Comments by "Stephen Hendricks" (@stephenhendricks103) on "" video.

  1. A beautiful midsize sedan. Possibly the best looking in the category. Upscale interior in the top trim levels. Again, among the best in the segment. A strong performing turbo4 on paper. So why are Mazda6 sales so dismal, far worse than competitors even taking into account the soft sales of midsize sedans? In 2018 when the current engine lineup was introduced Mazda sold about 31,000 "6s" in the US. In 2019 sales dropped by a third to 21,000. In 2020 sales tanked again, down 25% to a total of 16,000 units. No one expects the Mazda6 to outsell the Accord or the Camry but KIA the KIA K5 was available only in the fourth quarter of 2020 and it outsold the entire year's sales of the Mazda by a factor of 2 to 1. Of course, there's no necessary correlation between a vehicle's quality and its sales but the Mazda6 is a dying model in the Mazda lineup at least in North America. And while owners may not care that the vast majority of midsize sedans, presumably Mazda does care. There are rumors and vague promises that a new Mazda6 is on the way with an inline 6 and possibly AWD. Unfortunately, Mazda has a well earned reputation for over-promising and under-delivering on their production plans. And considering that the company is the smallest independent mainstream automaker on the planet with major sales problems (with the exception of the CX-5) throughout their lineup, one has to question whether Mazda has the resources to pour into a vehicle in a shrinking market category. The picture for the turbo version of the Mazda6 is even bleaker. Performance oriented models of mainstream midsize sedans traditionally constitute a tiny percentage of total sales. Toyota says, for example, that only about 5% of all Camrys are fitted with their V6 engine. That amounted to about 15,000 sales in 2020. Assuming that Mazda could improve sales of the "6" by 10% (a VERY optimistic guess), it would do little to reverse the model's dismal sales prospects. The Mazda6 remains an appealing vehicle but it's unlikely to reverse Mazda's fortunes and prevent it from becoming a division of Toyota. And that's a shame.
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  2.  @BrianMakse  Obituaries deserve space.
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  3.  @Huskasin  And did you "strongly doubt" that Ford would drop virtually all 4 door sedans from their North American portfolio. Or that Chevy would drop the Malibu, its only mainstream sedan. (Each of which sold more than 100,000 vehicles in the US in 2020 compared to 16,000 Mazda6s?) That Buick would eliminate sedans from their offerings along with Chrysler eliminating the "200"? The fact is that the only mainstream midsize sedans that show some life in the US are the Camry, the Accord, and offerings from KIA and Hyundai.
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  4.  @Huskasin  The problem Mazda faces with the "6" is not that it fails to match the sales of the Camry, the Accord, or even the Altima. The problem is that its sales have declined by more than 50% since 2017. Midsize sedan sales have been on a long term slide in the US but Mazda6 sales have fallen off a cliff. And they started from a low base to begin with. As for launching a new generation of the "6", unfortunately Mazda is far better at promoting rumors of new models than actually introducing them. Remember the diesel version of the CX-5? That actually made it to market in the US and was pulled from the market in six months. Skyactiv X? It's been promised to be available soon since 2017. That track record combined with Mazda's efforts to get almost $3 billion in loans from Japanese banks suggests skepticism is warranted.
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