(first posted 6/22/2018) An uninspiring, blocky wagon from the 1970s. A wedgy, sporty-looking coupe with pop-up headlights. A plush, large sedan. All with the same nameplate. Shopping for a Mazda 929 in an Australian Mazda showroom in the early/mid-1980s was a confounding experience. And while we enjoyed such dizzying variety, North Americans missed out on an entire chapter in the history of Mazda’s flagship line.
Much as the Familia became the 323 outside of Japan and the Capella became the 626, the 929 nameplate was an export nameplate. First appearing on exported Luce sedans and wagons in 1973, from 1981 to 1987 it would also be used on the Cosmo sedan and coupe.
This 929 coupe is the export version of the HB-series Cosmo, the successor to the CD-series model that had a short and unsuccessful stint in the North American market wearing its rightful Japanese name.
The irony is the 1975-81 CD-series Cosmo was so distinctly American in its styling and yet sold poorly there. The mechanically-related LA4-series Luce – the successor to what was known as the RX-4 in North America – was even more overtly American-inspired, wearing stacked headlights that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a ’77 Fury or Chevelle. It’s even more ironic that this particular generation of Luce, a 4/5ths-sized clone of an American intermediate if there ever was one, was never sold in North America.
Clockwise from top left: Luce hardtop sedan, Luce sedan, Cosmo hardtop sedan, Cosmo coupe
The following HB-series Cosmo was available as a sedan and coupe while the related Luce was sedan-only. There were two different sedan body styles, one with a more upright roofline and one with frameless glass windows and the “hardtop” moniker. Despite the name, the rakish “hardtop” coupe and sedan bodies both had B-pillars.
The Cosmo and Luce were sold in separate Mazda dealership chains and differed in frontend styling, the Cosmo having the sleeker, sloped frontend with hidden headlights and an exemplary drag coefficient of 0.32 for the coupe and 0.35 for the hardtop sedan. Even the regular sedan had a cD of 0.39, up from the old Luce’s 0.46.
It wasn’t just the exterior that was transformed. The new HB-series 929 was thoroughly modern, with four-wheel independent suspension (with semi-trailing arms at the rear), four-wheel disc brakes, and rack-and-pinion steering. There were also electronically adjustable dampers available, technology that was becoming increasingly popular in premium Japanese cars. This was a big leap from the old 929 (and the carryover wagon), which used a live rear axle, drum brakes, and recirculating-ball steering. The new 929, however, retained the traditional rear-wheel-drive layout of its predecessors.
The wagon of that generation was given a mild facelift – ditching the passé stacked headlights – and was left to soldier on using the same carbureted 2.0 four-cylinder engine (79 hp, 103 ft-lbs) and three-speed automatic transmission. These 929s were workhorses, utterly reliable and completely forgettable.
In the UK, these wagons were the only cars sold under the 929 nameplate during the 1980s, selling to people who wanted something like a Ford Granada estate but who… I don’t know, lived next door to a Mazda dealership?
Other markets were luckier. In some European markets, the Luce sedan was also sold as the 929. Middle Eastern markets were luckier still, receiving the even more handsome Luce/Cosmo hardtop sedan. Then there was Australia, where we got our hands on both Luce sedan variants and both the Cosmo hardtop sedan and coupe.
The grass is always greener, though. Yes, once again Japan kept the exciting stuff to themselves. Back home, both the Luce and Cosmo were available with a choice of three different Wankel rotary engines.
This included a turbocharged version borrowed from the RX-7 with 160 hp and 167 ft-lbs. But the fuel crises had highlighted the rotaries’ poor fuel economy and Mazda was shifting away from them, the RX models of the 1970s gone but for the RX-7 sports coupe. Between 1973 and 1977, total Mazda rotary production declined by over 80% and so the rotary HB Cosmo and Luce were never to leave Japan. There, the rotary was popular as it provided ample power from a small displacement engine, therefore avoiding high road taxes.
While the 929 was sportier and more stylish than other large Japanese sedans like the Toyota Crown and Nissan Cedric, it lacked their luxury and sophistication. There were no six-cylinder models available, while the cabin was rather cramped for a car in its class—the sedans shared the coupe’s 103-inch wheelbase. Export 929s came with an uninspiring 2.0 four-cylinder engine with 90 hp and 118 ft-lbs from the 626 line. Not enough engine for a well-equipped, larger sedan and coupe weighing 2600 pounds, it wheezed and struggled to haul the car around. It also acquired a reputation for being both fragile and a slug. Fortunately, a newer, more refined 2.0 arrived in 1983 – a longitudinal adaptation of the new, FWD 626 engine – and outputs increased to 94 hp and 116 ft-lbs. Electronic fuel injection was new for ’84, bumping power up once more to 118 hp and 126 ft-lbs. Still, the 929’s resolutely capable chassis cried out for more power.
