Mazda Smashed Its All-time Sales Record In 2024 Because It’s Not The Mazda You Remember

When you think of Mazda, what pops into your head? Two-door sports cars, like the Miata and RX-7? Weird experiments, like the RX-8 and MX-30? Sports sedans, like the Mazda6? All interesting products in their own right, but these days, Mazda’s big into SUVs. Of the 12 models the brand offers in the U.S., SUVs account for eight of them. That shift, coupled with its embrace of electrification and successful upmarket pivot, appears to be working out well for the Japanese automaker especially here in the States, where it smashed its 1986 sales record of 379,883 cars (all those rotaries!) by about 45,000 units in 2024, with a total of 424,382.

It’s the result of a multifaceted effort, as Mazda’s CEO of North American operations, Tom Donnelly, recently explained in an interview with U.S News & World Report. On the marketing side, models like the CX-50 tap into an outdoorsy vibe—think Subaru, but a little more high-end. That reframing is worlds away from the company’s “zoom-zoom” mantra of the aughts, but it’s proven very popular today. So popular, in fact, that the company can get away with selling two SUVs, in the CX-5 and CX-50, that appear to serve the same segment but actually attract different demographics.

“This is the largest segment in the market, and some other brands also have multiple entries,” Donnelly said. “If you compare the CX-5 and CX-50 directly, they look different and have different intentionalities. We view the CX-5 as more urban and sophisticated, whereas [the] CX-50—because of the styling, some of the characteristics and whether it’s a Meridian edition—has more of an outdoorsy feel.”

The vehicles themselves are only part of the story. Mazda has been on a campaign over the past decade to revitalize its dealerships and customer experience. Its retailers now use a new open-plan design with plenty of glass, while service techs have started capturing video of vehicles in the shop, pointing out what needs attention and why so there are no surprise bills. Mazda calls it “Retail Evolution,” and although only 70% of the brand’s dealers have chosen to invest in that renovation, that group represented 90% of Mazda’s national sales last year.

Punching upmarket is risky in this business. You typically sacrifice volume to do it, but customers don’t just suddenly wake up the next day and see your brand the way you want them to. It’s an ongoing process, and through some combination of planning and possibly even a little luck—like supply constraints normalizing higher prices, coupled with a post-COVID overlanding boom—Mazda launched an entire slate of new, attractive SUVs at precisely the moment the market was prepared to receive them.

What gives me hope, though, as a fan of some of those quirkier machines I name-dropped in the intro, is that Donnelly promises that Mazda isn’t determined to leave the past behind completely. The exec highlighted the Mazda3 Sedan’s near-40% year-over-year sales increase amid a struggling category, for starters. And while he didn’t reveal anything new when asked if the next Miata will be electrified, he did reiterate that the roadster’s position is safe within the brand.

“It’s absolutely a halo vehicle for us that goes beyond sales contributions,” Donnelly said. “I have to believe you’ve seen the Iconic SP [concept car from 2023]? The reception that that has received has been quite extraordinary, and that was part of the purpose of introducing that vehicle.

“I would say, stay tuned in terms of future outlooks for Miata, but it’s part of our history, our heritage and our future,” he continued.

As an enthusiast, you can view Mazda’s newfound success in two ways. The glass-half-empty type would see the turn toward outdoorsy SUVs and continued lack of a rotary on sale as the latest chapter in a long departure from Mazda’s identity. But to the glass-half-full person, the Miata is Mazda’s Porsche 911, and all the SUVs around it protect it so long as they keep selling. Plus, the company has made plenty of noise about assembling a task force of engineers specifically to bring the rotary back in a big way, in a fun car. Congrats, Mazda—you’ve earned this, and we can’t wait to see how you celebrate.

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