马自达是否已准备好加速前进

    马自达（Mazda）的机会到了吗？

    • 其销量今年上涨8%，是行业平均增长率的两倍。

    • 2014年6月成为马自达近10年来表现最好的一个6月，比去年同期增长17%。

    • 旗舰车型马自达6今年6月获得了自2006年以来最好的同期销量。

    不仅销量在增长，马自达接连获奖的数量也超过同行业其他厂商。比如上月，马自达被JD.Power的APEAL汽车性能、运行和设计研究报告评为进步最大的平价汽车品牌。同时，在竞争最为激烈的中级家用轿车市场上，马自达6也击败了丰田凯美瑞（Toyota Camry）和福特的北美版蒙迪欧（Ford Fusion）等竞争车型，获得了不少汽车行业的最高荣誉。马自达连续两年被凯利蓝皮书（Kelley Blue Book）评为用车成本最低的品牌，也是《人车志》（Car & Driver）杂志的十佳车型榜单上唯一独占两席的品牌。

    随着名声越来越响，规模较小的马自达，已然在行业观察家、评测员和写手圈子里拥有了异常高的声誉。即便拿了不少的奖，媒体也在积极地大肆宣传，然而长期以来马自达在汽车业中的竞争地位仍然没有得到提高，市场份额连续十年都没能冲破2%。尽管马自达今年的表现非常抢眼，但它的市场占有率依然仅有1.9%。

    据《汽车新闻》（Automotive News）报道，马自达的日本母公司希望在两年内将销量推高三分之一，也就是说在2015财年要卖出40万台车，压力不可谓不大。（马自达在2013年共售出283,946台车。）这意味着马自达必须要对长期表现欠佳的经销商网络进行调整，以发挥他们的最大潜力。

    有些分析师认为，马自达的日本总公司或许要求过高了。Edmunds.com的杰里米•阿塞韦多表示：“马自然虽然已经吸引了媒体和消费者的注意，并且其核心车型的重新设计也获得了高度赞誉，但这些还没有转化为实实在在的销量。对于一心想跨越到下一个销量梯队的马自达来说，这的确不是好兆头。”荣获奖项、受媒体热捧自然都是好事，但它们并不是实实在在的市场蛋糕，充其量是蛋糕上的酥皮。

    回想35年前，我刚刚干上汽车记者这一行时，日本汽车厂商可以很轻易地分为三个等级，即便到了现在，这三个等级的分别也大致没变。上世纪80年就叱咤一时的丰田、日产（Nissan）、本田（Honda）直到今天还是一线品牌。五十铃（Isuzu）、铃木（Suzuki）和大发（Daihatsu）等算是三线，几十年来并无寸进，最后只得撤出美国市场。

    毫无疑问，汽车市场的份额是有黏性的，增减都非易事，对于日系品牌更是如此，份额保持稳定是它们最可能的状态。

    但是日系二线品牌中，也有两个品牌异军突起，他们便是斯巴鲁（Subaru）和马自达。[另一个二线品牌三菱（Mitsubishi）十多年来在美国一直处于苦苦支撑的局面。]

    Is this Mazda’s moment?

    • Its sales are up 8% this year, twice the industry average;

    • June 2014 represented Mazda’s best June in ten years and a 17% improvement over a year earlier;

    • The company’s Mazda6 flagship enjoyed its best June since 2006.

    Along with higher sales, Mazda continues to win more awards in relation to its size than just about any other automaker. Last month, Mazda was named the most improved non-premium brand in the recent J.D. Power APEAL study for performance, execution, and layout , while the Mazda6 won highest honors in the hotly contested midsize car segment against such rivals as Toyota Camry and Ford Fusion. Mazda has been rated as the lowest cost to own brand two years running by Kelley Blue Book and it is the only manufacturer with two cars in Car & Driver‘s 10 Best list.

    The buzz is growing. Tiny Mazda has a reputation among industry watchers, raters, and writers that is way out of proportion to its size. But all the awards and press clippings haven’t helped Mazda improve its longtime competitive position. Its market share has remained capped at two percent for more than a decade. Even with this year’s strong performance, it is running at a rate of 1.9%.

    The pressure is on because Mazda’s Japanese parent wants it to boost sales by one-third over the next two years — the way to of 400,000 units in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2016, according to Automotive News. (Mazda sold 283,946 units in calendar 2013.) That’s going to strain the automaker’s under-performing dealer network as it undergoes a long-needed tuneup.

    Some analysts say Mazda Japan may be asking too much. “Mazda has gotten the attention of the media and shoppers but hasn’t been able to translate that into sales even with highly lauded redesigns of core models,” says Edmunds.com’s Jeremy Acevedo. “Unfortunately, that doesn’t bode well for Mazda making that quantum leap to the next echelon in sales.” Awards and press clippings are nice, but they are only the icing, not the cake.

    Back when I started covering the auto industry some 35 years ago, the Japanese manufacturers could be easily divided into three tiers, and the groupings haven’t changed much since then. Toyota, Nissan, and Honda – the Big Three in the 1980s –remain in the top tier today. The bottom tier– Isuzu, Suzuki, and Daihatsu – never improved their standing and have left the U.S. market.

    No surprises there. Automotive market share is sticky and hard to win or lose. Especially among the Japanese, steady state is the most likely condition.

    But the middle tier of the industry has produced big surprises from two of its members, Subaru and Mazda. (Mitsubishi, the third, has been struggling for more than a decade.)