Mazda waves a white flag

Mazda says it is not going to raise a sweat in the race to the finish line for 2011 – despite breaking sales records all year and overtaking Australia's top-seller for 15 years, the Holden Commodore.

The company also revealed that it was initially unaware that its Mazda3 small car had overtaken the homegrown hero at the beginning of the year.

The Mazda3 has swapped the lead five times in eight months with the Commodore and currently heads the Holden by 471 sales (28,736 versus 28,265 YTD August).

But the managing director of Mazda Australia, Doug Dickson, says he's "not going to die in a ditch" if the Mazda3 doesn't end 2011 as the top-seller car.

"I know it sounds a bit trite but we don't see that as something that will help us," he said.

"If it happens that's great but it's not something that we actually set out to do. It's not that important for us.

Dickson continued: "It's great that customers have such a vote of confidence in the car but being number one is not part of our main game. It really isn't something we focus on. It's not something that we've actually put our mind to.

"Our main thrust is to be the car… of choice for the private buyer or the business buyer who behaves like a private buyer. If in doing so one of our cars becomes top-seller, so be it.

"I'm not all that keen to participate in a one on one competition with the Commodore. I'm not trying to deflect, it's just not that important."

Dickson said he expected a dip in Mazda3 sales in September after a record August.

"August was our big sale month and it's very successful, it brings buyers from the month before and the month after. We have to look at the three months to see whether we've actually made a difference. I wouldn't take August in isolation."

However, the arrival of a facelifted model next month will likely give the Mazda3 lineup a boost.

"We'll do reasonably well. There is the changeover between the new one and the old one. We do expect sufficient [stock] to keep up our average," Dickson said.

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