Carscoops’ 2015 Mazda3 Rendering Fools Motor Trend, Autoweek and Automobile Magazine

Earlier today, Josh Byrnes sent me an interesting email pointing me towards to a story from Car Advice titled “Mazda 3 rendering sparks debate”, in which there was a picture of the next generation Mazda3. The image, credited to Mazda North America, was from Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s annual “Car Wars” analysis, which according to a CNN Money report, is “Published each May for some two decades” and “provides a glimpse into the future of the U.S. auto business.”

Carscoops regulars will no doubt recognize the picture as a rendering from our own Josh Byrnes – sans Carscoops’ watermarks that someone crudely removed, without our permission, of course. Besides Car Advice, the story was also posted on several other news and magazine websites, including Motor Trend, Autoweek, Automobile magazine.

After a Motor Trend reader left a couple of comments on the page informing them of the true source of the rendering, including this one, “JEEEEEEZ automobilemag staff – get your sources straight. This is the same ‘rendered’ image 1st posted on the carscoops site back in March http://www.carscoops.com/2013/03/future-cars-2014-mazda3-hatchback-goes.html“, the publication posted the following update:

“UPDATE: The above illustration originally appeared on Carscoops as speculation on the next-gen Mazda3′s design. When we contacted Merrill Lynch to inquire about the image’s source, we were told the finance company doesn’t use renderings and only publishes images supplied by the manufacturer. When we asked Mazda about the image, the automaker refused to comment.”

Automobile magazine posted a similar update, while Autoweek has yet to change anything in its post that states, “The 2014 Mazda 3 hatchback was caught with no camouflage on the Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s annual “Car Wars” study.”

We sent an email to Motor Trend this morning asking for more information on the report, to which no one has replied to us yet – not that it matters, though, as we contacted an analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, who said the image was found on Google and was believed to be the real deal. Since it does appear to be an honest mistake, we gave permission for the use of our rendering in the report with the appropriate credits, of course.

By John Halas

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