1991 Mazda Rx-7 Convertible Convertible 2-door 1.3l on 2040-cars

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The spirit of these 7 weird Mazdas lives on in today's cars

HIROSHIMA, Japan — When visiting the Mazda Museum in Hiroshima, housed amidst the company's main manufacturing site on the shore of the Enko River, you can follow Jujiro Matsuda's early 20th century entrepreneurial path from artificial cork manufacturer to machine and machine toolmaker, to motor vehicle producer. But probe a bit deeper into the exhibits, and you can uncover more than just a chronicle of corporate achievements: delightfully weird outliers, paragons of oddball design, engineering and marketing solutions It's looking at these delightful misfits that really illustrates Mazda's tale. You can also see precisely how many of these vintage conveyances led directly (or indirectly, or obtusely) to Mazda's most iconic American-market cars and trucks. Our seven favorite precursors, and their lovable successors, are listed below. 1931 Type TCS/Mazda B-Series Mazda's first vehicle was this little three-wheeler, powered by an air-cooled, one-cylinder motor. Because the company lacked a distribution network at the time, the trucklet was marketed by Mitsubishi; hence the three-diamond pattern on its side. All of this is very reminiscent of the company's eventual foray into the U.S. market, where its sales were spearheaded by compact pickups. The B-Series, which was one of the first Mazda vehicles available in the U.S., arrived in 1972, and stuck around through the first decade of the 21st century. Like its partnership with Mitsubishi, Mazda teamed up with stakeholder Ford to market this little truck as Ford's first small pickup, the Courier, the precursor to the Ranger. There was even a rotary-powered B-Series for a few years, but we're getting ahead of ourselves. 1968 Bongo Van/Mazda5 The Bongo allegedly was the first one-box van design in Japan, and apparently it was so popular that the name Bongo became, for a period of time, the generic metonym for the category—the way that Kleenex is a stand-in for all facial tissue. With a tiny rear-mounted engine and a planar expanse of metal to push around, it was not particularly fast, but it was both spacious and innovative. The same could be said of the brand's mini-minivan, the Mazda5, which was available for a couple of generations in the States in the Aughties. Sadly, the name 5 never caught on as a synonym for fun-to-drive family hauler, at least not yet, and the category itself (like nearly every other car category) was crushed in America by the rise of the crossover.

Goodbye Zoom-Zoom, Driving Matters is Mazda's new slogan [w/video]

Timed with the launch of the 2016 MX-5 Miata, Mazda is now changing gears with its advertising strategy in the US by launching a whole new slogan. The Japanese brand's latest marketing motto takes a much more direct approach than Zoom-Zoom by simply saying Driving Matters. The two-word phrase is meant to make customers believe that a good time behind the wheel can improve their lives. Driving Matters is also supposed to say something about how Mazda engineers vehicles. "Whether it's for safety purposes or for maintaining our 'fun to drive' nature, it all comes down to the fact that driving matters to our customers and it matters to us." Russell Wager, vice president of marketing at Mazda North American Operations, said in the announcement of the new campaign. However, Zoom-Zoom isn't entirely dead, and the words still appear in small print in some of these spots. According to Wager in an interview with Automotive News, the old slogan isn't necessarily understandable to some focus groups. "I'll ask them to explain to me what 'Zoom Zoom' means, and I'll get 6 or 7 different answers. That's what Driving Matters is supposed to address. It's supposed to solidify what 'Zoom Zoom' means to people," he said. So far, the company has released several examples of the campaign to highlight the Miata and Mazda6. At the same time, Mazda is launching a new commercial (embedded below) called A Driver's Life that showcases many of its models but puts a big emphasis on the MX-5. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Mazda Launches All-New Advertising Campaign, "Driving Matters" - New Campaign Communicates How the Joy of Driving Can Enhance Your Life - IRVINE, Calif. (May 21, 2015) –The Oxford Dictionary defines "driving" as, "operating and controlling the direction and speed of a motor vehicle." Mazda believes that driving is more than a definition. Driving is an experience that can enhance your life. To better illustrate how every Mazda vehicle embodies why "Driving Matters," today Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) is rolling out a new advertising campaign. Driving Matters is an evolution of the Game Changers campaign. With Game Changers, Mazda succeeded in increasing consumer awareness of the functional attributes of our vehicles. Driving Matters will extend the message by creating an emotional connection to the brand.

2019 Mazda MX-5 Miata 30th Anniversary Edition goes bold

For a car with a mischievous grin and penchant for fun, the MX-5 Miata's color palette is on the drab side, but thankfully the 30th Anniversary Edition gets a vivid hue called Racing Orange. Mazda says it "evokes the breaking dawn of an exciting new day," and that it's partly inspired by the bright yellow of the Miata Club Racer concept from 1989. That's all well and good, but it looks to us more like the orange from the 1991 Le Mans-winning Mazda 787B race car. Whatever the reason, we dig the color. It will be important that the new owners like it, too, because the color is everywhere. It's on the brake calipers, door sills, air vents, stitching and piping. Everything else is a black or charcoal color, including the gorgeous Rays forged aluminum wheels, exclusive to this model, and the Alcantara trim on the dash, doors and seats. All versions of the special Miata come with Recaro seats, Brembo brakes, Bose sound system and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The manual models add a limited-slip differential, Bilstein shocks and a front shock tower brace. Mazda isn't making many of these special Miatas, with just 3,000 of the soft top and RF combined for the world. The U.S. will get only 500. Customers can order one now at a special configuration website, and they had better bring plenty of cash. The manual soft top starts at $35,915, and the manual RF starts at $38,515. Adding an automatic ups the price by $499 on the soft top and $400 on the RF. Related Video: