There is only some cosmetic damage on this Mazda Cosmo Sport. Nothing bad to write about. All it needs is just a little refresher on the paint. Maybe a little TLC on the suspension. And perhaps it needs a patch or two on the bodywork. But definitely not more than that!

Just some cosmetic damage on this Mazda Cosmo Sports series II
Just some cosmetic damage on this Mazda Cosmo Sport Series II

Mazda Cosmo Series I and Series II

For those unaware what a Mazda Cosmo Sport is: when Mazda was able to create their own reliable engine from the NSU licensed engine, they needed a car to showcase it. This became the Mazda Cosmo Sport, also better known as the Mazda Cosmo 110S outside Japan, and was presented in 1964. 80 cars were extensively tested between 1965 and 1966. Only 1967 the Cosmo became available for the general public and already received a facelift in July 1968. This was then called the Series II and it only received minor changes, where the room between the door and the rear fender was extended by 1.5 inches.

This Mazda Cosmo Sport is a Series II car. In the photo above you can see the space between the door and the rear fender is longer than on the Series I car. According to the blog posts (here and here) I found this posted on, this car is located in Okinawa. We can also deduce this from the license plate 沖55 め6.62: the first character is for the Okinawa prefecture.

Road tax

The owner paid road tax for all those years
The owner paid road tax for all those years

As the car remained in a public parking lot and retained its license plate, the owner kept paying road tax for this car. It is difficult for us to understand why you would do that: this car is clearly toast and appears beyond repair. However, the owner may have sentimental reasons for hanging on to this car.

The Mazda Cosmo quickly deteriorates
The Mazda Cosmo quickly deteriorates

Unleaded fuel

Japanese window sticker indicating unleaded fuel
Japanese window sticker indicating unleaded fuel

This car also features this blue window sticker. This blue sticker indicates that this car is able to run on unleaded fuel. Back when it was new, unleaded fuel wasn’t a thing yet. Somewhere mid-1970s this became mandatory and this sticker was applied to the car.

Not yet expensive enough

The photos were taken somewhere between early 2010 and early 2011. The car quickly deteriorates even more as the tropical weather in Okinawa is really harsh to any exposed metal. Somewhere in 2011, it was removed. Back in 2011, the prices of the Mazda Cosmo Sports weren’t high enough to justify a complete restoration. I’m afraid this Cosmo got crushed and melted to become rebar or something of similar depression.

Conclusion

Traffic cones have to be used to mark off the Cosmo
Traffic cones have to be used to mark off the Cosmo

I also noticed the Toyota Lite Ace M30 next to it to be in an almost equal deteriorating state. Maybe both are owned by the same person. This Cosmo Sport also reminds me of a rusty Nissan Silvia CSP311 that did get saved in the end. It would be a shame if it didn’t get saved after all.