Some numbers thrown about in this article

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2...15/523449.html

Trucks- CX-7, CX-9 and Tribute are 33.6% of the US total. The smiley didnt destroy sales of Mazda 3. It had its best sales since 2007 and in December was up 13.1% over Dec. 2009.

CX-9 saw its best January ever with sales up 35.9% and CX-7 had its best Jan since 2008 with sales up 45.3%

 

great numbers!

the "smiley" of the 3 didn't (as numbers show) deter anyone that would have bought it anyway. it's a bit polarizing, in that if you already didn't want the 3 or didn't like it or weren't planning on getting it, then it was easy to flame it, but for those interested in the car (which they made much much nicer overall w/ the corresponding body changes) were interested regardless of the front end.

reminds me of the bangle-series bmw's. sales went up across the board, but it was a polarizing design so the 'haters' came out of the wordworks...it wasn't that there were more haters, they were just more vocal than normal...but sales still went up.

go mazda.

ps - they are having crazy good deals on the mazda 3, at least in the austin area. $0 down, extremely low interest, etc.

 

and when the better looking slight facelift and new more economical engine arrives at the end off the year that will bring more back that were starting to look elsewhere.

 

^exactly, just tweaking that front end to get rid of the bold 'mustache' line will do wonders for the overall look. i'd love to have one...so many options available for that class.

 

Only other Mazda I have owned was when I lived in Okinawa... The Mazda LUCE. Not sure what the US version was called. I liked it.

 

what year Luce?

 

Well I bought it in 1987 for $1200.... I can't remember what year it was. Had to be somewhere about a 1981 I guess? We were rotating into Okinawa for 6 month stays and sold our cars to guys in the next squadron replacing us....

 

"Smiley" Mazda 3 owner here. Happy

but the "ever raising" yen will kill Mazda ...

 

Good to hear that!