Mazda3 takes sales lead as Australia’s No.1 car
February 4, 2009 by Matt Brogan
As we hinted earlier, VFACTS figures released today have shown the Mazda3 small car has pipped some more fancied rivals to become Australia’s top seller for the month of January.
Recording retail sales of 3124 units for that month, up 7.2 per cent month-on-month for 2008, it is the first time the Japanese brand has topped the sales charts in Australia in its 50 year history.
The Mazda3 sold strongly to push aside the other major small car challenger Toyota’s Corolla, which sold 2763 units for the month, and the traditional local favourite the Holden Commodore, which came in second with 3059 sales for January.
The Ford Falcon managed just 1630 sales and is in serious danger of being challenged by internal rival the Ford Focus, which recorded 1346 sales as Australians continued their swing towards small cars. In fact the Mitsubishi Lancer also almost toppled the Falcon, having sold 1625 units in January.
In total, 6532 Mazda passenger cars and commercials were retailed in January, netting Mazda third place overall with 9.7 per cent market share, a position it snared from global-part-owner Ford, which has slipped to fourth in the sales stakes.
“This is a fantastic result for the Mazda3 sedan and hatch range, though I think the market came to Mazda in January,” said Managing Director Doug Dickson. “Mazda3 averaged 3,131 retails in January 2007 and 2008, so in that context the 2009 result is nothing out of the ordinary. Of course, it’s pleasing to see that consumers have continued to vote for Mazda and for the Mazda3 in these challenging economic times. I think that’s a reflection of the innate value, reliability and enjoyment that Mazda injects into every car in our range.”
Mr Dickson said the Mazda3’s rise to the top of the sales charts was a fitting closing chapter for the outgoing Mazda3 as Mazda prepares to usher in the new-generation Mazda3 by mid-year.
“The new-generation Mazda3 will be even more attractive to Australian consumers than the Mazda3 that sits atop the sales charts today. It will be more fun-to-drive, more environmentally friendly, and even better value for money.”
NB – This article has been updated due incorrect supply of infomation from source. We apologise for any inconvenience.
Tags: Mazda3
NB – This article has been updated due incorrect supply of infomation from source. We apologise for any inconvenience.
Thank you gentlemen ;-)
You are still the best site to go to.
back on topic, congratulations to Mazda. A very well done effort.
That’s fantasic for Mazda and they deserve it aswell. Amazing too, that this model is soon to be replaced.
Congrats to Mazda.
Congrats to Car Advice for such a swift response to reader input.
Agreed Sean, it’s good to know they value the reader input. Congrats to Mazda, very impressive and deserved achievement.
Goes to show you the general public as quite silly when I comes to saving money/safety with no esp on current Mazda 3. The Mazda is a nice car to drive. but lacks a lot of features/warranty that other cars on the market
So much for resale now as the new one is due out in a few months. Poor 3124 Buyer who will be loosing a SHIRT LOAD of money when the new one arrives
yay for mazda!! :)
Hey Karen the esp is optional on all models except for the sp23 where it is standard.
Top selling car in January only because of the depressed market and the absence of any fleet sales for VE and FG. As you all are aware the VE is an out and out fleet based car, which is why ony 13000 of 51000 sold last year were to private buyers, so next month may be a different story. Great car though the Mazda 3.
Karen, get over yourself. Every car on sale is due for replacement at some point. Life goes on.
This is well deserved for Mazda.
Guys, the Commodore is 13 years of #1, not 15!
Kudos to Mazda, if this is what they have done with a obsolete Mazda3, just imagain what the new 3 can do!
NOT good if your trying to do deals though!
Lesson for Ford, now that have a idea what JoePublic wants to buy, NOT a Falcon just because your building it.
The Falcon can die, its sales to be replace by the as large Mondeo.
Back to a Japper Ute for me, or TheGeneral?
Cheers
F-0
Karen, just a little side bit for your comment. Unless you happen to have an F250 4×4 V8 Diesel, then unfortunately you have absolutely NO resale these days.
A website that cares about reader input, great work guys.
Congrats to Mazda, a job well done in the current climate.
Resales values, come on Karen, the market is depressed, all manufactures are doing whatever they can to move metal, resale values are all going to take a beating, model being replaced or not.
Well deserved Mazda.
Didn’t the big T raise prices in January? Seems to have worked well for them – not.
Reckless1: Its funny you mention the price rise as Mazda have also raised their prices but I guess didn’t have the same effect.
New pricing is only applicable to 09 plated models, theres still tons of 08 models to move before they even get to the 09’s
Well done Mazda and get the new SP25 here as quick as you can.
Congrats Mazda keep the good cars coming. Can’t wait for the new model 3 to roll out.
Great news for Mazda and well deserved. The Mazda 3 is great mid small car and it shows that this model is still popular….bring on the new one and especially the MPS.
