Changan Mazda Automobile Co., Ltd., formerly known as Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Co., Ltd. Nanjing Company, is a modern joint venture automobile enterprise with independent legal personality. It is jointly funded by Chongqing Changan Automobile joint stock company of China Automobile and Mazda Automobile Co., Ltd. of Japan, with 50% shares each. It was established on April 19, 2005 and completed and put into production on April 9, 2007.
In the automotive industry, Mazda is definitely a more personalized enterprise. In the face of the international trend of small-displacement supercharging, Mazda still adheres to the naturally aspirated camp with its Chuangchi Blue Sky technology. On the other hand, Mazda’s obsession with control has also won it a lot of loyal fans.
Although Changan Mazda’s development history in China is not too long, among many joint venture brands, Changma is more like a clean stream. It is committed to the most rigorous brand research and development, adheres to its core technology, and has three major components that it is proud of. Today, when many car companies value turbo engines, Changma still continues to study naturally aspirated engines and has high insights in the development of self-priming engines.
For a long time, the sports gene of the Mazda brand has been favored by young consumers, not only those exciting "rotor sports cars", but also the unique brand concept has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. The current SUV market in the Chinese market is particularly hot, and Changan Mazda’s second-generation CX-5 is the main model to attack the compact SUV market. As environmental protection issues are becoming more and more important, Changan Mazda has high hopes for the "Chuangchi Blue Sky" technology, striving to achieve a balance between power and environmental protection. The new Changan Mazda CX-5 is the first production car under the "Chuangchi Blue Sky" technology, and this model has important strategic significance for its launch of crossover SUVs.
The Mazda CX-5 was officially unveiled in the global market in February 2012. As an SUV built under Mazda’s new design language, the Mazda CX-5 won a lot of praise abroad, and the sales volume was also very impressive. Because of the success of Mazda CX-5 in foreign markets, Mazda turned a profit that year.
After more than a year of preparation, the domestic version of Mazda CX-5 officially rolled off the production line of Changan Mazda in June 2013. At the Los Angeles International Auto Show last November, Mazda launched a new generation of CX-5. At this year’s Shanghai International Auto Show, the new generation of Mazda CX-5 was officially unveiled in China. In the following months, the new generation of CX-5 was also officially launched in China.
The CX-5 2.5L that joins "Chuangchi Blue Sky Technology" has strong power and is equipped with SKYACTIV-Drive6-speed automatic transmission, which saves fuel and ensures that the power is not reduced. Compared with the T-powered models of the same level, the power output at low speed will indeed be lower, but the smoothness will be higher than that of the T-powered models of the same level, and it is more fuel-efficient. According to network data, the comprehensive fuel consumption of the CX-5 2.5L can be as low as 7.5L. And in the comparison test between professional media and the FAW Toyota RAV4 2.5L, which is also a compact SUV, it is known that the 0-100km/h acceleration time of the CX-5 2.5L is only 8.29 seconds, while the acceleration time of the new RAV42.5L is 10.58 seconds. It is not difficult to find that the CX-5 2.5L power is still ahead of the competing models of the same level through comparison.
It is said that the engine is the heart of a car, but the solid workmanship of the chassis is the embodiment of comprehensive performance. The CX-5 uses the more common front-McPherson rear multi-link independent suspension, but it still has more chassis guards, and the bottom 70% has been covered with plastic protective panels. Besides the ground clearance, the chassis clearance of the new RAV4 is 170mm, and the CX-5 2.5L is 215mm. As a city positioning SUV, the CX-5’s ability to cope with bad roads is still acceptable.
?Reality is skinny
Although the surface data is good, the sales are just passable. Compared with the Honda CR-V that has just completed the replacement in China, the sales heat of the Mazda CX-5 is obviously not as good as the former. So, we might as well ask such a question, is it really just a magic car on the keyboard?
Perhaps it is Changan’s excessive investment in the independent sector that has affected the mutual trust between Changan Group and its joint venture partners. Since 2014, several joint ventures in Changan have also experienced a decline in sales of hot-selling models and a lack of new models.
In the first few years of its launch, the sales of the Changan Mazda CX-5 were on par with its performance in the global market. However, with Changan Mazda’s reduced investment in publicity, the existence of the Mazda CX-5 has plummeted since 2016. Especially taking the new generation CX-5 as an example, it was officially launched in an unknown situation, and there was no continuous follow-up promotion after the launch, so the sales volume is naturally understandable.
The shape does not match the national conditions
From the overall shape, whether it is the first-generation model or the just-released second-generation model, the Mazda CX-5 presents a small-scale appearance. From the first glance of the vehicle, it is too small.
From the appearance, the whole car looks obviously smaller. Of course, this is just the visual experience. Such a difference may not constitute a change in sales for foreign markets. But in the domestic market, looking a little small is a very serious matter. At least it cannot satisfy the perception of tall in the domestic SUV consumer market.
Product quality needs to be improved
Although the Changan Mazda CX-5 has an excellent performance in terms of power and handling performance, there are also many unreasonable factors in the product process, such as tire peeling, poor engine sound insulation, rough interior process, car paint cracking and blistering, and persistent abnormal noise problems, all of which need to be solved by the manufacturer one by one in order to provide users with a better driving experience.
Changan Mazda CX-5 has shortcomings but also improvements during the period from release to modification to replacement. Through the collection and sorting of user complaints, we see that this joint venture brand continues to improve while also having some shortcomings in products.
(The following screenshots of the complaint content are from Car Quality Network)
According to the recent complaint information, there are many complaints from CX-5 owners about paint process problems, tire peeling and three-way catalytic converter failure. From the analysis of complaint types, CX-5 is just passable in assembly process. I hope manufacturers can pay attention and implement solutions as soon as possible.
Mr. Wang, a car owner from Hunan, responded: During the driving process, the engine failure light was on, and the three-way catalytic converter failure was found during maintenance. Later, the manufacturer negotiated the maintenance, but the manufacturer refused to deal with it. At the same time, the owner found that this problem occurred in a large area when inquiring about the fault data, so he questioned that the problem may be a quality defect, hoping that the manufacturer can solve it as soon as possible.
Conclusion: There are many twists and turns in the road of development, especially in the market where the competition has been completely white-hot, to reverse the decline as before. For Changan Yu Mazda, while giving full play to its own power and control advantages, it is necessary to pay more attention to product quality and make more improvements in vehicle comfort and user-friendly design. Otherwise, it will be gradually marginalized under the rules of the Chinese auto market.
