Among Japanese brands, Toyota , Honda, Nissan all have strong competitiveness in the domestic market, but only Mazda seems to be difficult to survive. After four consecutive years of sharp decline in sales in 2018, Mazda has no longer been able to "play" in the Chinese market. Last year, it directly "cut off" FAW Mazda. Now only Changan Mazda is the only Mazda joint venture brand in China.
Is it the right choice to merge FAW Mazda with Changan Mazda? Uncle Che believes that it is not. The effectiveness of the two after the merger has not increased but decreased. Previously, with the joint support of FAW Mazda and Changan Mazda, Mazda's sales in China can still remain between 10,000 and 20,000 vehicles, but since the merger of the two, it has become the norm for monthly sales to be less than 10,000 vehicles. According to official production and sales data in August, Changan Mazda's sales in August were only 5,316 units, a year-on-year decline of 2.57%, and the cumulative sales from January to August were only 77,000 units. In comparison, Nissan Sylphy's retail volume in July was 39,065 units, and in August was 43,810 units. In other words, the cumulative sales of the Nissan Sylphy's car in July and August exceeded the sales of the entire Changan Mazda brand from January to August.
In fact, Mazda's poor sales in China are also closely related to its business philosophy. The wave of automobile electrification has swept the world, and almost all manufacturers are accelerating the launch of new energy vehicles. The only pure electric vehicles sold by the Mazda brand in China are Mazda CX-30 EV, and it is also a " oil-to-electric " product, and its competitiveness is quite weak, so Changan Mazda has no advantage in the new energy field and does not know how to cater to the market at all.
In addition, how a brand's sales volume is also closely related to the number of dealers. From April 2020 to May 2021, Mazda dealers shrank by 40%, from 432 to 257. At the same time, due to the merger of FAW Mazda and Changan Mazda, due to some restrictions, many FAW Mazda dealers have withdrawn from the network. When the Mazda brand is facing a dilemma in China, these dealers will definitely not dare to get involved in Changan Mazda again, which is also the direct reason for the sharp decline in sales of Mazda brand in China.
As a product, quality control is really important, and this is exactly what Changan Mazda lacks. Uncle Che learned from relevant channels that the recent complaints from Changan Mazda's products are extremely large, and problems such as engine noise, transmission noise, chassis noise, steering system noise, etc. are very common. Who can tolerate the creaking sound that can always be heard while driving? If Changan Mazda cannot even solve such a problem, it is not impossible to spend less money to buy a domestic car.
Uncle Che personally believes that the new Changan Mazda after the merger of FAW Mazda and Changan Mazda still has many loopholes in strategic planning, or they do not understand the needs of Chinese consumers at all. For the merged Changan Mazda, the Atez model should continue. After all, Atez is Mazda's only mid-size sedan in the Chinese market. With this car, Changan Mazda's product matrix will be richer, and the comprehensive product competitiveness will inevitably be stronger. If Atez is expected to resume production in the future, the problem of abnormal body noise must be effectively solved. After all, many consumers now name this car "Atz" and it can be seen that the problem of abnormal body noise is famous in this car.
In the face of the decline in sales, Changan Mazda's executive vice president once said: "We deeply feel that the product is lacking in marketing. Next, we must strengthen this aspect and pass on the product value to users. We will also strive to maximize the improvement of dealers regardless of improving the value retention rate of the model, pre-sales and after-sales services, etc."From the speech of Changan Mazda, it can be seen that Changan Mazda official blames the poor sales as lack of marketing, but there is an old saying in China that is good, "Gold will always shine", not to mention that the brand Mazda can be said to be a household name. Although good marketing can increase sales, it cannot determine sales. Shouldn't the decline in sales be found in the product itself?
Car Uncle Summary
We cannot deny that Mazda is superb in car manufacturing However, this attainment in Changan Mazda is covered up by greater shortcomings, and it does not improve itself with market demand at all. Therefore, Uncle Che believes that the important reason for the decline in Changan Mazda's sales is that it will not reflect on itself. It is better to strengthen product quality than to work hard on the marketing level, and to speed up product updates and iterations, and spend more time on the layout of new energy products, so that the Changan Mazda brand has more opportunities to be understood by consumers, and the management of Changan Mazda will not understand the truth that "having more children is easy to fight". So it is your own fault that the Mazda brand is desperate in this huge market in China.
