01
Origins
Autozam was Mazda's small-car channel in its five-marque bubble-era experiment, and the Revue of 1990 was its supermini centrepiece: a deliberately soft, rounded three-box mini sold as urban fashion — cute before the industry named the strategy — with 1.3 and 1.5-litre fours and equipment aimed at young women buyers Japanese marketing then courted explicitly. Exported as the Mazda 121, its bathtub silhouette earned affection and mockery in equal measure. The multi-channel strategy collapsed with Japan's asset bubble, dooming Autozam's identity; the Revue soldiered to 1997 as its most visible car. It survives as a period piece of Heisei optimism — when Mazda believed it could be five companies, and one of them mainly sold roundness.
Mazda 121 rear · Rudolf Stricker · CC BY-SA 3.0
