Junkyard Find: 1991 Mazda 929 S
When we talk about Japanese luxury cars of the early 1990s, we usually mention the Lexus LS400, the Infiniti Q45, and maybe— if we’re allowing smaller front-wheel-drive machines to fit our definition of genuine luxury— the Acura Legend. Once in a while, maybe some edge-case type might thrown in a reference to the Mitsubishi Diamante, but one car that almost never comes up in the discussion is the Mazda 929. Why not? It’s a big, comfy, rear-wheel-drive sedan with healthy V6 power. The late-80s/early-90s 929 is just about extinct these days, but I managed to spot one in a California self-service yard a few weeks back.
I owned a somewhat beater-ish ’90 929 for a brief period (before trading it for a Volvo 240 wagon and a computer monitor), and it was a pretty good car— not as sophisticated or powerful as the Lexus LS, but it had a lot of power and the fact that everything still worked on a car that hadn’t been coddled showed a certain level of build quality.
This one didn’t even make it to 150,000 miles on the clock in 21 years.
James Garner pitched the 929 as an El Cheapo alternative to expensive German sedans, with predictable results.
The problem with the 929 was mostly image; we don’t associate Mazda with conspicuous-consumption machines, and the styling on this car was vanilla approaching invisibility.
Perhaps Mazda should have called it the Big Personal Luce, as was the case in Japan. Big Personal!
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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I ran across a 1991 929 S at the local Mazda dealership and purchased it on the spot. It is white with saddle leather interior, documented 53 K miles with one owner always serviced at this dealer. The car looks like time had stopped for it, like new condition. I love the automatic seat belts and the oscillating center vents. I get more pleasure driving it then driving my S500. It is simple in design, light weight and a great engine with DOHC. Would love to convert it to a 5 speed manual.
I own a black 91 929s. It has 84k miles and with the exception of the instrument cluster bezel cracked its in excellent condition. I'm looking for a replacement if anyone might know where I might look. Thank you for the help.