ɛ̃fini () was a luxury vehicle division of Japanese automaker

Mazda is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima (town), Fuchū, Hiroshima Prefecture, Hiroshima, Japan. The company was founded on January 30, 1920, as Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd. ...

that operated between 1991 and 1997 in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

only. Its inception as a brand emerged in the late 1980s when Mazda diversified its sales channels in the Japanese market with the launch of three new

marque A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

s. The company created Autozam, Eunos, and , in addition to the Mazda and Ford brands already marketed there. This selective marketing experiment ended in the mid-1990s due to economic conditions, largely attributed to the collapse of the

Japanese asset price bubble The was an economic bubble in Japan from 1986 to 1991 in which real estate and stock market prices were greatly inflated. In early 1992, this price bubble burst and the country's economy stagnated. The bubble was characterized by rapid acceler ...

in 1991. As a brand, encompassed most, if not all dealers formerly under the "Mazda Auto Store" dealership network established in 1959 when the Mazda R360 was introduced. Pronounced like the French word ''infini'', the name is written with a

tilde The tilde (, also ) is a grapheme or with a number of uses. The name of the character came into English from Spanish , which in turn came from the Latin , meaning 'title' or 'superscription'. Its primary use is as a diacritic (accent) in ...

over the lowercase Greek ''ε'' (as in ''ɛ̃''), and can therefore be assumed to be IPA, the pronunciation symbols taught in Japan, and sometimes used in product naming. The three sedans offered started with the letters "MS", which represented the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

phrase "Megáles Sképseis" (μεγάλες σκέψεις) which translated into English means "great thoughts" according to the Japanese Wikipedia translated article. The marque was a luxury-oriented brand, as opposed to the more mainstream, fun to drive Eunos brand, traditional Mazda, and entry level Autozam. The vehicles sold did not comply with Japanese government exterior and engine displacement

regulations Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. Fo ...

which classed all vehicles sold as as exclusive luxury products. The length of the MS-6 was the same as the MS-8 at . Both shared the V6 2.0 L, while the MS-6 offered the convenience of a hatchback bodystyle, and the MS-8 offered space efficiency of bench seats for both front and rear passengers and the open-air feeling of a hardtop sedan bodystyle. The name and logo are not to be confused with several limited-edition second generation (FC) RX-7s, the "Infini" edition (marked with an

infinity Infinity is something which is boundless, endless, or larger than any natural number. It is denoted by \infty, called the infinity symbol. From the time of the Ancient Greek mathematics, ancient Greeks, the Infinity (philosophy), philosophic ...

sign "∞"), from the late 1980s. From 1991 until 1997, when the dealership was integrated into Mazda locations,

Citroën Citroën ()The double-dot diacritic over the 'e' is a diaeresis () indicating the two vowels are sounded separately, and not as a diphthong. is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded on 4 June 19 ...

products were sold to Japanese buyers, as well as Mazda's Eunos locations. Currently, there are a few Japanese Mazda dealerships that still maintain the sales channels, but sell Mazda-branded products.Mazda Japan Efini Yokohamanishi
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Models

* MS-6 hatchback — 1991–1994 (based on Mazda Cronos sedan;

Mazda 626 __NOTOC__ Year 626 (Roman numerals, DCXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 626 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent ...

hatchback for export) * MS-8 sedan — 1992–1997 (only unique model to the brand) * MS-9 sedan — 1991–1993 (rebadged Mazda Sentia) * RX-7 coupe — 1991–1997 (rebadged

Mazda RX-7 The Mazda RX-7 is a front mid engine, Rear-wheel drive, rear-wheel-drive, rotary engine-powered sports car, manufactured and marketed by Mazda from 1978 through 2002 across three generations, all of which incorporated the use of a compact, light ...

) * MPV minivan — 1991–1997 (rebadged Mazda MPV) * Citroën XM * Citroën Xantia

References

External links

Mazda RX-7 History (via Internet Archive)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Efini Cars of Japan Mazda Luxury motor vehicle manufacturers Japanese luxury motor vehicle marques Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1991 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1997