Alternate Reality Advertisements: 1993 Amati 500

"DaftRyosuke - So Long and Thanks for All the Fish!" (daft-ryosuke) 09/14/2015 at 18:40 • Filed to: mazda, amati, failed brands, alternate-reality advertisements, millenia

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I’m kinda only testing the waters with this, but I had an idea of doing some era-style advertisements for cars or car companies that either got cancelled, scrapped, or redone as something else (whether it be for better or worse). If this gets a lot of buzz and positive feedback, I may do more. If it gets ignored or I get a bunch of people calling me a f**kface, I’ll probably do more anyway. So, let’s see what happens.

I’m pretty sure most of you know the story of Amati, Mazda’s proposed luxury brand. For those of you who don’t, let me sum it up the best way I can: In the late 1980s, Mazda had an a plan to dissect the company into various different brands. These brands were to be known as Eunos (upscale, fun-to-drive cars), Efini (luxury marque outside the US), Autozam (kei cars), and Amati (luxury marque for the US). While Eunos, Efini, and Autozam did see the light of day in Japan and other places, Amati was halted somewhere within the early 1990s, and citing recession as the reason, the brand was officially cancelled as a whole (on an unrelated note, those three brands also lived short lives, as the Mazda diversification plan was killed somewhere around the middle of the decade).

Now, why are we so damn interested in a failed brand? Well, besides the fact that we’re just plain weird, a few of the cars that were originally planned to be sold as Amatis did eventually find their way to production. In the states, we only ever got one of those in the long run: the Mazda Millenia (pictured above), which was going to be called the Amati 500 if things had went to plan. It was obvious from the get-go that the Millenia was somewhat different, featuring all sorts of nice luxury features which heavily separated it from the lineup of RX-7s, Miatas, and 626s of the day.

So, fast-forward to today. On my drive home from classes, I started thinking about Amati and how it would have been neat if the brand had actually been a thing. Then I started thinking about how I’d been making some fake advertisements recently as a way to practice my above-average photoshopping skills...and then this happened:

Yeah, I kind of envisioned Amati as luxury that was cheap to buy, and it showed it some places, but it was still one of the better built luxury cars from the Japanese. The starting price that it’s talking about is floating around in my head as around 25-27 grand for a base model 500. I couldn’t decide, so I left it out.

What do you guys think? Do you wish Amati would have seen the light of day, or is it better off dead?

LongbowMkII > DaftRyosuke - So Long and Thanks for All the Fish! 09/14/2015 at 18:48

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it’s better off dead, fuckface.

that feels good.

seriously though, Amanti would have been short lived anyways, there are just too many luxury players now. Honestly, the only hope would have been a Mazda 6 based crossover in 2002.

El Rivinado > DaftRyosuke - So Long and Thanks for All the Fish! 09/14/2015 at 18:50

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I think the proposal from Amati would’ve been interesting, but looking at 500, I think it would’ve suffered the same problem Infiniti suffered with the Q45 and the initial lineup. The car wouldn’t have been what people had in mind in terms of what a luxury car should’ve been, and a confusion over what the brand’s goal was. I think that it might’ve been viewed as an over-ambitious failure, or had it lived, it might be in the same place Infiniti is now.

Hindsight is always just that however, and while Amati would've been intriguing to observe from the outside as to what it would do, I think Mazda made the right call.

dogisbadob > DaftRyosuke - So Long and Thanks for All the Fish! 09/14/2015 at 18:52

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I actually do wish Amati made it. A fun, sporty luxury car that’s Japanese for better reliability.

It was tough to compete with the ES300 and I30 of the time, though. The ES300 was the best car ever made, and the I30 was *the* four door sports car with some extra luxury and prestige added in, Amati had no chance.

That said, if Amati had lasted from then until now, I strongly suspect that today’s Amati lineup would be better than today’s Infiniti lineup.

Amati would probably have the highest manual transmission take rate of any luxury car brand.

lonestranger > DaftRyosuke - So Long and Thanks for All the Fish! 09/14/2015 at 18:53

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I think Amati might’ve stood a better chance if it wasn’t an anagram of Miata.

DaftRyosuke - So Long and Thanks for All the Fish! > dogisbadob 09/14/2015 at 18:56

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I can see what you mean, taking Mazda’s current lineup into consideration. Amati would have given them a chance to do more oddball things which possibly would have turned out fantastic. If only...

DaftRyosuke - So Long and Thanks for All the Fish! > LongbowMkII 09/14/2015 at 18:57

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Darn.

And I honestly somewhat agree with you. The most likely scenario would have had them end up like Lexus...crossovers everywhere. If they would have survived out of the 1990s, that is.

DaftRyosuke - So Long and Thanks for All the Fish! > lonestranger 09/14/2015 at 18:57

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Now, why did I not notice that until now?

Textured Soy Protein > dogisbadob 09/14/2015 at 19:23

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The Japanese entry-lux heavyweights when the Millenia came out for ’94 were the Acura Legend and Lexus ES300. Infiniti had just replaced the slow-selling M30 coupe with the slightly-less-slow-selling J30 sedan. The I30 wouldn’t be out for another couple of years.

dogisbadob > Textured Soy Protein 09/14/2015 at 19:45

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I keep thinking the Millenia came out later than it did for some reason!

deprecated account > DaftRyosuke - So Long and Thanks for All the Fish! 09/14/2015 at 20:23

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What the hell does Miller cycle mean?

deprecated account > DaftRyosuke - So Long and Thanks for All the Fish! 09/14/2015 at 20:23

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And how can a car that was never made be highly regarded?

DaftRyosuke - So Long and Thanks for All the Fish! > deprecated account 09/14/2015 at 22:03

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Back in the 90s, everything was highly regarded.

This is a creation from another universe where the car was made, and I’d like to think that it would have been met with pretty decent reviews. I also looked up some reviews of the Millenia that said it wasn’t half bad of a car, so I based it off of that.

DaftRyosuke - So Long and Thanks for All the Fish! > deprecated account 09/14/2015 at 22:05

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It’s a type of thermodynamic cycle for combustion engines which Mazda used for a few of their engines in the 90s. I can’t exactly go into detail, but here’s some info on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miller_cy…

deprecated account > DaftRyosuke - So Long and Thanks for All the Fish! 09/14/2015 at 22:21

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thanks