After seeing that the Bus was fine after reaching the bottom of the ramp, the most depressing thing in that video is the severely peeling paint on that 6th Gen Accord, which was a pretty nice ride. I even considered the nicely styled 2-door coupe back in the day, before going for a decently worn Mazda MX-6.

Hey, the publish button worked this time

I’d rather have a Cullinan caravan than the same single-car transportation that the plebeians use.

Cullinan Limited you mean?

It almost sounds like you can write a book on this.  I’d be down to buy a book like this.

Nothing Screams Freedom Growing Economic Disparity More Than This Hellcat-Powered Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 6x6 That Retails For 5x The Median US Income

Some of those calls between Mazda HQ and Mazda USA must have been like getting a 1:30am call from a coked-up friend who is gushing about how he’s finally going to start that company he always talks about, AND get back with his ex. Starting today (which he keeps calling tomorrow) at 8:00am sharp.

In the 80's and 90's, I was a huge fan of Mazda. This was because Mazda built hot sporty cars for the masses that were far more reliable than domestic and cheaper than Honda. In 87 I had purchased a new 323 hatchback and piled huge miles on it before buying a dealer demo 93 MX6 coupe in early 94. Living in LA at the…

The 1980s sealed the deal for Japanese car companies. Even the setback of the 1990s did not stop their continued rise to dominace.

I didn’t have room to get into the party politics of Mazda at the time, with the switchover from Yamamoto to Norimasa Furuta, the differing attitudes the two had with Ford, and the differing attitudes the two had towards Mazda, including how things might never have been as they were had Yamamoto stayed in charge, but…

Raph. This was easily one of the best jalopnik articles of this year. Awesome work.

Correction: I did not “run marketing.” I worked as a marketing manager for the VP of Marketing, John Kramer (formerly from Chrysler). I was just a 20-something “underling” at the time.

This would make a pretty good podcast series. No joke, there’s like 3 to 4 episodes right here in this article, plus some extra episodes focusing on the other Japanese car ventures that didn’t make it to fruition.

Dear Mr. Orlove,

It always seemed a little crazy that Mazda was going to have Amati, Eunos, Xedos, and Enfini all in basically the same segment, granted with some geographical segregation for most of them. But, honestly, were they ever going to really need that many luxury brands? Couldn’t they have just picked the best sounding one…

I’d call the MX-6 and Probe (and 626) platform variants, they’re not all that similar. The B and Navajo are blatant badge jobs.

What a great article. This makes the Millenia make so much more sense, and really makes me wonder about what could have been. The Millenia felt so far ahead of it’s time, and so much nicer than it had any business being as a mere Mazda.

Mazda’s people here in the States weren’t able to even connect me with someone in Japan. Amati is a touchy subject over there, I was told.

Mazda can’t just rebadge Fords anymore, so saying they used to have 11 vehicles to choose from is kind of misleading since you could grab the MX-6 (Probe), B-Series (Ranger), and Navajo (Explorer) at any Ford dealer.

Man, the proportions of those 90's sedans were amazing. Low cowl, thin pillars- simply amazing.