A friend from church worked at a local bank. She approached me one Sunday and said “We’ve got a repo at our branch. It makes a bad noise when you drive it. Are you interested?” Of course I was interested. If it has four wheels I am always interested.
I was interested in knowing much more. Year? Make? Model? She knew a lot of information about the woman who took out the loan, and told me a little bit of that sad story. Unfortunately, car-wise, she knew practically nothing. Besides the noise, she knew it was a four door, and it was dark blue. That was the extent of her knowledge of the car.
I was teaching at the university back then. On my way to class I had just a minute to swing through the bank parking lot. The only dark blue car in the parking lot was a Mazda Millenia with no license plate, a tire going down, and a thick layer of dust on the windshield.
I chided myself for knowing virtually nothing about the Mazda Millenia. I was aware of the Madza 929, sort of the flagship of the Mazda brand. The Millenia? Just another Japanese sedan.
It turns out that Mazda took note of the success of Honda’s upscale Acura brand and Toyota’s upscale Lexus brand and wanted to join the party. Mazda’s plan was to start Amati and the Millenia would be their first model.
I went by after class and heard the story from another bank employee: “It is loud when you drive it.” she said, as she handed me the key. The V6 started right up and seemed to run very smoothly. All the fluids were good and there was no smoke. I noticed the very nice leather interior and what seemed like every conceivable option a car could possibly have in 1996. Keyless entry, power everything, sunroof, front seats, mirrors etc. etc.
I’m not sure what happened to Amati, but it never came to fruition (full story here). The Millenia was too far along in development to stop it. Apparently someone in an office in Tokyo decided slap MAZDA badges on them and sell them alongside the Miatas and MX6s at dealers across our fine nation.
Interestingly, some Millenias came with superchargers. These “S” models came with so-called “five stroke” Miller Cycle engines. Mine was the N/A V6 model.
If I remember correctly, I paid the bank about $1000 for the car. The “bad noise” was a plastic splash guard dragging on the ground underneath the front bumper. A zip tie I found in my garage fixed that “problem” in about 30 seconds. I do remember that it did not have very high miles.
At the time, the Millenia was the most luxurious car I had ever owned. I played with the automatic climate control as I cruised down the interstate. The cabin was virtually silent at speed. The driver’s seat could be adjusted nineteen different ways and a superb audio system played your song of choice from a CD changer in the trunk. The most vivid memory I have of that car is being out on a rural stretch of highway and floorboarding the accelerator. The car eventually pegged the speedometer at about 120 mph and cruised effortlessly as if it were ready for more.
I kept the car for about a year. It never had any issues, and it never let me down. I eventually used it for a down payment on a Miata I found at the local Mazda dealer. I figured (correctly) that they would know what I had, and give me a decent price for the trade.
Related reading: Mazda’s Amati Division WS
I considered these a couple of times when shopping for used cars over the years. A family friend had a 96 non-S from new to last year, when it was totalled in a wreck. She loved it. The Mazda dealers I talked to said to stay far away from the S Miller cycle supercharged engines; problematic and expensive to repair. They also rusted fairly comprehensively in the Northeast. Many of them in u pull its up here now, along with Maximas and Accords from that era. Still able to find decent ones in the South. Inoffensive but handsome styling, like many Japanese 1990s sedans.
FWIW Mazda’s headquarters are in Hiroshima, not Tokyo.
Thousand bucks and a zip tie. What a steal! From what you describe Mazda got a lot of things right with this car. The S model messed up the reputation thoroughly. I assume that a lot of folks, including me, thought that all Millenias had a Miller Cycle engine and never looked further. Too bad.
Ah, the Eunos 800, aka Xedos 9 – I LOVE these, but they’re all gone around here. I used to work with someone who ran a pre-owned model to 150k, when the autobox cried “enough”. I still cherish my little Eunos 500/Xedos 6 but the 19 year old paintwork is starting to suffer from too much UV…..
IIRC these had a reputation for fragile transmissions.
Beautiful and luxurious cars, it seemed like the average Mazda customer didn’t care and the rest of the world didn’t know these existed.
