Why wasn't the "Eunos roadster" an "Efini roadster"?

General Discussion Forums MX-5 Chat
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I asked this at the bottom of another thread, But I think this question deserves its own space…

Why are the Japanese MX5’s badged as “Eunos” roadsters?

Eunos was Mazda’s luxury marque, The same way as Toyota created the Lexus brand for it’s luxury cars. Efini on the other hand was Mazda’s branding for it’s sports car’s.

So why wasn’t it an Efini roadster?

Mazda created the Eunos and Efini brands at the same time so it can’t be that the Efini name was being phased out or ended before the MX5 came along.

Anyone know why Japanese MX5’s ended up falling into the “Eunos” brand?

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 As I understand it, there was supposed to be a Enfini MS-5. The seperate marques seemed to operate as competing brands. Eunos wasn’t really meant to be Mazda’s luxury arm; that was going to be Amati, which would have sold Xedos9s etc. Eunos was a bit of a dumping ground for vehicles; most of which weren’t luxury. Eunos was also the outlet that sold Citroens (mostly AX and BX). Amati never got off the ground, thanks to the Japanese stock crash. The story is that for the MS-5 to have been produced, there would also have to be a Eunos RX7 (whatever). There was the Eunos Cosmo, but thats not really a RX7. Enfini sales people didn’t want Eunos RX7s about (perhaps worried about not actually selling a lot of them). So I suppose, blame it on intra-brand rivalries.

 

Not sure if its a mad coincidence, but Amati is an anagram of Miata. Perhaps that says more about how they made up brand names.

 

All about the fall of Amati:

http://www.businessweek.com/archives/1992/b329231.arc.htm

 

That article suggests that actually Eunos was built around the Roadster.

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Efini RX-7, yep that ticks the right boxes.

Efini MPV. Eh? MPV? ■■■?

I get the impression that the Mazda Marketing Department serves no useful purpose other than as a job creation scheme.

 

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Thats all marketing departments.

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BL springes to mind after reading the above, different brands all competing with each other but made by the same company

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You live and learn.

Thanks for the replies.

 

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My Eunos was imported into the UK back in 2000. Mine arrived with a Efini badge on it. The only one I have ever seen. I often wonder who and why they put it on.

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Necrothread.

 

Fitting Efini badges off a RX7 onto a Roadster is not uncommon. At least 2 other forum members have done this.

 

Lore states that originally it was to be the Efini (or Enfini) MS-5 and Eunos Roadster, but that fell apart when they didn’t want to badge a RX7 as a Eunos, and sit in the same showroom as a Citroen AX.

 

 

Mazda’s posh brand was supposed to be Amati (Mazda Xedos9), but it was canned