At the LA Autoshow on Wednesday November the 22nd, Mazda unveiled their latest concept car, the Nagare. On the heals of the Senku, this concept car shows the future design direction of Mazda's production cars. The designers say this car's design is a generation or two ahead, say a production car from 2020. As a Cruiser, it is not that bad looking, however, it is not a sports car. The car on display is just a mock-up, the full design is engineered to be powered by a hydrogen RENESIS Rotary engine, however no details were given, since the Nagare is simply a design study.

Click on through for some commentary about the car's design, and photos from the show's floor.


There are elements of this car that are interesting, such as the flowing front and rear fenders. The enormous grill is too over the top in our opinion, as well as the down right ugly back end lines. The side lines of the car does flow, however, the rear end doesn't seem to terminate as nicely as possible, with the rear deck being too high. Along with the front grill, the design needs quite a bit of work before it would be accepted by most people. It is no where near as stunning a design as the good old 3rd generation RX-7, however the Nagare is not designed to be a sports car. Some elements from this car could appear on production models in 2-5 years. We think the front fenders, short overhangs, and flowing lines from the front to rear fenders will see production in time.