Did Mazda shoot themselves in the foot w/ill-conceived "2014" model year designation?

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Did Mazda shoot themselves in the foot w/ill-conceived "2014" model year designation?

So Hiroshima ran with the 2013 offering for, what, 9 months of 2012, shuffled the powertrain offering and tweaked the infotainment system at the beginning of CY 2013 and called it the 2014 model. Wouldn't it have made a helluva lot more sense to call it the 2013.5 model and, BTW, what are they going to do when October rolls around and they drop the 2.0 altogether and add the diesel as an option? Call it the 2015 model and run with that for all of 2014? It's hard to imagine a way out of this mistake; or am I missing something?(uhm)
 
The years on cars are becoming somewhat like the months on magazines. I get my March Car and Driver next week.

It is going to make it fun in the used car market when one 2014 model is 3 years old in 2015 and another is just 1 year old.
 
You think there's enough time for them to place a $4MIL 30 second ad in the Super Bowl for these new mods??
 
BTW, what are they going to do when October rolls around and they drop the 2.0 altogether and add the diesel as an option? Call it the 2015 model and run with that for all of 2014? It's hard to imagine a way out of this mistake; or am I missing something?(uhm)

If and when they bring the diesel out as an option on the CX-5, I personally won't give a damn what year they call it...

C'mon Diesel CX-5!!!!

shut-up-and-take-my-money-fry-meme.jpg
 
So Hiroshima ran with the 2013 offering for, what, 9 months of 2012, shuffled the powertrain offering and tweaked the infotainment system at the beginning of CY 2013 and called it the 2014 model. Wouldn't it have made a helluva lot more sense to call it the 2013.5 model and, BTW, what are they going to do when October rolls around and they drop the 2.0 altogether and add the diesel as an option? Call it the 2015 model and run with that for all of 2014? It's hard to imagine a way out of this mistake; or am I missing something?(uhm)

I thought that the next year models used to come out in the fall of the year and something released early would be like a half year model but it seems things aren't that way anymore. Do other car makers all go by the same rules or are things different nowadays? I don't know if it is a given that the CX-5 will lose the 2.0. Have you heard something different or are you just assuming that the addition of a diesel option would mean the 2.0 will no longer be offered?
 
It isn't unusual anymore for the next years models to come out in the middle of the prior year but they are just now starting to move back to this early in the year. It used to be pretty much standard that the next years models would start hitting the lot around September-October
 
I don't know if it is a given that the CX-5 will lose the 2.0. Have you heard something different or are you just assuming that the addition of a diesel option would mean the 2.0 will no longer be offered?
I'm making an assumption here. Seems to me it would ultimately make sense to offer the 2.0 on the Mazda 3 and the 2.5 gas and 2.2 diesel on the 6 and CX-5. That prediction exhausts the bandwidth on my crystal ball, so I won't venture a guess on future CX-9 powertrain offerings.
 
I would guess that the 2.0 will stick around as a CX-5 offering but Mazda but who knows for sure. The next Mazda 3 will probably lose the non-skyactiv 2.0 and 2.5 options and will add the 2.5 skyactiv and up the compression ratio on the 2.0 skyactiv. Mazda doesn't have it's own engine for the next CX-9 yet so will probably develop a larger displacement skyactiv engine later.
 
It's a non-issue, assuming the model year 2014 continues with same overall above average reliability, customer satisfaction and related demand of model year 2013.
 
My guess is the 2.0 engine option will be obsolete.

Knowing that Mazda only expected manual transmission CX-5s to account for only 5% of this model's sales, it's likely that Mazda only made the manual transmission to advertise the car as 35MPG highway. With the efficiency penalty for the larger engine with auto transmission only being 1-2 MPG, there is almost no reason to opt for the 2.0 engine over the 2.5.

When the diesel is released, it's EPA numbers will serve the same purpose as the manual 2.0, and the suits at Mazda corp will probably drop the 2.0 engine option completely.
 
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I think it all boils down to getting changes to market. You see car companies making announcements for new models sooner and sooner and the earlier they can get them to market the better for that company. I agree with CX-SV, it is a non-issue if they are able to continue getting the 2013's off the lot along with the demand for the 2014.

To the OP, do you really think we will see the Diesel in October? I was under the impression that if it comes to the U.S. market it wouldn't be until 2015. Wonder if we will the 2015 models in Jan. 2014.
 
I think the MY designation has a greater impact on the used car market and in depreciation values. Someone taking delivery of a brand new 2013 CX-5 on the same day a 2014 CX-5 is delivered will drive off the lot with a 1 year older model. True, Mazda is offering deep incentives on the 2013 to compensate but are they really enough?
 
True, Mazda is offering deep incentives on the 2013 to compensate but are they really enough?
What sort of incentives have you seen? I haven't yet. Everyone has a price... I think 5K off MSRP would do it for me.

Speaking of which, I heard one of the dealers this morning offering 5K off the MSRP on a new Mazda6. I went to their website to see if there were any details, but there are not. Frankly their site is amazingly sad considering the size and number of dealerships that they have in Tucson. www.jimclick.com
 
when people were talking about trading in theirs on the new ones I ran a few trade in value calculations and it seemed at least for really recent cars (ran a 2011 and 2012 Mazda3 for the numbers) the depreciation difference of 1 vs 2 years was very minimal. Body style changes tend to have the largest impact on trade-in and resale value (the 2013 Mazda6 will be hit fairly hard for the next few years). It will be interesting to see how the long term values work out and after 5-10 years will the average person know that the 2014 had the larger engine or will it just be the fans of the car that know that.

These year designations are going to make the miles on some cars look interesting. Granted I put a lot of miles on it but I've got a 2013 with almost 20,000 miles on it already and by the time we get to the end of 2013 it will be somewhere around 45,000. It is going to look like a rental car by the time we get to the mid 2014 year so that it looks like it is 1 year old and has close to 60,000.....
 
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What sort of incentives have you seen?

They are $1,500 to $2,000 off around here.

The Mazda6s seem to have similar markdowns. One local dealer has had two 2013 Mazda6s for awhile now and just got a 2014 in and before I could even stop in to look at it they sold it and still have the 2013s..
 
To the OP, do you really think we will see the Diesel in October? I was under the impression that if it comes to the U.S. market it wouldn't be until 2015. Wonder if we will the 2015 models in Jan. 2014.
That was my point! How do they gracefully get out of being one year out of sync once they've started it?
 
Speaking of which, I heard one of the dealers this morning offering 5K off the MSRP on a new Mazda6. I went to their website to see if there were any details, but there are not. Frankly their site is amazingly sad considering the size and number of dealerships that they have in Tucson. www.jimclick.com

$10000 off MSRP!!!
http://www.jimclick.com/specials/new.htm


This is a scam...I bet the MSRP that they refer to is the dealer posted price which has no relationship to the Monroney.
[h=1][/h]
 
Why is this a scam? They're a Chrysler/Ram truck dealer! Do you know how easy it is to knock 10 large off a 2012 $50k super-mega Ram monster 4-door and still make a tidy profit? Get a grip Steve.

[h=2]scam[/h]noun 1. a confidence game or other fraudulent scheme, especially for making a quick profit; swindle.







Sounds like a scam to me since if what you're saying is true ( I don't follow the domestic auto market).

Get a grip? We're discussing that in another thread related to FWD & the use of chains vs AWD & dedicated winter tires. (headbang)
 
That was my point! How do they gracefully get out of being one year out of sync once they've started it?

I don't think they do, I think from now on the next years models will all come out in January of the prior year. At best they may be able to slowly inch forward a bit, like have the 2015's come out in February and the 2016s in March. Once they stop making major changes it won't be as noticeable and they won't likely be in such a hurry to get the new options to market since they won't be as noticeable. Although with a Diesel coming it could really mess with it since they haven't left themselves any wiggle room to release the 2015 even earlier next year.
 
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