Mazda’s Oldest Small Car Nearly Doubled Its Sales Last Month While Its SUVs Tumbled

The current Mazda3 first debuted at the end of 2018, making it one of the oldest mainstream compact cars you can still buy. But American shoppers don’t appear to be ageist because the senior citizen hatch and sedan just enjoyed one of their strongest months in years.

Mazda sold 3,903 Mazda3s during July in North America, up an impressive 87.5 percent from the same month last year. The sedan did most of the graft with sales jumping 91.8 percent, while the hatchback climbed a healthy 77.4 percent. Even more impressive, year to date Mazda3 sales are up 28 percent, with the hatch surging more than 71 percent to the sedan’s 10.3 percent.

Related: Seven Years In, The 2027 Mazda3 Gets The Smallest Update Mazda Could Get Away With

That performance stands out even more because the rest of Mazda’s month wasn’t nearly as cheerful. Overall July sales dropped 13 percent to 39,180 vehicles, while year to date deliveries slipped 5.6 percent to 241,014. The Mazda3’s strong performance helped total passenger car sales climb more than 50 percent even as SUV sales fell 18 percent. 

The Mazda3’s sudden popularity comes just as rumors suggest its successor could represent the biggest change in the model’s history. Reports have pointed to a future electric replacement based on a Deepal model developed by Mazda’s Chinese partner Changan, following the same playbook that already produced the Mazda 6e sedan and CX 6e SUV for Europe and Australia.

Whether that plan ever reaches American showrooms is another matter. EV demand has cooled in the US, while tariffs and restrictions surrounding Chinese built vehicles have already complicated life for brands including Polestar. If Mazda wants to keep a compact car in America, it may need a very different strategy than simply repackaging a Chinese EV.

Small SUVs Win, Big Ones Lose

Away from the Mazda3, there were a few other bits of good news. The CX-30 (above) gained almost 10 percent during July, while the CX-50 remains Mazda’s biggest year to date success story, climbing 26 percent to more than 76,500 deliveries.

The Miata, which is even older than the 3 and will offer an electric version alongside the gas model next time around, was broadly steady, with year to date sales edging slightly higher. That’s despite a disappointing July in which sales dropped 16.3 percent, though that can be blamed on the retractable fastback RF model – the classic soft top Miata held firm.  

Not every SUV had reason to celebrate. The CX-5, CX-70 and CX-90 all posted sizeable declines for the month, the CX-70 dropping 25.8 percent to just 1,187 units, making it Mazda’s worst seller, and the bigger CX-90 slumping almost 30 percent to 4,831 units.

Mazda Sales July 2026

Mazda