was a marque of Japanese automaker Mazda, specializing in small cars and Kei cars, many of which were rebadged Suzuki models. Autozam also briefly acted as importer of Lancia vehicles to Japan. The Autozam dealership channel is still in operation in some Japanese locations, but sell all current Mazda products. Overview In the late 1980s, Mazda began expansion of dealerships in Japan. The idea was to create "a familiar car shop in your city" (あなたの街の身近なカーショップ; Anata no machi no midjikana kāshoppu) and network of dealerships, centred around small and medium-sized maintenance shops and used car dealers. In part of this brand strategy, Mazda launched of three new marques. The company created Autozam, Eunos, and ɛ̃fini, in addition to the Mazda and Ford brands already marketed there. Autozam's lineup - at the time of establishment - was centered on small cars (i.e Kei cars and compacts). Autozam's first flagship model was the Autozam Clef, a sedan of Mazda Cronos lineage. In addition, Mazda acquired the official import rights of Lancia for the purpose of supplementing the luxury car lineup. Lancia and Autobianchi brand passenger cars manufactured by the Italian Fiat Auto, such as the Lancia Thema, Lancia Delta and Autobianchi Y10, were also on sale. The nationwide sales network was controlled by "Autozam Co., Ltd." and a regional wholesale company (Autozam Co., Ltd.). Autozam's first sales hit was the second-generation Carol, which became popular with young female buyers, partly due to targeted advertising. The Revue and Clef models ended up redesigned to follow the character of the much successful Carol. However, the sales of Revue and Clef ended up being disastrously sluggish, as they were completely unpopular except for a few young female users. Some of the light sports cars, such as Autozam AZ-1 and the small specialty car Autozam AZ-3 were also critically and publicly applauded, but did not translate to good sales. For short time, Autozam imported Lancia cars to Japan as a high-margin luxury car line. Lancia sales too were disappointing, as Japanese import buyers did not like buying their cars from showrooms sharing space with the cheerful and cute Autozam Carol. As a result, there was no Autozam product that was profitable except for the second generation Carol. Even the future Carol models were not as popular as the 2nd generation because it became a half-finished retro-feature concept with a slightly regressed fancy flavor when it was