Everything you need to know about Mazda
While Japanese brands like Toyota and Nissan are regarded as fairly conventional mainstream manufacturers targeting European equivalents like Ford and Volkswagen, Mazda has always been a little bit different.
While Japanese brands such as Toyota and Nissan are regarded as fairly conventional mainstream manufacturers targeting European equivalents such as Ford and Volkswagen, Mazda has always been a little bit different.
This is a brand that has always been smaller than its domestic rivals and charted its own course, along the way producing some distinctive models – some that have sunk almost without trace, some that have become cult classics and one that has come to define an entire segment of the car market.
Despite building almost nothing but three-wheeled, motorcycle-based delivery trucks for three decades, Mazda evolved into an innovative car company that has been unafraid to challenge industry conventions, especially in terms of engine technology and ideas for how electric vehicles should work.
Many people today are familiar with Mazda primarily for its record-breaking small sports car, the MX-5, or perhaps its range of generally competent SUVs. However, this is a company with an interesting and complex history. Despite partnerships with larger automotive giants over the years, the company remains fiercely independent and has no plans to change its approach in the face of daunting changes confronting the car industry.
So who or what is Mazda?
Several well-known car manufacturers started out making something entirely different and Mazda is certainly one of those. It was founded in 1920 in Hiroshima, Japan, as a manufacturer of cork. This did not prove particularly profitable, however, the company saved from bankruptcy by diversifying into machine tools and, from 1931, vehicles.
The first of these were motorcycles and three-wheeled trucks, effectively powered rickshaws. The first ‘Mazda-Go’ had a 200kg load capacity and was originally marketed by Mitsubishi despite wearing a Mazda badge.
Where the Mazda name comes from is unclear; the company has stated that it was inspired both by company founder Jujiro Matsuda and from the god of the earliest civilisation in western Asia, who was called Ahura Mazda – the company’s current logo supposedly indicates the beginning of the East and the West civilization, while also being a symbol of automotive civilization and culture. And you thought it was just a stylised ‘M’…
As with most car companies around the world in the 1930s and 1940s, Mazda was involved with making armaments for the second world war – in this case, weapons for the Japanese military. Work on its first passenger car continued during this time, with a prototype for a small car. However, it wouldn’t be until 1960 that Mazda’s first car reached production.
Immediately after the war, Mazda exploited its wartime know-how to produce a jeep-like two-seat utility truck. Three-wheelers continued to be the company’s core focus, however, with 200,000 built by 1957.
The company’s first car was the R360 coupé, a two-door four-seater powered by a tiny engine and priced to allow working people to buy their first car, in a very similar spirit to the Citroën 2CV, the Volkswagen Beetle, the Fiat 500 and the Mini.
Mazda’s model range expanded through the 1960s, including a pick-up truck, a micro-car, larger saloon and estate models, a people carrier and even a bus. But production was still dominated by its small trucks, even as the company started exporting to Europe in 1967.
The first real sign of Mazda’s unconventional thinking also came in 1967 with its first sports car. The Cosmo Sport was a two-seat convertible – much the same size as a modern MX-5, in fact – but it was powered by a completely different kind of petrol engine, called a rotary engine.
For several years, Mazda had been working with German manufacturer NSU (later acquired by Audi) to develop the Wankel rotary engine. This type of engine has far fewer moving parts than a conventional petrol engine, and offers high power and smooth running from a very compact unit. However, there are also challenges to the technology – particularly poor fuel economy and very high oil consumption, which has caused no end of problems for owners over the years.
Mazda marketed several rotary-powered models during the late 1960s and 1970s, these proving popular until the 1973 oil crisis pointed buyers in search of cars with better fuel efficiency. The company persevered, however, and launched two sports cars that have become cult classics over the years – the RX-7, made across three generations between 1978 and 2002, and the RX-8, which had a much shorter run of a single model between 2003 and 2012.
Other makers investigated and then abandoned rotaries, but Mazda has continued to work on the technology to this day and has built more than two million rotary engines over the years. The range-extender version of today’s MX-30 electric vehicle even uses a small rotary petrol engine to generate electricity for the electric motor.
In recent years, Mazda has also focused on squeezing ever more efficiency from conventional petrol and diesel engines through its SkyActiv programme, using different technologies to improve power and fuel economy while reducing emissions. Most of Mazda’s current models use SkyActiv engines, although the company has lagged behind the rest of the car industry when it comes to hybrids and electric cars.
As with most long-lived car brands, Mazda has endured periods of financial trouble. In 1979, it sold 25% of the company to Ford in an arrangement that led to several joint model projects. By the 1990s, Ford had upped its stake to 33% and began an extensive restructure of Mazda’s business to ensure its continued viability.
