Founded in January 1920 as a cork factory, Mazda began making tools in 1929, and then expanded into the manufacture of trucks for commercial trucks. Its first passenger cars were introduced in the early 1960s, and at about the same time, the company began developing rotary engines. Headquartered in Hiroshima, Japan, Mazda Motor Corporation ranks as one of Japans leading car makers.

In 1970, Mazda began exporting cars to the United States and Europe, and those sales account for more than two thirds of the company's total volume. Cars are assembled at one of two sites in Japan, or one of 18 sites elsewhere around the world. The facility in Hiroshima is one of the largest single site automobile factories in the world, and has an annual production capacity of more than half a million units. The Hofu plant is smaller, with a capacity of roughly 400,000 units. Sites overseas include joint ventures in Thailand and the United States, in partnership with the Ford Motor Company, Mazda's largest shareholder.

Mazda's signature rotary engine represents their entire history of engineering innovation. Many other automakers attempted to adapt the concept, but it was Mazda that persevered and succeeded with the creation of a commercial sports car engine. Today, they are the only car maker in the world that makes gasoline, diesel, and rotary internal combustion engines, and the latest incarnation of the rotary engine is what powers their new Mazda RX-8.

Mazda sums up their mission to make cars that are fun to drive but also affordable with their flirty, zippy catch-phrase, "Zoom-Zoom."