Mazda Route3: Day Three

Surprises in Warsaw… No, not the name of an electronic Euro band, rather, they’re what greeted the Mazda Route3 crew in the Polish capital.

The Hiroshima-Vladivostok-Frankfurt test drive rested for a day in Warsaw, using the time to see a little of the city and meet one of Poland’s most famous sons.

The lay day was cleverly factored in by Route3 road captain and organiser, Rainer Flesch. I write ‘cleverly’ because in planning the nine-time-zone drive, Flesch built in the Warsaw ‘rest’ day as buffer in case of border crossing problems.

And, as we’ve written already, that’s what beset Route3 at the Belarus-Poland border. Indeed, as this update is published four days later, two of the eight Mazda3s remain in the former Soviet state. It’s now highly likely they’ll find a permanent home there… Fortunately the same can’t be said for their drivers – they made to Warsaw a day late.

Warsaw was a much more pleasant surprise – and one that didn’t entail hours in no-man’s land. A colourful, vibrant city of real character, it was the opposite of what I’d been expecting. In place of a grey, severe Soviet-style metropolis, we discovered wide avenues and attractive streetscapes lined with buildings which appear from a spectrum of styles and periods.

And ‘appear’ is the key word here.

The kicker is that almost all of Warsaw had to be rebuilt after WWII. Flattened in the final years of the conflict, the Warsaw that Route3 visited is the result of a centrally-planned rebuilding program which took place under communist rule.

Even the UNESCO-listed ‘Old Town’ is in fact new. Despite being completely rebuilt over nearly 20 years directly following WWII, it has the look, feel and patina of the older sections of ‘unmolested’ cities like Prague and Geneva.

While there are certainly still Soviet-style government offices, there’s a certain irony in how the Poles have chosen to re-purpose them. What was once the building that housed the Central Committee of the Polish Communist Party is now the Polish Stock Exchange – complete with Ferrari dealership and other high-end retail stores.

The classically dominant Stalinist style Palace of Culture and Science skyscraper, still Warsaw’s highest building, meanwhile draws mixed reviews from locals. Some want it knocked down for what it represents. Like its Seven Sisters in Moscow, it looks like a millionaire villain’s lair -- straight from the comic books.

In the main, however, what was planned to be a perfect socialist city was carried out using classically styled architectures. The communist experiment may not have worked in economic and human terms but the architectural legacy it left in Warsaw is truly impressive and well worth the visit.

Our day in Warsaw worked in helping unite the group and form partnerships that would carry Mazda Route3 to a close. Away from the confines of the cockpits, the camaraderie was building. Not Stockholm Syndrome exactly…

Not just motoring journalists -- Mazda ‘affiliates’ were also along for the ride. One of the most charismatic was Vincenzo Guerini, manager of Florence’s Mazda-sponsored Serie-A and UEFA Europa League soccer team, ACF Fiorentina.

Although Vincenzo spoke only Italian, he quickly became one of the shining stars of the squad. Think Kevin Sheedy with better dress sense and you’ll get the idea… Sorry, Sheeds…

Route3’s arrival in Warsaw also coincided with the fifth anniversary of the manufacturer’s entry into the Polish market in its own right. In true eastern European tradition, a party in the offing for the evening – complete with electronic ska band, Poland’s version of Madness with head-banging and disco Polka!

The celebration was even set to kick off with the six remaining Mazda Route3 cars taking the lead of a street parade of more than 100 Mazdas from the marque’s enthusiastic Polish auto club scene.

Before those gems, however, Mazda had another surprise in store.

Our city tour finished at Poland’s largest park and palace complex, Lazienki Królewskie (Royal Baths). The Botanical Gradens-style oasis covers around 75 hectares in the heart of Warsaw and once was the home to Polish royalty.

We expected lunch in the garden. What we didn’t expect was to be sharing it with modern Polish ‘royalty’, former Polish president, Nobel Laureate and arguably the ‘father’ of modern Eastern European democracy, Lech Walesa.

No, he is not a Mazda Poland club member, rather Mazda had signed as a key corporate partner of the World Summit of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates and another Walesa initiation which would see young leaders meet as an adjunct to the main program.

But a car company tying up with the Nobel Peace prize? Purely, it’s just a publicity stunt?

We didn’t get to ask the man from Gdansk himself but later at the Mazda Poland party on the banks of the Vistula River (literally under Warsaw’s own version of the ANZAC Bridge, The Swietokrzyski), Mazda Europe boss Jeff Guyton told motoring.com.au the Nobel and Walesa tie-up was real and from it he expected results.

Mazda’s market share across Europe averages around one per cent. Though consumers have a strong idea of what the brand stands for in markets like Australia (where Mazda has 10 times that share), that’s not the case in Poland and other European countries.

“We want to position Mazda as a challenger brand. We simply don’t have the money to advertise nameplates across Europe – even one as important as Mazda3. All our communication is about the brand,” Guyton said.

“When we looked at President Walesa’s initiative we discovered many shared values. This isn’t just about giving an event some cars,” Guyton told motoring.com.au.

“We have to give drivers of entry-level models from established prestige European brands permission to buy a Mazda.

“If that’s a message they get from a partnership like this one with the Nobel Laureates conference, then it’s worked,” Guyton said.

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