Mazda is amongst the top 5 most popular car names in Australia. To be more precise, it is number four behind Toyota, Holden and Ford (in that order). Despite this few people know anything about the Mazda car company and its’ history.
Mazda History
Mazda was born in Hiroshima, Japan. Most readers will remember that name as the site where one of the two atomic bombs that ended the Second World War were dropped. Actually that bomb destroyed half the Mazda factory.
Mazda had been founded in 1920 as a cork production outfit. Jujiro Matsuda and his partners took over the company and moved it into the manufacturing of machine tools. In 1929 they made their first car in the form of tricycle trucks. They became popular and were even exported to China. They were called Mazda-Go-a. This is what led Mr Matsuda into changing the name of the company into Mazda in 1934.
In 1940 Mazda began developing a small sedan but the factory was destroyed by an atomic bomb in 1945. After rebuilding the first two door passenger car rolled out of the new factory in 1960. It was called the R360 coupe.
Engineers at Mazda made great strides in design and innovation and by the late 60s Mazda was exporting their Cosmos 110S to the very quality-conscious European market. In 1970 Mazda entered the American market for the very first time.
The big selling point was the company’s Wankel rotary engine which easily outperformed piston-based engines of the time. Mazda still sold their piston-engine version but took advantage by offering the rotary option in everything they sold.
This quick success probably went to their heads because as the 70s were drawing to a close Mazda was struggling for survival. Ford bailed them out by purchasing a 25 per cent stake. Quality quickly recovered but a recovery sales was not forthcoming until the well into the 1980s.
Today Mazda is an established name renowned for its stylish, practical cars whose strong point still remains the engine. Mazda’s legendary zoom-zoom remains one of the most successful marketing campaigns in history.
