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We’ll give you the quick top-line October ’09 vs. ’08 results, and get the details as soon as I catch my breath:
Toyota and Honda sales were both less than 1% changed. Nissan had a 6% boost. Mazda slid 8%. Suzuki was off 50% (in the middle of major product cycle changes).
Stabilization is the word of the day but at still low levels.
[Update]: Mitsubishi joins its other co-declining Japanese soul-mate, Suzuki, with a 48% drop in October.
21 Comments on “Toyota, Honda, Nissan OK in October; Mazda, Mitsubishi, Suzuki Not [Updated]...”
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Mazda’s clown face grills would be enough to drop sales more than 8%.
Suzuki…Major product changes?
There’s nothing there. Kizashi won’t prevent this train wreck. 1745 units for October.
50Merc hit it on the head, or maybe just below the nose. If Mazda was smart they would change faster than you used to be able to say “B9 Tribeca”(hint).
Mazda’s clown face grills would be enough to drop sales more than 8%.
Their tie-in with Disney and lowering the driving age to 5 will turn that around.
As for Suzuki…hard to believe their North American ops are going to remain viable.
Everybody bitches about the “toyataification” of car designs and yet, here’s something that broke away from that and the hate just flows.
If I’m driving and glance at a, oh 07-09 Mazda 3, I usually have to take more than a glance to differentiate it from a Corolla. Not so with the 10 Mazda 3.
Love my grill.
Mazda, Mitsubishi and Suzuki all face a similar problem: They are me-to companies competing with much larger and very agressive competitors. I wouldn’t be surprised to see at least the last two completely gone from the US market some time in the next 18 months. Mazda at least has a couple of unique products and some enthusiast fan base, but I don’t think it is enough to sustain their North American effort.
I suspect that some of Hyundai’s gains have come directly out of the hides of Japan’s little three.
I suspect that some of Hyundai’s gains have come directly out of the hides of Japan’s little three.
I can’t speak to how it appears on both coasts but here in Flyover Country, Hyundai’s gains have come directly at the expense of the Big 2.8, across the board.
A decade ago, you never saw a Hyundai here. Nowhere, not even up the road an hour where a Hyundai dealer existed in the midst of a large, university town.
Now, people who ten years ago were driving mostly Chevies and various Chyco products have moved heavily into Hyundais, particularly over the last 3-4 years. These weren’t people driving Little Three vehicles prior.
Mazda’s always had a problematic existence here in North America. Really the only thing they sell that keeps them here is the Mazda 3. Too bad cuz the 6 is a great sedan. Everything else? You mean they sell something else? I rest my case.
Couldn’t agree more with grog on the last part. The 2 vehicles that stand out from the Mazda are the 3 and the 6. I hear good things about both. “Fun to ride” is one.
Other vehicles? Not so much…
Even Hyundai gets praise for the Elantra (sedan, touring), the Sonata, the Tucson/Santa Fe (ok, the latter gets love and hate), and the Genesis (sedan and coupe). Throw out few here and there that come and go and are less spoken of like the Tiburon and the Veracruz.
For every person that likes the new Mazda 3 clown grill there must be at least 100 that hate it. Damn shame they did that to such a nice car. Kept it off my shopping list and most likely I would have bought one. I believe the 3 is Mazda’s highest volume model in NA and they’ve virtually sale proofed it. The worst redesign ever, truly abominable styling.
Mazda sales peaked in the mid-1990s, right?
Mazda’s always had a problematic existence here in North America. Really the only thing they sell that keeps them here is the Mazda 3. Too bad cuz the 6 is a great sedan. Everything else? You mean they sell something else? I rest my case.
There’s probably a few people out there that have heard of the Miata, but the 3 is by far their best seller. I also love my Mazda6, but I really don’t care for the new exterior design of the 6. There was no reason to make it any bigger. I’m a big guy, and I find complaints that it was too small to be completely ludicrous. If a Mazda6 was too small for you, you are either a professional basketball player or really, really need to lose some weight.
They really ruined the Miata with that stupid grin, now it looks like a pokemon.
In states that require a front license plate, the new Mazda3 looks like a hick with one big tooth left.
The more I see the new Mazda 3 the more I like it. I still like my previous generation model better, but the new one is growing on me. I expect that they’ll tone the grille down during the mid-cycle refresh.
grog, DisturbedDriver and Demetri, my criticism of the clown-face grill theme was written in sadness, not anger. Five times I’ve bought a new Mazda and still have one. I want them to succeed. If my wife said, “let’s get a Mazda3” (or 5, or 6) we’d be driving one. But I just can’t bring myself to like that awful grin. Nor some of the other styling touches. (The colors are depressing, too.) Mazda seems to think it needs to have a little quirkiness in design to find their own market niche. It’s a far cry from, for example, the old 626’s with their elegant simplicity that didn’t grow old quickly. (And allowed one to see well to the front, rear and sides!) Interior trims tend to be garish, too.
I’d like to see a Mazda6 with the restrained good looks of a Sonata.
50merc :
“I’d like to see a Mazda6 with the restrained good looks of a Sonata.”
I think you meant to say the “restrained generic good looks of a Sonata.”
MX-5 is supposed to be a consistent success. Is it not?
Add my name to the growing list of Mazda restyling haters. The new 6 suffers from bloat and the overstyling typical of Nissan. The new 3 literally made me spit out a “What the hell?” when I first saw it. A damn shame, since the previous generations of these cars were some of my favorite modern designs, particularly the 3 hatch and the 2005-2008 6 with the aero bodywork. I also have to wave a flag for the 5, a wonderful minivan alternative that warrants much more interest. Of course, there’s also the RX-8, but Mazda’s prolonged fascination with the Wankel engine is misplaced for a niche player.
Come on Mitsubishi, hang in there! I don’t want to have to sell an orphaned Eclipse in a few years.
After my 2006 3 was totalled I didn’t buy a 2010 because of the design. Not only the grill but the rear lights. I went with a CX-7. Pretty happy for now. Where I live (Quebec) there’s a shitload of Mazdas.
rockit, you’re right. Generic it is. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. ;-)
Via Nocturna, I agree that the Wankel has been an unfortunate diversion of attention and resource. Mazda is too small to afford that.
Hi Grog,
It is possible to dislike both the the Mazda3 re-design and the toyotafication of modern cars. I’m happy you like it, which really is all that matters with your own car ownership, but the trend of made up corporate grills slapped on generic bubbles to artificially make them distinct usually does not yield great results.
As for the Mazda5, what a crazy-cool vehicle: 5-spd manual tranny, 6 passenger capacity/a whole junk load of cargo room with 2 rows folded down, all in a car (not a truck) thats actually decently fun to drive for some $20k! I’m a Euro-snob, but this is on my short-list to replace the Wife’s Mazda3…