Ford’s management streamlined the company, bringing Mazda back into profit and helping Ford’s own balance sheet through cost savings from the joint venture projects. But when America’s financial crash of 2008 hit, Ford began selling off its stake in Mazda and completed its exit by 2015. Mazda then signed a new technical arrangement with Toyota, albeit with far less management integration.
Through its financial ups and downs, Mazda launched a car that would become the brand’s most famous product – the MX-5. A small two-seat roadster directly inspired by British sports cars of the 1960s, such as the MGB and Lotus Elan, it was initially greeted with some bemusement by rival manufacturers when it was revealed in 1989. Today, with the end of the fourth-generation model in sight and a fifth generation in development, Mazda has sold more than 1.2 million MX-5s around the world. It is, by a huge margin, the best-selling two-seat roadster in the world.
Mazda continues to plot its own path – despite the challenges of very few electric offerings in its line-up, the company sold around 30,000 cars on the UK market in 2025, a healthy 10% up on the year before.
What models does Mazda have and what else is coming?
Without doubt, Mazda’s most famous car is the MX-5 roadster. Now in its fourth generation, it’s available with a traditional soft top or a targa metal roof. The current MX-5 has been widely praised by motoring journalists around the world for being a joy to drive, although it’s obviously not a very practical vehicle with only two seats and a tiny boot.
Sales have dwindled in recent times and in August 2026 Mazda announced the car would in future be only available with a 1.5-litre engine, dropping the larger 2.0-litre unit to help meet stricter emissions regulations.
Unsurprisingly, however, the bulk of the Mazda range is made up of various SUVs. The mid-sized CX-5 was the company’s first crack at the SUV sector, and became globally the brand’s best seller. A third-generation model launched in April 2026 and it’s considered a good all-round vehicle, with The Car Expert’s industry-leading Expert Rating Index giving it a New Car Expert Rating of B. The latest CX-5 has earned praise for its strong safety score and six-year warranty but reviewers consider the petrol engine underpowered and don’t like the switch from physical controls to a touchscreen.
The smaller CX-30 was launched in 2019 and is based on the Mazda 3 hatchback. It also earns a New Car Expert Rating of B, with the main criticisms being a small boot and less practicality than some other small crossovers.
The CX-60 sits above the CX-5, a larger mid-sized SUV that also debuted the brand’s first petrol/electric plug-in hybrid engine and was aimed at a more upmarket audience. Updated in early 2026 with particularly a range of extra safety technologies, it too has a New Car Expert Rating of B, though reviewers don’t rate it in the same class as the Audis and BMWs it was supposedly built to compete with.
Even bigger is the CX-80 launched in 2024 as Mazda’s large SUV flagship model and essentially a larger version of the CX-60. The CX-80 offers seven seats and, like its CX-60 sibling, can be bought with a plug-in hybrid engine or even a diesel engine. Despite reviewers criticising its plug-in hybrid engine and saying the car offers nothing revolutionary, as of August 2026 it earns a New Car Expert Rating of A.
Mazda has not entirely abandoned traditional cars, although they make up a diminishing share of its sales. The Mazda 3, a mid-sized family hatch, remains on sale today in both hatch and saloon form, though you can no longer buy it with a diesel engine. The latest generation model, introduced in 2019, earns a New Car Expert Rating of C, with reviewers praising its safety and low emissions but marking it down for running costs and average reliability.
The long-lived Mazda 2 small hatchback was discontinued in 2025, replaced the similarly named but entirely different Mazda 2 Hybrid, which is simply a Toyota Yaris with a Mazda badge. It’s reason for existing is to help Mazda hit EV emissions regulations. It enjoys a New Car Expert Rating of A, although there’s no compelling reason to choose it over a Yaris since the Toyota is cheaper and comes with a better warranty.
Current Mazda range on our Expert Rating Index
Despite lagging badly in the move from fossil fuels to EVs, Mazda is finally coming to the party.
Its first EV, the MX-30, was launched in 2020 and praised for its driving dynamics but criticised for its very poor battery range. Unsurprisingly, few journalists or customers have accepted Mazda’s argument that most car buyers don’t actually need a driving range of more than 100 miles… As a result, the original MX-30 has since been joined by a version with a small rotary petrol engine to act as a generator for the electric motor, called the MX-30 R-EV. The range issues are the only significant minus marks against either car and both have earned a New Car Expert Rating of A.