The Australian 929 range opened with the wagon. A couple of grand more got you the newer sedan, while the hardtop coupe and sedan models cost more still but were available with even more equipment. Top-spec 929s came with full power accessories, digital instrumentation, and even headlight washers, although lesser coupes and sedans were hardly left wanting for features and were priced only slightly higher than cars like the Toyota Celica and Nissan Gazelle (200SX). Even the most luxuriously appointed of 929s came standard with a five-speed manual transmission; a three-speed automatic was optional at first, replaced by a four-speed when the 2.0 gained fuel injection.
The wagon missed out on the mechanical improvements made to the newer HB sedan and coupe. As late as 1987, it was still sitting in Mazda showrooms with the same old powetrain. It wasn’t unusual for Japanese automakers to keep an older generation of wagon around – for example, the Toyota Crown – but it was unusual in markets like Australia and the UK.
Photo courtesy of Dub 929
As the HB-series 929 entered its twilight years, Australian consumers could finally get a 929 with the power to back up its sporty styling. Mazda introduced a turbocharged 2.0 four in 1986 and offered it in both coupe and hardtop sedan body styles, both with the aggressive, hidden headlight frontend. The boosted four produced 116 hp and 147 ft-lbs but was available only with a five-speed manual transmission and only in top-spec Luxury trim.
The 929 was Mazda’s flagship and stood in stark contrast to the stodgy Nissan 300C (Cedric) and Toyota Crown, Nissan and Toyota’s flagship offerings in Australia. These sedans were ungainly, both to behold and to drive. Although the 929 lacked their pace and space, it was a much more dynamic car and its elegantly tailored styling better concealed the typical, taxation-driven narrow width inflicted on all of these cars. Despite its flagship status, however, the 929 was sized and priced closer to the spiritually similar Nissan Skyline and Toyota Cressida.
It beggars belief why Nissan and Toyota would offer the slow-selling Crown and Cedric well into the 1980s in Australia when they had more international-flavored sedans to choose from, such as the Nissan Leopard and Laurel. But, to be fair, the 929 didn’t burn up the sales charts in Australia much more than the 300C and Crown. In significantly worse news for Mazda, those cars outsold the Luce and Cosmo in the home market as they better met Japanese luxury car buyers’ desires.
Mazda seemed to be still finding its feet in the luxury car game and would continue to stumble throughout the 1980s and 1990s before finally withdrawing at the end of the century. Alas, even when Mazda made a desirable or at least intriguing flagship, it seemed to miss the mark in terms of market appeal – witness the CD Cosmo, ’91 929/Sentia, and the Millenia. The Luce/929 also followed a bizarre pattern of oscillating between cutting-edge style and stodgy conservatism.
The following generation of 929 came with Mazda’s first V6 engine and a more spacious cabin. The Cosmo and Luce diverged, the Cosmo becoming an even posher, rotary-powered coupe for the home market while the Luce continued to be exported from Japan under the 929 nameplate. Unfortunately, the new, more dynamically polished and luxurious Luce/929 lacked the style of its predecessors, looking as unassuming and forgettable as the finally defunct, 1970s-vintage wagon.
Mazda’s over-reliance on rotary engines in the 1970s left the HB models with poor-to-mediocre four-cylinder engines in export markets. This probably explains why they were never offered in North America as they lacked the kind of powertrains required in their segment. It’s a pity, as the 929 had a thoroughly modern and capable chassis and voguish styling.
Oh and, umm, there was an old wagon, too.
Related Reading:
Curbside Classic: 1986-1991 Mazda 929/Luce – Aren’t You Supposed To Dress For Success?
Curbside Capsule: 1996-97 Mazda 929 – The Swan Becomes An Ugly Duckling
It wasn’t unusual for Japanese automakers to keep an older generation of wagon around – for example, the Toyota Crown – but it was unusual in markets like Australia and the UK
Ford Europe was also guilty for keeping its Granada Mk1 wagon much longer after the Granada Mk1 was replaced with all-new Mk2. Granada Mk1 wagon received the new nose clip and smoother sides from Mk2 while the rest of it remained the same.
Another example – Mazda kept the old rear wheel drive 323/GLC wagon well into the 1980s, but with a new front clip to keep it in line with the FWD 1981+ 323 models.
Fortunately the upped the engine size for the later 323 RWDs, I had a two door van version with the 1500cc engine in Aussie it was a really good car.
The Chevy Monza wagon was just the Vega with the new-for-’78 “base” Monza nose and the Iron Duke replacing the Vega aluminum four. It even carried over the Vega dashboard which none of the other ’78-9 Monzas had. The Pontiac version was even lazier, all they did was change the fender badges from Astre to Sunbird.
