The best thing that ever happened to Mazda was its divorce from Ford. After a bunch of greedy bankers dunked the world into the Great Recession, Ford decided to trim some of the fat to keep operating costs down. It slowly started selling its 33.4% share of Mazda in 2008, and by 2014 it was down to just 2.1%. A year later, Ford rid itself of all its shares, which may have been a bad move considering Mazda’s upward trajectory since then.
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