Why the stigma around Mazda?

[sm1ke]

I have a theory about why Chrysler appears to be very reliable, based upon cost of ownership.
Many people who continue to buy Chrysler products, over and over may qualify as deep-rooted "buy only American" folks. As such, when they fill in surveys, they tend to "fudge" the input because doing otherwise may make them look like fools. This wouldn't work if only a small percentage of Chrysler owners did this, but I think these owners fall into the fanboy club category.
Tesla owners tend to fall into this category, also but Tesla's first sedan came out in 2012, so that explains why it is not listed. You can see in youtube that there have been many serious issues with them.

I can see this being a possibility. One guy on a different forum I'm on mentioned the sliding doors binding, meaning they wouldn't close, and in extreme cases the doors could just fall off their rails completely. And that was only one of the issues. He got the doors fixed, but it's started doing the exact same thing again. That kind of stuff is enough to turn me off from the brand completely.

 

[hal2]

A lot of people have owned Toyotas and Hondas for decades. They have found them to be reliable with decent resale value. I can't blame anybody for sticking with what has served them well in the past.

 

[Buzzman12]

I can't blame anybody for sticking with what has served them well in the past.

That makes sense if owners have had good luck with multiple products from the same manufacturer. However, it doesn't explain the blind loyalty that many people have to a particular brand, even when they've had multiple problems with said brand. This illogic applies to not just cars, but to just about every type of product and Company.

It makes no sense to me why people continue to do business with Companies that build inferior, trouble prone products, and then get treated badly when they ask for help...but many of them do.

I have a friend who has bought nothing but Volvos for the last 40 years.
Never mind that a lot of them were crap and expensive to maintain. He just keeps buying them.

I've also talked about my brother in law in other posts, who has been buying nothing but Hondas for over 20 years, despite the fact he's had bad luck with almost all of them.
Honda has done nothing for him to earn his loyalty, but he just keeps getting up off the mat and asks for another beating.

Personally I have no problem walking away from a business or product if they weren't up to par. There are plenty of manufacturers' products that are on my do-not-buy list, as well as plenty of Companies that are on my do-not-do-business-with list.
Life's too short to keep getting shafted.

 

[teetee1]

It makes no sense to me why people continue to do business with Companies that build inferior, trouble prone products, and then get treated badly when they ask for help...but many of them do.

...

Personally I have no problem walking away from a business or product if they weren't up to par. There are plenty of manufacturers' products that are on my do-not-buy list, as well as plenty of Companies that are on my do-not-do-business-with list.
Life's too short to keep getting shafted.

Brand loyalty is similar to cult following or religion. Trying to explain it with empiracal evidence will not get far. Brand loyalty is really based on human emotion and psychology.

Knowing that each brand, each model, and each model year has its own uniqueness and choose one based on large amount of reliability records to purchase will have a better chance to find the true reliable vehicle. Emotion is bad in any step of this process.

Of course if one's goal is to own the car from a brand they believe in, then data is the least thing they concern about.

 

[Buzzman12]

Brand loyalty is similar to cult following or religion. Trying to explain it with empirical evidence will not get far. Brand loyalty is really based on human emotion and psychology.

Of course if one's goal is to own the car from a brand they believe in, then data is the least thing they concern about.

Ain't that the truth. Sort of like people buying high end halo cars or brands (that they can't really afford) because they want to be seen as successful, or rich, or whatever.
Same thing applies to buying high end branded clothes, watches, blah blah blah.
For some people, it's all about stroking their own ego and showing off/bragging.

 

[Toch17]

So is the joint venture between Toyota and Mazda be a good thing for Mazda in the long run? They will be making the Corolla for Toyota and an SUV for Mazda in the same plant here in Alabama.

 

[RedPanda7]

With No data to back this up, I can't help but feel cars assembled anywhere outside of Japan seem to have more problems. The Hondas, Toyotas and Mazdas I owned in the past that were built in Japan had a lot fewer fit and finish issues compared to the Toyotas and Hondas built in America / Canada. Is this a plant thing or just modern cars are now designed to wear out faster?

 

[Toch17]

I tend to think that it's a cultural thing. Not all encompassing but Asian workers take more pride in their craft. Here in the North America it's just a job.

 

[concept]

Even if you're just doing your job, having the right assembly tools, fixtures, and highly reliable parts can greatly minimize variances. The Toyota Camry that is made in Kentucky is extremely reliable.

 

[teetee1]

I think the culture of having pride in the work is an important factor behind the Toyota reliability reputation. They are playing the long term game. They make gradual changes to improve the quality and pay attention to details and complaints. It does not matter where the car is built. The culture affects the quality control and the result.

American brand car manufacturers tend to put the profit before anything they do and go about their business in a very short-sighted way. If things work, then they find ways to cut corners to maximizing the profit until problems appear (that is why they have higher percentage of failed parts a few years into each generation than the Asian cars). This cultural difference provides general explanation on why Asian cars tend to last. Though admittedly there are some pockets of design flaws and/or high failure rate in the history that set Asian car quality and reliability back (Honda high auto transmission failure rate in accords and minivans, Toyota engines' high oil consumption and cracked dashboards, etc).