While exploring the world’s junkyardsI come across a lot vehicles with an incredibly high final mileage and even more in unbelievable rough condition. Every now and then I come across old scrapped vehicles in beautiful condition, often with very low mileage. Today’s Mazda, found in a northern california cemeteryis one of the latter type.
Apart from some dirt on the front seats, no doubt added by the towing service and depot personnel during the car’s last journey, the interior looks pretty much perfect.
Only 70,685 miles on the odometer.
There is not a speck of rust on the bodywork and the paint is shiny and undamaged. This car has been garaged for its 37 years and has been well cared for. It looks better than most five-year-old examples of its descendant, the Mazda3.
One of the more affordable cars of its era, the DX three-door hatchback was only a slight step up from the 1983 El Cheapo base Mazda 323 from 1987. MSRP was $7,699, or about $21,752 in 2024 dollars.
There is no air conditioning and a cheap 1990s cassette deck has been installed in place of what I suspect was a radio termination plate.
No rev counter. No right outside mirror. If this car was sold with each extra cost options, I couldn’t find them. The original owner wanted reliable basic transportation at a good price, and that’s exactly what this is.
These pinstripes may have been a factory option, but I can’t find them in any price guides or brochures. Perhaps the owner had them applied at a shop after purchase.
The shaky handwriting on a recent oil change tag suggests this car was bought by an older driver who took very good care of it for decades and didn’t have to travel very much. When it was time to retire, period, no one was interested in an econobox that was almost forty years old and had too many pedals.
If you plug the VIN number into the California smog-check history site, you’ll see an unbroken string of successful biennial tests, always clockwork in late August or early September, going back as far as online records go. This car was spoiled.
The engine is a 1.6-liter B-Series SOHC straight-four with electronic fuel injection, rated at 82 horsepower and 92 pound-feet. Members of this engine family came to the Miata a few years later.
The transmission is a 5 speed manual. Automatics cost too much and (in the 80s) they have worse fuel economy!
Start in the 1991 model yearthe Ford Escort became a little brother of the generation Mazda 323/Protégé that followedAll in all, this is one of the most successful platforms in the world history of the automotive industry.
Why buy a Civic or Tercel?