It is official now. The Mazda 3 is now the best selling car in Australia. According the January 2009 VFACTS Australian new vehicle registration data published by the Australian Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), the Mazda 3 has for the first time dethroned the first and second placed Holden Commodore and Toyota Corolla as Australia's favourite car. The news follows the earlier preview of the second generation Mazda 3 MPS.
It's not difficult to understand why. The car is not short on value, is good to drive, very reliable and has excellent built quality. And as a bonus it doesn't look too bad either. Over in ASEAN markets, Mazda 3 is a popular aspirational car that young buyers aspire to own, however the model is quickly dropped out of final consideration towards the end of the purchase consideration process. The product itself is strong, but the local distributors in ASEAN markets are rather weak, lacking in significant investment required to build up the Mazda brand. Among all the key ASEAN markets, I reckon Singapore is Mazda's largest market in ASEAN, distributed by Mazda Motors Singapore Pte. Ltd.
Australia is expected to receive the second generation Mazda 3 by October this year. Of course, it has to be noted that many of these sales could be attributed to discounting and also the rush to purchase new cars in Australia before January 2009, when car prices are expected to rise due to currency fluctuations. Mazda has no domestic assembly operations in Australia and all its vehicles are imported. The 3 is assembled at Mazda's plant in Hiroshima, Japan. But prior to this, Mazda 3 is already Australia's No.1 privately registered car. The higher placed Holden Commodore and Toyota Corolla attribute a lot of their sales to fleet sales. So the 3 deserves its rightful title as Australia's favourite car.
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