Ken Gratton•17 May 2013
NEWS
Keeping Mazda3 Number 1
VF Commodore won't take back crown, says new Mazda bossMartin Benders, the new MD at Mazda Australia, is quite confident the importer's small car can remain the country's favourite car – even in the last 12 months of its current model cycle.
And any threat to the Mazda3's dominance won't be coming from the previous title holder, Holden's Commodore, Benders told motoring.com.au earlier this week.
"If you look at the segmentation, before we were worried about brands or our models. The small car segment is growing, and the large car segment is falling. So people are voting with their feet in that direction," he said.
"So I don't know whether a new Commodore is going to make people go back to the large car, because I don’t know that people are moving to a small car for any reason other than it suits their needs."
The Mazda exec, who has been with the company for 27 years – including three-year postings in Japan and Europe – has seen a lot happen to the brand in Australia during that period. That the Mazda3 could overtake the Commodore when he left the country about six years ago was not something widely anticipated. The market has changed in recent years however, and that's fundamentally why large car sales are in the doldrums – and unlikely to recover to the same levels as yesteryear.
"My personal opinion is that what has happened is that a lot of companies who used to say, 'Here’s your job and here’s your car,' have now said, 'I don’t need to have that depreciating asset on my books. I’ll put you on a novated lease, and I’ll say to you, ‘You can have whatever car you want.’ Go and buy something that’s suitable for you, but you can take it with you when you go, and it’s not on my books.' And so that has made a lot more people who get a company car become more like private buyers, which is where our target is."
Since the GFC there was a very sudden downturn in large-car sales, hitting Ford in particular. Holden can argue for the moment that current Commodore sales reflect a run-out period and lower stock levels for the VE model, but the VF may not return the nameplate to the 4000-unit-plus monthly sales of recent years.
"I guess the surprising thing is how quickly that’s happened, right?" Benders remarked. "I think everybody recognised that [large car sales were] dwindling, but it’s sort of become a fairly steep gradient, [a] steeper gradient than anybody expected. So I don’t see that Commodore can turn that around suddenly. I would like to think that they can come up with some solution. I mean, Ford tried it with a four-cylinder version [the EcoBoost Falcon], but that wasn’t the issue. The issue is that people don’t need that size car anymore, I guess."
So what sort of car will topple the Mazda3 from its sales leadership position on the dais?
"Well, Golf 7’s just arrived," Benders responded. "It’s come in at a very hot price, so I’m sure that’s going to be a threat to us. Corolla is reasonably well-priced, but leaves some question marks on design, maybe..."
When it was put to him that, given Australia's sudden passion for downsizing, a threat to Mazda3 could come from a light car with small-car dimensions – like the Hyundai Accent – Benders response bordered on dismissive.
"The Hyundai strategy is to sort of make their cars appear to be sort of a half a step above in size to the segment they’re priced in … but that’s their competitive advantage, I guess.
"If you actually look at things in the marketplace, in terms of people wanting to buy Hyundai, it’s still a little bit driven by price. It is improving, no doubt about that. So their cars are improving as well. So how quickly they become more of a threat, I don't know. I mean, they’ve had quite phenomenal growth over the last ten years, but I’m seeing a tapering off of their expansion as well. So I think they’re starting to consolidate themselves a little bit."
The Mazda chief's perception of Hyundai is slightly at odds with the Korean brand's own perception of itself – and the image it is pushing out to consumers. With fewer cars in the small-car segment selling below the $20,000 mark, Hyundai is presenting that fact as an indication of its rapidly improving quality, safety and dynamics. But Benders has a slightly different take on it. It's not peculiar to Australia, it's a repositioning of the brand happening all around the world.
"You see that on a global basis. And I don’t know whether that’s because they’ve been very aggressive and they’re maybe trying to absorb some of the things that they did to buy their share, to sort of consolidate, and the won [the Korean unit of currency] is starting to appreciate as well. So that’s sort of probably eating into the profit margins a little bit."
At any rate, Mazda may not have to fend off rivals all that long before the new Mazda3 arrives. Benders wouldn't indicate when we can expect to see the new model in Australia, but all the signs are pointing towards a (very) early 2014 launch locally. So there's perhaps a little over half a year that the current model has to hold back competitors from other brands.
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Written byKen Gratton
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