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Mazda has dropped its Toyota Camry competitor in Australia after more than two decades in showrooms, close to 150,000 sales, and its exit from overseas markets.
Family Cars
The Mazda 6 has reached the end of the road in Australia after 22 years, close to 150,000 sales and slowing demand for traditional mid-size sedans and wagons.
There is still no word on if its indirect successor – the Mazda 6e, a Chinese-made electric car – will be offered in Australia, even though it has been confirmed for the right-hand-drive UK and South African markets.
Australia is among the the final markets to sell the Japanese-made Mazda 6 after a gradual exit from the US in 2021, the UK and China in 2023, and Japan last year.
Just 1354 examples of Mazda's long-running mid-size car were sold locally last year – less than a tenth of its peak, which remains 14,783 deliveries in 2005.
The last time more than 10,000 Mazda 6s were sold in a calendar year was 2008 – and it last exceeded 5000 sales in 2015, compared to 25,000 CX-5 SUVs the same year.
Cumulative Mazda 6 sales since its 2002 launch tally to 147,271, but less than a fifth of those – or 26,843 cars – delivered in the past decade.
The final petrol Mazda 6 – the 2013 Drive Car of the Year – has been in showrooms since December 2012, and undergone a long series of updates, including a heavy facelift adding turbo-petrol power in 2018.
Although the Mazda 6 offers AEB, the standards require particular operating parameters and speed ranges that not all cars can meet without technical changes.
"While we have seen the market shift its preference towards SUVs in recent years, the Mazda 6 has always been – and continues to be – held in particularly high regard by loyal enthusiasts and keen drivers alike," Mazda Australia managing director Vinesh Bhindi said in a media statement.
"As we bid a fond farewell to the Mazda 6, its legacy will continue to live on as we move into the next phase of our future strategy."
Reports out of Japan have previously claimed a new Mazda 6 with the rear-wheel-drive underpinnings and six-cylinder engines of the CX-60, CX-70, CX-80 and CX-90 was planned, but it has never come to fruition.
"Personally, a FR [front-engined, rear-wheel drive] sedan would be a good dream for everyone," Kohei Shibata, Mazda program manager of the CX-60, CX-80 and broader 'Large Product Group', told Drive in November 2024.
"Journalists always tell me that you should make a sedan, but the marketplace is so small. So if … the people start to buy that kind of vehicle, then that will let us make that vehicle."
Mazda Australia says "healthy supply" of the Mazda 6 "across all grades" remains available in showrooms.
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Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family. Highly Commended - Young Writer of the Year 2024 (Under 30) Rising Star Journalist, 2024 Winner Scoop of The Year - 2024 Winner
