VFACTS: Mazda locks on number two spot

Mazda isn't the top-selling brand in the country – that mantle belongs to Toyota.

And Mazda doesn't sell the most popular car – that's Toyota again.

But Mazda is rocketing up the sales charts with a bullet, to revive an old cliché from the music industry.

VFACTS figures reveal that, in a market that has expanded 3.2 per cent for the year to date, Mazda is 10 per cent ahead of its sales tally for the same period last year. That rate of growth, based on a sales figure just over 100,000 cars for 2014 will be very hard for competitors to peg back – even with five months of 2015 remaining.

Back in January, when Mazda began the year ahead of Holden, punters presumed that Holden would recover once the fleet buyers returned from their holiday break. Mazda has stayed ahead of the GM brand every month since, however, and with Holden barely a thousand units ahead of Hyundai, there's a chance that the Korean brand may leap-frog into third spot before the end of 2015.

What has pushed Mazda ahead of Holden so dramatically this year is down to two important new models, the third-generation Mazda2 and the all-new CX-3. The importer has also upgraded its entire product portfolio, barring the CX-9 SUV, as Mazda Australia Marketing Director Alastair Doak explained during the launch of the new Mazda2 sedan this week. Furthermore, the revised models have struck a chord in an important price bracket within the market – "between $16,000 and $35,000," according to Doak.

"We've seen our results to the end of July achieve an all-time record, and consolidate Mazda as the number-two automotive brand in the country."

"This has delivered us market share of 9.8 per cent, which is our best ever share and also best among major Mazda markets around the world... something we're very proud of.

"We have established healthy leads over the third and fourth-placed brands – and we believe that we can sustain this for the rest of the year."

Most of Mazda's locally-sold products have picked up sales since last year. The CX-3 on its own has contributed the vast majority of Mazda's growth for the year so far – 5535 of the 5989 extra sales for the brand. It's currently outsold in its segment by Honda's HR-V, but it's also supply-constrained, Doak mentioned.

Sales of the CX-3 have "gone gang-busters" Doak told motoring.com.au after the formal presentation. There's an order bank of "two to three months" that the importer was trying to pare back.

"It has brought new customers into the dealership for us," Doak also noted.

Unlike the SUVs in the portfolio and the BT-50, Mazda3 and Mazda6 have actually lost ground over the first seven months of 2015.

While the mid-size Mazda6 has lost just 385 sales from its year-to-date figure of 3673 sales in 2014, the small car has lost over 10 per cent of its sales total during the same period, slipping back from 25,945 sales over January to July 2014, to 23,252 up to July of this year. Doak says that the Mazda3's sales decline is relative to the strong surge early last year.

"With Mazda3 in the small segment we're showing a year-on-year decline... most of that decline occurred in the first few months when comparing against the launch of the new model in 2014. And we also had at that point a very healthy level of run-outs of the old model."

Doak expects the Mazda3 can recover some of those lost sales – if not all and more – by the end of the year.

And a final point concerning Mazda's rising fortunes – it's done with very little reliance on fleet sales. Doak says the company is focused mainly on private buyers, but it does also sell to "user-choosers" (buyers making a purchase with a novated lease deal). Those are nominally fleet sales, but in reality they're private buyers taking advantage of a tax break available through their salary package.

Toyota remains number one in the market – and its sales have risen for the year to date. With 17.7 per cent of market share Toyota is almost 53,000 sales ahead of Mazda, which makes the leading brand unassailable for 2015. But that market share does point to a continuing gradual decline that has been years in the making.

As at December of 2014 Toyota held 18.3 per cent of the market. The year before it was 18.9 per cent, and in 2012 it was 19.6 per cent. That was an increase from 2011, when the big tsunami in Japan put a serious crimp in Toyota's supply chain (18.0 per cent). Aside from the aftermath to that unforeseeable event, Toyota's market share has been steadily falling: 20.7% in 2010, 21.4% in 2009 and 23.6% in 2008.

Toyota's situation seems distinct from that of the other two remaining manufacturers (Ford and Holden), who have seen their market share rapidly erode following their respective announcements they would end manufacturing in Australia. A spokesman for an importer recently revealed to motoring.com.au that fleet sales had suffered immediately after the announcement by Toyota it would close the Altona manufacturing plant. By implication, Toyota ramped up fleet sales, offering serious fleet discounts to keep big business tied to the Toyota mast up to – and beyond – the 2017 plant closure date.

Ford has said in the past that its sales slump is evidence of a new marketing tack, chasing quality customers and improved profitability. Holden has been struggling with an ambitious sales plan set for it early last year, by a former managing director. The GM brand, under new management, intends to rebuild its sales and its brand profile with numerous new models between now and 2020.