Don't Call The Mazda CX-3 A Flop - Yet

Timothy Cain
by Timothy Cain

Operating in the burgeoning subcompact crossover market that’s soon to welcome new entries from Toyota and Ford, the still fresh Mazda CX-3 is already suffering from declining sales.

And the CX-3 is not declining from a particularly high and lofty point achieved earlier in its short lifecycle. There was no hot start for the Mazda CX-3, no early high-volume response to hyped-up demand from which sales would inevitably decrease.

Over the last three months, U.S. sales of the Mazda CX-3’s direct competitors have grown 21 percent, year-over-year. Yet sales of the CX-3 during the same period have declined 4 percent.

The Mazda CX-3 is a new model, only on sale for a year and a half. It’s attractive and highly regarded by reviewers. Yet sales are slowing at the very same time as sales of its competitors are flourishing.

Mazda doesn’t intend to chase volume for volume’s sake, but Mazda does intend to get the CX-3 product mix right before the CX-3 is labelled a flop.

“Initial supplies were all higher trims with all-wheel drive, which is definitely more of an emphasis for driving higher transaction prices,” Mazda spokesperson Jacob Brown told TTAC last week.

Indeed, even now, two-thirds of the roughly 3,000 CX-3s in stock are all-wheel-drive models. All-wheel drive is a $1,250 option on each of the CX-3’s three trim levels.

Among the more popular competitors, slightly less than half of the Honda HR-Vs in stock are equipped with AWD. In fact, the CX-3’s AWD mix is even marginally higher than the AWD mix for the Jeep Renegade.

Moreover, approximately 40 percent of the CX-3’s on dealer lots are priced above $25,000, leaving only around 1,800 CX-3s on sale for less than $25,000. Honda has nearly 10,000 sub-$25K HR-Vs in stock.

But that AWD emphasis “doesn’t help with volume in a price-sensitive class,” Brown says. “Most B-segment crossover shoppers are traditionally those who would have purchased C-segment cars.”

Mazda dealers have therefore been able to sell high-priced CX-3s, just not very many of them. In 2016, only 3.5 percent of the subcompact crossovers sold in the United States were CX-3s. Only the defunct Mini Paceman, transitioning Mini Countryman, and genuinely flopped Fiat 500X sold less often.

In January 2017, the second consecutive month of decline for Mazda’s entry-level crossover, CX-3 volume declined 14 percent and its market share slid to 3.1 percent.

It’s not as though the Mazda brand was trending downwards last month. January 2017 marked the brand’s highest-volume January in five years, Mazda car volume grew 2 percent, and the larger CX-5 and CX-9 jumped 28 percent. Yet January was the lowest-volume full month for the CX-3 so far.

Mazda won’t suddenly determine that the CX-3 must become a high-volume contender. But, says Mazda’s Jacob Brown, “There’s room to grow, and as more customers see how good CX-3 is, we hope to grow volume with them as well.”

In order to get those potential customers to more seriously consider a CX-3, Mazda needs more affordable CX-3s. “We’re going to be adding more entry and mid-level CX-3s into the mix, as well as more with front-wheel drive, because there is room to grow where we have not carried much inventory in subsegments of B-CUV where it makes sense,” Brown told TTAC.

A more affordable CX-3 won’t soon become a more spacious CX-3. Surprisingly balanced ride and handling, a six-speed automatic that makes the most of the CX-3’s 146 horsepower, and tasteful styling still won’t be enough for everyone.

The Honda HR-V and Jeep Renegade — a pair of popular subcompact crossovers that outsell the CX-3 by four-to-one and six-to-one, respectively — can both carry people and stuff more effectively. The HR-V provides 11 percent more passenger volume and 61 percent more cargo volume than the CX-3; the Renegade offers 16 percent more people space and 28 percent more space for cargo.

But surely a subcompact Mazda crossover has the potential to outsell the Porsche Macan, Audi Q3, and Volvo XC60, three premium utility vehicles that generate more U.S. sales than the little Mazda.

Fortunately for Mazda, there is one key vehicle the higher-margin CX-3 manages to outperform. Between 2011 and 2014, the Mazda 2 that was indirectly replaced by this CX-3 averaged fewer than 15,000 annual U.S. sales.

Mazda sold 18,557 CX-3s in 2016.

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @goodcarbadcar and on Facebook.

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  • Anthony Magagnoli Anthony Magagnoli on Mar 03, 2017

    This whole compact SUV segment makes me sick. The cars are heavier, taller, slower, less fuel efficient, costlier, ride more harshly, handle worse, and have less interior space. Just so that buyers can say they have a "crossover". It's ridiculous. I love everything that Mazda makes, notably the Mazda3 and the CX-5, yet I loathe the CX-3. The reorientation of the great Mazda3 into a crossover simply ruins it for all the reasons stated above.

  • Fred0804 Fred0804 on Mar 04, 2017

    I've had numerous Mazda's, the cars have been fine but as stated in prior post the dealerships are from 30 yrs. ago but more important is the total lack of knowledge about the product from the "sales" staff. They don't know what skyactiv philosophy is, nor how the center control pod functions. They try to bluff answers. The only purpose of the "sales" staff is to run offers to the sales manager, and make deliveries. I live in central Florida, not much need for awd and the 3 hatchback runs rings around the CX3 for thousands less.

  • TheMrFreeze That new Ferrari looks nice but other than that, nothing.And VW having to put an air-cooled Beetle in its display to try and make the ID.Buzz look cool makes this classic VW owner sad 😢
  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
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