Is it just me, or does the remark “…..but they have a kind of fragile automatic transmission” pop up when talking about any model of Mazda with an automatic transmission? Even some Fords have/had (?) Mazda transmissions and the transmission seems to die early.
The only Mazda with an automatic transmission that seems “immune” from that is the Miata.
The second-gen Ford Explorers with the 4.0 6-Cylinder also had what was termed “disposable transmissions.”
The Countour/Mystique/Cougars also had the reputation for short-lived automatics.
Lergely the Mazdas that used Ford transaxles have well deserved poor reps (626, Escape, 6 V6, CX9). The Fords that used Mazda transmissions (mostly 5 speed manuals in trucks and SUVs) are considered the most reliable of their kind, transmission-wise.
Never heard of Millenia transmissions being a problem, but maybe I just don’t know of it.
Here’s what I recall (as someone who has only owned used cars and is sneaking up on 40 years old). When these (Millenia) were fairly common on Craigslist (which was many years ago), I would generally see in the text of the ad “transmission rebuilt” or “needs transmission.”
YMMV
I just never understood what Mazda was thinking with the Millenia. Here was a car that slotted above the 929 and yet looked blander and didn’t have rear-wheel-drive. And that ’92 929 was an absolute stunner, while the Millenia was handsome at best.
I’d take the 929 every time. Not to say the Millenia is a bad car though, and you scored an excellent buy!
i remember very well when this car came out. i thought it was the most beautiful sedan at the time. and being a mazda probably reliable. but somehow joe public never bought this in big numbers. it’s the same today. the 2017 mazda 6 is truly a gorgeous car…. and rare on the road in a sea of camrys and accords. i don’t know why joe public isn’t noticing this car. —– the only exception is the 2004 mazda 6. styling was bland and i think it’s engine was not up to mazda standards.
I always thought these were cool. Growing up, my across-the-street neighbor had a 1999 example, in black, that he bought new and owned until 2010, when it was declared totaled in a hailstorm. I always thought it was cool. The only thing that annoyed me was the memory-enabled powered steering column that tilted, but didn’t telescope, and was very loud in doing so.
And while I’m griping about power-adjusted steering columns, the one in my 2014 MKS doesn’t reach out far enough.
First the 929 and then these, I was convinced that Mazda was going to make the big time. But no. These seemed like such nice cars.
I just checked my local CL – there is a BHPH lot offering an S model for $500 down, and touting that Supercharger like it’s a feature. Yikes.
The owner of the store where I worked owned one of these in the same color combination, and with the supercharged engine. He mentioned the Miller engine and had been a car fiend since a kid, once having owned a Studebaker Hawk [probably supercharged as well].
I don’t know if that Millennia ever had problems, but it was’nt around for very long
He and his wife were early adopters of Mazda’s rotary engined cars and had an RX3 [? someone please correct me ] station wagon when I came to work there that they used for deliveries of magazines.
The Millennia was traded for an Infiniti G35.
Mazda in the U.S. offered the RX3 and the RX4 as station wagons in the 70s. Considering how thirsty these rotary engines were, using them in delivery vehicles seems like it would be a money loser.
You have to give Mazda it’s due, giving the car world largish rotary powered cars and a pickup truck, and this Miller-cycle engine with a supercharger. (The Miller cycle is the “big deal” about these cars.)
Thanks, Howard. I couldn’t remember if it was an RX3 for certain. Or if that was the correct name, it’s been so long.
They beat on it and it was blowing blue smoke by 1984. A Mazda 626 replaced it, again used as a company mule.
Always enjoyed the understated elegance of these cars, even in spite of the very underpowered 2.5 V6 in non-S models. A lot of people aren’t likely aware that these cars were totaled out relatively easily due to the complicated painting process these had from the factory and expensive mica paint finishes. An old roomate’s coworker had hers stolen somehow; the people responsible scraped the side of the car at some point. Only 6 years old and totaled after it was found because the cost to replace the pearlescent mica paint job was astronomical.
MAACO would have taken care of that with it’s Ambassador series job, cjiguy.
Seriously, that sounds pretty extreme, but I don’t doubt it. A friend’s Maxima was clipped in the front, airbags went off and the estimate came to $10,000. In the 90s. If it hadn’t been two years old it would likely have been written off as well.