Research your Mazda with our VIN decoder

Mazda is a Japanese car manufacturer. It was founded in 1920 in Hiroshima, where it originally produced corks. Around the time of the First World War, Mazda, which was then known as the Toyo Kogyo Company, produced trucks and rifles. These were supplied to the Japanese army during the war. However, it was not until 1960 that Mazda began producing passenger cars.

The roots of the company’s name can be traced back to 1931, when it produced the three-wheel truck Mazda-Go. Eventually, the company adopted ‘Mazda’ as its name. The company’s founder was Jujiro Matsud, a Japanaese businessman. The first car that Mazda produced was the two-door coupe Mazda R360 in 1960. Two years later, in 1962, the company produced the Mazda Carol, a four-door kei car. By 1967, Mazda decided to use the Wankel rotary engine in its cars. After a brief period of success, the move proved to be disadvantageous for Mazda due to the engine’s low fuel efficiency and the rising oil prices of the 1970s.

The oil crisis severely slowed down Mazda’s sales and caused the company extravagant losses. This was partly due to the American market opting for cars with superior fuel efficiency, which meant buying cars which did not feature rotary engines. Owing to its financial difficulties, Mazda embarked on a successful alliance with Ford. Ford would buy more than 20% of Mazda’s shares, with its stake peaking in 1996 at 33.4%. The alliance resulted in a number of joint projects; Mazda cars were sold under the Ford brand name in both Asia and America. However, following the 2008 financial crisis, Ford dramatically decreased its stake in Mazda, and, in 2015, sold all of its remaining shares.

The Ford alliance paved the way for Mazda to recover and establish itself as a major, global car manufacturer. Today, it competes in motorsports and produces a number of notable cars. The RX7 and RX8 are perhaps its most popular sports models, which were first manufactured in 1978 and 2002, respectively. In addition to the alliance with Ford, Mazda’s use of more fuel-efficient engines following 1980 are attributable to its success.