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Location: New Albany, Indiana (Greater Louisville)
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I was looking over the Wall Street Journal's monthly auto sales and was surprised how poorly Mazda sells in the USA. So far in 2016 all Mazda's sold in the USA is 173k, which is less than the number of Nissan Rouges that have sold. Mazda is only doubling up horrible Mitsubishi. I've always perceived Mazda has being good in reliability and fun, sporty. That seems like a good recipe for sales, so what's wrong with Mazda?
I was looking over the Wall Street Journal's monthly auto sales and was surprised how poorly Mazda sells in the USA. So far in 2016 all Mazda's sold in the USA is 173k, which is less than the number of Nissan Rouges that have sold. Mazda is only doubling up horrible Mitsubishi. I've always perceived Mazda has being good in reliability and fun, sporty. That seems like a good recipe for sales, so what's wrong with Mazda?
The Mazda dealer network in the US is not as good as the competition and historically parts for Mazda vehicles have also been more expensive. Also, overall build quality lags the competition as Mazda vehicles tend to rust out faster than just about any other brand, particularly in areas that use more road salt. Those are the big ones that I can think of right off the bat.
I bought a Mazda truck way back in 1985 and thought it was a reliable vehicle at a reasonable price. Many years later, my husband bought a 1994 Protoge used and it ran the gauntlet doing commuter duty. Both were good vehicles, but in both situations (Boston area and Denver area, many years apart), dealers were relatively scarce.
If they made what I want in my next vehicle, I would definitely put that on the short list.
Mazda's tend to be geared to those people who love to drive which means the ride is a bit firmer then other Japanese car makers & it means mileage is going to suffer some as well. You either LOVE Mazda's or hate them. I love them myself! I've said this once before & will say it again. Mazda's are the German cars when it comes to Japanese cars.
The Mazda dealer network in the US is not as good as the competition and historically parts for Mazda vehicles have also been more expensive. Also, overall build quality lags the competition as Mazda vehicles tend to rust out faster than just about any other brand, particularly in areas that use more road salt. Those are the big ones that I can think of right off the bat.
It's understandable that the premature rust problem still makes people apprehensive, especially up North. The 1st-generation Mazda3 had horrible rust problems in the Northern U.S. and Canada. But the 2nd-gen (2010-2013) and the current car have had no such issues.
Despite the rust issue being fixed, it will haunt Mazda for years. It's much like what the Olds V8 Diesel did to make Americans despise diesel engines. For decades, we didn't have any diesel cars in this country.
The overall build quality (and quality of materials, especially the parts you see and touch inside) is actually top notch on all models now. The Mazda3 can hold its own against the Honda Civic and VW Golf. Many car media sites have said that the Mazda3 uses better materials than any of the others now. It has been called the "working man's (or woman's) BMW)".
The turning point for Mazda was regaining control of their own company. That happened when Ford gave up controlling interest by selling a large part of their Mazda stock in 2008 and 2010. Ford originally partnered with Mazda and bought 7% of the company in 1979. In May 1996, they acquired enough stock to reach the 33.4% mark, which gave them controlling interest. They placed an American as president of Mazda and the company suffered or was limited in numerous ways while under Ford's control.
In November 2008, Ford sold 20% and reduced their stake in Mazda to 13.4%. The Japanese regained control of the company and began developing new vehicles and innovative technology for them. Ford sold another 10.4% of their stake in 2010, reducing their ownership to just 3% of the company. To Ford's credit, the sale of their Mazda stock (along with the sale of Volvo, Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover) was their answer to the recession instead of taking a government bailout like GM and Chrysler.
The following are Mazda's three MAJOR weaknesses-
Mazda is a much smaller company than Honda, Toyota or Renault-Nissan. They have limited resources for product research and development. Despite that, they have managed to turn out some of the best models in their respective segments in the past few years. The Mazda3, Mazda6, CX-5 and CX-9 should all sell in much higher numbers than they do. The Mazda3 and CX-5 were the company's top sellers in 2015- 107,885 units of the Mazda3 and 111,450 units of the CX-5 were sold in the U.S. But in comparison, Honda sold triple the number of Civics as the Mazda3 and Ford sold almost triple the number of Escapes as the CX-5.
Mazda's single greatest liability is the size of its dealer network! I am the very happy owner of a 2006 Mazda3 5-door and a 2012 CX-9 GT. I love them both, but I hate the fact that I'm 50-60 miles from the two nearest dealers. Ford, Toyota, Chevrolet, Nissan and even Hyundai/Kia have a lot more dealers than Mazda. For some shoppers, the only models they consider may be the ones at nearby dealerships.....and Mazda misses out on that.