The early-00s full reskin of the Ford Taurus was a mere facelift of the wagon. IMO that worked since they had gone too far in toning down the ovalness of the ’96 sedan while the wagon reached a good balance.
I used to have a thing for the HB 4 door hardtop, with the conventional grille not the pop up headlight version. I loved the wide headlight treatment. It somehow looked Citroenesque. However it is overall a bit too Origami for me now. If they say softened the edges it might still look great now, as a lot of the elements of the design remain striking. One interior detail I liked was the vertical cassette deck in the dash.
I was never a fan of the 2 door version with the double B pillar nor the facelift version.
When these came out the Australian press quite rightly blasted them for their sluggish performance, so bad that overtaking manoeuvres were considered dangerous. Ironically one of the JDM rotary versions (probably the 12A turbo) was at the time considered to be the fastest Japanese production car, at least until the Skyline RS came out. Imagine a factory 13B turbo!
Perhaps someone can clarify the other rotary engines available in Japan. I know there was an injected 13B with 6 ports that had almost as much power as the 12A turbo, and by rotary standards was fairly economical. Maybe there was just a standard 12A offered too.
I once sat in a new 4 door hardtop at a motor show. The interior room and headroom was abysmal, made even worse with the optimal sun roof.
Despite their drawbacks a lot of there cars were sold here back in the day, and interesting probably more of the 2 and 4 door hardtops than the boring sedan version, which looked like Mazda’s entrant in the most boring Japanese taxi competition.
I didn’t like the facelifted version as it had more chintzy details. I think it also lost the vertical cassette deck! But if my recall is correct it did get more convention gauges, as the pre facelift had some sort of digital set up. The new engine with the turbo option was welcome but the turbo was in a mild state of tune and didn’t go that hard.
I reckon the lucky Kiwis would have seen some of the rotary versions as grey imports. Very few if any rotary versions have made a new home in Australia.
It’s a real shame that Mazda didn’t get this car quite right as it was clearly more interesting than the Toyotas we were getting, by most reports it had a fine chassis, and it was probably better built than most of the imported Nissans. Having said that I do recall seeing a few of them with prematurely faded paint and disintegrating interior trim. My gut feeling is thst they weren’t as well built as the RX4 era 929s, or which I had some experience with. It’s also a shame that Mazda don’t sell something like this today, but not surprising as the sheep participate in the race to the bottom that is the SUV craze.
I loved the wide headlight treatment. It somehow looked Citroenesque.
Citroën Karin concept car (1980) comes to the mind…
Ex JDM versions have turned up in NZ and the trend is to fit Rotaries to anything and everything one will fit into, the mid 80s was when the used import scene boomed but I was in Aussie so only saw the same cars you did.
Yep, plenty of the rotary-engined version arrived here in NZ as used imports. Most of them were mercilessly thrashed and died a quick death, but there’s still the odd one around. The ’86-91 Luce was available with a factory rotary too, the few that arrived here quickly met their demise too.
Will, thanks for a wealth of great information–I’ve learned so much with this post.
A few observations:
1) It’s so interesting to see the convergence of styling trends, where a design theme is adopted–and flogged–by multiple makers. For the 1980s, the “Euro” look, as interpreted by Japan, was clearly in vogue. No more copying the American makes….
2) Mazda seemed to suffer from that same “close, but no cigar” plague that impacts cash-strapped automakers the world over–some of their core product concepts were quite interesting, but let down by the underwhelming powertrain choices. The lasting damage of the rotary disappointment in global markets was far reaching….
3) Stretching into so many product categories undoubtedly put a strain on resources, since money wasn’t available to make them fully competitive in each segment. Leftover wagons and “almost there” coupes and sedans don’t make for credible choices when targeting more “upmarket” buyers.
I’ve seen some of these 929s in pictures but others – like the wide-headlight sedan – are new to me. I have to disagree with William about the next-generation 929. I think it’s handsome and elegant – looks like a luxury car. I wonder if Oldsmobile was looking at the hidden-headlight 929 coupes when they styled the 1988 Cutlass Supreme.
Yesss! Tonyola, you beat me to it!
Mazda coupé is like a mix of Subaru Svx and Honda Prélude, and yes, fwd Cutlass coupé for the rear windows.
Also, I think we might have a “separated at birth” moment with the 929 sedan and the Australian Ford Fairlane from the same time. 🙂
Motor Manual (now defunct) reported a Fairlane driver going for their similarly-coloured Mazda test car. Hard to believe, given the size difference, but there is a resemblance.
Great piece as aways, Will. I learned a lot.
One thought (besides what Tonyola said, above) is that I find the regular, semi-fastback, “American”-style Cosmo coupe (Paul called it the “Colonnade Mazda”, which I’m using from now on) infinitely more attractive than the hidden-headlamp coupe featured here.
