Motor Corporation became known in Japan as a small independent automaker. Throughout its history, the company has been through several ups and downs—so much so that it was almost bought out in the ‘60s.

Still, by the 1990s, Mazda had established itself as a scrappy, tenacious force to be reckoned with among Japan’s other power players, such as Toyota, Infiniti, Acura, Honda, and Nissan.

Despite inter-company economic struggles, the auto industry in Japan was taking off in the mid-1980s. Japan’s economic boom from 1986 to 1991 had launched the Japanese luxury segment full-throttle into the international market with the birth of brands like Lexus, and Mazda wanted a piece of the pie.

According to a story reported by

Autoevolution

, the Japanese market share rose so much so that the U.S. even sought to intervene and slow down the import of Japanese cars. So what happened to Mazda’s ill-fated luxury brand, Amati?

The Lost Decade

MORE: Mazda Builds First Car in the U.S. After a Decade Long Hiatus

Just a few years following an economic upturn, Japan’s economy took a surprising turn for the worse in 1991, for ten whole years, in what later would become known as “The Lost Decade.”

Mazda was buzzing from the surprise success of the

Miata

, a hugely profitable release for the brand that exceeded expectations across the board in terms of quality, design, and popularity.

Even so, the momentum from one lucrative model wasn’t enough to make the Amati happen. The creation of luxury sub-brand Amati was still a huge risk and big financial undertaking for the Japanese automaker—one that could make or break the future of the company.

The underdog brand had hopes of being among the ranks of Toyota and Honda to become Japan’s third-largest automaker but faced serious pitfalls in terms of funding and scale.

Much like the Miata, the Amati was a beautifully designed car—a sleek luxury sedan with a V12 engine built to compete with the likes of the

Mercedes

S-Class and

Toyota’s

Lexus

LS400—but its failure to launch proved that the makings of a successful car require much more than good design.

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The rise and fall of the Amati

MORE: The Mazda 626 a Piece of Early 2000s Nostalgia

At the time, the Amati was widely anticipated, with almost 70 dealers in America signing up to sell it. Sales were expected to start in 1994, but of course, the cars never made it to the dealership lots before the model folded.

The Amati was designed to boast a V12 engine sourced from Mazda’s existing V6 program and had substantial power despite somewhat weak torque. The proposed Amati 300 and Amati 500 were executive cars on par with models such as the Infiniti G20 and the Lexus LS400. Mazda had fully completed the development of both models before the project folded.

According to an article in

Jalopnik

, Japan’s Nihon Keizai Shimbun financial paper estimated that by the time the brand was shelved, Mazda had spent no less than 50 billion Yen, about $400 million in 1992 dollars, trying to make Amati happen.

In 1995, the Ford Motor Company even bought an additional 12% of the company to jumpstart things increasing shares to 33.4%, but it wasn’t enough to revive Amati. Despite how hard Mazda tried to mitigate risk, keeping the brand afloat was an ask too great for the struggling company in economic circumstances out of their control.

To this day, evidence of the Amati only exists from outside sources, as artifacts from the failed brand aren’t even present at the company’s corporate museum.

Mazda entering the luxury market once more

In 2022, buyers are seeing Mazda’s first true reentry into the luxury market with the new CX-60 through CX-90 SUVs.

The new models boast a new RWD chassis with inline-six engines and PHEV powertrains, putting them on par with models from the heavy-hitting trio of luxury German automakers Mercedes, BMW, and Audi, as was the original goal with the launch of the Amati.

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