Mazda's final area of weakness is the blatant lack of effective marketing. Brand awareness exists largely among return customers and in car enthusiast circles. To much of the general public, Mazda isn't even considered because they simply don't think or know about the vehicles that Mazda offers. I honestly think that a LOT of buyers would choose a CX-5 over a Ford Escape if they drove both. The same goes for the Mazda3 and pretty much any other car in the compact class.
Still, Mazda posted the highest profit in the company's history for 2014- $1.88 billion. They sold a total of 319,184 units here in 2015. 219k of those 319k were the Mazda3 and CX-5. The Mazda6, MX-5 Miata, Mazda5 and CX-9 made up the remaining 100k.
2016 YTD sales (thru July) aren't far off of the 2015 totals. YTD sales are trailing by 12,884, but they may be able to close that gap by the end of this year. YTD sales of the Mazda3 are lower this year by 4,898 cars, the Mazda6 is 9,344 less than last year and the now discontinued Mazda5 was responsible for 6,489 units in 2015. The CX-5 is almost identical to last year and the new subcompact CX-3 CUV has added 11k to this year's total. The CX-9 is down for 2016 by 4,924 units, but that will definitely change by the end of the year. They introduced a new CX-9 (the previous model was introduced in 2006 as a 2007, with a facelift in 2010 and 2013) which has received rave reviews. It has been selling as fast as they can ship them for the last few months.
Over the last 18-24 months, Mazda officials have repeatedly stated that they want to 'upmarket' Mazda. They want it to be considered a 'premium' brand, somewhere between Honda/Toyota and BMW/Lexus. Kind of like the oddball position that Volvo occupies, but not quite as expensive. They have the product capable of doing it. The question is- can they expand their dealer network and increase brand awareness?
Sorry this has been so long, but I had way too much useless Mazda information stuck in my head that I had to share!
Wife and I have had 4 Mazdas...all very good. We've also had even more Hondas which were all very good. I think Mazda has never quite figured out how they wanted to be marketed....low, medium, high. They seem to currently be focused on the middle of the market and have IMO better vehicles than their competitors with the 6 and 3. The new CX-9 seems like it may be the best in its market and we are thinking of buying one. At one time, I think Mazda and Honda were pretty close in terms of sales but Honda was focused on winning their segments with the Civic & Accord and Mazda has never caught them since.
I agree with others that dealer network is another problem for Mazda.
Mazda's tend to be geared to those people who love to drive which means the ride is a bit firmer then other Japanese car makers & it means mileage is going to suffer some as well. You either LOVE Mazda's or hate them. I love them myself! I've said this once before & will say it again. Mazda's are the German cars when it comes to Japanese cars.
I bought mine for exactly that reason! The ride was firmer and better "planted" than the other trucks I test drove. Yah, this was discernable even among trucks. And I told my husband his used Protege handled much better than the other vehicles we tried. The ever-popular Corollas we got as rental cars felt like they would trip over their own front ends on road curves even at just 25 mph, where the speed limit dropped to 20 mph...which almost nobody obeyed.
. . . The Mazda3 can hold its own against the Honda Civic and VW Golf. !
Thank you for that large data dump, but I have to wonder here. Any comparison to VW puts a car in the worst reliability / maintenance / affordability category AFAIC. Whereas Hondas are almost in the same category as Toyotas.
As for Mazdas, I know this much. In MA, looking for a used car not so long ago, I put Mazdas high on the list, because I like 4 bangers that are fun to drive. But every one I looked at seemed to have more maintenance issues than similarly aged Toyotas and Hondas. In addition, I was not happy with what I perceived as a relatively low real-life mpg rating. They just didn't do that well - like low 20's, and they should definitely be better than that. So, it seemed like I always ended up with too many questions - and never bought one.
Maybe new ones are better, but I wasn't shopping for new, so IDK.
I use to have an 06 Mazda 3s and loved it. Sold it at 130k when the tranny went.
Problem I see with Mazda is that it's a bit overpriced compared to its rivals who have a cult following (Honda & Toyota). While shopping with a female friend for her first car, she fell in love with the 2016 Mazda 3 GT. What she didnt love was the price of almost 30 grand fully equipped. She ended up settling for a fully loaded Nissan Sentra SR for around $21k out the door. Sure it doesnt have the driving dynamics of the Mazda but she can care less about that. Its her first car and she went solely on looks and price.
I see a bunch of Mazdas on the road in different models and trims. Maybe, overall, they don't sell very well, but in certain regions, I think they're pretty popular.
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