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Mazda sells 10 millionth car in the US, does something special

When Lauren Carter of Glen Ellyn, IL was in the market for her first car, she went for a Mazda3. Not a bad choice, but not necessarily remarkable on the surface. After all, Mazda sold 123,361 of them here last year alone. What she didn't know was that the car she bought was the 10 millionth Mazda had sold in the US over the course of its 43-year history here, since selling its first rotary-powered R100 here in 1970.
Rather than let the occasion pass with nothing more than a press release (like the one below), Mazda gave Lauren a brand-new 2014 Mazda3 to replace the 2013 model she had bought. Which is a nice gesture, of course, but also enables Mazda to hold on to the landmark 10,000,000th car in its heritage collection.

Sorry, rotary fans, Mazda's RX Vision probably won't happen

Mazda is doing a lot of things the right way in this age of beige-ness. It just crammed a turbocharged inline-four into the improved CX-9, a bold move unto itself, and one that should also be heartening for Mazdaspeed fans. Wouldn't that engine make for a swell Mazdaspeed3 or Mazdaspeed6? There's a reasonable ray of hope there, but not necessarily a guarantee. The RX Vision, though, is a pipe dream. Mazda is smart to keep the rotary dream alive. It's smart to keep developing it in back rooms and to keep the idea on the public's mind. Credit where credit's due: Mazda has solved some of the stickiest issues the rotary engine has, through savvy engineering and perseverance. We've seen promising patent filings for the Skyactiv-R engine, which is supposed to be found in the RX Vision concept. Mazda uses every opportunity to remind us that development is continuing and that the company would love to bring a rotary-powered sportscar to production. I believe it. But the RX Vision is just a design study. And there are some harsh realities about rotary engine emissions and fuel economy standards that are difficult for modern piston engines to achieve without expensive componentry. Emissions and fuel economy are both bugbears of the rotary, in case you've forgotten. And that explains Mazda's interest in running rotaries on hydrogen, but down that road lie infrastructure challenges as daunting as making a gasoline-powered rotary burn as clean as one of Mazda's Skyactiv piston engines. All this is meant to put Mazda's recent comments to Top Gear in context. Mazda's design director, Kevin Rice, spoke to TG at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa D'Este, and was waving Mazda's rotary flag quite enthusiastically. "In the back rooms at Mazda, we're still developing it," Rice said, "and when the world's ready to buy another rotary, we'll be ready to provide it." I'd like that to be a comforting statement, but given the realities of fuel economy and emissions regulations and Mazda's position in the market, it seems like a hollow platitude. "When the world's ready" is just another way of saying "when we solve the fundamental issues with this engine layout, and there's an unambiguous market study that shows we can build these cars and make a profit, we'll consider it." That seems like a lot of "ifs". Perhaps Mazda does have a clean-burning, efficient, cheap-to-produce rotary running on an engine dyno in Hiroshima, and it's prepping an RX-9 for the next auto show.

Mazda says 83 percent of new cars bear Skyactiv moniker

Mazda's US sales are down a little bit but the company's fuel economy is almost assuredly up. That's because its fuel-saving Skyactiv drivetrain technology is essentially taking over US vehicles sales. To the tune of about five out of every six vehicles sold, at least. While the Japanese automaker's US sales in February fell 2.4 percent from a year earlier, Skyactiv accounted for 83 percent of its sales last month. Most notably, Mazda6 sales jumped 46 percent from a year earlier, while Mazda CX-5 sales were up 72 percent. The company also celebrated the opening of its factory in Salamanca, Mexico, where it will make models such as the Mazda2 and Mazda3. The company is not resting on its fuel-economy laurels either, apparently. In January, it was reported the company is hard at work on its next-generation Skyactiv technology, which will boost fuel efficiency by as much as 30 percent by using diesel-like high compression. As it is, Mazda had the highest fleetwide fuel economy of any major automaker in the US for the 2013 model year with a 27.5 mile per gallon average, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Honda came in second with 27 mpg. Check out Mazda's press release below. MAZDA SKYACTIV® TECHNOLOGY SETS RECORDS IN FEBRUARY - Mazda Celebrates Grand Opening of All-New Production Facility in Salamanca, Mexico - IRVINE, Calif., March 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) today reported February U.S. sales of 24,431 vehicles, representing a decrease of 2.4 percent versus last year. Year-to-date sales through February are down 6.7 percent versus last year, with 43,155 vehicles sold. Key February sales notes: Mazda's SKYACTIV® TECHNOLOGY accounted for 83.2 percent of all vehicle sales during the month of February. This is the largest percentage of Mazdas equipped with SKYACTIV TECHNOLOGY sold in one month, and second-best month of total volume ever with 20,245 vehicles sold. Mazda6 experienced its second-best February since 2008 with 3,945 vehicles sold, representing an increase of 46.0 percent, year-over-year (YOY). February 2014 was CX-5's best month ever with 9,353 vehicles sold, good for an increase of 71.6 percent, YOY. February was one of the most historic months for Mazda as it celebrated the grand opening of its all-new engine and vehicle assembly plant in Salamanca, Mexico.