Text/Leju Finance Li Shanshan
"Flowers will bloom in the world, and magnificent and immortal things will follow." Mazda's official WeChat profile reads.
Mazda, a former first-line brand, has never hidden its ambition to promote to a luxury brand. Unfortunately, "fame is difficult to match", followed by not beautiful things, but from the "abandonment" of the times.
Mazda's arrogance forced itself to turn to strategic defense, and the decline in sales turned the two sub-brands into one. Seven months ago, the merger and reorganization business of Changan Mazda and FAW Mazda was implemented, and the latter was merged into the former to form the new Changan Mazda.
However, after the "two horses in one", it is still impossible to get rid of the decline, and Changan Mazda's sales have continued to decline month after month, and now its monthly sales have fallen to less than 10,000 vehicles. According to the data, sales in February were only 8,047 vehicles, down 23.8% year-on-year and 58.1% month-on-month.
At the same time, Changan Mazda is deeply involved in a mass vortex, including component cracking, abnormal noise, engine failure lights and other long-term difficult to solve problems.
On March 18, Changan Mazda officially announced that Nakajima officially stepped down as president of Changan Mazda Automobile Co., Ltd. and was replaced by Sumioka Kei. Can changing the coach of Changan Mazda save the decline?
Quality worries
In terms of product lineup, the current models on sale of the new Changan Mazda include Mazda 3 Axela, Artez, CX-30/CX-30 EV, CX-4, CX-5, CX-8, etc., covering the product spectrum from fuel vehicles to new energy, from small to medium and large mainstream market segments.
Among these many models, only The Axela and CX-5 can support Changan Mazda's market share. These two main sales models have also contracted more than half of the complaint volume of Changan Mazda.
According to the information of the car quality network, the 2021 and 2020 models of Unxella were complained about 184 and 636 cases respectively due to quality problems, and the number of complaints of the 2017 model and the 2016 model was as high as 1288 cases and 1164 cases respectively.
Among the many complaints of Axela, the problems of component cracking, abnormal noise, engine failure lights and other problems are the hardest hit areas of complaints.
An Onxella 2016 1.5L automatic luxury sedan owner complained that in the case of usual attention to use, the vehicle's central control screen appeared for no reason to break the crack, in early 2019 found cracks, and for the problem twice complained, the manufacturer did not reply, now the central control screen crack is more and more serious, but after the warranty period is not warranted. The owner believes that the cracking of the central control screen belongs to the common disease of the 2016 Anksela, and the manufacturer should be recalled for maintenance free of charge.
In response to the problem of abnormal sound, there is an Unxella 2020 model owner complaint that its vehicle traveled to more than a thousand kilometers when the direction of the machine appeared abnormal, after many times to the 4S shop to replace, after the problem was solved, and then there was a throttle when the engine compartment and the central control of the abnormal sound, and more obvious when taking bumpy roads, in addition, there is a sunken door, resulting in the closing of the door plated strip is worn, there is a strange sound.
After the owner complained about these problems, the 4S shop gave the owner 1500 yuan compensation and promised to repair the car, but the owner did not agree to the solution at first, until the 4S shop found a third party to negotiate with the owner before agreeing, but after the consultation, the problem was not solved, the 4S shop instead said that the owner was suspected of extortion, the owner was very angry.
In response to the engine failure lights, there are 2017 Anksela owners reflected that in 4 days, the vehicle has repeatedly appeared engine failure lights after the lights automatically disappeared, during the exercise of the road also appeared twice suddenly extinguished, and then in accordance with the 4S shop maintenance plan to replace the fuel pump, but after 40 kilometers of replacement and then the engine failure lights on, refueling is weak, automatically extinguished.
When the owner goes to the 4S shop again to test, the other party also says that it is a computer board problem, and after communicating with the manufacturer in the 4S shop, it is the electronic interference on the car, so that the owner can take the car recorder and open it for a period of time to try. In this regard, the owner believes that the manufacturer lets the user drive a vehicle with serious safety hazards to test the problem, which is a disregard for the user's life safety.
