Mazda3 and Holden Commodore set for showdown
Australia's top two selling cars are barely 200 sales apart as we approach the year's halfway markThe Holden Commodore’s title as Australia’s favourite car for the past 15 years in a row is again under threat.
The Holden Commodore led the Mazda3 in the first five months of this year by just 223 sales.
However, the car that led the Commodore in the first four months of this year – the Mazda3 – is poised to bounce back.
Mazda Australia has received replenished stock of the Mazda3 after normal production resumed following the Japanese earthquake.
The company expects to make up for lost sales in the race for the end of the year.
“All we can say is there will never be a better time to buy a car than in the next six months,” said Mazda Australia managing director Doug Dickson.
“We’ve caught up production, no doubt others will over the next couple of months. There’ll be plenty of people seeking to get their numbers back so I think the next six to 12 months will be quite buoyant.”
When asked if there was a chance that the Mazda3 could become Australia’s best selling car this year, he said: “We started off very strongly, but I have to say it’s not necessarily a thing that we worry too much about. We were quite surprised [to lead the first four months of the year].
“I don’t think [being the number one-selling car] makes a lot of difference to future sales. If you’re somebody who wants to put it up on your wall, that’s fine, but it doesn’t actually translate to sales and profit.
“We just go and do our own thing and the market is what the market is.”
When asked if Mazda was likely to sell more Mazda3s in the second half of the year than the first, he said: “That’s a possibility, but only because we had a stock shortage and that’s been caught up and there’s plenty of supply.”
Mazda says it will overtake last year’s record sales of 85,000 vehicles, given the imminent arrival of the new BT-50 ute and fresh stock of Mazda3.
Interestingly, the Mazda3 has only led the Australian new-car market on one individual month – January 2009. It was the top-selling car from January to April 2011, but not in any individual month as it was beaten by the Toyota Corolla in January and the Holden Commodore in February, March, and April. Commodore regained the lead in May.
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