dezau

iTrader: (3)

Mazda reports highest profits in its 94-year history - Autoblog

We may only be a third of the way through 2014, but for Japanese companies, March 31 marked the end of fiscal 2014, and it was a banner financial year for Mazda's global operations. The Japanese independent saw its highest global operating profits in its nearly 100-year history. Its global operating profits were up a huge 238 percent. Yes, a 238 percent increase over 2012 to 1.36 billion euros ($1.88 billion), eclipsing the brand's previous best year, 2008, by 12 percent. Net earnings, revenue and global sales volume also saw increases over the last fiscal year.

What's most impressive, though, is where Mazda saw improvement. The notoriously rough European market was rather kind to the Zoom-Zoom brand, where sales increased 25 percent to 163,000 units. That figure was bolstered by a 35-percent sales increase in Great Britain and a 20-percent jump in Germany, Europe's two largest markets. Japanese sales, meanwhile, were up a respectable 13 percent, to 244,000 units. In China, Mazda saw a 12 percent bump.

Notice we aren't talking about North American sales? That's because Mazda only saw a moderate, five-percent gain in the New World, with sales climbing to 391,000 units in the US, Canada and Mexico. This is particularly disappointing considering Mazda has launched three critically acclaimed products (CX-5, Mazda6 and most recently, Mazda3) for the North American market over the past two fiscal years. Still, it isn't a particular reason to be concerned, as IHS industry analyst Stephanie Brinley notes. "Five percent isn't terrible," Brinley told Autoblog, saying that Mazda should see a bump in 2014 as the Mazda3 picks up steam.

While Mazda may have hoped its five-percent gain in North America was a bit higher, it shows solid progress on company CEO Masamichi Kogai and his promise to raise US sales to 400,000 units.


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Now please put that revenue into R&D with the 16X. K. Thanks. Bye.

gwilliams6

yes now maybe there is hope for a new RX7.

I never give up hope with Mazda, I have seen them save and resurrect themselves from corporate death many times before in the 41 years I have been driving Mazdas.

77mjd

I'm guessing America's thirst for power may have some to do with the only modest gains made here. Frankly, I see quite a few CX-5s around but hardly any of the new 6 or 3.

WTBRotary!

iTrader: (6)

Yup! I see quite a few of the new CX-5's around here, definitely more than the new 6

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

Keep in mind that the CX-5 has been out the longest of any of the SkyActive cars, having been released over 2 years ago in Jan 2012 as a 2013 model. The new 6 wasn't even shown at a show until August 2012, and I believe it first went on sale in 2013 as a 2014 model. The new 3 hasn't been available for very long at all, only since mid/late 2013?

How many you see will be skewed by that difference.

WTBRotary!

iTrader: (6)

^^^ Right... I remember which came first lol, all I was eluding to (or trying to) is that I've been seeing more and more next gen Mazda's, which overall, is a good thing

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

Wasn't it only a few months ago that armchair drivers in forums/article comments webwide were claiming that "Mazda's financial troubles meant an end to anything rotary" ?


I suppose they will quietly ignore the discussion this time.

TALAN7

Good for Mazda. I think their new cars are nice. I have no interest in them as they don't have enough performance for me. They are going for mpg, not performance. IMO, Mazda should offer an S version for all of their cars with modest hp increases, not just Mazdaspeed versions which may be too much for most. But, if Mazda had say the 184 hp (I believe) Mazda3 and a say 215-220 hp Mazda3S, there would be options. How may people would opt for the higher hp engine. Most people don't want or need blown Mazdaspeed version, just one with very good power. I don't feel any of the current Mazdas have very good power. They are adequate at best. Americans want more than adequate.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

It gets tiring hearing the same complaint from people that wouldn't buy the car anyway.

Go find a statistically significant number of people that test drove one of the Mazda's mentioned, and then bought the competitor for the sole reason that the Mazda was underpowered ... and then I will believe the claim.

