Martin Benders, managing director of Mazda Australia has defended the absence of the rear view camera on the entry level Mazda 3, stating that parents need to take care of their kids better. Benders said, “I don’t see the driveway as being a place where kids should be walking around in the first place. I expect that people who drive cars take care and attention about how they drive their cars.” Seriously? Sounds like a pretty lame excuse for a cost-cutting measure to us! But there’s more… He added “Reversing cameras are not infallible, they’re more an aid, but so are reverse parking sensors, they will pick up obstacles in a similar way. It’s like a lot of the safety equipment in there, it’s there as an aid. It doesn’t take away the driver’s responsibility to take care and attention. If we think that that’s what we need to do then we’ve got a real problem because I think I’ve made the comment before, but we’ve become so focused on giving [people] too much assistance that we’re actually taking their mind off actually paying attention to the way they drive. We’ve just got to be careful about all that.” 
According to Benders, the rear view camera was not included because very few entry level Mazda 3 owners demanded for one. “Why don’t we have this, that, or the other piece of equipment? Everybody chooses what they think works for their customers and they work it out accordingly. I can keep adding things ad infinitum but the price will go up ultimately,” he added. Buyers in Australia have to pay at least $22,390 (~RM62,560 before sales tax & excise duty) to get the Maxx variant of the Mazda 3 to get the rear view camera, while the basic Neo variant (without the rear view camera) retails for $20,490 (~RM57,240 before sales tax & excise duty). What do you think? Is the lack of the rear view camera justifiable?
