zoom44

yeah Ash doesnt like him either . keeps calling him " a ford man" and questioning his competency. so far i've stayed out of that argument.

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

well, i dont care whoever the CEO is as long as they can get the rotary here asap. better dealership quality, Im cool.

ASH8

No Doubt,I have heard many a "Campaign Launch" or speech of his..
Very similar to Doug Dickson CEO here, the difference is DD started worked his way up the ranks at Mazda, and was not an ex Ford manager.

Personally, I don't like anything Ford does, same in Australia Ford guys went through MA at every level except CEO decades ago, now not one left.

Look, I have nothing against either person, however, they are just not that DYNAMIC enough, I don't get any enthusiasm in either of them, just MO.

IMO, Until you get a new CEO that is capable of making serious sustained change at every level, Mazda in the USA will languish, it is not the product that is the issue as I said it is the Distributor (MNAO first) and then a somewhat large percentage of Dealers, Not all of course.

How can you have a brand that is either #1 or 2 in rest of the World for reliability and customer satisfaction, and #11-14 in the USA?, so is it the US made Mazda 6 (market % too small) or is it Dealers who don't know or don't fix issues first time, treatment of owners, or is it the owners?

The 'positive change' at Mazda NA you give O'Sullivan credit for has not alerted market share (sales) or ratings surveys much at all, gone back-wards some years...

Perhaps you can tell me/us what Jim O'Sullivan has done and what he has achieved in all the years he had been CEO at Mazda NA.?, not just feel good stuff.

Remember this guy said, we won't IMPORT the Mazda 2 because it will cannibalize Mazda 3 sales, only 2 years ago.

Then take a look at the new Mazda 2 in the US, so far mediocre to disappointing sales, WHY?...they are marketing this car with a young GUY Driving it!!!FFS, What YOUNG GUY is going to buy a 100HP Small car?????..

THE Mazda 2 is a chicks car...FULL STOP...you market it to young women (college girls) and or young families as a 2nd/3rd car.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgfzR4IDUJo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChZDhZ0nUHI

zoom44

i can tell you why the Mazda 2 sales are not as nice as the Fiesta sales numbers.
The f-ing reviewers keep saying "Mileage is not as good as the FIesta" without pointing out that the numebrs quoted for fiesta are for the MOST EXPENSIVE FIESTA PACKAGE which is at least $2k more than the most expensive Mazda 2. They don't bother to mention that the Fiesta with the same type tranny gets the SAME mileage as the 2 and the 2 is still CHEAPER.

So that turns off a huge swath of people that other wise might have purchased the 2 . All they know is the 2 gets much less mpg. How do you counter that willful ignorance on the part of the media? Advertising- but are they really going to say in a commercial?

"The Fiesta is over priced to get that mpg and if you choose the lower price Fiesta you are still paying more than you would for a 2"

Im sure Ford would howl about that.

neofreak

iTrader: (1)

Plus why would you buy a 2 now, when you know the SKY-G is coming in a year or two?

zoom44

because you want to buy a car and you dont want to wait a year or two.

why would you buy any car if you knew something better was coming in a year or 2? why would you buy anything?

zoom44

Mazda AUS sold 14,794 Mazda 2s http://paddocktalk.com/news/html/story-151190.htm
still looking for the US figure

edit- first article I've seen that got it right and its Canadian. http://straight-six.com/blog/?p=4307

ASH8

What is wrong, it is a Girls car first....

Coming from the US it really makes me laugh how "Motoring" cough! Journalists, complain about Gas Mileage or EVEN Quote numbers when there is really very little difference % wise...between brand A and brand B, particularly when it would take 20 YEARS of ownership of the more frugal sipping brand to warrant the extra up front cost of buying the Fiesta in the first place.

These Journalists just write CRAP to fill their pages, some of the whining they do over trivial issues when they don't even think of the package they are sitting in, and the dimensions of the car itself.

" I am 6'6" and find it cramped in the back seat"!!!!...well DERRR..

ASH8

If Australia sold 15,000 Mazda 2's, then the US should have sold 240,000 2's based on population.
But they did not and you can't compare, only market share / percentage.

Again there is No comparison..

