We just launched our 2024/2025 reports. The 2025 Brand Reputation Scorecard and the 2024 Voice of the Customer Report are now live.

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RANK

How Mazda is Positioned To Absorb Tariffs and its State of CX

Mazda had a fantastic sales year in 2024 in the US, moving 424,000 units, a 16.8% increase over 2023. For 2025, however, growth is in question.

Its best-selling vehicle, the CX-5, is produced in Japan and is subject to tariff policies. This is undoubtedly bad for Mazda. 

But despite the brand's record growth last year, CX-5 sales dropped 12.8%.

Only one Mazda model, the CX-50, is currently produced in the US. It’s also the brand’s second-fastest-growing model, trailing its larger sibling, the CX-90, by only a point.

In a sea of bad news, the CX-50 could be a temporary buoy for the brand.

Do Strong Sales Equal Strong Customer Experience for Mazda?

During Mazda’s strong 2024, its customers applauded “wait time” as an improving part of the in-store experience, while “financing” and “management” were the fastest-growing points of frustration for Mazda customers in 2024.

*Green in the tables indicates "above zero." For negative reviews green is bad, the opposite being true for positive reviews.

Looking at key topics in Mazda’s positive reviews, we find that the good aspects of the Mazda shopping experience remained stable over this time in the eyes of its customers.

EXPLORE

Shoppers Care More About Professionalism in Buffalo

Last week, I worked with a client from Upstate New York, analyzing their dealership group’s topic data in customer reviews, much like I do every week here on the REV.

One topic kept coming up: Professionalism.

Typically, professionalism is not a notable driver of negative reviews. It comes up in just 2% of negative reviews. Out of 27 categories, it ranks just 19th on average.

For the group I was reviewing, it came up 220% more often in negative sales reviews vs the benchmark and 20% more often in positive reviews. 

You could take the high negativity levels at face value and say this group is not presenting itself as well as it could—but I don’t think that’s precisely what’s happening here.

When a topic is mentioned more often in positive and negative reviews, this indicates a higher sensitivity to a topic. This means dealers are strongly rewarded when they get it right—and heavily criticized when they don’t. 

Our client brought forward this perspective: “From the highest view looking down on our customers, it seems like Buffalo is an old-school town that values professionalism, getting things right the first time, and creating a connection with the person they’re doing business with.”

Why this matters: “Good” customer experience isn’t going to be the same for every region and city of the country. What the clientele of Upstate NY prefers is different from the diluted average of the nation, and we see this starkly in the data.