A Japanese woman celebrating her 80th birthday decided to mark the occasion in a unique way. She not only surrendered her driver’s license, but also gave up the manual Mazda RX-7 she’s owned for the last 25 years. Don’t worry, though, this is a heartwarming story
In a now-viral interview on YouTube by Nagasaki Broadcasting, Japanese housewife Naoko Nishimoto said that she was looking for someone to take over ownership of her Mazda RX-7 because she was going to give up her driver’s license when she turned 80. After the interview Nishimoto was inundated with emails, receiving over 400 with offers to take the RX-7 off her hands. One of those emails was from Mazda’s PR department.
It turns out one of Mazda’s engineers had seen Nishimoto’s interview and told the PR team to reach out to her. Nishimoto recalled seeing the email to CarWatch Japan:
“It was an email filled with passion and sincerity, and it seemed to shine to me.” The Mazda person who sent the email also had a strong attachment to the RX-7.”
Nishimoto owned a number of unique vehicles before she got her hands on the RX-7. CarWatch says she got her license when she was 21. Her ownership history was largely Toyota, having owned Publicas and Coronas until something beautiful happened when she was 55 years old.
When she was 55, her Corona Coupe, which she had been driving for nearly 10 years at the time, started to malfunction and she was considering buying a new one. She happened to be watching the anime “Initial D” with her son and fell in love at first sight with the style of the RX-7 (FD3S). She immediately went to a nearby Mazda dealer and ordered a new car. The purchase price at the time was about 3.2 million yen.
She didn’t purchase just any old RX-7, either — she specifically ordered an RX-7 Type RB S. This was a “base” model with some light performance goodies like suede seats, rear spoiler, ZR rated tires and fog lights. It had Mazda’s turbocharged 13B-REW Wankel engine making 261 horsepower, mated to a five-speed manual transmission. Over 25 years, Nishimoto put just over 48,000 miles on the RX-7.
She says after a decade or so, things tend to start to go wrong with cars. Not so with the RX-7. She was sadded to learn when production of the RX-7 ended, as it meant she couldn’t go out and replace it with another one if she wanted to. “At first, I thought that if it started to go wrong after about 10 years, I could just switch to a new RX-7, but when I heard that production was ending and I could no longer switch to a new car, it became even more important to me,” she told CarWatch.
The car is now in the hands of Mazda, who gave Nishimoto and the RX-7 a handoff ceremony at the local dealership that she purchased the car from and serviced it at. She was presented with flowers, the license plate from her car, and design sketches of the RX-7. Mazda’s President and CEO Moro Masahiro called Nishimoto’s relationship with her RX-7 a prime example of how cars are much more than just something for us to get us around in. He also remarked how the RX-7 was special to him.
“This was a moving reminder that you see a car not just as a means of transportation, but as an important partner in life. It was also the first model for which I was responsible for marketing after joining Mazda, so it is a car that holds very special memories for me. We will treasure this car, along with stories of the days when you lived a happy, energetic and vibrant life, drawing vitality from the power of cars.”
Nishimoto’s RX-7 will be stored at Mazda’s R&D center in Yokohama, where the automaker says its public relations will use it for special events.
