Mazda 3 Sedan

Make
Mazda
Segment
Sedan

There's no doubt the newly redesigned Mazda3 is quite a looker, especially when directly compared against its biggest rivals, the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla and the Ford Fusion. But beauty apparently comes at a price. In a newly published report, Mazda3 sales in the US have apparently dropped every month since this past August. 2014 so far hasn't been much better with sales down by 27 percent in January and February. So what's going on here?

Mazda is being cheap. Unlike the competition, the Japanese automaker isn't offering markdown incentives to get potential buyers into showrooms. The previous Mazda3 came with $2,700 in incentives; the new model only has $1,233. In today's still recovering economy, buyers are being extra careful with their hard-earned dollars. Fortunately, a new Mazda factory located in Mexico will start cranking out Mazda3s in June to the tune of some 10,000 a month. But that alone won't make the Mazda3 sell in greater numbers. What really needs to happen is for Mazda to offer better incentives, as well as convincing those cross-shoppers why its car is better than its direct rivals.