Mazda’s July performance was its second best on record selling 4,666 vehicles, enough to grab fifth place in the market (6.1 per cent market share).

Year-to-date Mazda has sold 33,479 cars and commercials, an increase of 2586 or 8.4 per cent over the first seven months of last year.

Mazda’s year-to-date total has already passed the company’s year 2000 sales total of 27,505 and the company will pass its 2001 annual result this month.

The class-leading Mazda 3 sedan and hatch are leading the Mazda sales push with 2,149 cars sold in July, enough to grab second place in the hotly contested small car market.

Since its launch in late January, Mazda has sold 13,177 Mazda 3s, an increase of 12.6 per cent over the superseded 323’s record sales performance for the same period in 2003.

The managing director of Mazda Australia, Doug Dickson, said: “Our July sales were outstanding, with our Zoom-Zoom models continuing to attract new and repeat business.

“Mazda 3 has been a runaway success both here and overseas and demonstrates that Mazda’s product-led growth strategy is on schedule.”

The July result was another strong one for the Mazda 6 (950 sales), Mazda 2 (411 sales) and the rotary-powered RX-8 (131 sales).

Mazda Australia expects to retail about 4000 vehicles this month.