2017~2024 Mazda Sales.... Not So Good

Another thing to consider. My 5 year old CX-5 has 70,000 miles now. It has cost me only for routine maintenance and replacement of wear and tear items (tires, brakes, etc.). I expect a long lifetime ahead for this vehicle. 30 years ago however, I would be looking at a replacement vehicle by now since I would know that major expenses were going to start happening and reliability would start to tank. In other words, to my mind, a new vehicle is now more of a want than a necessity and I would expect new vehicle demand to be less because of that.
 
Another blunder IMO is charging extra for 3 colors...white, red and gray. Many older people like myself see this as a money grab. I remember the days when dealers would add "rust proofing", "pin stripes" just to add more markup. Charging extra for popular paint colors?? Absurd. $600 extra for red? $300 for gray?? puh-leeze!
 
Whoever came up with "use it or lose it" really blew it.

Yep, as a government employee, I despise when my management comes around begging for ideas to spend the remaining budget on near the end of the fiscal year. The idiotic mentality is that if we don*t spend 100% of the budget, then we won*t be able to justify a similar budget the following year. Total crap. Why not have all unspent money go to a fund for scholarships, infrastructure, or something?
 
Another thing to consider. My 5 year old CX-5 has 70,000 miles now. It has cost me only for routine maintenance and replacement of wear and tear items (tires, brakes, etc.). I expect a long lifetime ahead for this vehicle. 30 years ago however, I would be looking at a replacement vehicle by now since I would know that major expenses were going to start happening and reliability would start to tank. In other words, to my mind, a new vehicle is now more of a want than a necessity and I would expect new vehicle demand to be less because of that.

I always paid cash for my cars, drove them for a few years, then sold them for at least what I initially paid...many times for more than that. By buying used, I also saved on insurance and property taxes.

For me, the problem arises when you get so many miles on a vehicle that you hesitate to drive it too far from home. I got to that point with my truck (135,000). Vacation trips in it were out of the question, and rental cars just add aggravation and time to going anywhere (and where I am, the nearest rental car place is nearly an hour away). Impromptu trips are out of the question.

Last year I started to look for low-mileage used, but they hold their resale value so well (continued Cash for Clunkers impact?), that after factoring in Dealer Financing specials, I bought my new CX-5 for not much more per month that I could have purchased used. As silly as it seems, having this new car has freed me up. I've retired to a rural area with almost no traffic, and can actually enjoy driving again and take road trips just for the heck of it. I go to the beach about 160 miles away and don't give a second thought to breaking down somewhere. It doesn't take a major failure to leave you stranded, and gone are the days that carrying an extra set of points & condenser and a toolbox in the trunk is gonna get you through most emergencies.

Of course, it's all academic if you don't have the money.

To your other point, it is interesting that we used to pop the champagne if we were lucky enough to hit 100,000 on a car and not measure oil consumption in Quarts-per-Tank (I've had 2 FlatHead Six <s>mosquito foggers</s> cars). These days, longevity is pretty much taken for granted, even in low-end cars. I recently saw a single owner CR-V for sale that had over 400,000 on it.

It would be informative to see the historical stats for the percentage of vehicles on the road broken down by age. Understanding what people are doing different these days would help.
 
Yep, as a government employee, I despise when my management comes around begging for ideas to spend the remaining budget on near the end of the fiscal year. The idiotic mentality is that if we don*t spend 100% of the budget, then we won*t be able to justify a similar budget the following year. Total crap. Why not have all unspent money go to a fund for scholarships, infrastructure, or something?

The fact is that corporate America has the same mentality.

I managed internal budgets with my last employer (Booz Allen) and we always spent every dime. In our defense, we did not waste the money...we put it towards investing in technology and business management tools that we could not otherwise get funding for.

Everyone does it.

The other side to this coin is what would happen with the economy and unemployment if we suddenly became responsible and efficient? I find THAT thought to be sobering.
 
Another blunder IMO is charging extra for 3 colors...white, red and gray. Many older people like myself see this as a money grab. I remember the days when dealers would add "rust proofing", "pin stripes" just to add more markup. Charging extra for popular paint colors?? Absurd. $600 extra for red? $300 for gray?? puh-leeze!

Those colors use a more involved and I'm assuming more expensive paint process.
 
