Interesting to see in today's Ask An Expert that HJ continues to recommend the Mazda 323 as a "best Buy". Over the last 18 years (Bahrain, Hong Kong and now Manila) we have had 4 of these in the family at different times. We simply got them 'cos they seemed good value, looked reasonable and had all the right bits and pieces for a second or third set of wheels.
The current is a 1994 Astina (that's the one which looks like a Porsche) which is the daily hack. This is what gets used when somebody's car's license plate is the wrong one for a particular day in Manila (restriction on use). It has a service now and then and I can't remember when the last one was. It is full of rubbish, everyone's old cassette tapes, my daughter's Green Day T-shirt (used for windshield wiping) parking tickets and Lord knows what all. It's life would have been one of grinding stop start short trips in heavy traffic in high temperatures, loads of idling with the aircon on at full blast. To my certain knowledge it has had 3 punctures, four new front tyres and two new batteries in 7 years plus the a/c topped up with RJ a couple of times. As far as I recall absolutely nothing else has been touched. It seems to burn no oil. It did boil over once - broken fanbelt. It has never failed to start and run or do what it is required of it and I see it now shows 120,000 km. The cassette has packed up but the radio still works. There is no significant rot anywhere although the white paint has faded. The same was true of all the others: the 1980's one which looked like a copy of the Merc 190E is still a favorite with Manila taxi-drivers today and Lord knows what they must have survived to still be running.
I also owned a couple of Mazda 929's in the Saudi days - again very troublefree.
Linking back to Mark's "why do we cosset cars" makes an interesting illustration of his point.
Our old Mazda gets about as much attention as my Frigidaire washing machine and seems to thrive on it! It is definitely the poor relative of the fleet but doesn't seem to care. All I can say is let's hope Mazda goes on making cars like this.
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But don't cars last forever Growler in your neck of the woods?.
No salt on the roads for 3 months of the year.
When it rains it lasts for an hour then within the next hour everything has been dried up. Not like here where for the past fortnight we up north have had nothing but clag and dampness from a run days ago is still on the vehicle.
Also I understand that if you scraped some paint of the front wing of yours you would come across the logo for Duckhams oil?
DVD
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No salt on the roads in the PI, true but plenty in the air: we are an island nation. Rain? Well, yes, starts in July, finishes November, can go on for 4-5 days non-stop, anyway we have 80% humidity most of the time. So I don't think life here is any kinder to cars than Blighty. For economic reasons they are also kept going longer, which is why the local fix-it guys do so well (Signboard on my local wrencher's workshops says "We Fix Cars For Keeps". Never can get the Western view of how this is humorous across).
Anyway: my pal in San Diego emails me and says he's going down to Mexico for Christmas in his gf's 1989 Mazda MX6 turbo: 202,000 miles, one owner, serviced now and then but never anything major except the usual tires, brake parts etc. I said OK but will it make it? He said well his 243,000 mile Beetle did 2 years ago, so this one ought to, and if the Mazda dies they'll just bury it in Tijuana, hold a wake, celebrate with Cuervo Gold and then take the bus home. Only in California.
Here endeth my plug for Mazda..
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I actually checked HJ's opinion earlier this year before agreeing to the purchase of a 1990 323F (the one with the pop-up headlights) for my other half. HJ's comment "sensationally reliable" more or less clinched it, and although it's relatively early days, I've no reason to doubt it. The car looks and drives like a 3-year old and has earned me a large number of brownie points...
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Yep, that's the one with the pop-ups, called an Astina here. Great little car.
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"Great little car"
We think so, too (not that I'm encouraged to drive it!). I always thought that the styling took a dive on the next model - I wish they'd leave well alone sometimes...
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