In recent years, competition among auto companies has become increasingly fierce. Major brands, regardless of joint ventures and autonomy, are eager to have new cars listed every month, and then maintain a high degree of heat in the fiercely competitive market, so that the models under the brand can get good sales.
But Uncle Che is a little numb to this high-prolific rhythm, but he still remembers a speech by Nakajima, president of Changan Mazda Automobile Co., Ltd., at the 2019 Guangzhou Auto Show. At the auto show, Mr. Nakajima said, "Mazda or Changan Mazda will not blindly pursue scale in the future, we will start from the development concept and production of vehicles, and provide customers with products with great unique value of Changan Mazda." After listening to this sentence, Uncle Che was very excited, because the homogenization of products on the market is becoming more and more serious, and what everyone needs most now is this kind of automotive product with unique value. And the uncle himself has a good impression of old-school products such as Mazda 3 and Mazda 6.
However, in the actual performance in the future, Changan Mazda did not practice its own development concept, which made Uncle Che very disappointed. Sales aside, let's first look at product quality, and at the beginning of 2022, Mazda opened a round of recall activities. On January 14, Changan Mazda announced that it will recall a total of 370 domestically produced Mazda CX-8 vehicles produced from July 8, 2020 to June 2, 2021. The reason for the recall is that the internal connection rod riveting process of the vehicle's mid-row seat rail mechanism is improper, and the seat may move forward due to the inability to lock the seat rail during the vehicle's driving, which in extreme cases will increase the risk of injury to the middle row passengers and there is a safety hazard. Mazda, which has always pursued small and beautiful, can have such a low-level failure, which is unacceptable in the eyes of the uncle of the car, because this hidden danger does not belong to too complex mechanical design, and this failure can only show that Changan Mazda has a problem in the quality control of the vehicle, and there is a big problem, because this is not the first recall of Changan Mazda in recent years.
We continue to push back along the timeline, since 2019, Changan Mazda has had a large-scale recall precedent. In September 2019, Changan Mazda recalled a total of 77,112 domestic second-generation CX-5s, which were the sales pillars of Changan Mazda SUVs at that time, but Mazda did not "provide products with unique value" as advertised at the Guangzhou Auto Show. The main reason for this recall is that there is a hidden danger of engine components, the fuel pump of the vehicle engine may fail during the working process, resulting in the inability to supply the engine with normal oil, and in extreme cases, the engine may be stalled during driving, which will greatly affect driving safety during high-speed or mountain driving.
In September 2020, Changan Mazda once again recalled the products under the brand, this time recalling a total of 29,134 vehicles, namely the Mazda CX-8 and the Mazda 3 Axela. As for the reason for the recall, it is consistent with 2019, all because there is a possible failure of the engine fuel pump, and extreme situations may cause power interruption during the vehicle's driving process, which in turn may occur dangerously. CX-8 and OnkSela these two models are Changan Mazda flagship model and sales pillar, for the backbone of the product quality control is still so irresponsible, the quality of other models in the end? It's really bottomless.
After two large-scale recalls, Changan Mazda did not strengthen product quality control. We look at the recent complaints, Changan Mazda models are involved in various types of faults such as abnormal noise, cracking of the trim panel, cracking of the central control screen, etc. In order to avoid being exposed by 315, Changan Mazda opened a recall activity early in January this year. Frequent recalls have obviously weakened consumer trust in Changan Mazda, which can be intuitively reflected in sales.
From the beginning of 2018 to the past 2021, Changan Mazda's sales have been in a state of decline, and in 2021, with a total sales volume of 184,000 units, a year-on-year decline of 14.3% hastily ended, this sales performance is obviously caused by consumers' concerns about the quality of Changan Mazda products. The "unique value" mentioned by Mr. Nakajima is not clearly perceived by consumers, but the product quality is worrying and impresses consumers.
When the quality of the product is so unbearable, and the sales of the product are in a slump, Mazda still says that its products are small and beautiful. The difference between actual performance and publicity allows consumers to see a clumsy Changan Mazda. In the past, Changan Mazda was able to tell a complete story and let consumers pay for their feelings. But now, the poor quality of the product can not even cooperate with Changan Mazda to tell the story.
Uncle Che summed up
Changan Mazda's unbearable, and Mazda's own operating conditions are directly related, when Mazda announced in 2020 that it will not launch new cars in the next two years, it is already doomed to Changan Mazda will begin to decline; and Mazda's slow action on electric vehicles also makes Changan Mazda unable to occupy any market opportunities. If the previous rotor engine made Mazda lose business and earn popularity, then the straight six engine that Mazda is now conquering may not even earn popularity, after all, the electric era has been doomed to be irreversible, and Mazda is at this moment, but in the opposite direction of the mainstream development trend, it is going farther and farther.