When I was in Japan in the mid 80s, I saw a couple of these cars. And from Japanese car magazines that I picked up I knew they were Mazdas. But because of the Japanese car company penchant for multiple cars spun off the same basic shell, I assumed this was a “gussied up” 626.
Love these shapes. Two-door mostly. When they came out, I thought they looked as assured as stuff out of Turin’s salons. I really thought they put Mazda way beyond its Japanese peers. Then they went super-bland. Broke my heart. Lucky us in oz for getting a hardtop sedan, that normally didn’t happen.
The wagon is my favorite of all of them. But then you probably could have guessed that.
The next two generations of 929s broke my heart – they were really attractive and I thought they would be breakthroughs here, but they were not. Mazda has always been a little bit of a puzzle to me.
I actually drove one of the 2-doors in the late 80’s! It was in the LA area while I was in my first year of college, my friend and I saw an ad in the Recycler and decided to take a look. We had no money to purchase it, but somehow convinced the seller to let us take a ride. I think it helped that I had my Mazda 626 coupe at the time.
At any rate, the looks of the car were great; long and low. The actual drive itself was kind of meh, not much power and a very soft ride. I assume he somehow had it federalized as it was wearing CA plates at the time. Anyway, it was just another one of those SoCal experiences but one of my first real tastes of “forbidden fruit”…I’ve always liked Mazdas but the one I had (my first car) is still the only one I’ve owned.
Thanks for filling in some of the details of these cars’ convoluted history.
I assume Mazda didn’t try selling the 929 in the US in its earlier incarnations because larger Japanese cars had just never done well here before. They simply didn’t offer a compelling package/value compared to domestic sedans, and sold almost exclusively to die-hard Toyota/Nissan fans who were looking to move up to a larger car. Their US-imitation styling did them no favors, because Americans who bought mid and premium imports wanted a distinctive look, which the Europeans had. I suspect BMW wouldn’t have done well if their cars had looked like a shrunk brougham either.
And there was the issue of engines: the Cressida and the big Nissan both had 6 cylinder engines; that old four in the 929 would have been the kiss of death in the US, where buyers expected more.
But there were several reasons why Mazda brought over the new 929. The new V6 was one. Plus the voluntary import deal with the Japanese forced them all to push high-volume luxury cars, as the total number of cars were limited. And the market was now more receptive to Japanese higher-priced cars, thanks to Acura and Lexus. Plus the 929 had acceptable (if dull) styling for the times.
But obviously Mazda didn’t exactly score big with the 929, although they did ok with it.
Still happening Paul You got a Mazda 6 with a six cylinder engine our premium model had a 2.5 four, my sister has/had one, I’m told it goes well enough.
I think there is a market gap for a stylish (in a non derivative way) 3 series/A4 sized RWD sedan that won’t break the bank.
Kia has the Stinger, so it’s not impossible.
The current styling language of all Japanese manufacturers bar Mazda has gone to the dogs, so only Mazda is a contender. They could start with an extended version of the Mx5/Miata and go from there. ?
Excellent piece Will! I’ll be honest when I say that Mazdas of this era are cars I have relatively little in-depth knowledge of. The reason probably being that many of the models featured in this piece were not sold in the U.S. and even the ones that were sold in small numbers and disappeared quickly. It was such a big event seeing this 929 on the freeway in LA last year I rather dangerously took a quick shot 🙂
Great looking cars this series of 929/Cosmo with the hidden headlights. The Luce hardtop makes my eyes hurt however. NZ got the hidden-headlight coupe and sedan new; I’m not sure if we ever got the hardtop sedan new. Saw a few around through the 90s, but I think they were all JDM used import. Pretty sure the wagon was available here new, but the styling’s so forgettable I don’t remember it.
I’m hung up on those Mazdas’ placement of side-view mirrors halfway toward the headlights. I’ve never experienced that. Is the blind spot eliminated? Do both mirrors get the “objects in mirror are closer than they appear” warning? What’s the advantage? Is it just a cosmetic thing? Why Mazda why??
I think we have one 929 coupe left on the roads in Barbados now; I always loved those cars, and that stereo’s tape deck with a door reminiscent of home stereo systems always fascinated me. Haven’t seen the sedan variant in years, because the Laurel and Cressida always outsold it; in fact, the 90-94 bhp output of the sedan was similar to that of the 21R-equipped Cressida of the same era (92 bhp). Didn’t know there was a rotary-engine variant till I began frequenting this site; all of the ones we imported carried “Limited” badging, both sedan and coupe. We got the wagon in limited numbers too.
That red Turbo coupe (dub929) in your story..
Poor old girl ended up in a paddock but has since been recommissioned an is back running around on the road.
348xxxkm and still running strong.
I happened to find another turbo coupe, apart from the paint, it’s absolutely original..
Soon to grace the roads again😉