Few carmakers fumbled as badly as Mazda did in the early ‘90s and lived to tell the tale. Rover died. GM needed a bailout. Nissan, Kia and Chrysler had a shotgun wedding. Mazda managed to remain independent, despite tie-ups with Ford and Suzuki. A remarkable feat in this day and age. The Eunos Cosmo harks back to a time when Mazda attempted to grow into a true predatory conglomerate, only to find that they hadn’t so much become a shark as jumped it.
In the late ‘80s, the bigger Japanese carmakers were all trying to outdo one another in the luxury flagship segment. Given that the carmakers were bound by rather rigid government guidelines regarding size and displacement, as well as the “gentlemen’s agreement” on horsepower (theoretically limited to 280hp max), the competition took place in two different arenas. There was a technological race (four-wheel steering, turbos, active suspension, V8 engines, increasingly sophisticated gadgets) and an image race. In the former, Mazda had a strong hand thanks to their exclusive production of rotary engines.
In the latter though, Mazda were a few leagues behind the more savvy players that were Honda, Toyota and Nissan with their new luxury export marques. So Mazda frantically got to work to redress this situation. They went a bit nuts and created four brands out of thin air: Autozam, Eunos and ɛ̃fini (that last one being so pretentious that even foreigners wouldn’t be able to pronounce it) were launched for the JDM, and Mazda planned to launch an Acura- / Lexus-fighter called Amati.
That last one never actually saw light of day, as by the time Mazda were ready to press go in 1992, the firm (and Japan in general) was drowning in red ink and hubris. But they did launch the Eunos Cosmo a couple years earlier, so we have some idea of what some of the Amati line-up might have been. For one thing, Mazda were working on a 12-cyl. saloon, just to up the stakes and beat BMW and Jaguar at their game. For another, the triple-rotary Cosmo coupé would have sat atop the range, admiring the view.
For this fourth generation Cosmo, Mazda were determined to strike a major blow to the Toyota Soarers and Nissan Leopards that reigned supreme on the JDM pecking order. The new Cosmo was much bigger (wider, in particular) than any previous domestically-designed Mazda and featured an optional 2-litre triple Wankel – the first and only time anything like that ever made it to a production car. Theoretically limited to 280hp, the turbocharged 20B three-rotor probably churned out over 300hp in actuality. Base model Cosmos came with the 1.3 litre twin-rotor 13B engine that produced a respectable 235hp and shared its bigger cousin’s sequential turbo technology.
Both the twin- and triple-rotor models came with a 4-speed automatic transmission to send all that cavalry to the rear wheels: Mazda did not possess a manual gearbox that could handle anything as powerful as those Wankels. The only tell-tale sign regarding the Eunos Cosmo’s engine is the exhaust: dual for twin rotaries and quad for triples. Our feature car’s were singles, so this would be one of the 5000 or so 13B-powered Cosmos – i.e. the slightly more common type.
Aside from the engine, contemporary comments about the Cosmo are rather muted. The car’s all-independent suspension (double wishbones front, multilink rear, coils all round) could be had in two different setups – “soft” or sporty. The soft one is not reputed to be very driver-friendly, and the sporty one is a bit on the harsh side. Brakes are straight out of the 929 and a bit undersized for such a heavy car. Rear seats are completely symbolic, which given the car’s size is something of an accomplishment. The quality of the finish, interior and general styling was usually praised, but Mazda let the side down a bit on the chassis side of things.
The interior matches the outside: the owner of this Cosmo seems keen on squeezing the luxury out to improve performance, hence the Recaros. Alas, that’s the tip of the iceberg. Given the gear shifter we’re looking at here, I’m seriously doubting that this Cosmo still sports its original engine and transmission. Does it have a contemporary RX-7’s rotary (i.e. same same but different from the 13B this car had originally), or did the owner perform a complete Wankelectomy? If so, what would he have put in there? LS swap? Nissan Diesel? Brazilian Simca-Ford V8-60 with hemi heads? EV conversion? Your guess is as good as mine.
For the record, this is what the Cosmo’s interior looked like when new. Some of the fancier cars were endowed with a GPS satnav and touchscreen (30 years ago!) – no word on how well these kinds of toys age, of course.
