It's pretty neat to drive 40 kilometers in 15.000 days. Exactly the same distance has ours Continuous tester Mazda 3 now in 6 months behind him. But it's not about the long-term tester Mazda 3, but about two Mazda 323, the 1977 took over the tour of Hiroshima, the Mazda headquarters, the IAA to Frankfurt. 15.000 km at a time when GPS and mobile had not yet been invented and the drivers of the Asian compact class were not distracted by selfie breaks.
40 years of the MAZDA 323 - the “compact one” from Japan
While our endurance tester has to prove itself especially on well-paved roads in Germany, the tour of the Mazda 323 in 1977 may have been a completely different number. At that time there was still an iron curtain and the Mazda 845, which weighs 323 kilograms, had a very modest 45 to 70 hp. For the world premiere at the IAA, however, what counted above all was the inner values of the first compact Japanese, which was designed exclusively for Europe. There was space for up to 1.100 liters of luggage under his large tailgate - certainly not a bad idea on a tour of 40 days.
If you look at the '77 Mazda 323, you will notice the optical development. Compared to our 2017 Mazda 3 test car in its sporty KODO design, the 40-year-old Mazda 323 in the photo look very classic and even a little shy. Narrow A-pillars, clear edges and large window areas.
While we rely on modern Skyactiv-Diesel technology in our test car and, with G-Vectoringcontrol, we also leave nothing to chance when it comes to the chassis, 40 years ago the front-wheel drive with independent wheel suspension was the latest technology number. A lot has changed since the world premiere of the Mazda 323 at the IAA 1977 - not only Facebook and Selfie are our everyday companions, we also prefer navigation systems, head-up displays and LED headlights for cars.
The history of the Mazda 323, the last 40 years in the compact class at Mazda and how the then 1977 was so, you can see in a special exhibition in the rest Mazda Museum in Augsburg experience!
