Will Mazda Abandon US Production?
Mazda may be free from its less-than-entirely-successful relationship with Ford, but when it comes to US production, Mazda is still very much stuck in its Ford-dependent past. B-Series pickup production has ended in St Paul, but Tribute is still built alongside Escape in Kansas City (for the moment), and the majority of Mazda’s US production is still accounted for by Mazda6, which is also built alongside Fords at the shared Flat Rock “Auto Alliance” plant. But AutoWeek‘s Hans Greiml reports that the Nikkan Kogyo newspaper believes Mazda could be looking to pull out from Flat Rock.
the Mazda6 is a big reason Mazda can’t turn a regional operating profit in North America–one of its most important markets.
The company planned to produce 100,000 Mazda6 units annually at the Flat Rock, Mich., plant, when the redesigned sedan was launched there in mid-2008. Then the financial crisis hit.
Last year the plant built only 45,168 units.
Mazda is cagey about what options it is mulling. If it quits producing the Mazda6, it could bring in another vehicle–or Mazda could quit the plant completely. Speculation abounds in Japan that Mazda is eyeing a new, lower cost North American production base in Mexico.
With the Tribute going out of production by the end of the year, Flat Rock would be Mazda’s last remaining US production facility. But while moving production from Flat Rock to Mexico might be a solid strategic move, it won’t change the Mazda6’s underperformance in the market. That’s going to take at least a “Mazda-rati” redesign. Hit the jump for a graph of Mazda’s midsized sales performance since 1995.
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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The crux of the matter is Mazda somehow hasn't found its niche or identity in terms of positioning its vehicles successfully. That has resulted in rather middling sales figures...which is threatening its viability as a player in the North American car market. Where it is produced is a secondary issue. Sure, they can move assembly to Mexico as a way to save some change, though in the short term they may incur some costs. But that by itself isn't going to help them.
My son bought a new 03 Mazda 6 with V6 5speed when he graduated from law school. It now has 185,000 miles with few repairs other than routine maintenance, it even has the original clutch. He has started looking around at late model Fusion or Mazda 6 but disappointed that neither offers a V6 manual. I am trying to get him to drive a 4 cyl manual but he is skeptical that he will like one of those.
I also see very little point in the 6 - it has nothing to make it stand out, the styling is bizarre, and only heavy discounting gets it off the showroom floor. It exhibits nothing of the Mazda spirit we see in our 3 and Miata. Mazda has lost it here. Keep in mind that Mazda is not dropping the 6. And that the current 6 uses a variety of Ford parts (look at the Ford logo on the brake calipers, for one). And that the it's Fusion cousin is going to a different platform soon, so those parts will go away. Mazda's statements here reflect the product lifecycle and the costs of sharing a plant with Ford, nothing more. The new 6 should be based on Shinari styling, and offer an upmarket touring option with the MazdaSpeed3 engine. Yes, I know the prior MazdaSpeed6 was a near miss, but it was more because of the lackluster styling and tight size than it was because of the engine. In fact, the engine and AWD drivetrain worked very well and was quick without any torque steer. With excellent highway mileage (even over 30), it out-did Ford's own EcoBoost-4 many years earlier (something that one of the EcoBoost engineers took note of in an interview a few years ago). Mazda put a lot of engineering work into that car, with extra welding, strategic bracing, and even a limited slip rear diff (when most AWD cars use open diffs). It was ahead of it's time, a modern interpretation of this same idea would make great competition to several other vehicles, each of which is currently far-outselling the 6. -Jeff DrivingEnthusiast.net
I still drive the 1996 Mazda 626 ES V6 (Fully loaded model). VIN built from FlatRock Michigan in 1995. The back row floor mats and leather seats still looks almost new and I'm amazed that no signs of rust on the body of the car still. So far its only had 170k miles on it, never replaced or rebuilt the engine and Ford transmission. I know it could still run for another few more years HAHAHA. The car had pretty good handling on the steering wheel I must say, but if you put a lot of passenger or cargo weight in it, you could feel it in the steering wheel and I don't know if that's normal on most vehicles.