Our Cosmo is looking a bit past its prime. Obviously, it is gradually being drifted into the ground – a sad but quite common end for many a classic RWD Japanese car. But this is a Eunos Cosmo, so it’s even sadder. These are rare cars – less than 9000 were made by the time Mazda gave up on that famous nameplate and halted production in mid-1995. It took Eunos dealers about a year to sell the remaining stock, a costly flop for all concerned. Mazda’s bacon was saved by the RX-7, the Miata and the smaller FWD family cars, whereas the bigger cars (Cosmo, MS-9/Sentia) became an albatross around the firm’s neck. Just like this Cosmo’s running costs are for its present owner, I imagine.
Mazda made a number of mistakes with the Eunos Cosmo. Just like most Japanese carmakers, they thought the good times would last forever and got caught with their pants down when the domestic market took a turn for the worst. Additionally, the Cosmo’s rivals was no longer limited to Toyota and Nissan: Mitsubishi, Honda and Subaru all threw their hat in the ring circa 1990, causing a glut of large coupes just when times were getting tough.
Could Mazda have recouped some investment in their troubled triple-rotor contraption if they had sold some Stateside? That remains an open question. Launching it as a Mazda would probably have been a mistake – this was an expensive car. That rear light bar and the cursive script look American enough, for sure. The Subaru SVX certainly didn’t benefit much from its stint in North America. But the Honda / Acura NSX, on the other hand, did very well. It’s probably for the best that Mazda aborted the Amati roll-out, seeing how their foray into new marques went on the domestic market. And Eunos was a big part of that. This Cosmo was perhaps too big and too expensive for its own good, but was a fittingly over-the-top final generation for a nameplate that showcased Mazda’s appetite for cutting-edge technology and design.
Related posts:
Cohort Outtake: Eunos Cosmo (Mazda) – The Only Triple-Rotor Rotary Engine Production Car, by PN
CC For Sale: 1991 Eunos Cosmo – Mazda’s Grandest Luxury Car Could Be Yours, by William Stopford
Eunos is a fairly common badge here mostly on MX5s,Miatas in the US mostly automatics, But Mazda has ties with several Japanese car makers to eke out the Yen they supplied bodies and complete vehicles to Honda and Nissan, in the form of station wagons and vans a lot of Mazdas were badged Ford for the Pacific market and they survived even as the smallest mainstrean car builder they are alive and well still,
Still on my list of “maybe someday” JDM cars, along with a V12 Century…
Wow. I never knew these existed, let alone saw one. I think it’s absolutely stunning. Beautifully proportioned, nicely balanced, sporty, yet somewhat formal.
As an owner of the also “wrong car, wrong time” ’92 Subaru SVX, I feel the pain. Three years ago I first saw a Cosmo Eunos at the now semi-famous dealer Duncan Classic Cars in Christiansburg, VA. He had about 4 of these, & I must say they were stunning. The interior is 1st class in a simple early 90s high-tech understatement. Gorgeous car.
That is a damn good looking car, shame there was such little market for it and even bigger shame it never made it to the US so I could easily get one!
I should be a fan of this car as I generally love Mazdas, but this Eunos doesn’t do it for me. It has clean lines and looks good from some angles, but I feel like the proportions are off and the styling is kind of forgettable to me for such a premium car. But that’s all subjective.
Hell of a rare find, and I like the front logo; it’s like a logo for a multi level marketing scheme.
Copy and paste from an old cohort outtake comment:
Aaah, the one that got away……
Back in the early 00’s I was 20, single, and had a reasonable amount of cash to put on a down payment on a car. The Japanese import boom in NZ was in full swing, and you if it was sold in Japan, you could get it into NZ.
I was trawling yards one day when I noticed the back end of a Cosmo out the back of one of the yards, asked the salesman if it was for sale. He said that it had literally just come in, wasn’t prepped for sale or even costed up yet, but I could take a look if I liked. It was the Type E-CCS, with the GPS system, leather interior and 20B. I gave it a bit of a once-over, and we took it for a drive.
Wow. What a car. The boost came on pretty much straight off the stall on the torque convertor, and just built from there. About 4k rpm there was another distinct shove of torque. What an engine, what a sound. It was intoxicating.
I needed that car there and then. So the back seat didn’t have much room, and it would be expensive to keep, but I didn’t care. I was away on a sailing trip for the weekend, leaving that afternoon (it was a Friday), and I told the salesman that I’d call on Sunday when I got back to check if they’d costed it up, and we could do a deal.
I went away that weekend, telling my friends about the car that I was going to buy, very excited. Got home Sunday afternoon, and called the yard. Sold on Saturday the guy told me. I was gutted.
