NVH an 'Aussie' issue for Mazda?

Mazda Australia's National Marketing Manager has discounted criticism by the local media of the company's sound insulation in its product range.

Alastair Doak, speaking at a lunch arranged to introduce visiting Japanese executives to the Australian media, mounted an argument best summed up by the old saying that one-man's fish is another man's poison. While some sectors of the local press had been critical of Mazda's cars for road noise in the past, that didn't seem to impact on sales.

"Ultimately, customers and buyers decide. Obviously NVH hasn't been a problem for them, or we wouldn't be selling record numbers of cars. So that's the bottom line," he stated.

"But, we do listen to feedback... so as part of our continuous improvement strategy, we do look at everything, including NVH.

"The new-generation Mazda3 is quieter than the previous one.

"Facelift Mazda6 that was launched last month is significantly quieter than the [pre-facelift model]. So we're making continual improvements on that... Is NVH something we rate as our number-one priority for Mazda in terms of our brand DNA? No we do not."

Making cars quieter remains an aim in conflict with reducing weight for improved fuel efficiency -- never more so than now -- and this conflict is exacerbated by the need to add weight for passive safety. Doak believes that it needn't pose the challenge it does, as long as the manufacturer applies the appropriate engineering principles to the car's development.

"Adding weight and adding strength to things can reduce NVH, but quite often that's a case of masking an issue that's already come into the car. The best way to eliminate NVH is to remove the path of vibration into the vehicle in the first place, rather than dampening that vibration once it's there."

The Mazda executive oberved also that noise permeating into the cabin of a car could very likely be an environmental factor as much as an engineering concern.

"It's also interesting that NVH is not an issue for Mazda in the US, for example -- because their highways are quite different. It's quite specific to Australia and maybe a couple of other markets.

"Having said that, the engineers have been out and the program manager for CX-7 facelift [picture; he came out a number of times and we did test drives for that vehicle."

That does suggest that Australia is an important market for Mazda -- and the company's engineers appear to recognise it's a unique environment with that -- something Doak stresses with his final comment.

"We're getting a larger voice, I guess, within the engineering community."

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