Back in the late-1980s, Mazda was making a bid for becoming the third largest manufacturer in Japan and to do this planned to launch a luxury brand.
Luxury brands were the vogue during this time started by Honda launching Acura in the US in 1986, then Nissan began Infiniti and Toyota joined with Lexus in 1989.
Mazda already had sub-brands such as Autozam, Euros and the Japan-only ɛ̃fini, but Amati was to rival the luxury brands of its local rivals.
While Autozam specialised in Kei Cars and Euros was an upscale option, with ɛ̃fini being the luxury brand to be matched by Amati worldwide.
Just like in Australia, the US were consuming more vehicles from Japan and Europe, but importation was limited. This led to Japanese brands using the limited import quota to bring in high-end models and built factories to assemble basic economy options.
There was also a shift within the marketplace towards luxurious models opening the door for Acura, Infiniti and Lexus to be created.
Mazda was undertaking an aggressive expansion during the 1980s it began to gain recognition in the US upon the launch of Miata or MX-5 here in Australia.
In 1989, the wheels were set in motion for the Amati brand when executive Dick Colliver was put in charge and it acknowledged to the Japanese media it was investigating the development of a luxury model.
Amati was formally revealed in August 1991 for a planned release of Spring 1994, but this didn’t occur.
Amati means ‘to love’ in Latin and Mazda was understood to be launching two models as the first range named the 300, which was an American adaptation of the Eunos 500, while the next was the 500.
The 500 was destined to be an incredibly luxurious model being offered with a miller cycle engine and Yaw controlled four-wheel steer.
However, the flagship was due to be the V12-powered 1000, but this was never revealed to the public as the Japanese economy collapsed in 1992.
As this occurred, the American economy also floundered and this led to Mazda overextending itself resulting in quality problems emerging in not only US plants, but its Japanese facilities too.
By this stage in 1992 Mazda had invested 50 billion yen into the company and the decision was to cancel Amati after the brand didn’t have the estimated $50 billion USD needed to launch the 1000.
Mazda at the same time announced a major reduction of its motorsport program consisting of the 787B and Group A rallying.
So far down the line was the Amati project was a $60 million budget had been devised for its American advertising campaign, while marketing materials and brochures were already produced.
Amati models were already being produced and fitted into the Eunos sub-brand, which itself was closed by the end of the 1990s.
It is believed Mazda is ashamed of the Amati failure and have not acknowledged it since and it’s been debated whether the brand would have been a success.