zoom44

Mazda sold over 10k automobiles in th UK in March
The rest of the story here
http://www.itv-motoring.com/news/2006/april/04/9133.asp

rotary crazy

in a couple of minutes theres going to be a few guys here sayng that the rx-8 is going ro be discontinued and that mazda its broke, and that world sales doest make a diference only US sales

saturn

That is insane. I guess people in the UK really do listen to Jeremy Clarkson after all.

Anyways, the only reason some of us look specifically at the US sales is because that's where we live. If Mazda sells 10 times more units in little ole UK than in all of the North America who do you think they're going to be catering to in the future? All it does is prolong the slow death of the current generation RX-8 and give Mazda further reason to keep it the same (meaning no FI with little low-end torque).

I for one, don't want a tiny car that the RX-7 would be if and when it comes out. With their success in Europe, they're likely to cater to the Europeans and give them a small, nimble successor to the RX-8. Some may cheer for that, but I don't think the US market wants or will support that in terms of sales.

RotoRocket

iTrader: (1)

2006s are being delivered.

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

wow, that's awesome!

rotary crazy

ASH8

Mazda is having record sales in almost ALL of Europe...Italy, Germany, Greece, Spain,etc,etc.

It all started with the Mazda 6 launch in Italy 4/5 years or so ago.

The Mazda 2, then the Mazda 3, Mazda 5, RX-8 and MX-5.
With soon the all new CX-7 and CX-9 to come!
Add to that China's massive sales, Mazda Japan are going flat out in some cases there are distribution/ordering hold ups for some model lines in Europe.

Here in OZ the last 4 years have been record making ones for Mazda Australia.

I admit to being a one eyed ex-Mazda manager, you have to admit that at the moment Mazda has one of the best vehicle line ups of ANY car manufacturer.

QBallz

I wonder if they have better Marketing in Europe.

saturn

Mazda may be doing well in North America -- I've never even checked. All I care aboot is the RX-8 and it's doing pretty **** poor over here. I blame manifest destiny.

New Yorker

Sigh… I'm moving to England. How nice it must be to live in a place where people over the age of 17 aren't obsessed with torque and quarter-mile times. Where car enthusiasts actually know and appreciate the one thing that really make a car special: the way it feels when you drive it on a fabulous, challenging road. (Needless to say, that road is not straight.)

saturn

There's a reason for that -- they don't have any roads that are long and straight. I get so tired of this "oh English people get it". No, they just know where they live. They don't want cars that are hard to drive down windy roads because their entire roadway system is tight compact city roads and winding country roads. A lot of us live in areas that have long, flat, straight roads. There's nothing wrong with us buying cars for where we live. I for one would have to go way out of my way to find a road that would be challenging for any car, much less a sports car.

New Yorker

Good point. That would also explain why straight line monsters seem to be more prevalent as you get closer and closer to the middle of our country, where you can drive 3 hours before making a turn. It would also explain why cars from Detroit—and bikes from Milwaukee—tend to be designed more for straight roads than curvy ones.