A National City car importer has won a contract to import nearly 100,000 Mazda cars and trucks annually through the Port of San Diego.

The contract, won by Pasha Automotive Services, will push the annual number of cars coming through the port to more than 500,000 and make San Diego one of the top three car importers on the West Coast.
It will also create 25 new jobs at Pasha's sprawling facility in the National City Marine Terminal, said Rich Frick, the privately held Pasha's senior vice president and general manager.
“This is great news for the port,” said port spokeswoman Irene McCormick. “We are continuing to grow.”

She said the deal would have no impact on the possibility of a stadium being built on port property in National City for the San Diego Chargers football team.

For almost 30 years, Mazda had shipped cars and trucks through Port Hueneme, located north of Los Angeles near Oxnard. But the company found that it will save money and be closer to customers by going through San Diego.

“We do expect some reduction in costs with this change,” said Mazda spokesman Jeremy Barnes this week. “Using San Diego also puts us closer to our three primary U.S. markets: Los Angeles, Orange County and Phoenix.”

Another plus for San Diego is that the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad runs through the facility, meaning that cars will not have to be put on trucks and driven to an inland railroad terminal before being shipped out of state.

“They go off the ship, they are put on the train and are in Texas in four or five days,” Frick said.

Southern California ports are the main U.S. entry point for autos shipped from Japan and South Korea. The ports of San Diego, Los Angeles, Long Beach and Port Hueneme import more than a million vehicles annually.

Mazda's U.S. sales this year through September rose 3.7 percent to 209,239 on demand for Japan-built models such as the new CX-7 wagon and revamped Miata roadster.

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