Leading Ford dealers are to be encouraged to help Mazda reorganise its UK network by taking some territories and installing shared facilities to cut costs.

James Muir, newly-appointed Mazda Motors UK managing director, wants to cut the number of sales points. “If we transferred our network to Ford, we would be commiting suicide,” he said.

“The 'blue oval' has less definition than Jaguar and Land Rover but there could be places where we would be able to work together with the 'Ford family'. Mazda would always want its own customer-facing facilities.”

Ford has a 33.4% stake in Mazda which ousted MCL and took over UK distribution on August 1.

Three of Mr Muir's directors have Ford connections: Steve Robertson (finance), Rob Lindley (marketing) and Phil Waring (worked for Quicks' Ford operation in Scotland). Jeremy Thomson (fleet and remarketing) joins from UK Car Rentals and Chris Jackson (aftersales) transfers from MCL.