Yep, as a government employee, I despise when my management comes around begging for ideas to spend the remaining budget on near the end of the fiscal year. The idiotic mentality is that if we don*t spend 100% of the budget, then we won*t be able to justify a similar budget the following year. Total crap. Why not have all unspent money go to a fund for scholarships, infrastructure, or something?

It's why I always get pissed off when they say "we need to raise taxes"!!! You have the money.
 
Another blunder IMO is charging extra for 3 colors...white, red and gray. Many older people like myself see this as a money grab. I remember the days when dealers would add "rust proofing", "pin stripes" just to add more markup. Charging extra for popular paint colors?? Absurd. $600 extra for red? $300 for gray?? puh-leeze!

As Colorado Driver said--and in Mazda's defense--these are customer 3-layer colors. They offer a premium paint for a slight up-charge.

Maybe it would be different if they offered Standard Red and Standard Gray in addition to the extra-cost versions so you could get "red" without paying for it.

By the way, I just went on Toyota's RAV-4 configurator site out of curiosity. They charge $395 for red...and it's not a high-end 3 Layer color like Mazda's.

As an aside, when I was car shopping, I walked around parking lots every time I went shopping to see which colors held up the best, especially on the few Mazdas I could find (this was because of the Japanese car paint issues I heard so much about). I started off in love with the red, but I saw so many darned red SUVs in so many variants I decided I did not want to be yet another red SUV driving around, so I ended up with the Eternal Blue just to be different.
 
Last edited:
I started off in love with the red, but I saw so many darned red SUVs in so many variants I decided I did not want to be yet another red SUV driving around, so I ended up with the Eternal Blue just to be different.

Soul Red Crystal Metallic IS different, all the other reds look dull in comparison.
 
The other side to this coin is what would happen with the economy and unemployment if we suddenly became responsible and efficient? I find THAT thought to be sobering.

We could put all that time and money we waste into worthwhile endeavors. Hallelujah!

But don't worry. We're talking about human society here, so it'll never happen.
 
We could put all that time and money we waste into worthwhile endeavors. Hallelujah!

But don't worry. We're talking about human society here, so it'll never happen.

The wasted potential and capacity truly boggles the mind...said every philosopher ever.
 
As Colorado Driver said--and in Mazda's defense--these are customer 3-layer colors. They offer a premium paint for a slight up-charge.

Maybe it would be different if they offered Standard Red and Standard Gray in addition to the extra-cost versions so you could get "red" without paying for it.

By the way, I just went on Toyota's RAV-4 configurator site out of curiosity. They charge $395 for red...and it's not a high-end 3 Layer color like Mazda's.

As an aside, when I was car shopping, I walked around parking lots every time I went shopping to see which colors held up the best, especially on the few Mazdas I could find (this was because of the Japanese car paint issues I heard so much about). I started off in love with the red, but I saw so many darned red SUVs in so many variants I decided I did not want to be yet another red SUV driving around, so I ended up with the Eternal Blue just to be different.
don't want to get flamed(pun intended), but I don't get the red color at all on a vehicle.
 
Yup.

You get what you reward. You can't blame those who maximize their rewards.

We can work to improve the system so that it doesn't offer perverse rewards like those we are talking about and many others. It doesn't and won't happen because those who control the system are invested in it. Full circle.
 
don't want to get flamed(pun intended), but I don't get the red color at all on a vehicle.

According to experts, the safest color to have is yellow, because it's highly visible. I had a '75 Vega wagon in that color (not by choice, I bought it used).

Now I'm gonna go full-circle on when I first signed up here as I was car shopping and say the only color I don't like is silver. There's a gentleman here from Australia who likes his silver Mazda...and it is a nice silver...but there was a period when silver seemed to be the only color offered. There were (are?) just so darned many of them on the road.

I ended up feeling the same way about red when I started walking around parking lots trying to decide what to choose for my CX-5. It's not a dislike, per se, it's just a level of saturation for me. And when you start looking closely as I did, you lose sight of what "red" really is. So many darned hues and foundation colors. (Reminds me of buying printing services, trying to deduce the PMS# of each car).

To your question, I think red has this reputation in our culture that women would fawn over a man driving any red car...even a station wagon.
 
Last edited:
According to experts, the safest color to have is yellow, because it's highly visible. I had a '75 Vega wagon in that color (not by choice, I bought it used).

Reminds me of my uncle whom had a yellow mid 90's Chevy Beretta.
 
Back