Mazda American Production History : 1987-2016

The Mazda MX-6 

Ford's relationship with Mazda goes back to the 1970's, at one stage holding a 33% stake in the Japanese company. That has led to many partnerships which seem to have been beneficial to both parties, which would be why it lasted so long. Part of that cooperation involved the North American market.

Mazda wasn't really big enough to take on a US assembly plant on its own, so it did what other smaller Japanese car manufacturers did and work with a local car maker. In the 1980's, Mazda built a factory on a Ford site to manufacture vehicles in the US at Flat Rock, Michigan. It became known as the AutoAlliance.

Passenger cars: The Mazda MX-6 2-door coupé rolled off the assembly line in 1987, followed shortly later by the near identical Ford Probe. Sources say the Probe started production in 1989, but if some were made in 1988, then the MX-6 figure for that year on the list below is too high. The 626 sedan came in 1990 to round off car production for the time being. The MX-6 ended its run in 1997 but the 626 continued.

Light trucks: The first of such vehicles for Mazda wasn't built at Flat Rock but Louisville, Kentucky. It was the Navajo midsized SUV which was a essentially rebadged Ford Explorer. The Ford Ranger compact pick-up became the donor for the B-Series model from the same Ford factory. The Navajo didn't seem to work out so it ended. Sometime later, Mazda added the Tribute compact SUV model, a collaboration with Ford which was assembled by Ford in Ohio.

The end: From the mid/later 2000's, Mazda production numbers started to drop. The MX-6 had created more production volume than the Probe (and later the Cougar) but when the Ford Mustang arrived, it was very much the dominant model ahead of the 626 (later the 6). Mazda decided to end the arrangement and made its last US sourced car in 2012 with Ford taking over the AutoAlliance factory.

Mexico: In 2014, Mazda commenced production at its new plant in Salamanca, Mexico. We can see from the chart below how the units produced is well up on recent US numbers, as it needed to be to justify the cost.

Summary: Mazda was committed to strong production in the US but when it decided to go it alone, Mexico was the preferred country. Making smaller cars south of the border made economic sense, even if one political leader was not amused with that trend.

PS. If anyone can spot improvements needed with the data, please let me know.

Year	Passenger cars			Light Trucks			Annual
Model	3	2	6 / MX-6	Tribute	B-Series	Navajo	Prod
1987	-	-	4,200	-	-	-	4,200
1988	-	-	163,300	-	-	-	163,300
1989	-	-	108,500	-	-	-	108,500
1990	-	-	74,500	-	-	-	74,500
1991	-	-	91,100	-	-	12,100	103,200
1992	-	-	88,800	-	-	4,800	93,600
1993	-	-	115,800	-	48,800	7,700	172,300
1994	-	-	133,100	-	64,400	5,100	202,600
1995	-	-	98,900	-	46,600	-	145,500
1996	-	-	95,700	-	53,000	-	148,700
1997	-	-	90,800	-	36,900	-	127,700
1998	-	-	94,200	-	46,800	-	141,000
1999	-	-	87,100	-	49,600	-	136,700
2000	-	-	67,300	36,600	29,500	-	133,400
2001	-	-	46,700	64,900	28,500	-	140,100
2002	-	-	47,600	65,800	22,100	-	135,500
2003	-	-	83,400	61,800	23,400	-	168,600
2004	-	-	91,300	46,700	8,500	-	146,500
2005	-	-	74,200	40,700	7,800	-	122,700
2006	-	-	71,500	15,000	6,700	-	93,200
2007	-	-	54,300	23,800	6,400	-	84,500
2008	-	-	75,100	15,900	4,300	-	95,300
2009	-	-	32,100	7,400	1,900	-	41,400
2010	-	-	45,200	9,300	2,400	-	56,900
2011	-	-	39,500	4,000	-	-	43,500
2012	-	-	37,600	-	-	-	37,600
2013	-	-	-	-	-	-	0
2014	100,700	1,700	-	-	-	-	102,400
2015	138,500	43,900	-	-	-	-	182,400
2016	114,500	34,700	-	-	-	-	149,200
Total	353,700	80,300	1,844,300	391,900	487,600	29,700	3,038,300
Average	117,900	40,150	73,772	35,627	27,089	7,425	108,511
	Mexico		USA

Suzuki Canada Production History : 1989-2012

Suzuki came into US in 1985 and Canada in 1980. That could explain why sales in Canada were disproportionately high during the early 1990's as shown below. It probably also answers why the plant it set up was in Ontario, named CAMI. It started production in 1989, a reoccurring date for smaller Japanese makes setting up in North America. Like others, it also was too small to go it alone so GM was its partner (GM had taken a small stake in Suzuki in 1981).

The number of Suzuki brand cars coming out of the plant were small but those with GM logos were much higher. That remained so until CAMI started making GM products in 2004. During 2009, Suzuki vehicles ceased being made there and it became a GM exclusive plant. While GM had been gradually increasing its stake in Suzuki up until the year 2000, by the end of the decade, it had divested itself of any share.

Suzuki then started to sell Nissan pickup model in 2009 (the Equator), made in Smyrna, Tennessee but poor sales ended that arrangement in 2012. That year Suzuki also decided to terminate sales in North America altogether.

Summary: Suzuki did make cars in North America but they never made up a large proportion of sales there, as the chart below reveals. This was in contrast to other Japanese brands of a similar size that relied heavily on local manufacturing. US sales were poor too and while a push did come in the 2000's, that was hit by economic headwinds at the end of the decade. Meanwhile Canadian sales didn't seem to progress through the period at all. In the end, it wasn't viable to continue and the decision to pull the plug was made. It just never became big enough and it didn't commit enough to the region.

PS. Putting this article together required many sources for information, not all of which were in agreement. If anyone can add anything to or refine what I have presented, please let me know.

Year	Light Trucks			Cars	Annual	US Est	Can Est
Model	Equator	XL7	Vitara	Swift	Prod	Sales	Sales
1989	-	-	3,300	650	3,950	30,200	15,100
1990	-	-	3,600	850	4,450	20,500	14,400
1991	-	-	3,900	1,100	5,000	21,700	14,100
1992	-	-	6,200	1,100	7,300	24,900	12,800
1993	-	-	4,800	3,600	8,400	25,800	11,300
1994	-	-	9,800	3,900	13,700	33,700	9,000
1995	-	-	13,200	6,300	19,500	32,700	7,800
1996	-	-	9,100	4,200	13,300	32,800	7,800
1997	-	-	7,400	4,500	11,900	36,700	9,100
1998	-	-	3,900	2,500	6,400	29,300	9,300
1999	-	-	11,500	3,600	15,100	37,600	11,200
2000	-	-	15,100	4,900	20,000	49,900	10,600
2001	-	-	13,100	3,200	16,300	60,800	12,000
2002	-	-	12,600	-	12,600	64,700	11,600
2003	-	-	9,000	-	9,000	67,900	9,400
2004	-	-	-	-	0	58,400	9,900
2005	-	-	-	-	0	73,900	8,800
2006	-	13,100	-	-	13,100	82,100	11,200
2007	-	31,400	-	-	31,400	101,000	12,000
2008	300	12,400	-	-	12,700	101,900	13,400
2009	2,300	-	-	-	2,300	84,900	12,300
2010	1,700	-	-	-	1,700	38,700	9,100
2011	2,100	-	-	-	2,100	24,000	5,600
2012	1,700	-	-	-	1,700	26,600	5,500
Total	8,100	56,900	126,500	40,400	231,900	1,160,700	253,300
Average	2,025	18,967	8,433	3,108	9,663	48,363	10,554