2k: Rarely Seen: 1992 Mazda 929
The 5th generation Mazda 929 was built from 1992 to 1995 as a big rear-drive competitor to the Lexus LS, BMW 5-series, Audi A6/5000, and Infiniti Q45. It was halfheartedly replaced by the front-drive Millennia, but Mazda was unwilling to spin off a luxury brand like Infinity, Acura, or Lexus and realigned its focus to bread/butter family sedans. This is a shame because the 929 was a pretty darn good take on the Q-ship without using a pretentious badge or making you open your wallet too wide. Today, even super clean examples cost less than a round trip greyhound ticket to the nearest casino. Find this 1992 Mazda 929 offered for $2,200 in the borough of Lodi, NJ.
With a $28k MSRP in 1992, the 929 and its economy car emblem plus V6 was not trying to take on BMW’s 540 or even the Lexus LS400, but it was nipping at the heels of BMW’s 525, Audi 5000, and various ‘Merican full sized land barges like the Lincoln Town Car or Cadillac De Ville. Remember, the 929 was a full-sized sedan and catered to the big and easy crowd.
Under the hood of the 929 resides a 3.0 liter V6 that makes 195 horsepower and 205 ft-lbs of torque. The V6 is mated to a 4-speed automatic transmission as the only transmission option. Tipping the scales at 3600 lbs the 929 wasn’t about Zoom-Zoom as much as it was an appliance driver with pretensions of luxury.
The interior of this 929 doesn’t look bad at all for a $2000 car, same for the outside. With only 80k miles on the odometer, the oily bits should be in good shape too, so this is a great oddball daily driver for someone who doesn’t want a Camry or Oldsmobile Aurora.
Tip of the hat to Louros on oppositelock.jalopnik.com for posting the link. See a better cheap full sized driver in great shape? tips@dailyturismo.com
Hopefully this is the model with the oscillating HVAC vents. Probably one of the greatest automotive features of the entire decade!
The first time I saw the "swing" button on the Mazda dash I was afraid pressing it would reveal an ugly middle aged naked couple looking for a good time. Eventually I did press it.
How is this not comment of the week?
I owned one of these a few years ago. Comfortable cruiser but routine maintenance was costly.
I am really into Mazda's design language of the early 90's in this one is one of it's best examples. Great but under appreciated cars. This ones pretty clean too, what more could you ask for for 2 grand?
I cant recall how much the rear end suspension and diff might be similar to anything from the FC or FD rx7 but this is a cool rwd cruiser. Being so cheap you could have a lot of fun tweaking it into all sorts of motor swapped creations. I haven't seen one of these in ages and this one sure is pretty clean.
Remove 3 pieces of trim and no one would be able to identify this car.
Perfect for robbing banks?
"be on the lookout for a nondescript gray sedan made between sometime after 1990 that might be a Ford Taurus or a Chevrolet Lumina or maybe a Infiniti J30 or perhaps a Buick Century "
Oh man, I never comment but I so used to like these back in the day. There's no way I am flying to Lodi NJ (wherever that is at) but if the car was any where closer to me i would be riding out with $2200, in a heartbeat.