-J-P-L-

It's true that best sellers don't mean best by definition. There is quite a difference though when making an analogy to burgers. McD's sells tons of burgers because they are everywhere, fast, and relatively cheap. Those are not what sell Camry's. Mazda 6 compares similarly with Camry on price. There's plenty of Mazda dealers if you want one. The Mazda 6 isn't the "premium burger" and Camry the "fast food burger". They stand on a fair battle ground and for some reason people aren't choosing the Mazda.

This is quite curious because Mazda has a long history of quality cars in the US. So it's not tarnished history that doesn't sell their cars. There should be enough brand recognition to get people's attention. So what is it exactly? If you compare it to the Sonata and Optima - two brands that not long ago had no respect and were built like crap. Today, they are far outselling the 4 year newer Mazda 6. How could this be? Sonata 16,917. Optima: 15,199. So 4 times the sales of the Mazda. Mazda is a better respected brand. The 6 is a better car. This is a boggling question.

I'm a big fan of the new 6 like most people. My post was simply to point out that the Camry's qualities are the most compelling in the real world to people. As opposed to auto journalists and enthusiasts that make up a small portion in the real world. It's been said that the Camry does everything very well, but not much about it is fantastic (except reliability?). That's why people buy it - it's good at everything (like the Accord). An auto journalist will place a car #1 if it exceeds on one quality - driving dynamics/ performance. Hence the Mazda winning tests.

LexBob2

Most of the car mags are more detailed these days in their reviews. Looking at a couple of C&D comparos for example, they evaluate 21 different areas. Yes driving dynamics and performance are both part of it but there are quite a few other areas too.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

i think the mazda is the premium burger, in looks alone. but many, MANY consumers don't want a 'flashy' car. the mazda 6 looks 'aggressive' to use a term thrown around here a lot. tons of consumers don't want aggressive. they want milquetoast.

i wouldn't be surprised if there's way more combined hyundai/kia dealers than mazda dealers, and i don't think mazda spends much on marketing. they're a tiny car company compared to competitors. but if mazda did 'boring' they'd be dead in a hearbeat, so they do sporty sort of, and take their niche. they've also tended to be a bit pricier than competitors, and it's chicken and egg... with low volume it's not possible to be lowest price too.

pman6

Try to price one. You'll see the mazda is much more expensive with stiffer pricing during negotiations, interior feels cheaper, and they don't have the aggressive financing deals toyota has. People buy what they can afford.

If toyota camry looked exactly like the mazda 6, it would still sell like hot cakes, along with the 0% financing and 14% discounts.

LexFather

Look cars like the Camry, Civic, etc have the nameplate, people want it, trust it, that is that.

I don't think it occurred to anyone that Mazda might be happy with sales, I have yet to see a sales goal and they sure don't have the capacity to sell like a Camry even if they could. Maybe Mazda is happy with their niche sales much like the IS which will never sell like a 3 series. For over a decade we have talked about how sales goals differ and to this day people argue like all cars are to sell like a Camry or 3 series or RX.

It has been quite amazing to see Hyundai/Kia blow past Mazda and I think many here like Mazda products but Mazda also does not have the financial backing of Hyundai or Toyota etc.

The Mazda 6 looks incredible to me but honestly I think the naming system with numbers helps at all and clearly "Zoom Zoom" did not work. This is a company that 2 generations about made a MazdaSpeed6 AWD boosted 4 that did the 1/4 mile under 14 seconds stock and it was largely ignored.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

good points.