It was probably a good thing. While I wasn’t earning badly, I certainly wasn’t rolling in cash, and that would have been an expensive car to maintain and fuel.
Oh well, after looking at many other options, such as MR-2 GT’s, Celica GT-4’s, A Mitsubishi FTO GP-X, Skyline R33 GTS-25T’s, Nissan Pulsar GTi-R’s, and even a couple of early Lancer Evo’s (hmmmm, seeing a pattern here?) I somehow ended up falling in love with a Honda Legend Coupe! I suppose it was similar in a lot of ways to the Cosmo, but a far better choice in many. Performance was about 7/10’s of the Cosmo, but there was far more interior and trunk room. The Legend didn’t have quite such an interestingly styled interior, but you couldn’t fault the build quality. I know for sure the Legend used less gas than a Cosmo would’ve, and I’d probably have had to spend more in maintenance costs for the Cosmo.
You used to see them reasonably often here in Auckland, in both 20B and 13B form, but they’re getting very rare these days, especially with the 20B.
I often wonder what it would have been like to own one, it’s on my list of “maybe oneday” cars, but even given the opportunity and the garage space I’m not sure I’d be too keen to take one on now, I imagine anything other than a pampered original example would be a bit of a nightmare…..
Last one I saw in Auckland was on a towtruck, numbers and stickers all over it roll bar etc heading for Hampton Downs stopping opposite the racetrack on weekends is an ex JDM performance car feast some weekends.
Ah, what could have been! The contrarian in me loves the idea of sticking it to the Euros (and Toyota and Nissan) with a triple-Wankel coupe. And like most Mazdas of that era, they absolutely nailed it with the styling.
I wonder whether it was the likely effect on Mazda’s CAFE that kept this out of the US, or whether it was one of those inscrutable Japanese marketing decisions that kept this Cosmo confined in Japan? So often we have seen something that we think would be a perfect fit for our country’s market, but – so sorry, not for export.
You make a very interesting point about how Mazda survived as an independent at a time when all around them companies were being bought up or going belly-up. I’ve often wondered just how they managed it, at a time when their new releases seemed to go from interesting to blah. I remember they started the “Zoom Zoom” marketing theme at a time when their cars seemed practically zoom-proof (RX7 excepted). Yet they hooked me with the first 3, when I would not have bought the previous 323 – even if it wasn’t altogether practical for the use to which I put it sometimes. There could be some interesting lessons in that period of Mazda’s history for management types.
Shame there was never a kit of that last Cosmo……
Wankelectomy- LOL!
I’ve always loved this generation of Cosmo, and the story around it is so very interesting too! It’s beautiful, the engine is wild, and rarity to ensures a mystique that sort of can’t be dimmed. I was first introduced to it on the used car market on the original Gran Turismo. The only one I ever saw in person here in Scotland drew a crowd of interested people to have a look.
I really wonder what would have happened if Mazda’s multi-brand strategy had been a success? The only real hint of it we got here were the Eunos 500 and Eunos 800 as the Xedos 6 and Xedos 9 respectively, a separate Xedos brand having been aborted at the last minute with the models then launched as part of Mazda’s lineup under the name. Other multi-brand models assimilated into the regular lineup (Eunos 100 as 323F, Eunos Roadster as MX-5, Efini MS-6 as 626, Autozam AZ-3/Eunos Presso as MX-3, Autozam Revue as 121, etc.). Recent Japanese articles covering Mazda at the time always express that the car that really saved them from being swallowed by Ford or another entity was the original 1996 Demio (coinciding with the end of deep cuts to their multi-brand lineup) – cheap to develop on the Autozam Revue platform, but offering something truly unique right into the heart of JDM compact market, it was a huge sales success finishing in the top 10 for its first full year in market.
A handsome, reserved good taste machine, Japan’s first such was also a Mazda, in 1968, beautiful because Italian designed, by Giorgio Giugiaro of Bertone, originally for Alfa. Its front end immediately reminded me of my first tintop Triumphs, 2500PI and S.U.-aspirated, overdrive 2500S, Giugiaro obviously having pinched it from his compatriot Giovanni Michelotti. Mazda’s good taste and bad respect for intellectual property popped up 2 decades later in their dynamic drophead, a flagrant, shameless rip-off, pop-up headlights and all, of Colin Chapman’s iconic Lotus Elan.