Mazda CX-5 right on trend

It's been 40 years since Subaru's L-Series wagon powered all four wheels onto the Australian market, arguably the first snowball in what has become an SUV avalanche. Remarkably, the SUV market continues to grow, sapping first the large car sector and now the medium car segment as buyers opted for versatility in their new vehicles.

In January, SUV sales as a whole rose 29.8 per cent as the Australian passenger-car segment fell 2.21 per cent. Little wonder that most carmakers have an entrant in the SUV arena and, showing that the craze is unlikely to dim, even Lamborghini and Bentley have announced they will make an SUV.

The month's biggest rise was in the small-SUV fraternity which rocketed 65 per cent on the previous January as the Skoda Yeti, Jeep Compass and Subaru XV debuted. The medium-SUV sector rose 26.2 per cent with 8068 sales in January, pushed by Mazda's CX-7 sell-off as the model departed the showrooms and renewed interest in the stable's existing Holden Captiva 5 (up 142.5 per cent), Kia Sportage (up 82.4%), Volvo XC60 (up 48.4%), Nissan X-Trail (up 51.2%) and the CX-7 (up 66% and 1167 sales for the month).

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But however attractive the SUV market is, Mazda Australia's marketing manager Alistair Doak says there's no plans for more models.

"We have the CX-9 with seven seats and now the CX-5 with five seats,'' he says. "The CX-7 was great for us, but though a few countries will retain the model, it would be too difficult for us in Australia because we may have the two SUVs competing with each other rather than with vehicles from other manufacturers. The CX-9 could not be adapted to SkyActiv technology and that's the way we want to go - all Mazda models will be replaced over time with SkyActiv technology.''

Mazda Australia's managing director Doug Dickson says the CX-5 "is in the sweet spot for buyers". "We didn't want two cars in the same segment,'' he says.

Mazda expects the CX-5 to sell at the rate of 1000 a month (it is now on sale as a petrol, to be followed in two weeks by the diesel) and suggests that initially the most popular models will be the higher-specced versions. Mr Doak expects the petrol models to outsell diesels at the rate of 70:30, mainly because the petrol engine is so efficient and the fuel is cheaper than diesel. The front-wheel drive models will grab 35 per cent of the share and all-wheel drive models will take the balance of 65 per cent. However, this is likely to swing around once the initial wave of premium buyers finishes. Mr Doak also sees the breakup of the three models being: Maxx (40 per cent); Maxx Sport (30 per cent); and Grand Touring (30 per cent).