Mazda is working with its smaller dealerships in an effort to reel in more SME and local business customers.
Speaking to BusinessCar, the firm’s UK finance director Ian Fraser, said: “We’ve done a bit to help the non-fleet-specialist dealers to engage with local businesses, making sure they’ve got a marketing programme and access to contract hire offers.
“The challenge for smaller dealers is that they may have a fleet customer coming in once in a blue moon, so they need to understand that customer’s concerns to be able to deal with it.”
He added that lower medium saloon cars, which do not traditionally perform well in the UK, are poised to absorb some sales from the upper medium segment, which is in decline.
“The four-door [Mazda 3 Fastback] has potential there. In the past, there hasn’t been competition in that segment, but now you’ve got the Mecredes CLA, the Audi A3 [saloon], the Skoda Rapid – the more people in there the better, and it will get people thinking about downsizing.”
