The challenge of maintaining Mazda residual values

Thomson appears relatively unconcerned about the potential of a concerted drive for fleet business to imperil the relatively high residual values Mazdas have typically achieved; the erosion of which would hardly be appreciated by Mazda’s significant majority of private buyers.

“Residuals get challenged when large numbers of cars are depreciated early (as with daily rental business) or when there is distress retailing involved. We will do neither,” he insists. “We would rather keep a tight lid and only put into the market what we ourselves can take back into the network. Mazda has tended to be in the top quartile of residuals and we want to keep that up.”

The UK business user initiative, however, is just a relatively small-scale precursor of what is to come globally, says Phil Waring, CEO of Mazda Motor Europe. Dealers across the world, having had a relative dearth of major new product for some time – and with stagnating sales as a result – are gearing up for the steady stream of entirely new, sixth-generation product, the first to deploy Mazda’s much-trumpeted SKYACTIV advanced engineering technology, that will start flowing into showrooms next year led by the CX-5 compact SUV. “I believe we are on the cusp of something new and important for the brand,” Waring adds.

The business car benefits of lower CO2 emissions

The SKYACTIV technology, which concentrates on refining current drivetrain technologies rather than on radical propulsion systems such as fuel cells, will deliver major fuel savings, emissions and whole-life cost reductions for business car users and SME fleet operators, according to Mazda engineers.

For the UK fleet and business sector in particular, Thomson expresses high hopes for the CX-5, which will offer all-new both petrol and diesel engines – “it will be the acid test for fleet growth.” The just-re-worked Mazda 3, the company’s biggest-selling car worldwide and which will go on sale in the UK next February, has a minor presence among business users but is viewed as the final knell of Mazda’s fifth-generation product. (It is still highly important to dealers, however, accounting for close to one quarter of Mazda’s 37,000 UK sales last year.)