I am not sure if you know, but all the vehicles sold in US have to meet tough EPA standards for emission, and DOT requires all cars to have reinforced bumpers, lets see... oh yeah... this one is really anal: all cars are to have a side marker in front of front wheel, and behind the rear wheel. Sometimes, there is an exception, when a side marker is build into the headlamp unit, like on all 3rd gen Protege Sedans, but Protege 5 was not so lucky, and got an orange side marker on its front bumper. So, as you can see, most manufacturers have to design a car from two perspectives, one for USA and one for the rest of the world. Mazdaspeed aparantly, designs their cars for the rest of the world first, and redesigning it for USA is probably too much trouble to go through (financially).