Australian financial turmoil not too bad: Mazda

MAZDA’S local management believes the effects of the global financial crisis on Australia are not as bad as some analysts suggest, but also admits it will have to raise the prices of its cars.

The managing director of Mazda Australia, Doug Dickson, has no illusions that the current situation is tough, but maintains it could be worse.

“We track consumer confidence on a weekly basis and it doesn’t seem to be quite as bad as you might think,” he said. “It is actually firming at the moment.”

Mr Dickson said Australia might not take the full brunt of global downturn.

“We’re not certain that Australia will have as hard a landing as Europe and the US,” he said.

“Certainly, the current round of job cuts and things is very worrying and very disturbing but there are indications that Australia is doing a little better than first thought.”

VFACTS sales figures for January showed the Mazda3 was the best selling car in the country with 3124 sold.

The company is preparing to launch the second-generation version of the car next month and is confident the fresh metal will mean Mazda will be able to maintain the moment of the small car.

“What we are expecting is that new Mazda3 will give us much the same volume in 2009 as we had in 2008, about 33,000,” he said.

“So the overall market is going to come back a bit, but the market is moving towards small cars and light cars.”

Left: Mazda Australia managing director Doug Dickson.

In terms of the overall Australian new car market, Mazda still believes it will roll off the throttle after two years of more than one million sales.

“We have obviously reduced our expectations for 2009, our view of the market probably hasn’t changed from 850,000 to 875,000,” he said.

“We see no reason that we would reduce market share and that translates to 70,000, 71,000. That is obviously down on where we were last year, it is probably back to where we were about two years ago.”

Mr Dickson said private sales were still holding up, but fleets had weakened.

“I’m not sure that business confidence is at the same level (as private customers) so fleet sales are a bit under the pump, but certainly our customers still seem to be out there and appreciating the good value in the market at the moment,” he said.

“We don’t have a lot of major fleet or rentals, but we do have a very high level of small business fleet, user chooser and things like that, but we don’t have a lot to do with major 100 plus fleets.”

While Mazda is maintaining a positive outlook, another importer has revealed to GoAuto that its forecasts suggest far more difficult times ahead.

Not wanting to be named, the brand said its experts had advised it that the effects of the upcoming Rudd Government stimulus package would start to wear off around June or July.

“They are predicting that things will start to get really ugly after that,” said the company source.

While Mazda is more optimistic than the unnamed importer, it is almost certain to increase its prices in reaction to exchange rate pressures.

“While the yen remains strong and the Australian dollar fairly weak there certainly is pressure on the pricing and I think that over the course of the year all importers will have probably a number of price rises,” Mr Dickson said.

Asked if that meant Mazda would also raise its prices, he said: “We will, definitely.”

That also includes the Mazda3 which will be more expensive that the existing $21,490 model, although the company won’t confirm the final pricing.

“It will be more expensive, but it will have a lot more (equipment) as standard,” said Mr Dickson.

“Price isn’t the only motivator in buying cars, certainly there are a lot of buyers who are very conscious of price, but we have a large range and we sell quite a high mix of the more expensive ones, so pricing is an issue, but it is not the main issue.”

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