Australia Mazda is 8% at number 4
USA is (memory) 1.1% or 1.2% at number 14??

Population..
AUS 21mil
USA 325mil

zoom44

i wasnt going to directly compare as the markets are so different. i just found the Aus number first

ASH8

Agree with Charlie, the majority of people have no Idea about the new SKY engines coming, Not an issue.

I will throw this one out there, I would not buy the first gen of SKY anyway..can you guess why?

Brettus

iTrader: (2)

ummmm how did this degenerate into an Mazda 2 discussion ?

ASH8

Don't agree with the Difference, because there is none...only pop.

Just as many models and brands sold here if not more, do you have Renault, Citroen, Peugeot, Fiat, Skoda, Great Wall...

As much as you defend Mazda NAO Charlie, their performance is very mediocre..

It has stayed at the same market share for how many years...many, many., and sure some of that is economic.

zoom44

I wont defend them on that. they should have increased their share by now. like you said they are being overtaken by the Koreans. although I think their market share has increased in recent years

TALAN7

The 2 isn't selling because many reviewers say it looks/feels cheap. It does.

zoom44

here's total sales for NA last year for most companies.

KIA and Hyundai both have more . Id like to see Mazda selling as much as Volkswagen.

zoom44

North American sale numbers

3k for the Mazda 2. Not bad really for first year of sales and not a full year. Mazda 5 down but expected with the new model coming in. Tribute keeps plugging along. I thought they stopped selling it earlier in the year....

zoom44

Mazda 2 being used as an example of MNAO practices and ability.

Razz1

We've got the Greenbacks!

We can print plenty of them to export.

Wanna buy some?

PS: the rotary lives. It will be a small rotary turbo that uses gasoline to assist electric vehicles in the future.

Mazmart

iTrader: (12)

I hate to have to say this but the immediate target for Mazda at this time probably should be Hyundai. Model some stuff after them as they have had incredible market share increase. Sometimes I like to think of Mazda as the economical BMW or Audi but for now we need to pay attention to Hyundai.

Paul.

Old Rotor

I can't help myself as I have been following this brand for years. Wondering how far they have come! In such a short time...from their early cars I thought ...good luck selling that quality a car here to now WOW what a value!

jiggawha1

Did you even read my fking post or are you just trying to be an arrogant dick? I said I would rather see the rotary carry on and have Mazda attempt to build something to the likes of a supercar than to completely let the engine/car die off. And do you not have a TV because I have seen ads for both the LFA and the GTR. SOOOOOOOO once again, they could produce a beast *** car, slap a big *** sticker on it, and let the enthusiasts with the cash carry on the RX. I didn't say I would buy one nor could i afford it.

MazdaManiac

iTrader: (3)

Boom!

Conversation is over. Good job.

ASH8

I agree, I think the NA Rotary as we have grown to love it will finish and we may see some sort of hybrid turbo configuration with a thermal reactor, full time air pumps...I really hope we see an all new RX- only, BUT.

The Cost of Fully imported Mazda's into their largest numbers market (USA) is a real headache, the rest of the world can't subsidize you any longer, so Mazda will become a more "premium" brand, they have no other choice, unless they can build at their OWN facility say in Mexico or a cheap labor all new High Tech plant...like Russia?

3 more years to go IMO for next ReX..

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

excellent point.

Look at Hyundai (and KIA, I hope ppl know Kia is actually part of Hyundai), it took them couple of years from "crap" to now "its not bad" brand. Their car looks really nice and reliability went up a lot.

Mazda? well they did improve quite a lot, but IMO they're always on the "play safe" side.

Is it because its better be safe than sorry? or is it because Ford "wants" Mazda to stay "below" them so it will not effect Ford's sale that much ? No one knows

Now Ford is out of the game, lets just give it a few years and see what Mazda gonna do, cuz right now its back to "Japanese" controls so things might be a little different.

As for Mazda2's poor sales, yea, reviewers are stupid. I tried both Fiesta and Mazda2 before I got the Mazda3. Fiesta feels ok and about the same as a Mazda2. the only good thing I like Fiesta over Mazda2 is it has the SYNC thing. but I don't listen to Music much ... so ... and Mazda2 is much cheaper, if I have to get it I rather get a Mazda2.