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When future generations look back on the year 2020, something tells us the 100th anniversary of Japanese automaker Mazda won’t be on many historians’ radars. And to Mazda’s likely disappointment, you can’t postpone anniversaries. That’s just not how time works. So, to celebrate its centennial, Mazda is keeping things relatively low-key. No all-new, flashy halo car, no radically futuristic concepts, just some nice, white coats of paint and red upholstery for its existing lineup.
Yep, to celebrate an entire century of building cars, Mazda is introducing 100th Anniversary Special Editions of pretty much every car it currently makes. From the MX-5 roadster to the compact Mazda3 and the big CX-9 crossover, these special specs will feature Snowflake White Pearl Mica paint with red accents, red leather seats with a “100th Anniversary” logo embossed in the headrests, red carpeting, and badges that read “100 Years 1920 – 2020” on the front fenders as well as special red-and-black wheel caps.
The white-on-red theme wasn’t just chosen because it looks kinda cool. It’s actually an homage to Mazda’s first passenger car ever, the 1960 R360, a two-door, four-seat kei car which, in its top trims, came in white and had colored roofs with a matching interior—bold, whimsical stuff from a company that, at that point, had never built a car before.
Now, for some somewhat disappointing fine print. Even though the news of the 10th Anniversary Special Editions’ existence was shared by Mazda’s U.S. PR team, whether or not the cars will actually be available here remains up in the air with the company citing the current “global crisis.” Meanwhile, the white-and-red Mazdas are already on sale in Japan and will apparently be reaching Europe in the fall even though we doubt many folks in either of those regions are clamoring to buy a new Mazda right now, no matter what classic kei car it’s inspired by.
Hopefully, Mazda’s 110th birthday bash will happen under better circumstances.
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