AUTOMOBILES : Irvine-Based Mazda Motors Rolls Out $200-Million Advertising Campaign
Mazda Motors of America, the Irvine importer and distributor of Mazda cars and trucks, launches its new $200-million advertising campaign Sunday on prime-time network television.
The new ads use the tagline “passion for the road” to promote Mazda’s core offerings: the Millenia luxury sedan, 626 sport sedan, Protege compact sedan and Mazda-designed, Ford-built B-Series compact pickups.
Industry watchers have long praised Mazda for building great cars but have criticized the company for failing to advertise itself well.
“Mazda advertising has lacked consistency,” said George McCabe, the company’s senior vice president and general manager. “We believe this new marketing campaign will help reinforce the Mazda brand and, ultimately, increase sales.”
Mazda sales had fallen by 20% in the first eight months this year.
The campaign by Foote Cone & Belding in Santa Ana will continue with several spots on ABC’s “Monday Night Football” next week and Oct. 23. Mazda ads will hit the print media in November.
High-Performance Car Sales: Saleen Performance Cars, the Irvine-based specialty car maker that turns mild-mannered Ford Mustangs into super high-performance cars, has signed neighbor Tuttle-Click Ford as its exclusive Orange County retailer.
Two other Orange County Ford dealers previously had sold Saleen Mustangs, but the company has rethought its marketing approach and decided to go with high-volume dealers, giving them large exclusive territories.
“Tuttle-Click had everything we wanted in a dealer, and besides, they are only about three blocks away, so they’re easy to get to,” said Brian Murray, Saleen’s dealer operations director.
The only other dealerships in Southern California that sell the Irvine-built Saleen cars are Manhattan Ford in Manhattan Beach and Galpin Ford in Sepulveda. After that, said Murray, you have to go all the way to the Bay Area city of Fremont.
Saleen Mustangs range from the $39,900 S-351 coupe to the 480-horsepower, $59,900 supercharged Saleen Speedster. (That last price is equal to two factory-built Mustang GT convertibles at $22,600 each, plus a base Mustang coupe at $14,350, with enough left over to wash and wax ‘em and fill ‘em with gas.)
Ford so likes the Saleen product that the factory warranty remains in force.
Hyundai’s Convertible Coyness: Expect a sporty four-seat convertible from South Korean auto maker Hyundai to hit U.S. dealer showrooms late next year as a companion to the all-new sports coupe that will replace the Hyundai Scoupe.
The hardtop already has been announced, but Hyundai still is being coy about the lidless version reportedly in development.
Both are descendants of cars that were penned in Hyundai Motor America’s Fountain Valley design studio.
While the old Scoupe was built on the subcompact Excel platform, the new cars are based on the larger Elantra platform. They are expected to come to town with 2.0-liter, 150-horsepower engines. The Scoupe’s 1.5-liter power plant produced only 92 horsepower.
Sportage News: Executives at the other South Korean auto importer, Kia Motors America, doubtlessly are dancing in the aisles of their Irvine headquarters after the review their Sportage sports utility vehicle got in the November issue of Car and Driver.
In a three-page review, the magazine opined that the top-of-the-line Sportage EX was “an endearing little four-wheeler with style and spirit” that had no trouble “merging with Peterbilts or clambering up slick-rock inclines” during a three-week, 3,000-mile trip around California.
The Sportage is Kia’s second U.S. offering; the company launched sales last year with the Sephia sedan. At recent international auto shows, Kia has been displaying a compact pickup--the Frontier--that is based on the Sportage.
Auto Show Tooling This Way: Mark your calendars: Orange County’s annual international auto show is rolling around again (the press releases started arriving in June!). It will be Nov. 21 to 26 at the Anaheim Convention Center. The Orange County Automobile Dealers Assn., which sponsors the show, promises that more than 500 vehicles, most of them 1996 models, will be on display.
3 Megadealers Listed: A trio of Orange County megadealers--auto dealers with multiple franchises--are included this month among the nation’s largest new car retailing chains by the industry journal Auto Age Dealer Business.
Irvine’s Tuttle-Click Automotive Group, with 10 franchises and total 1994 sales of $561.2 million, ranked No. 1 in Orange County and 16th nationally of the 100 largest chains.
The magazine ranks the dealers based on their reported total revenue, which includes retail and fleet sales of new cars and trucks; used vehicle sales and income from financing and insurance, repairs, parts and dealer-owned body shops.
Tuttle-Click dealers sold 15,454 new cars and trucks retail last year at an average price of $19,501, the report says. Sales to fleet customers totaled 4,090 vehicles at an average of $16,311, while 9,160 used cars and trucks went for an average of $11,371.
In second place in the county, 30th nationally, was the eight-franchise Webb Automotive Group, also in Irvine. Total sales of $444.3 million included 13,331 new vehicles at a retail average of $23,179 and 5,063 used cars and trucks at an average of $15,201. The company doesn’t sell to fleet customers.
In 62nd place nationally was David Wilson Automotive Group. The Orange-based megadealer has five franchises. Combined revenue for 1994 was $262.4 million. Wilson dealerships sold 8,711 new cars and trucks, at an average of $20,639, and 3,810 used vehicles at an average of $12,391.
Individual Dealers by Rank: Earlier this summer, Auto Age Dealer Business listed 13 individual Orange County dealerships among the 500 largest dealerships in the country.
There were four Ford dealers and three Toyota and two Mercedes-Benz shops. Chevrolet, Lexus, Honda and BMW each got one Orange County store on the list.
On top was perennial leader House of Imports, the Buena Park Mercedes-Benz dealership, with $132 million in total revenue. That was good for 22nd place nationally.
Fletcher Jones Motor Cars, the Newport Beach Mercedes store, was second in the county, 42nd nationally, with $110.4 million in sales.
Average price of a Mercedes sold in Newport Beach was $53,102, versus $51,151 for the Buena Park dealership. (Options and model selections affect the averages.)
The other big Orange County dealerships, with their national rankings, total sales and average new car price, are:
* David Wilson’s Toyota of Orange, 62nd place, $101.8 million revenue, $17,759 average price
* Villa Ford, Orange, 71st, $96.6 million, $17,896
* Tuttle-Click Ford, Irvine, 99th, $88.7 million, $19,043
* Toyota of Garden Grove, 217th, $68.6 million, $17,474
* Lew Webb’s Toyota, Irvine, 265th, $63.7 million, $19,659
* Ted Jones Ford, Buena Park, 274th; $63.3 million, $17,896
* Connell Chevrolet-Geo, Costa Mesa, 354th, $56.7 million, $21,964
* Campbell Ford, Garden Grove, 378th, $54.9 million, $17,762
* Tustin Lexus, 426th, $51.9 million, $40,216
* Penske Honda, Westminster, 447th, $51 million, $16,623
* Crevier BMW, Santa Ana, 490th, $47.7 million, $36,598
--Compiled by John O’Dell, Times staff writer
