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Crossovers help Mazda post its best January sales in 24 years

Mazda's 2017 ended on a bit of a flat note. It wrapped up the year with 2.8 percent fewer U.S. sales than 2016, and 8 of the 12 months lower month-over-month. But 2018 is off to a much brighter start with the company having its best January sales month since 1994, with just under 25,000 cars sold. Besides that headline statistic, the higher sales also mean this January exceeded 2017's sales by 15 percent or about 3,300 cars and put it ahead of January in that healthy 2016 year. Compared with this past December, though, sales are down about 2,000 cars. The gains are entirely due to the success of Mazda's crossover SUVs. The CX-5 was the best of the best with a month-over-month gain of over 66 percent. In actual numbers it sold about 13,500 copies compared with about 8,000 last January. The big three-row CX-9 had a big jump going from 1,600 units sold last January to about 2,300 for a gain of almost 47 percent. Even the little CX-3 saw a small gain between the two Januarys, going from about 1,200 to 1,350 sales. View 14 Photos Mazda's January would've been even better if its conventional cars hadn't dropped so much. Both Mazda Miata and Mazda6 sales dropped by just over half. The Mazda dropped from 3,300 sales to just under 1,600, and the Miata dropped from a little over 900 to a little over 400. Mazda3 held on a little better with just a 12 percent drop from last January going from about 6,600 to 5,800 sales. The lopsidedness of these sales isn't all that surprising. Crossovers have been a boon to loads of manufacturers. For example, Mitsubishi had an 2017 full of sales improvements, with the company finally breaking 100,000 units for the first time in years, and it was all because of improving crossover sales. January's sales also continue an unfortunate downward trend for Mazda's cars, with both the Mazda6 and Mazda3 having month-over-month declines every single month since February. It will be interesting to see if the new turbocharged engine option on the Mazda6 will improve sales of the sedan later this year. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

The 2018 Mazda6 also snags top IIHS safety rating

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is one of two organizations that issues important safety ratings. To get to IIHS's Top Safety Pick rating level, the 2018 Mazda6 not only had to ace a bunch of difficult crash tests, it also must have headlights that meet a strict test as well. Its stablemate, the CX-5 crossover just received the even higher Top Safety Pick+ rating. Both must be equipped with optional adaptive headlights to achieve these ratings. The rationale is, many crashes happen at dusk or in the dark, and an outsized number on unlit roads. While almost all modern headlights outperform the dim, unfocused sealed beams of the past, IIHS says that government regulations aren't doing a good enough job of ensuring real-world performance. Adaptive headlights turn with the front wheels, helping out a lot in IIHS's tests on illumination in sharp and gradual curves. Related: How the 2018 Mazda6 stacks up to its competitors in the midsize sedan segment The Adaptive Front-Lighting System is only available in the Grand Touring Reserve and Signature trim levels, meaning that you'll have to upgrade to those fancy versions to get it. It'd be nice if Mazda allowed even lower-trim buyers to add this as a stand-alone option, but for now that's not how it works. Fancy, safer headlights or no, we love the new Mazda6, especially the turbocharged version. It's one of the most fun sedans around. And, according to IIHS, now one of the safest. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Takata airbag recall spreads to China with 42k Mazda sedans

The scope of the problem with the faulty airbag inflators from Takata continues to broaden and is now reaching China, as well. Mazda is recalling 42,732 Mazda6 units there, produced by its local joint venture partner China FAW Car Company, to replace the front passenger airbags. It comes as part of Mazda's recall of nearly 160,000 vehicles worldwide, including about 34,600 in the US, according to Reuters.
This is the same problem that caused seven automakers in the US to recall an estimated 2.1 million vehicles in late June. The airbag inflators can potentially explode instead of deploying the airbag, which hampers the bag's inflation. In some cases occupants are also hit by the metal shrapnel, which can cause further injuries. In the US, Mazda is repairing the 2003-2007 Mazda6 (pictured above), 2006-2007 Mazdaspeed6, 2004 MPV and 2004-2008 RX-8 originally sold in or currently registered in Florida, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii.
This is hardly the first instance of this issue. Since 2001, there have been 20 recalls tied to the exploding airbags supplied by Takata. The problem is possibly linked to the propellant in the inflators, but there's no conclusive evidence of that yet. Most of the automakers in the US limited the most recent recalls only to a few humid states because moisture potentially exacerbated the problem.