Ah, people still haven’t caught on to that fact that the Falcon is a better car. Silly, silly people.
Good job Mazda. Knocking Toyota off the top is an achievement. By quite a large number as well.
The best thing to come out of these figures for January is that the Corolla is no longer the best selling small car in Australia.
YAY, lets all celebrate !!!!!!!!
The public has spoken and they much prefer the Mazda 3 over the boring Corolla.
The figures also highlight how the Corolla relies heavily on fleets sales for now.
But what’s even more pleasing to know come next year Holden will be releasing their all-new Australian built small car, a large number of those fleets will be made to switch over to the locally built Holden rather than a full imported Corolla.
COROLLA’S DAYS ARE NUMBERED !!!!!!!!!!!
Did I just read that the new Mazda 3 will be even better value for money?
Does this mean a cheaper price, or added extras for a similar price?
Mazda Magic!!!
Good to see. This is what happens when you build a car with reliability, style and fun to drive elements into one, affordable little car!! I think this is one of the best Mazda’s to date.
BTW Karen, DSC is avaliable on all models, at least, optional is better than nothing!
The next model could be worthy of Mazda’s 1980’s tangline ‘Making Great Cars Better’ as they are certainly doing that with all the 2nd gen zoom zoom models.
Well folks get use to it because this is the future size car for the nuclear family 2 plus 1 , we dont need hulks to haul us a round .
The shrinking fleet market is going to rip the guts out of the numbers in the traditional big car market, in a recession .
Fuel will continue to rise in price so get used to it dudes maz 3, golfs ,astras ,focus thats where the growth will be .
yeah, great to see the magnificent mazda3 finally topple the crappy corolla and gain its rightful spot, my brothers glad i convinced him to buy the mazda over the crapolla, couldnt be happier.
Nice car the 3 is but I will tell you all that the Focus is better…….now if Ford only got its publicity into order the Focus could be the top seller in the future. Nice to know that the Mazda 3 is a Ford in disguise!!
And the fall of the Australian car industry is slowly starting to cruble. Actually, who am I kidding…its been crumbling for the past 5 years.
Good work Mazda, but lets just hope the Falcon/Commodore brigade can still sell a good amount of cars to keep the Aussie industry afloat.
Karen,
The 3124 who bought the Mazda 3 will be happy in comaprison to the 3059 who bought the Commodore. Try and sell either of those cars in six months when the new model is released and I would bet that the Mazda would be worth quite a few thousand more.
Ok so the commodor is pretty successful otherwise nothing in their current range sells close to either the focus or Mazzy 3. Why? the Astra is a good car but soooo many complain about warranty issues and reliability and expensive repairs and disc made of sponge cake. You think they would realise by now.
Hows the falcon not selling so well and how many cmpared to Mondeo’s.
Hey Focused, the Focus uses the Mazda’s 2.0 engine :)
I think their both good cars.
Hey zoom zoom…….If it wasnt for Ford Mazda wouldnt exist AT ALL! THey saved them from going under years ago. The Mazda 3 and Mazda 2 use a Ford platform.
Everything that Ford controlled became bad and Mazda was ok for a while so they left the control of Ford and began to build some good, stylish models that make-up their line-up today. And Mazdas are not designed by Ford designers.
Deags……Mazda use alot of Ford designed stuff. The new ute coming soon will be sold as a Mazda and a Ford and it was designed by Ford Australia. Even though Ford recently sold alot of its stake in Mazda, but kept 13%, the model, design and platform sharing between the two companies will not change at all. When did Mazda leave Ford control? They didnt……like I said …..if not for Ford Mazda would not exist AT ALL.
This proves how much the corolla relies on fleet sales and how much the mazda 3 doesn’t…
Cupid,
Falcon: 1630 sales in Jan, up 30% on 08
Mondeo: 317 sales in Jan, down 14% on 08.
Also, sales of locally made cars:
Ford: 2793, -8.1%
Holden: 3849, -13%
Toyota: 1799, -32.1%
With Camry 4cy -18% and Camry V6 (Aurion) -48% it would appear that much of the public have woken up to the Camry V6/Aurion scam.
Thommo, Govco doesn’t buy cars in January, they are still on holidays…. :-)
Focused
But why did Ford invest into Mazda because they could see a winner out of this marker….no loyal Mazda owner denies that Ford helped out Mazda in the 90’s but over the last 10yrs Mazda has been quite nicely on its own. Can’t say much about Ford as selling some shares back to Mazda for some much needed cash tells you that the circle has gone around. As for the model sharing its nice to see that Mazda now holds the advantage as a better looking car and evidence shows that in Oz the Focus and Fiesta wont be a threat. With the all new 3 on its way Mazda will bend over backwards to keep its market share on song. The control of Mazda is now back into their on court with Ford still having a say but not as a share holder not a controlling interest. Look back to the 80/90 and if it wasn’t for Mazda Ford would have had nothing….no small car Laser, no commercials Trader, Courier, Econovan…..bottom line is that Mazda has come out of there problems and they are making fantastic cars and moving on with Ford lagging behind…
Zoom Zoom Zoom…….
