I saw what I thought was a TL coming towards me this morning and when it got closer, I saw it was a Mazda6. The outlines of the grills on the two cars are virtually
the same. My question is, who copied whom?

 

The European Honda Accord (aka TSX) was released before the Mazda 6.

 

Mazda = biters

 

Well, it seems like a ton of car makers use a five sided grill, and that have been for a while. I don't think it's neccessarily a case of copying, but more a trend in auto design to have bigger grills. Since they're bigger, the cars look much more similar.

 

I have no idea how many times this topic will pop up.

It's true that the 5-point grille is pretty generic, but Honda had adopted it for its Acura brand before Mazda started using it as their look.

The earliest you saw it on Acura was for the 2nd gen TL, 1st gen RL, and 2nd gen CL.

The earliest you saw it on the Mazda was for the MPV minivan.

Mazda was using a trapezoidal grille with the logo sort of dangling from the top down, in the late 1990s:




You can sort of see the evolution of the new grille design in the 2000 Mazda MPV minivan, the Mazda logo had moved to the center of the grille:


Then in 2001 the 626 was sporting a true 5-point grille with the logo in the center:



Also the 2001 Mazda Millennia:



But Acura had also evolved into using the 5-point grille a couple of years earlier:
The 1995 Acura TL used a similar trapezoidal grille, but with the logo in the center:


But 1996 saw the 5-point grille on the first gen RL:


But Acura did not adopt it across the brand, as the CL, SLX, TL and Integra were not using the 5-point grille, even though the CL was a new model.
Until 1998, when the 2nd gen TL emerged:


Then the newer models, such as the CL, MDX, RSX were sporting the 5-point grille. But Acura was really using the 5-point grille plus the crease down the middle of the hood as its trademark look, whereas Mazda was only using the grille, only until recently with the 6 and the 3 did they also incorporate the crease down the middle of the hood.

So to recap, earliest you saw it on an Acura was 1996, with the first gen RL signaling the new Acura look. Earliest on a Mazda - 4 years later in 2000.

 

most people i know also feel that mazda is ripping off the sharp-pointed grill that acura uses today.

 

Noticed this since the Mazda 6's were all over the road. Didn't mind one bit though, since an attractive grill always brings forth similar designs.

Acura.