Mazda, Hyundai on track to overtake Ford

As the financial year draws to a close today and Toyota and Holden remain the clear front runners in the new-car sales race, the battle for third place is hotting up.

After seven years of falling sales, former industry leader Ford is now fighting to stay in third position and has Japanese maker Mazda and Korean maker Hyundai in its rear view mirrors.

In the first five months of this year the three brands were covered by just 1500 sales. Ford narrowly led the tally with 36,008, ahead of Mazda (35,170) and Hyundai (34,444).

Both Mazda and Hyundai are expected to post their third year in a row of record sales – and forecast they will eclipse the 85,000 mark.

Last year Ford sold 95,000 vehicles – but so far this year Ford is down by eight per cent. If Ford continues its seven years in a row of decline, it is on track to sell about 87,000 vehicles in 2011.

However, Mazda Australia managing director Doug Dickson says it is not his company’s stated goal to overtake Ford (which globally has been reducing its financial stake in the Japanese maker).

“I don’t have any ambition to be behind or ahead of any competitor, it’s peripheral to the main game,” he said. “Our role is to meet the targets we set jointly with our factory, keep our customers happy, keep our dealer network happy and build our car park for the future.”

He said he was not concerned by the looming threat of Hyundai, which has closed the gap to Mazda and is a neck and neck battle for third with Mazda and Ford.“It’s not something we worry about. They will do what they will do.”

Dickson said Mazda, buoyed by two important new models the BT-50 ute and CX-5 compact SUV, would eventually eclipse the 100,000 mark in the next few years.

Ford has sold fewer than 100,000 cars annually for the past two years and is on track to have its weakest year in more than a decade in 2011.

“We physically couldn’t do [100,000] next year … but it’s on the cards, eventually we’ll get there,” Dickson said. “We’re not making any predictions but if you look at the way [market] segmentation’s going, with the new products coming through, we’ll get a leap so there’ll be a gradual move up.”

He said the BT-50 alone will give a much needed boost to Mazda sales, given that the new model replaces what is effectively a 13-year-old design.

“A lot will depend on supply but we will get a significant lift [from BT-50]”, he said. “We’ll have a good year next year … and this year quite frankly.

“At the moment we’re looking at a best ever first half [in 2011] and we got significant production through in June, which made up for what we lost in April and May. We’d be looking to do at least as well as we did last year.”

The CX-5 softroader is likely to be available in 2WD as well as 4WD, given the success of the 2WD CX-7 edition. “When we brought the 2WD [CX-7] we basically doubled sales,” he said,

The production version of the CX-5 – as opposed to the concept shown in Melbourne this weekend (pictured) – will appear at Frankfurt motor show in September and is due on sale in the first half of next year, although Mazda Australia did not confirm a delivery date or any further information such as engine options or where the vehicle will be built.

Mazda Australia briefly experimented with sourcing its Mazda2 small car from a Thailand factory but switched back to the Japanese factory after about six months.

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