
Speaker 3 (39:53):
Yeah, probably MX-5.
I mean, anything MX-5 relatedis just automatically the most
exciting to me, um.
So when we did, you know we hadwe had the significant updates
for 2024, um, where you know,new headlights, taillights,
refresh design wheels, and Iremember driving um the old
(40:14):
against the new um, old beingthe 23 model against the new 24
before I think before we hadannounced it, um, but there was
some steering feel improvements.
There was a new differential umin the 24, uh that we were
driving so that we couldunderstand the changes and
really see the changes, and thatwas just so fun.
I mean it's like moments likethat for me as a car guy.
(40:35):
Then I'm like, ah, this is justthe best.
Um, just getting to drive cars.
They just dropped it off atyour house and said, here, drive
.
At that time I was actually in.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
I lived in California .
Speaker 3 (40:47):
Um, so I I I've been back and forth to Virginia a few
times but, um, I was inCalifornia.
So, yeah, I just went into theto the R and D office and that
was, you know, half the day wasdriving those cars and, um,
that's, that was probably themost exciting.
And that followed by the 35thanniversary mx5 that's right,
that's this year, that was thisyear, yeah.
(41:08):
So, um, just any, you know, notonly is that exciting for me,
but that's, you know, the pillarof our brand.
You know, that's the, it's kindof our halo car and that's kind
of the car that's that reallyembodies all of Mazda's values,
you know.
So it's just really fun to todo anything and to have that
(41:31):
specific line to work on.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
Yeah, yeah, no, that's exciting.
And yeah, I remember, my firstMiata is a red 1990.
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Oh nice.
Speaker 2 (41:41):
That was my first convertible man.
It was the best car.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
Yeah, yeah, my uncle had an early 90s Miata in the
midst of all those RX-7s, soyeah, I got the bug that way too
.
Speaker 2 (41:59):
Yeah, yeah, that way too.
Yeah, no, that's awesome.
Yeah, and 30 years later, right, it's still very sought after.
There's always the thing what'sthe saying about a Miata?
I forget.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
Miata is always the answer.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
Miata is always the answer.
Whoever coined that and I don'tthink it was Mazda it was
brilliant, yeah, yeah, it isbrilliant, for sure.
Yeah and um.
So we, I do want to ask andwe've talked a lot about mazda
cars and bmws and rx7s, volvo,um what would be your dream car
(42:33):
or what car are you lookingforward to at some point in the
future?
Speaker 1 (42:38):
yeah, um interesting and you can't say rx7, because
your whole family.
Okay, so go ahead.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
Yeah, no, I I mean I feel like I I have my, I have a
dream car for every use case, um, if that makes sense, like that
.
Uh so, and I still kind of havethis a little bit of this goal
of owning a car from everycountry that makes one.
So you know, I've got Germanyand Sweden and Japan down, but
(43:06):
overall I think I've really beenpretty taken by the Lotus Amira
of late With the superchargedV6 and the manual transmission.
I just really like the idea ofbeing able to buy a car like
that new and keeping it forforever, um, and passing it down
.
But I also really love, likethe 96 Porsche 911 wide body
(43:30):
career S.
I just that is like peak nine11 styling for me Yep, yep, nine
, nine, three, yep, that's theone.
Yeah, yeah, it's the.
It is the one and everyoneknows it.
So I don't know if I'll everget to that.
But, um, on a more on a morepractical note, I'd really just
love to find a, uh, mid 2000smazda b4000, four by four with
(43:52):
the manual.
Nice, um, I'd love to just havea little work truck, but those
are impossible to find with themanual.
But that's what I'm currentlykeeping my eye out on, trying to
get something for houseprojects and things like that.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
Yeah, no, I like it.
I always tend to think in carsthat cars for different use
cases and in fact I'm currentlylooking for a JDM Japanese
domestic market.
Suzuki Cappuccino.
Oh nice, the right-hand drivejust a micro Miata, if you will,
(44:28):
from the 90s.
Speaker 3 (44:29):
Do you know about Dunkin' Imports?
Speaker 2 (44:32):
Yep, I do.
Okay, Christian, I've actuallybeen there, I've actually been
there.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
Have you ever been.
Speaker 3 (44:40):
Yeah, yeah, oh, it's not far, far from you.
It's 30 minutes down the road.
Yeah, yeah it's about fivehours for me, which is probably
a good thing yeah, yeah, yeah,my dad was looking at mini
trucks a year or two ago, so wewent there and yeah and they're
all the rage yeah, yeah, theyare.
Yeah, that's fun that'll be acool car to have.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
Yeah, yeah, It'd be fun, fun and different and uh,
you know cars and coffee andother events.
Like I bring my DeLorean, butI'm uh it's like almost too
careful with that car, sosomething a little smaller and
and uh, and it's a stick shift,but man, I just miss flinging a
car in the corners.
That's not the car to do it in,yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
Yeah, and like a different dream car for each use
case, because the car that youknow, your dream car cruising
the beach may not be the dreamcar to drive to Alaska tomorrow.
So you know, know therequirements.
So, yeah, as as we uh, as weguide the podcast toward the the
off ramp here, uh, I got onelast question for you, john.
(45:47):
I can't leave you with Doug.
He will talk to you all nightabout cars and I know you want
to eat dinner, so I just uh.
On the way out here, I got toask you just look so happy.
I cannot remember a guestsmiling as much as you did.
So I have to ask you what isyour favorite thing about
working for Mazda?
Speaker 3 (46:09):
Oh man, what's my favorite thing working about
Mazda?
I think I do.
Really.
I really enjoy how much I touchin my current position.
Um, I like that I kind of getto see all the different um
sides of what's going on,whether it's marketing or
whether it's, you know, on thespec product, spec side of the
(46:31):
business, or even incentives orwhatever.
I I really enjoy kind of havinga full picture of what it takes
um and what's needed, even ifI'm not necessarily I'm not the
one doing all those things, butI'm.
I get to see all those thingsand that's just really cool.
Um I I really enjoy uh beinginvolved and kind of having the
(46:51):
the insight to all thosedifferent uh parts of the car
company.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
great answer, answer, what a great answer.
What do you think about thatanswer, doug?
Speaker 2 (47:01):
I think only at Mazda could somebody do that One
person be able to do that at acompany has to be a company like
Mazda.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
Well, I think that might be, yeah, one of our best
on the way out answers we'veever had.
Well, john, it was an extremepleasure meeting you, chatting
with you, getting to know youand hearing a little bit about
your past, your family and yourworld today.
Speaker 3 (47:28):
We appreciate your making the time yeah it was
great to talk to you both.
It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
Absolutely.
Well, you have just heard thehigh-revving, low-mileage
late-model heard around theworld.
Well, you have just heard thehigh-revving, low-mileage late
model heard around the world.
Yes, even in Sweden, inIndonesia.
Authoritative podcast onautomotive nostalgia.
He's Doug.
Get him at Doug at CarsLovecom.
I am Christian.
Reach me at Christian atCarsLovecom.
He was John Leverett with MazdaUSA.
(47:54):
If you like the show, pleasefollow and tell a friend.
If you don't like the show, dothe same thing.
Check us out at carslovecom.
The website is newly revamped.
You're going to love it,especially the reviews.
Write one for us.
I'm sure we'll see you at thenext local car show, showroom,
race strip or concourse.
So we appreciate you listening,we'll see you next time.
Thank you, Listenerland.
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