Mazda5: 44% fleet sales in US

[HotRodSaint]

And don't get me wrong, I think Mazda could do a better job (much better) advertising/marketing the 5 to consumers.

But I think Mazda is/was content on reaching a certain number of sales in the USA to justtify it's existance here. And fleet sales are relatively easy way to increase their sales without the large expenditure on tv commercials and magazine ads.

I do think that the rumored '08 changes are partially due to the introduction of the Rondo. But Kia's relatively low sales also show that advertising has limited success.

 

[AIMWO4]

So Far, So Good.

So far the 2006 used model is holding up as well as the Mazda3. I checked NADA, KBB and TMV. Nothing out of the ordinary.

 

[Captain KRM P5]

if you want to talk about resale value, i don't think any of us should lose sleep about the kia rondo

 

[coolmazda5]

if you want to talk about resale value, i don't think any of us should lose sleep about the kia rondo

(iagree)

Sample car resale value view to the eyes of a potential buyer in the future:

Mazda5

Kia Rondo

 

[opus]

Boy oh boy, whatever plan Mazda is following seems to be working like a charm!!!!

June 2006 1,705 sold
June 2007 1,096 sold

A decline of 35%, year to date sales are down 12.6%.

I love this car, and I don't want everyone to have one, but if things keep going this way, we will end up with an orphan car. Orphan cars usually experience an uptick in insurance rates, and maintainence costs. I just don't understand why you would let a great product like this just die on the vine. Oh yeah, thats right, Ford owns them!! It is their general course of action to let them let products die on the vine.

 

[AIMWO4]

It has a lot of Mazda3 parts. No big deal.

Boy oh boy, whatever plan Mazda is following seems to be working like a charm!!!!

June 2006 1,705 sold
June 2007 1,096 sold

A decline of 35%, year to date sales are down 12.6%.

I love this car, and I don't want everyone to have one, but if things keep going this way, we will end up with an orphan car. Orphan cars usually experience an uptick in insurance rates, and maintainence costs. I just don't understand why you would let a great product like this just die on the vine. Oh yeah, thats right, Ford owns them!! It is their general course of action to let them let products die on the vine.

 

[gardgen]

Rental

I just rented a car for a week and tried to find a Mazda 5 to rent to see if I would like it. No-one here in New England has them. Had to settle for a chrysler mini-van... which was noisy, really horrible on gas mileage, uncomfortable for driver (no place to put your foot) and arm rest on door hits the knees, the drink holders mounted on the 2nd row passenger seats collapse, and worst of all was that it had this fancy individual heat/air system for passenger/driver and rear passengers and no one was confortable. The good thing I have to say is there certainly was plenty of room and the storage in the floor was a great help for storing valuables out of sight.

Still would like to rent the Mazda 5 before I invest in it.

 

[AIMWO4]

Go take a long test drive. They don't care.
FWIW... I have a Town & Country that is NOT in bad shape. Rentals get beat all to hell. I like the Mazda5 better, but our T&C is great for hauling. I don't expect it to be a quality machine. (gun)

I just rented a car for a week and tried to find a Mazda 5 to rent to see if I would like it. No-one here in New England has them. Had to settle for a chrysler mini-van... which was noisy, really horrible on gas mileage, uncomfortable for driver (no place to put your foot) and arm rest on door hits the knees, the drink holders mounted on the 2nd row passenger seats collapse, and worst of all was that it had this fancy individual heat/air system for passenger/driver and rear passengers and no one was confortable. The good thing I have to say is there certainly was plenty of room and the storage in the floor was a great help for storing valuables out of sight.

Still would like to rent the Mazda 5 before I invest in it.

 

[sapacif]

... more people may actually buy one based on how much they enjoyed the rental.

This is eaxctly the circumstances that caused me to buy my Mazda5. In fact, mine is an ex-Enterprise 2008 model year rental car that had 20,000 miles on it in eight months. It sat on a Chrysler dealer lot for four months before I purchased it in Feb 2009. My rental "upgrade" impressed me very much; I had not intended to rent a car of that size.

Guess this is a "bump" for this thread. (shady)

[edit] Here is some more recent sales information.

December, 2008 - Mazda5 sold 2,884 vehicles, representing a 77.4 percent gain over the same period in 2007.

 

[Heat]

You can see the sales numbers for the past two years in this thread:

http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123732622

A little over 22,000 last year, not too bad.

Out of curiosity, how much did the '08 ex-rental with 20,000 miles cost, and which trim line?

 

[FLOODED5]

Not to worry about those rental 5's. 90% of them are considered "Risk" Vehicles which are purchased, not leased from the manufacturer. With residual values on vehicles being so poor right now, the companies are feeling the need to accelerate the depreciation on them thus forcing them to keep the car in the fleet longer. I don't think you will need to worry about competing with an 08 M5 that is two years old and has 75K+ miles on it. As for the perception of the M5 being a "Rental car babe" I think the M5 can surpass that with its quality and lack of good competition.

 

[FLOODED5]

(iagree)

Sample car resale value view to the eyes of a potential buyer in the future:

Mazda5

Kia Rondo

Yeah, once the dash curls up like a snail in the Rondo, boo value is pretty much out the window...

 

[sapacif]

Out of curiosity, how much did the '08 ex-rental with 20,000 miles cost, and which trim line?

It cost 14,000 US$ out the door. Sport model.

 

[bilzfan]

I paid 15K for mine in December '08. Mine is in great condition as expected for a 10 month old car. It had 19K miles on it and I've added about 1K since I bought it. I'm very happy that I bouight it and with the price as I was looking at buying a new 5 before I found this Stormy Blue Sport with a 5 speed automatic.

(bluep5)

 

[Mazdatruvious]

The "fleet" number may be deceiving as my girlfriend just bought an 09 Mazda5 that we negotiated over the INTERNET through the "fleet" department. So the purchase would likely be classified as a fleet purchase. More and more people are doing this as you generally get a better deal with less haggling.
Hers, a red touring 09 Mazda5 for $18,712.00.