It's far more likely that the exchange rate means that Mazda has to price the cars a bit higher to keep making a profit here, and people will tend to pay that "premium" for the nameplate from Toyota or Honda, but not Mazda.

TALAN7

Both Toyota have Honda has engineering and reliability
Subaru has awd and safety
Hyundai has features for great price, So does Kia
Mitsubshi has not much of anything anymore
Nissan has sort of an amalgam of many of the brands above. They are an established marque.
The american brands just keep getting better and better

Mazda has zoom zoom? What is zoom zoom? They need to quantify that more. If every Mazda in every class blew away the competition in that class performance wise, then zoom zoom would be a quantifiable attribute. Other than that, it's just marketing hype. BMW backs up the ultimate driving machine.

Mazdas are nice. They need to stand out more.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

Can't you explain in more detail why you think Mazda isn't standing out? (i'll avoid getting into the other statements about the other cars there, since they are mostly incorrect)

Their cars consistently take Best, or Top 10 in any review or comparison. Mazda is leading ALL manufacturers in the CAFE score. Mazda has achieved mileage on engines without Hybrid tech that other companies have to resort to hybrid tech to achieve. And Mazdas ARE far better handling and enjoyable to drive than any of their competitors.

Mazda stands out on it's own rather well. They are just a TINY company that spent quite a few years hampered by Ford, exchange rates, natural disasters, and world financial collapses. All of those are reversing, and this article is pretty clear proof that they are doing just fine as they are.

I don't see them suddenly changing their stragety or car lineup that has them setting record profits just because a few people in the US that won't buy their cars think they are a bit under powered.

Too many people forget that.

Mazda's sitting on a cash cow right now...what reason can you fathom for them to get off of it?

Karack

personally i don't find it a coincidence that their margin increased after shutting down the rotary engine plant and focusing on their other platforms. if that is actually the case then that would be the nail in the coffin for these engines.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

The same can be said of being disconnected from Ford
...or the USD clawing back some value against the Yen
...or the worldwide car market starting to rebound
...or the opening of manufacturing plants in Thailand and Mexico
...or the introduction of their SkyActive cars

These all happened at the same time, but you want to attribute the main portion of the gain from closing the rotary engine plant? It's rather narrow-sighted if so. The other points have a significantly bigger impact on the bottom line than one plant making engines for a small slice of their pie. It also doesn't explain how their previous best year was 2008, when the plant was still open.

Karack

it was simply based off the fact that the majority of the early cars had at least 1 engine replaced under warranty which obviously didn't help profits. the factory doesn't get the $30k price tag the consumer pays for a car so shelling out $2-3k for a warranty claim is a big hit.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

Agreed, but selling every single car at a loss due to exchange rate is a bigger hit by a huge proportion.

New Yorker

"Zoom zoom" is simply Mazda's marketing handle for "fun to drive". As in when a car is fun to drive you feel an almost kid-like happiness, i.e. "zoom zoom zoom". In test after test over the last decade reviewers have said "…this car was faster but the Mazda was more fun to drive…". Fun to drive is a function of handling, road feedback, steering feel and the way the driver feels interacting with wheel, pedals, seat, etc., i.e. the way a driver feels about driving the car. It's not about 1/4 mile times, top speed or anything like that. It cannot be quantified, anymore than a film or song that makes you feel good can be quantified. Sorry dude, but if you don't get this, then Mazda simply is not the brand for you.

And yes, I do work in advertising.

Sign allegedly hanging in Albert Einstein's office at Princeton University:
"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."

TALAN7

Mazda's been around long enough to have taken the market if their cars were so great. They aren't an upstart. Their marketing isn't great. They never marketed the RX8 because I don't think they knew how to in the US. It wasn't a muscle car. Mazda has to get US consumers on board, in larger amounts. The big problem is the future. There are too many marques doing regular cars. Pretty soon smaller ones are going to fall by the wayside. Heck, if Chinese cars hit our shores today, that would be the death nail for a lot of smaller Japanese brands. Mazda has to stand for something big. Fun to drive? That doesn't compete with rock solid engineering/reliability, or safety or even value for the money. Mazda's been fun to drive forever. The time is coming when economies of scale is what's going to rule. it's a shame because most Mazda cars are good cars.

