Mazda's Scottish delight 11 | 09 | 2010

MAZDA, WHICH has long enjoyed success in Scotland, again had a bumper August with Mazda2 making it into the top 10 sales chart and Mazda6 taking a record share of the retail market. The company took 4.9% of the Scottish market, a record for any August and only just short of the all-time high of 5% recorded in December 2009.

"Private buyers appreciate we offer value for money because we have focused on keeping our residual prices strong," Mazda UK, National Sales Manager, David Wilson‑Green said. "We have also worked hard to win local business users rather than chase costly, high volume fleet sales."

August saw sales volume up 53% at 236 units, catapulting Mazda ahead of Honda and Toyota and only just behind Peugeot and Volkswagen. August also saw overall industry sales in Scotland fall by 19.8& to 4786 units.

Mazda's success has been built on the back of a strong and growing dealer network and a band of loyal customers with dealer reporting that many had come back to buy their second Mazda2 in August, three years on from its launch in 2007. This made Mazda2 the eighth best-seller for the month, the first time Mazda has had a model in the Scottish top 10.

This strong August performance has pushed Mazda's market share for the first eight months of the year to 3.58% with sales volume up 12.4 percent over 2009 at 3,949.

Mazda6 also helped boost sales in Scotland as it did across the UK. In its segment Mazda6 took a 19.7% share of the retail sector, a 7.9% share of fleet sales and a 10.3% overall share.

Mazda has been traditionally strong in the retail sector that accounts for 67% of its total sales against an industry average of 51%.