Recalled year after year
"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 unique value of Changan Mazda." However, before the concept was implemented, there were gradually increasing vehicle recalls.
At the beginning of 2022, many car companies ushered in the "opening red", while Changan Mazda was busy recalling. On January 14, Changan Mazda Automobile Co., Ltd. announced the recall of some of the domestically produced MAZDA CX-8 vehicles from July 8, 2020 to June 2, 2021, for a total of 370 vehicles.
The reason for the recall is that the internal connection rod riveting process of the vehicle's center seat rail mechanism is not appropriate, and the seat may move forward due to the inability to lock the seat rail during the vehicle, which will increase the risk of injury to the middle row passengers in extreme cases, and there is a safety hazard.
In addition, as early as 2019, Changan Mazda had a large-scale vehicle recall. In September 2019, Changan Mazda recalled the domestically produced second-generation CX-5 from August 8, 2017 to July 2, 2019, totaling 77,112 units.
The main reason for the recall is that the internal pump wheel of the engine fuel pump core has deformed and interfered with the surrounding parts, resulting in the failure of the fuel pump function and the inability to supply the engine with normal oil. In extreme cases, the engine may be turned off during the vehicle, which will greatly affect driving safety during high-speed or mountain driving.
A year later, in September 2020, Changan Mazda once again recalled its products, the models were Mazda CX-8 and Mazda 3 Axela, and a total of 29,134 vehicles were recalled.
The reason for the recall is roughly the same as in 2019, all because there may be a possible failure of the engine fuel pump, and extreme situations may lead to power interruption during the driving process of the vehicle, and there is a safety hazard.
Sales are on the decline
From Mazda, which must be used whenever sports models are compared, to no one cares, Mazda is changing from a first-line brand to a third-line joint venture brand at a rapid pace.
From 2018 to 2021, Mazda China's sales were 272322, 227,750, 214574 and 183953, respectively, a decline of more than 40% in four years.
In order to cope with the increasing decline in sales and reduce unnecessary expenses, in 2021, Mazda's business in China underwent a major adjustment, Changan Mazda and FAW Mazda merged and reorganized, and the (new) Changan Mazda will be changed to a joint venture jointly funded by the three parties, Changan Automobile, Mazda, and China FAW holding 47.5%, 47.5% and 5% respectively.
Today, more than half a year has passed since the "two horses in one", and this half year has not changed the decline in Mazda's sales in the Chinese market.
According to the data, since the merger of FAW Mazda and Changan Mazda, Mazda's sales in China from September 2021 to January 2022 were 16,428 units, 15,291 units, 14,754 units, 14,590 units and 19,198 vehicles, respectively. After a continuous decline in sales, Changan Mazda's monthly sales have fallen to less than 10,000 units.
According to the latest sales data released by Mazda China, Changan Mazda sold only 8,047 vehicles in February, down 23.8% year-on-year and 58.1% month-on-month. Cumulatively, sales from January to February were 27,245 units, down 12.7% year-on-year.
In terms of subdivision models, The Axela sold 4879 units in February, which is still the sales pillar of Changan Mazda, but at the same time fell by 7.33% year-on-year; another model, CX-5, sold 1238 units in February, followed by only 853 CX-30 sales in October, continuing its niche role.
In addition to the sluggish sales of traditional fuel vehicles, Changan Mazda's new energy market is even more dismal.
On September 26, 2021, Changan Mazda officially launched a fuel-based CX-30 EV based on a fuel-based model. According to the data, from October 2021 to February 2022, the sales of this model were 12, 19, 43, 104 and 29 respectively, and few were few.
Perhaps seeing the many problems existing in the new Changan Mazda, on March 18, Changan Mazda officially announced that Nakajima officially stepped down as the president of Changan Mazda Automobile Co., Ltd. and was replaced by Sumioka Kei. At the beginning of this year, Fu Yuanhong stepped down as vice president of the company and was succeeded by Wang Hui.
When the automotive industry is surging, Changan Mazda wants to get out of the trough, and it is not just as simple as "changing coaches".