TALAN7

Fun to drive? That doesn't compete with rock solid engineering/reliability, or safety or even value for the money. Mazda's been fun to drive forever. That's not big enough

And I too work in advertising.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

Australian New Car Sales February 2014: Mazda Now Number Two | Reviews | Prices | Australian specifications

Depends on which market you are talking about, since they ARE taking the market in Australia.

Posting record profit tells me that they are doing just fine all by their lonesome. It doesn't really matter if they only sold 100 cars in their entire lineup a year worldwide, if they are making a profit, they won't just vanish because other manufacturers are selling more.


And refer back to the original article in this thread. They still posted a 5% gain in the US. Hardly trivial. Again, their current stragety and car design is doing just fine. No need to change it.

UrbanOcho

iTrader: (2)

I helped the stats. I leased a 2013 Skyactiv Mazda 3! The Ocho has a new little brother!

zoom44

sweet

archwisp

iTrader: (1)

I think one of the the problems in the US is that the series I Mazda3 is too good. We bought a 2008 Mazda3 hatchback for my wife when they were in production and while I love my 8, the 3 is a fun little car to drive to the grocery store... or pick up parts . I have Mazda dealers calling me every few months asking if I want to trade it in and I tell them, "no way". 45,000 miles on it now. I can't imagine we'll be getting rid of it anytime soon.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

^ I think they are calling you because they think they can get you to trade into a new 3, which would help bump that 5% number It's a sales tactic, not a "we want your current 3"

Bladecutter

So what's more important to you as a consumer of Mazda's vehicles:

Having Mazda sell vehicles at a production rate of their choosing that leads to profitability, and allows them greater control over quality,

or

Mazda building a ton of vehicles, that sit around on lots for months, before eventually being blown out in quarter end clearance events that lead to the company losing money hand over fist, and needing recalls every couple of months to fix issues that should never have happened in the first place

They've done both over the past 10 years.
I, personally, prefer the current Mazda.

Would I love it if they made a higher performance version of their current lineup? I sure would. Heck, I would love it if they would keep their promise of bringing the SkyActiv-D engine to the US market (anyone know what's going on with that lately?).

Are they ready to do that yet?
Nope.
Are they waiting for something specific to happen before they do?
Probably, but I don't think anyone on this forum who does know, has the permission needed to say so.

BC.

djgiron

I honestly think Mazda is in a great position, their 6, 3 and 5 are all great looking, get great mileage and handle wonderfully. The red 6 at our carshow in denver was stunning, it caught everyones attention that walked near it. Once the diesels come, they will improve their market share (I bet it will be closer to 10% growth). Mazda is one of the few companies that gets how to improve gas mileage while still keep the handling characteristics of a great driving car (less weight). You are only recently seeing companies cutting weight now in their vehicles. As far as marketing, if you notice, they are starting a huge marketing campaign now, I see more Mazda commercials than ever. Another thing helping them lately is all the recalls to other brands (toyota with the accelerter issues, GM with multiple issues) and those crappy CVTs automakers think are such a great idea (POS rubberband driving crap! I am looking at you Nissan and Subaru). I think they really just need to have a bunch of driving events around the country. We recently were looking at cars for my son, so we test drove some used cars (VW Jetta, Accord, Altima, random american cars) then drove a Mazda 6. It was night and day difference, even though the 6 was in crappy shape from the previous pathetic owner, it drove so much better than the marshmellow drives of other cars it was eye opening. After that we were looking for a good used 6 and there really are not many around compared to the others . . . I take that as people liking their cars and keeping them longer. Kia/Hyundai have been growing in market share fast recently, but I think Mazda is equally well equipped and a better product. I think they are positioned to grow well now.