Japanese Fury: Mazda’s brand footprint in Australia

With over 800,000 vehicles manufactured every year, Mazda has become one of the most successful automobile companies to operate in Australia. The brand started its life as a machine tool manufacturing company in 1920 and moved its focus to manufacturing automobiles in 1931 during the automobile heyday in Japan. This was a popular trend during the time, right up to the point where popular car manufacturers in Japan including Mazda, turned to manufacture military items during the Second World War. Following World War 2, in 1960 Mazda returned to manufacturing automobiles and built its first four-wheel-drive car, which was called the R360. Thanks to the introduction of R360, the company received a lot of critical acclaim and success.

The compact dimensions of Mazda R360 meant that it was very nimble around Japan's big cities where driving space was limited. The popularity of Mazda R360 led to the introduction of the Mazda P360 which was also referred to as Carol. Both cars enjoyed substantial popularity and Mazda was also commended for its work in developing the Wankel Rotary Engine in Japan which eventually made way for the company's expansion on a global scale including that in Australia. 

Mazda in Australia

Just like other car manufacturers at the time, Mazda did not set up a manufacturing or assembly facility in Australia. Instead, the Japanese carmaker opted to become one of the largest automobile importers in the country and even today Mazda does not have any manufacturing or assembling units in Australia but instead, every car sold in the country, is brought in as an import. 

The Japanese company has been in operation in Australia for over 40 years and during this time, Mazda has been very successful in the country. Based out of Notting Hill in Victoria, Mazda has a wide range of operations spread across the country with the majority of employees dedicated to the brand’s vast network of dealerships. Mazda offers a wide range of offerings in Australia which includes personal computing vehicles, commercial vehicles, and a wide variety of lightweight trucks. 

Australian portfolio

As of 2019, Mazda offers a 9 model portfolio in Australia and has gone on to become the second best selling car brand in the country. Recently, Mazda opted to reinvent its design language which focuses on improving quality and incorporating state-of-the-art engineering. The company's portfolio offers two hatchbacks namely, the Mazda 2 and Mazda 3 and moving up the lineup we have the companies SUV portfolio which includes Mazda CX-3, CX-5, CX-8 and finally the company’s flagship SUV Mazda CX-9. The company also offers a commercial pickup truck dubbed the BT-50 which is offered in three styles including, a single cab, dual cab, and a freestyle cab setup.

The latest addition to Mazda's Australian portfolio is the all-new Mazda MX-5 roadster. The car is in its fourth generation and is offered in two variants which include a soft top model and a retractable fastback RF variant which comes with a hard-top roof that bestows the new MX-5 silhouette with a coupe-like appearance. The all-new Mazda MX-5 managed to bag several accolades ever since its introduction, including the 2016 World Car of the year award and shares its platform with the likes of Fiat 124 Spider and the Abarth 124 Spider. The prices for the standard Roadster Grade Mazda MX-5 start from $39,286 and that of the hard-top RF Grade MX-5 start from $44,755. 

Critical acclaim and accolades

As of 2017, Mazda overtook Australia’s largest car manufacturer Toyota taking the second position in the Australian Corporate Reputation Index, becoming one of the most reputable Automotive company in Australia. This revelation came out of an annual study carried out by research consultancy AMR in partnership with international research and advisory firm, the Reputation institute intending to rank Australia's top 60 companies by revenue using data sourced by IBIS World Top 2000 Company list and that from customers directly. The study aimed to determine the reputation of a company by measuring and evaluating the customer's response to parameters such as innovation, governance, workplace, leadership, performance, citizenship, products, and services. 

Mazda also fared well in other studies conducted by houses like JD Powers which in several independent studies commended Mazda's sales satisfaction and customer service.