Frontman, yeah I’m very aware of that, I was just answering a question from Cupid S.
Also, in a declining market, sales of locally made cars weren’t actually that bad (Mazda 3 was just v good, Mazda 6 was a dissaster though _36%).
I was also just pointing out that some large cars (Falcon +30%, Commodore -4.7) fared well in a segment that droped 10% (compard to all passenger cars which dropped 18%), and that others did not (Camry V6/Aurion -48%).
Well done mazda and the oz buying public for finally realising that there are better small cars out their than a corolla. As to Fords results, well as a Ford man I’m disappointed, but with Jan typically being the month where large fleet purchases are just not done, the sales figures are a good snapshot of sales to the public rather than companies. And Falcon still sold three times more than the Aurion (small win I know).
Personally the reason I don’t have a new falcon, and i suspect a few people share my problem, is simply the resale value. I don’t earn enough to be able to buy a car every 4 – 5 years, knowing that when I go to sell it I’ll get bugger all for it, which leaves the only option of keeping it until it dies in 10 – 15 years, at which point who knows what petrol will be worth. I guess the only way to prop up resale values is to stop selling to fleets and creating oversupply, but then Ford won’t get the volume required to be profitable. If Ford could fast track the start of Focus production, that would allow them to downscale Falcon (and territory) production to stop the oversupply.
Thommo,
Cheers for those figures :)
Shows Ford OZ is doing well with local sales compared to Holden and Toyota.
Focused, Ford do not own the platform. It is a global platform that the Focus/3/S40 use. All three own it. Same goes for Fiesta/2 platform.
Since Ford sold its shares and now has 13%, they gave away their controlling power. Ford has no control over Mazda whatsoever now. They still continue to work together to the best of their ability because of their success as an alliance.
ozmazdaclub…….are you serious? or stupid? without Ford there WOULD BE NO MAZDA ……FACT! They took them from a company building crap cars to a good company now. Without Fords engineering expertise and money Mazda would be nowhere. The model, engineering and platform sharing benefits both companies and will continue to do so.
So go hop in your Mazda3 with the knowledge that not only does it ride on a FORD platform but also FORD money and FORD engineering, like many models in the future will as well.
Funny how Ford saved Mazda but Ford can’t save themselves.
Maybe now Mazda will return the favour :)
Thommo Says:
February 5th, 2009 at 11:17 am
Yeah ;-) my comment was more in support and as to why Toyota crashed.
ZoomZoom, actually Ford DO own the platforms. But seeing as (at the time) Ford owned Mazda, Volvo & Jaguar it was not a problem to share. The part you are missing about the sell off of Mazda is that now Ford don’t have to foot the majority of the developement costs for Mazda’s platforms (these costs are split up by the expect units sold and Focus outsells 3 & S40 threefold). However, because they are still a major shareholder there will still be cross model sharing but Ford can actually charge more for the technology. The engines were the main point of interest for Ford from Mazda but they now have their own to use so even that will not be of concern. Mazda whilst doing well in Aust and Okay in the US (comparatively) is struggling globally and domestically so it was a good time for Ford to jump. Rather than wait to long as with Volvo.
Focused,
Ford gave Mazda access to a global parts bin and a broader market to subsidise the R&D Mazda needed to do, to remain competitive. No question Ford got Mazda out of a hole after they grew too quickly, suffered losses and then went ultra conservative in their cars. Something that cost them a lot of sales in Australia for example. Ford initially saw them as a cheap and cheerful car company (the American view), but to the credit of Ford management, when the brand continued to decline they saw the value in letting Mazda get back to its roots and build cars with a driver emphasis.
Mazda have also clearly been clever enough to keep the core of Mazda safe from Ford accountants, which is why we still have cars like the RX8 – something that is completely alien to American tastes.
Having said all that, Ford also recognised and profited from the simple fact that Mazda are dam good at whatever they do and giving them the cash and access to some resources from Ford would be good for both.
That partnership has been good for both brands.
All that said, Mazda are clearly out of their troubles. They have reidentified what they are about and who they appeal to and produced the product that suits that market. Where they have identified Ford parts they could use and improve on to control costs they have. Where they had to engineer something and could get Ford to subsidise that development, they have. Where they needed to reengineer a component that was Ford sourced, so it works in a Mazda to the specifications Mazda has for its cars, they have done that also.
