2017 Mazda CX-5 news and information with photos
Will the next-gen Mazda CX-5 carry the brand?
December 6, 2016
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Mazda CEO Masamichi Kogai, fighting sliding sales and a tougher U.S. auto market, is banking on an ambitious next-generation product plan to lift the boutique Japanese brand above its mass-market competitors.
In an interview, Kogai described the strategy as a two-step hop to break from the pack in terms of brand picture, pricing power and profitability.
Step one came in two thousand twelve with the debut of Mazda’s Skyactiv lightweight platform and range of fuel-efficient powertrains. Step two now kicks off with the next-generation CX-5 crossover unveiled in November at the LA Auto Showcase.
The CX-5 is the lead nameplate for a lineup overhaul that will culminate in the utter deployment of Skyactiv two products by March 31, 2019.
“We need two successful hops up,” Kogai said in a November interview at the carmaker’s global headquarters here. “Now we are going to begin our offensive again.”
Mazda is one of Japan’s smallest car brands, and Kogai’s objective is to elevate it above its larger-volume players. Doing so is critical to the company’s long-term viability as an export-dependent niche brand that requires higher margins to reinvest in costly alternative drivetrains and advanced safety technology.
Los Angeles Auto Showcase
Kogai’s strategy aims to:
- Hold the line on incentives to boost transaction prices.
- Cultivate an upmarket aura around the brand with sporty treating, elegant interiors and sumptuous design.
- Improve the brand’s low customer-retention rate to sixty percent.
Achieving all that will require getting Mazda’s dealers on board with the photo make-over.
“We want to distinguish ourselves by being a little elevated above the other Japanese or mainstream brands,” Kogai said.
Kogai’s ambitions will face some rough realities.
Through November, Mazda’s U.S. sales dropped 7.Two percent in a market that was plane. And many forecasters believe U.S. auto sales have peaked and are poised to slow even further. In that environment, Mazda will be attempting to lift its prices as rivals slash theirs amid a possible price war.
The company’s brand metrics also have a way to go.
Mazda ranked below the industry average this year in three closely observed J.D. Power studies — those gauging vehicle dependability, initial quality and customer satisfaction with service.
But Mazda is studying two benchmark brands that Kogai says have done what he wants to do: propel the brand upward through two successive generations of vehicles. He declines to identify the brands Mazda is studying.
They “actually repeated the same kind of success twice,” Kogai said. “We have had only one leap so far, from the [previous] generation of products to the [current] generation that we introduced commencing in 2012. We indeed need to achieve a similarly big leap from the [current] generation to [next] generation.”
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The redesigned CX-5 hints at what’s in store. The popular crossover doesn’t get the fresh Skyactiv two drivetrain technology, which Mazda says will supply a thirty percent boost to fuel economy through an ultrahigh-compression engine.
The technology is a big gambit. Known as homogeneous charge compression ignition, the system compresses the fuel-air combination to such a high pressure and temperature that it inflames by itself without requiring a spark, similar to the way a diesel engine operates.
But the CX-5 gets Skyactiv two treatment in design, chassis technology and Mazda’s fresh G-Vectoring Control system, which produces sharper treating and a smoother rail.
The outgoing CX-5 was the original vehicle to get the utter suite of first-generation Skyactiv technologies. The very first vehicle with the accomplish set of Skyactiv two goodies should arrive by April 2019.
“We are introducing the CX-5, so that means we are coming back to the leadoff batter in our lineup,” Kogai said. Mazda is so bullish about the upcoming CX-5, it believes it will sell an average of 400,000 a year worldwide over the vehicle’s life. Last year, Mazda sold 370,000.
U.S. sales of the CX-5 were up 0.Two percent to 100,246 through November.
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Kogai calls the upmarket budge Mazda’s “Right Price Strategy.” It involves a fresh treatment to incentives.
This year, Mazda shifted the concentrate of its dealer incentives to indicating the brand better rather than selling more cars, Kogai said. The fresh thrust encourages better training of dealership employees, better customer service and better product pitches.
“We want to avoid boosting volume by discounting. If we do that, customers who buy that way will go to a cheaper brand when it’s time to buy a fresh vehicle,” Kogai said. “If we pursue that treatment, we won’t be able to improve our customer retention.”
Mazda’s average U.S. transaction price rose just 1.9 percent through October, from a year earlier, according to Kelley Blue Book. That trailed an industry average increase of Three.Five percent.
Mazda’s interim purpose is bringing more customers back to buy another Mazda.