Comments on: Mazda3 takes sales lead as Australia’s No.1 car

By: Falcodore

Falcodore — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 00:25:36 +0000

Actually it was the late 70s Ford invested in Mazda and the 323 was 1980 COTY. MY bad!

anti spam = ford

By: Falcodore

Falcodore — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 13:12:42 +0000

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.

By: Deaggers(Deags)

Deaggers(Deags) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 10:14:42 +0000

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?

By: Devil's Advocate

Devil's Advocate — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 09:46:25 +0000

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!!

By: Frontman

Frontman — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 05:15:02 +0000

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)?

By: Focused

Focused — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 04:20:44 +0000

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?

By: ZoomZoom

ZoomZoom — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 03:48:24 +0000

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.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 03:44:57 +0000

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.

By: Frontman

Frontman — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 03:16:25 +0000

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.

By: ZoomZoom

ZoomZoom — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 02:16:03 +0000

Funny how Ford saved Mazda but Ford can’t save themselves.
Maybe now Mazda will return the favour