Case in point. My Mazda 6 MPS has Fomoco branded parts on it to be sure. But one drive of the car, tells you it is not a Ford product. It is much a Mazda in how it performs, drives and is built as any Mazda I had from the 90’s or 80’s.
Ford have profited greatly from their partnership from Mazda and thats good enough reason for them to want to continue it – especially now Ford is in the middle of its own crisis and struggling to remain viable.
If Mazda were to withdraw from any collaboration with Ford it would be a complete disaster for Ford. They are heavily dependent on Mazda engineering input for many of their mainstream products and to help offset costs for R&D on small and medium cars. Fortunately for both brands it simply makes no sense for them to do anything but continue to collaborate.
For all of that make no mistake. Mazda have got their independence back and have their own DNA in their cars, where it counts.
Thanks for that info Frontman but could you state the source you got your info from about the platforms.
Mazda isn’t what you call struggling at the moment. It just isn’t that big a company to be able to produce the huge amounts of vehicles other companies like Ford, Holden, Toyota or even Honda and Nissan can.
I agree that in other markets like Europe demand isn’t that strong for Japanese vehicles which is where the Focus gets so many sales.
ZOOM ZOOM Ford will be ok……thay havent asked for any handouts to keep them going like Mazda did with Ford. Mazda might be doing ok in Australia, although all they have is a larger share of a very much smaller market in Jan…… but they are not much good in Europe which is a huge market. I would say that the Focus would murder Mazda in sales figures over there. Japan is causing concern for them as well. So dont open your mouth and brag about one month of sales leadership because things change quickly these days. Any want to bet that the 3 wont be sales leader in February?
ZZ, my information comes through my work, my associates working for Ford Eu & Volvo Eu (all three in R&D) and other acssociates I have working in R&D fields with several companies. As you would understand I will not name names or such for my own benefit ;-).
Mazda is actually “struggling” (for want of a better way to put it). Whilst they aren’t suffering the same downturn that Toyota have, they didn’t have the metoric rise like fellow companies Honda & Subaru had during the early Naughties. Their domestic arm finally showed a moderate growth through parts of last year, but that slowed with the climate. Now I am not saying they are anywhere near as effected as Toyota, but the effect is comensurate with the size of the company. N.B they will be okay at the end, they will come out with less damage than Honda.
Daniel,
Some of what you say is true, some was true and some of it you have been misinformed about.
In the early days Ford profited heavily out of the union. Particularly in Aust and other asian markets. Remember the days of when it wasn’t a Falcon it was a Mazda?? But around 10 years ago things started to change. Bravo got more and more American input, Tribute was derived from the Escape, 3 was the test bed for the Focus, 6 and Mondeo (even the version we didn’t get in Aust) and CX9 is off the Edge platform and showcasing the Duratec V6 engine.
So as you can see the balance has gone very much the other way. As to the re engineering of parts to Mazda specification, why would you think they need o do that when Ford is actually rated higher than Mazda in public opinion right throughout Europe these days (actually for over 5 years now)?
I can’t work out why Focused is so upset/defensive. If Mazda is as Ford as he says it is, then he should be happy that the “FORD Focus in a different suit” was the biggest selling car for the month. I think Focused needs to take a chill pill and be happy that vehicle sharing much of his beloved Focus’ (no-one else could be this emotional about the subject if they didn’t own one) chassis etc is going so well. (Even though the Focus engine is Mazda designed with a Ford specific head to satisfy Ford’s ‘driving characteristics’) Stop living in the past and move on, there is not point loosing sleep over it. Both the companies are good for each other. Ford with their chassis expertise/base etc and Mazda with their skill at designing their bread and butter, small 4 cyl engines. Why else did Ford stipulate that no company with ties to other manufacturers can purchase the shares they were selling? Ford still sees the value in Mazda and how it can help it survive. Let’s all shake hands and be happy little Vegemites that part of the FoMoCo had a win!! :-)
Hey Focused, with many fleet buyers gone, Commodore, Falcon and Corolla sales will no longer be strong for a long time. The Mazda3 has been and is a favourite for private buyers and even in its sixth year, sales had not dropped. It is very likely the Mazda3 will be the most popular car in February, seeing that buyers are looking for smaller cars and Mazda will be doing deals to get rid of their stock for the new model to arrive.
Btw, since when had the Ford Focus been a top seller in Australia eh?
Ford first bought into Mazda in the early 80s when they realized Mazda made great, (1981 Wheels COTY Mazda 323) small class cars that were cheap to produce because they could see the potential back then and they reaped the benefits (dual COTY winners twice with the 626/Telstar, both Mazda platforms) and the profits.
Seems Ford did actually learn something from Mazda.
Actually it was the late 70s Ford invested in Mazda and the 323 was 1980 COTY. MY bad!
anti spam = ford