BT-50 plugging on through sales bog
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Mazda NZ assures BT-50 is staying on, but says updates meted its Isuzu twin are some months from showing behind their badge.
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Read MoreCurrent BT-50 to keep selling beside new
/The old and new models will be side-by-side for at least five months.
OLD will remain selling beside new when Mazda here releases the latest BT-50.
Talk of at least some variants from the present model family remaining on sale for months beyond the new rig’s arrival has been tacitly confirmed by the national distributor.
While Mazda New Zealand isn’t keen to discuss specifics of how and when everything will unfold, it has confirmed the two generations will sit together and also not denied this is planned to occur from November until next March.
Conceivably, it’s a strategy that seems to be mainly to answer demand for models other than those in a dual cab configuration, which is the only format the new vehicle will initially provision in.
Thought that the distributor might also be undertaking a plan to lessen the sticker shock that has come with the new model’s sister ship, the Isuzu D-Max, seems less likely now that BT-50 pricing for Australia has been released.
Assuming – and it’s sometimes not a good idea to – that our neighbour’s positioning has some relevance to what will happen here, then the Mazda would seem to be in stronger position than the Isuzu models.
On today’s exchange rate, the 11-strong BT-50 line starts at the equivalent of $NZ47,694, for a dual cab chassis four by two in XT automatic form, and tops at $64,889 as a dual cab pick up four-wheel-drive auto GT.
The Isuzu line runs from $49,990 to $75,490 here.
Mazda NZ product and sales planning manager Tim Nalden has indicated that NZ market pricing is still being sorted.
“We’re still obviously working through that as it’s coming out toward the end of the year.”
He did not want to go into the details of the product strategy, beyond acknowledging the current and incoming vehicles will be together for a while.
“We just think there’s potential for the current model.”
What helps Mazda NZ with this is that the new BT-50 and the existing vehicle come from different plants in Thailand.
The one incoming built in Isuzu’s plant in Thailand, off a line that has been dedicated to making the Holden Colorado and the previous D-Max.
The present BT-50, of course, was developed with Ford, and comes from the AutoAlliance factory which will continue to make the Ranger for the next year.
One potential selling point for the D-Max is the impressive score it achieved in crash testing by an independent assessor recognised and funded by our Government and the New Zealand Automobile Association.
Ironically, that five star accreditation meted the D-Max after it flew through a tougher test than older utes faced to achieve their equivalent scores won’t be of use to Mazda.
Although the BT-50 and D-Max and identical in technical make up and are sure to be closely related in their engineering, it is understood by Nalden that the Mazda will have to undergo an entirely separate crash test so as to achieve a wholly bespoke rating.
