Mazda reports best October sales in 6 years

October 2013 U.S. sales for Mazda totaled 19,738 vehicles, an increase of six percent over October 2012, with year-to-date sales through October being up nearly as much at 5.3 percent over last year. Mazda has sold a total of 240,229 vehicles in the U.S. this year.

This represents Mazda's best October since 2007, the year before the economic downturn that seemed poised to destroy the U.S. automotive market.

Big gainers in the model lineup at Mazda were the CX-5 and Mazda6. The Mazda6, which introduced a new design for 2014, entered the market as October sales began, allowing that vehicle to more than double its sales over last year, jumping to 3,100 units in October 2013 versus the 1,515 in October 2012. Year-to-date numbers are 35,632 for the 6, already beating last year's total sales volume for the model.

The CX-5 is another success story, showing solid gains year-on-year for October, with 2013 giving 5,833 units sold versus 2012's 3,778. The real story is in the year-to-date sales, however, with January-October 2012 having 33,150 vehicles sold, but January-October 2013 showing a massive 66,501 CX-5's sold so far. That's more than double, for those counting.

Vehicles losing sales were the Mazda2, 3, and 5 with moderate losses for all but the Mazda2, which dropped by 34.5 percent year-on-year. The MX-5 Miata and CX-9 also saw moderate losses year-on-year. It should be noted that nearly all of these vehicles are either due a design refresh or are to be discontinued next model year, and none are part of the SKYACTIV family with the exception of the all-new Mazda3, which introduced too late to affect October sales figures.

All in all, though, good news for Mazda as it continued to work its way deeper into the American automotive market.