Mazda has no plans to enter into the pick-up based SUV fray that is currently being slugged out between brands like Toyota, Ford and Mitsubishi. The reason for this, according to Mazda Australia MD Martin Benders is because there isn’t a big enough market and demand to justify building such a vehicle.
Benders told Aussie motoring publication Drive that while there was due consideration for the likes of such a vehicle, he added that the demand and consumer interest for it would not last, ”we thought that sort of off-road, truck-like vehicle wasn’t going to be that big for that long so trying to fight our way into that against Toyota wasn’t really an option, so we chose not to go down that path,” he said, confirming Mazda’s decision as a whole.
No issue should Mazda ever decide to tread down this path in the future though, as the company’s pick-up truck, the Mazda BT-50, shares the same underpinnings as the current T6 Ford Ranger. That said, Benders revealed that the company will be committing its efforts to pushing out more BT-50 pick-up trucks instead, disclosing that it has hired a fleet specialist to achieve this.
In relation to that, he admitted that getting customers to accept the BT-50’s design was a challenge, translating to low sales. “The new design will remove all of that question mark,” he said pointing out that although the facelift BT-50 had only a minor design update, “visually it is quite strong,” Benders claimed. There you have it folks, no Kodo-fied, mid-sized, off-roader from Mazda, or so it would seem.
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I prefer Proton than this toilet junk. Proton is a gift from our gomen to us trakyat and we should appreciate it. Dont be ungrateful like those yellow shirt idiots
So RBA john oso prefers proton. Now all RBAs have seen the light, better choose proton than unsafe Sam Loo toyotas.
Who is ungrateful? The rakyat or the people that are being paid by the rakyat to run this country?
RBA bait taken.