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New Mazda Eunos Cosmo: our most wanted cars 2026

If it wants to be taken seriously as a premium car brand, Mazda could do a lot worse than looking to the ingeniously elegant Eunos Cosmo for inspiration

Even for this list, a large, luxurious Mazda four-seat coupé is on the edge of reason. But I reckon this could be the car that finally cements Mazda as a true premium brand. 

First of all, it’s not a stretch to consider Japanese products or designs to be ‘luxury’ in this day and age. As a culture, the Japanese have a level of sophistication and attention to detail across almost every aspect of their lives, so to see this in a modern luxury GT coupé could create a whole new era of luxury cars. 

Mazda tried this before. In the early nineties it produced a car that inspired my choice: the Eunos Cosmo coupé. This four-seater didn’t just look sleek, but also doubled down on Mazda’s extraordinary ability to think outside the box to create some truly wild engineering. The triple rotary engine was one example of this – there has never been another passenger car with this engine layout – and it was the first ever production car fitted with satellite navigation. This was just as much an icon of mechanical technology as it was digital. 

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So what about a new generation? Using the latest Coupe X Concept from the 2025 Japan Mobility Show as a baseline, that car’s twin-rotary hybrid set-up would make a perfect powertrain choice. Running on battery power in and around urban areas, and then switching to ICE for high-speed applications, it would make a great combination for everyday use. 

Mazda Eunos Cosmo

And there are other, even more detailed benefits to the layout. Rotary engines historically are short on torque, something the electric motors could easily in-fill, creating a punchy but incredibly smooth torque curve. Rotaries are also decidedly compact, which would help with packaging. 

This engine would need to be paired with Mazda’s Kodo design language, one that focuses on delicate details and complex surfacing to create a sleek shell to encase all this clever tech. Traditional Japanese craftsmanship could also be employed inside the cabin, with things like ‘Tsugite’, which is intricate Japanese joinery that does without metal fasteners, for example. You could get in the tech wizards to design digital interfaces that work in harmony with the colours and materials, too. 

Who would buy it? Who cares! But for those who are bored of German over-complication or not interested in the slightly stuffy British interpretation of luxury, there is definitely a gap in the market. Let’s not forget that Japan is very ‘in’ at the moment, with almost any form of Japanese culture – whether derived from tradition or pop – considered the pinnacle of society. 

So, what harm could a world-beating luxury coupé built to appeal to pure desire do, when almost no one else on earth is doing it?

Now you can buy a car through our network of top dealers around the UK. Search for the latest deals…

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Senior staff writer

Senior staff writer at Auto Express, Jordan joined the team after six years at evo magazine where he specialised in news and reviews of cars at the high performance end of the car market. 

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