Think back to a simpler time. A time when the North America was resting between fuel crises, and Japanese imports had really captured the imagination of an increasingly value savvy and reliability-hungry buying public. It was also an era before lifestyle didn’t mean quite what it does now.
A look at Mazda’s car range today has the perky, zingy fun-size MX-5 at one end, and the upscale, rakishly contoured CX-7 at the other. Neither of these thoroughly modern offerings sell purely to folk who ‘need a car’, but that’s exactly what this sealed-beam marvel was in 1978. It’s the Mazda 323.
Welcome back to The Carchive
Click on the pictures to make ’em bigger and the words more legible. You know you want to.
“The Mazda Hatchback. We promise you’ll be together a long time”
It’s interesting to reflect on the fact that, aside from 323 being mentioned on the front cover, everywhere else from then on in it was referred to only as the Mazda Hatchback. Or, more precisely, the 1000 Hatchback and the 1300 hatchback. Statesiders got it as the GLC, or Great Little Car, which makes me a little queasy just thinking about it. But then, Mercedes obviously like it…
Those UK designations, of course, referred to the choice of a 985cc 45bhp engine, or a ‘more muscular’ 60bhp 1272cc engine. Both were inline overhead-cam ‘fours’ of entirely routine design, being an update of an engine Mazda had used since 1965.
They also had what I consider to be one of the most handsome rear light cluster designs of any small car.
“The Mazda Hatchback offers you everything you expect from a modern saloon. And more besides.”
Part of the 323’s considerable success was doubtless due to its extraordinary simplicity. Around the late ’70s, European cars were beginning to shift towards far more modern front-wheel-drive layouts, the Renault 14 was making waves and Germany’s Volkswagen Golf was doing alright for itself, too.
The notoriously conservative British market was still buying the ancient, state-of-the-ark Ford Escort and Vauxhall Chevette in colossal numbers, and of all the Japanese equivalents, it was the 323 that matched those home-grown models for mechanical inertness.
“The Mazda Hatchback 1300 deluxe with three and five doors. A lot more for those who can afford a little more”
There was one big way in which the Mk2 Ford Escort was soundly thrashed in the family car stakes by the Mazda: it was a hatchback. Fords fuddy-duddy favourite was only available as a two or four-door saloon, or as a three-door wagon. You could buy a panel van version if you were determined that your children really should be heard but not seen, nothing Ford offered was vaguely as family-friendly as the five-door 323.
Of course, as the brochure reminds us, those extra doors didn’t come for free. The luxury of additional openings could only be had with the bigger, more expensive engine, and only if you opted for bells ‘n whistles Deluxe trim. But what bells, and which whistles?
Well, you got a dashboard rheostat (dimmer, to humans), rubber inserts to the bumpers and waistline rubbing strips (a feature sorely lacking from todays cars for reasons of fashion), a trip distance recorder and a cigarette lighter. You also got an analogue clock, mounted way over in front of the passenger, to make “we’re going to be late” tut-tutting that much easier and more convenient. One feature stands out above all others, though – an electric tailgate release.
“Like all Mazdas, the Hatchbacks are well-built. For safety and to last”.
These 70s Mazdas were built well, but from materials that were impatient to rust. They weren’t especially inspiring, either – with no special performance version to provide a halo-effect that made the cooking models seem interesting. As a result, they trundled around in noticeable quantity for a while, and then they were all gone. Replaced by Another Car.
Of course, it wouldn’t take long before Mazda started to appeal on more than just the usefulness of its products. When this brochure was produced, the original RX-7 was about to take on the mantle of “most interesting car you can buy”, and suddenly Mazda was a maker of Cars, not just consumer durables. Today, Mazda, like everybody else, fully realizes the immense value of image in marketing.
And yet, a simply engineered, bare-bones, rear wheel drive hatchback has never been more appealing.
(All images are of original manufacturer press materials, photographed by me. Copyright remains property of Mazda, who, in 1978, didn’t inflict its buyers with a slogan, let alone something as naff and meaningless as ‘Zoom Zoom’.)
Leave a Reply