Nissan, Mazda Top Sellers at Thai Auto Show

Nissan and Mazda are coming off unaccustomed roles as top sellers at the recent 28th Thailand International Motor Expo.

With flood-affected Toyota and Honda not taking orders for new vehicles during the 12-day event, Nissan was the best-selling brand with 4,711 units for a 17.4% share, just ahead of Mazda’s 4,523 for 16.7% of sales.

Mazda says its orders, which were the highest ever at the annual year-end sale event, included 3,797 for the Mazda2.

“The bookings were nearly 100% above our target, particularly for the sport-city-car Mazda 2,” Mazda Thailand President Choichi Yuki says in a statement.

Marketing Director Sureethip La-Ongthong Chomthongdee says Mazda’s main goal now is to deliver ordered units as soon as possible to show the auto maker’s gratitude for buyers’ trust and confidence in the brand.

“Orders for (the) Mazda2 and Mazda3 far exceed our output in December,” she says. “We will boost the capacity in January so that customers won’t have to wait for too long for their cars. The weekend after New Year's Eve, Mazda will begin shipping to customers again.”

Ford took orders during the show for 3,495 vehicles, ahead of Isuzu with 3,323 and Mitsubishi with 3,246.

Auto makers sold a combined 27,021 units, up 8.1% from the flood-affected target of 25,000 as 1.3 million people visited the event, exceeding the predicted 1.2 million.

“We regard this year's fair as rather successful,” organizing Chairman Kwanchai Paphatphong tells the Bangkok Post. “Previously, we feared the deluge would scare off visitors.”

Kwanchai is pleased with luxury-car bookings, including BMW’s 439 units and Mercedes’s 385.