The brand’s first mainstream EV, the all-new 6e arrived in showrooms in early 2026 as a direct replacement for the Mazda 6 saloon that was discontinued a few years ago. The car is part of a joint programme with new to the UK Chinese brand Changan – excellent safety ratings and a long warranty have offset complaints over the 6e’s touchscreen controls to earn an initial New Car Expert Rating of A.
Newest model in the Mazda line-up, on its way to showrooms as of August 2026, is the CX-6e. This is effectively the mid-sized SUV version of the 6e, again built in collaboration with Changan and structurally identical to the Chinese brand’s Deepal 07. The Mazda is expected to take on the likes of the Audi Q6 e-tron, Ford Explorer and Tesla Model Y.
Being Mazda, the future is not all electric – known to be in the works is a new CX-3, the brand having lacked a contender in the hotly-contested small family SUV segment since dropping the original CX-3 in 2021. It will be available with combustion engines which are expected to be hybrids, but an on-sale date is yet to be revealed.
A new Mazda 2 is also widely predicted, a concept called the Vision-X Compact shown in Japan in 2025 and likely to reach production with petrol and/or hybrid power.
As for the MX-5 – Mazda is known to be determined to continue its automotive big hit into a fifth generation, but the exact form of the new model is yet to be revealed. Rumours range from a larger 2.5-litre Skyactiv petrol engine which will still meet the latest emissions regulations to an electric MX-5 – which would be a brave step amongst the car’s fans…
Just as radical are suggestions that the Mazda RX-7, the rotary-engined sports car last seen in 2002, could be making a comeback. A concept called the Iconic SP was unveiled at the 2023 Tokyo Motor Show and many industry observers predict it could make production as a new RX-7. Whether it would still have a rotary engine however remains to be seen – perhaps it might adopt the range-extender powertrain with its rotary petrol engine currently employed in the MX-30 R-EV.
Where can I try a Mazda car?
Mazda has around 120 dealers across the UK, generally well spread through England and Scotland. Wales, however, only has outlets on Anglesey in the north and around Cardiff. The Mazda website includes a finder to locate the nearest to you.
What makes Mazda different to the rest?
Mazda has long been seen as a bit different and somewhat eccentric – even compared to some of the wackiest parts of the Japanese car industry, but more recently it has gained a reputation for its maverick approach to electrification.
While much of the industry has been rushing to electrify, Mazda has argued that there is still more to be gained from the ongoing development of the internal combustion engine. It is pursuing this through its SkyActiv programme, and has also eschewed the move to smaller engines taken by other makers. However, it’s also fair to say that Mazda’s current line-up of cars doesn’t show any real advantages in terms of power, economy or emissions compared to rivals.
It’s also a proponent of sustainable fuels and has invested heavily in the development of these alternatives. There is an argument that if such fuels could be effectively produced at a low enough cost they could offer a major advantage in not requiring any infrastructure changes, such as charging networks, but there currently appears to be little evidence that sustainable fuels are ever going to be a viable solution for hundreds of millions of cars around the world.
Initially quite strident in these views, Mazda’s tone has softened in recent times and the company has belatedly started to play catch-up with electric vehicles.
Mazda is not entirely abandoning its stance on internal combustion, though, having recently committed to new engine development in partnership with Subaru and Toyota.
A Mazda fact to impress your friends
In the 1990s, a group of Mazda engineers once produced the very first car in a suitcase. Effectively a go-kart, it was created after they bought the largest Samsonite suitcase they could find and a quarter-sized motorcycle. They managed to house all the parts within the suitcase and when assembled, a task of minutes, the ‘car’ had a two-stroke engine, handlebars and a top speed of 19mph.
Sadly, the original prototype was destroyed by accident just a few months after its creation, but one ‘suitcase car’ is believed to still exist.
Summary
Mazda is developing electric vehicles for the future, but also refusing to abandon its own technology with new petrol and even diesel engines, encased within cars that earn generally positive comments for their comfort and quality.
The Mazda of today has come a long way from its first motorcycles of the 1930s, and it’s fair to assume that the future history of this particular brand will be no less complex. Independently owned car companies like Mazda are facing enormous challenges as the automotive world moves away from fossil fuels and embraces electrification, so it’s likely to be a rollercoaster ride.
This feature was originally published in July 2025 and updated in September 2026.
Buy a Mazda
If you’re looking to buy a new or used Mazda, The Car Expert’s partners can help you find the right car.
Lease a Mazda
If you’re looking to lease a new Mazda, The Car Expert’s partners can help you find a competitive deal.
Personal contract hire deals from Carparison Leasing. Find out more
Personal contract hire deals from Select Car Leasing. Find out more
Related posts
Latest Post
No Comments