RCCAZ 1

Everyone,

I know that Mazda stated earlier that they would need to sell about 30,000 U.S. Model RX-8s to support their business plan. I've heard rumors that the number of presale cars has been fairly low. Anyone have sources with reliable presale numbers?

mdmaclean

It is hard to sell cars when you don't even have one for people to sit in. I think that once some cars are on the road and in showrooms, then sales can firm up.

-Mark

P00Man

i thoguth presales were more than expected?
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Fix ps3

Elara

Mazda is planning on selling 30k cars a year in the US. Since we're already halfway through the year, they're only looking at 15k at the most for 2003. No one knows what the actual presale numbers were, but I doubt they were all THAT low. A couple thousand delivered in the first couple months of the car's release should be plenty.

Also, they are starting a major advertising blitz for the car starting in the fall, AFTER the majority of the pre-orders are delivered. I'd expect we'll start seeing sales numbers jump around Nov-Dec.

donaldc

Hi,

Mazda salesman at the drive day in Melbourne, Australia said that in Australia they had 340 presales/orders. The earliest being one guy who put his money down in 1999.

Donald

TJRX8

With VINs in the high 7k's (or higher) they must have sold close to the many already. No?
I think I saw some where that the pre-order was limited to around 5K, based on dealer allocation.

Elara

You know, I didn't think about that, but you're right. My car is in the second allocation and is in the 6000 range..so they must have had a ton of pre-orders.

RotoRooter

I think pre-order numbers are definately low. Every delaer has less than 5 pre-orders in the first 2 allocations, and some even less. People want to see the car, check out the doors, and rev the engine. . . plus expensive options like the GT pakage and Navi are worth seeing before buying for the majority of recession-Americans. The VIN number do not tell you the number of pre-orders, remember that dealer inventory and pre-order cars are made together (about 50/50) so that at most they have around 3000 - 3500 preorders nationwide. And for what it is worth, why should someone like ibfubar or elara or tripwire or myself preorder when anybody off the street will be able to testdrive and buy an Rx-8 for MSRP or slightly lower in about 3-4weeks, while my SPECIAL PREORDER is still on the water or at port?


My friend from Tampa who ordered his car a week ago, has his coming in today or tomorrow! My preorder from Feb. is somewhere is the Panama Canal!

jdj1971

I seem to recall a press release back in May when they launched in japan that stated the presell #'s. I think it was in the neighborhood of 1500 in the US and something like 5000 in japan. Rather disappointing #'s for the US I'd think.

ggreen29

A salesman at Irvine (Calif) says that they've got 25 RX8s on order and all of 'em are sold. Maybe it was bluster...we'll see soon.

Puppy1

I would think the reason Japan had so many more than the U.S. is that the RX-7 (only avaible in Japan) over the last few years has proven that the rotary is a great enigine. Mazda had long since worked out the problems with the twin turbo that plagued the 3rd gen cars sold in the states before 1995.

RCCAZ 1

The 1500 number seems to make sense. I spoke with a friend of mine last night with VERY close ties to Mazda and he said the number was between 1300 to 1500 presales. VINs have nothing to do with actual number of sales from what I understand.

I also agree with everyone else that Mazda SHOULD have taken care of their presale customers FIRST. These people are their "enthusiast" base and to a large extent drive future sales by word of mouth if they're happy and well taken care of. I may be missing something here, but this is not rocket science. It just seems like common sense to take care of your most loyal customers, ahhh but what the hell do I know!

Unfortunately it's something that corporations in today's world fail to realize.

khoney

That's not surprising at all - the RX-8 is the best-kept secret in the US, ranking right up there with Saddam's whereabouts! Most people I know don't have a clue about this car right now (but they soon will) :D

boowana

Here we have been waiting months for our cars and they are finally starting to arrive. What in God's name are you speculating about the preorder numbers? I gues we need to maitain some negativity on this board to keep everyone happy.

The bottom line/: Pre-orders are way ahead of forecasted numbers Wolrd wide! Mazda is VERY VERY HAPPY!!! (I'm not suggesting that their forecasts were spot on and may have been too conservative, but they are beating them. That's the point>)

In another post recently, I copied a writeup from the financial world that stated Nissan, Toyota and Honda had allbeen "downgraded" while Mazd was upgrade at the same timer! Isn't it irnic that the upgraded rating was on the very day that RX-8s were release to dealers in the US? Hmmmm...:p

vipeRX7

uhhhhhhhhhhhh i don't know how good US sales of RX-8s have been, but if you read just about any article on the RX-8 from canada/australia/UK they say the same thing--if you want an RX-8, you'll have to wait. The annual allocation has been reached/no preorders left. Anyway, I don't really think we should worry too much the # of preorders yet in the US--after all, (I think) not very many people will buy a car without even test driving it.

TerenceT

resisting........

question: anyone know what fiscal year mazda's in? my company fiscal year starts in April (actually they go by "Tanki"), meaning unit sold between 03 apr 1 till 2004 mar 31 is consider 2004 sales.

so, if mazda does something similar, they are just passing the first quater.

??

Charleston

I just read something the other day to the same effect but I don't remember where. They quoted the Honda top dog as focusing on quality not sales volume. Easy to say when sales are down but more units sold = lower cost to build each unit = higher profits. Mazda got great praise for the 6 and an excellent long term business plan. Hope their right.

RCCAZ 1

Boowana, no one wants to see the RX-8 succeed more than me, and starting this thread was NOT an attempt to be negative. I was just trying to get a feel for U.S. success so far.

We all know how successful the rotary has been worldwide since it's inecption, but we're also painfully aware of what poor or lagging U.S. sales numbers can and will mean for us. Nothing has killed me more over the past 10 years than seeing the latest Jspec Gen 3 unveiled each year only to know that I could NEVER own one. So, yes... global sales of RX-8s ARE important, but U.S. sales are CRITICAL.

My same "contact" who gave me the 1300-1500 presale numbers also said that Nissan presold nearly 5000 350Zs and nearly had a mob scene on their hands, so I guess in retrospect, Mazda has done a pretty good job so far.

Only time (and sales) will tell!

CERAMICSEAL

I'm sure someone has the figures on the 8s pre-sale #s in the US.
It should be quite good actually. I went by Rick Case Mazda yesterday (Who had a car on display -red 8 on loan from Mazda)
They had 8 pre-sold cars on order. I went by Jim Ellis-Chamblee
(As opposed to Ellis-Marietta) They had 28 on order with 15 pre-sold. Their sister company I beleive had 40 on order.
There are over 700 dealers under the MNAO umbrella and I'm sure that they must have an average of at least 5 pre-sold.
Do the math.