Japanese used car

Its going to be really hard to avoid excessively using the adjective sassy in describing this concept from Mazda, so Ill just get it out of the way: sassy, sassy, sassy…

Well, actually, its called Sassou (pronounced sa-so), which is apparently a Japanese term that means having a positive state of mind, of looking ahead with optimism to the future, which is exactly how I would feel if someone from Mazda called me right now and told me that they will build a production version of the Sassou and bring it to the U.S.

Okay… It looks like nobodys calling. Im still grinning, though, because it is such a cute car, yet somehow still bad-ass looking. Im guessing that the Sassou is one color choice away from swinging drastically to either end of the spectrum. Bubble-gum pink and matte black being the polar extremes on my color scale. I mean, can you just imagine how badass it would look in pink, with maybe some baby blue trim… B-A-D-A-S-S.

If you havent guessed that this is a small car concept yet, then this is me filling you in. It is mostly a design exercise testing the waters for certain features and general styling direction for the redesign of the Mazda2 (Demio in Japan). It will debut on September 13th at the Frankfurt Motor Show. A straightforward description might call it “a small, lightweight, three-door hatchback,” and I really hope they are not kidding when they say lightweight, because it is powered by a three-cylinder gasoline engine with 1 litre of displacement. I think about the only thing we get with less displacement here in North America is the smart fortwo (lower case intended), dirt bikes and riding mowers, although I could be mistaken about the riding mowers.

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