I remember in the ’90s/’00s there were a few Mazda and Ford vehicles that were basically the same, most obviously to me the Ford Ranger and Mazda B-series pickup truck.

Fun fact, previous Mazda 2 was sold as a Yaris in the US, then they swapped and the new Yaris is sold as a Mazda 2 in some european countries

Manufacturers work with each other a LOT. A lot of the japanese makers also own stakes in each others companies or have partnerships setup. It’s the exact opposite with USDM stuff, they just don’t share or collaborate on anything big it seems.

As a parts guy, it’s always fun trying to explain why the part I ordered OEM from the warehouse came in a Nissan or Toyota bag instead of GM for ex. A lot of it is that they use the same lists of manufacturers and suppliers for their parts and so it’s often just cheaper to use an existing design for a seemingly insignificant part that is already in production. Think little bushings and things like relays. Ofc things go bad and when they do it’s not clear to the consumer why they’re being sold “this cheap Chinese crap” instead of their vaunted ‘OEM’ garbage. They just don’t get it.

Wasn’t there some industry rumours that the official merger plan with Honda way meant to go much further and included Nissan, Mazda, Toyota and Mitsubishi as wished by the Japanese government in an effort to create a player large enough to withstand pressure from China, Korea and Europe. It failed obviously,though.

80% is often considered standard for battery warranty. If a Mac goes under 80% in fewer than 1000 cycles, the service toolkit considers it a failure - back when I had access to pirated Apple Service Toolkit anyway. The old version for pre 2015 laptops.

I imagine it’s similar with cars. They can’t promise you retain 100% health for 8 years so they probably have some set percentage. Maybe it’s also 80%?