Welcome to Goo-Net Find of the Week, a new series in which we pretend we’re not procrastinating on a Friday afternoon by idly browsing the coolest online used car platform in the world, Japan’s Goo-Net Exchange.
As we experienced firsthand when we visited the country last year, Japan doesn’t play around when it comes to car culture. It’s a nation of enthusiasts who find their thing and take it to the absolute maximum, and that means it’s chock full of unbelievably cool metal of all nationalities, eras and styles.
Which brings us to Goo-Net Exchange. This is basically Japan’s equivalent of Autotrader, but because it’s Japanese, it’s packed to the rafters with the sort of drool-worthy cars we like to spend our Friday afternoons window shopping for when we should be doing work.
Eunos Cosmo – interior
In a brilliant brainwave that’s definitely not an excuse to turn that procrastination into actual content, we’ll be signing off our week by picking out our favourite find from the hundreds and thousands of cars listed on Goo-Net by dealerships across Japan, and we’re starting off with a good’un.
The Mazda Cosmo wasn’t quite the first road car to be powered by a rotary engine, but it did kick off Mazda’s obsession with the spinning Dorito. It’s that desperately pretty original Cosmo, a car we recently had the privilege of getting to play in, that’s most closely associated with the badge, but it stuck around for another three generations and nearly 30 years afterwards.
Eunos Cosmo – engine bay
It’s that fourth and final Cosmo we’re focusing on today, which was unique for a couple of reasons. One, it was badged not as a Mazda but a Eunos, Mazda’s short-lived 1990s luxury sub-brand; and two, it was the only road car ever to feature a triple-rotor engine.
This 1995 example we’ve tracked down has that very engine, the 2.0-litre 20B, complete with the same sequential twin-turbo setup found on the contemporary RX-7. That meant it produced a quoted 276bhp, although this was the era of the Gentleman’s Agreement, so who knows how much it was really making.
Eunos Cosmo – rear
Despite its engine, though, the Cosmo wasn’t some hardcore road racer. It capitalised on one of the rotary’s biggest strengths, its cashmere-like smoothness, to create a relaxed, comfy grand tourer. That’s also likely why it only came with a four-speed automatic.
Aside from its wholly unique engine, there’s a lot more to like about the Eunos Cosmo. For one, it’s just so darn handsome, in a neatly proportioned, very geometric early ’90s way. The interior, with its huge plush chairs and big wood-trimmed wraparound dash, looks like a highly pleasant place to wile away the miles too.
Eunos Cosmo – interior
This one’s covered a reasonably modest 67,080km – around 41,700 miles – and the dealer selling it is asking ¥4.26 million – about £21,350. While we naturally can’t vouch for its condition, that seems pretty reasonable for a stone-cold cool, left-field JDM classic, although the idea of dealing with not two but three sets of apex seals does fill us with some level of unbridled fear. Would the Cosmo’s sheer coolness outweigh that and make you take a punt on an import? You certainly wouldn’t see many others around.
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