It may now seem in the far distant past, but there really was a time when Japan’s reputation was for imitation, of the most sincere variety. Cameras, toys, radios, all kinds of consumer goods, and of course cars. It was the the China of its day, but there was a difference: its relentless striving to actually improve upon the original. One of the most superb examples is this Mazda GLC/323: yes, it’s a blatant riff on the category defining 1975 VW Golf/Rabbit, but in many key metrics, a substantial improvement. And, no, I haven’t forgot about the Civic: it bests that too. Mazda wasn’t pulling a Joe Isuzu with its Great Little Car.
Which was hardly the case for its predecessor. The original GLC (323 in the rest of the world) was the last member of Mazda’s old RWD Familia/GrandFamilia family, which included the 818/Mizer/and the rotary powered RX3 in its geneology. Yes, it looks like a blatant Chevette rip-off from its bug-eyed nose back. It may well have been one, in which case the Mazda developers were mighty quick, since this GLC/323 appeared just two years after the Chevette. Or maybe not-so-great little car minds just think alike.
I’ve been rather desperate to find one of these RWD GLCs, but have pretty much given up. Like all of its ilk, they were rugged and simple little beasts, as well as cramped and primitive in all its dynamic qualities. Early nineteen sixties technology in a seventies polyester jump-suit.
After giving up on finding an old GLC, it occurred to me I’d better focus on its successor, because of its historical significance. That took quite a while too, and this one, shot in two locations, appears to be the last of its breed in town. Time stops not even for the greatest.
The 1975 Golf defined the modern hatch class, known in Europe as the Golf class. And it really sent the Japanese scrambling. Well, not Honda, which of course already had been building FWD hatchback Civics for some years. But there are pros and cons to being the first, and in this case, the Mazda designers’ ability to start totally from scratch gave them the edge.
The first gen Civic was a tiny little thing, and the second generation, which came out the year before this FWD GLC/323 (code name “BD”) was only marginally bigger. Mazda created a larger car, and this BD 323 had a not insignificant jump on the Civic in terms of overall size and interior accommodations. It really was almost a class up from the Civic, and the next generation of the Civic had to stretch to meet it. The BD Mazda was also a bit larger than Mitsubishi’s new FWD Mirage hatch, known here Dodge Colt/Plymouth Champ. Mazda had essentially defined the new FWD hatch category that was so huge in the eighties in the US.
By the early eighties, the Rabbit/Golf was already in serious trouble, as the Americanized version built in Pennsylvania was not delivering the VW experience buyers were hankering for. And the Rabitt/Golf was anything but a paragon of reliability. This is how, where and when the Japanese really ate VW’s many-coursed lunch. And quick.
Mazda’s reliability image had been seriously rotated the wrong way with its Wankel engine travails. But in reality, that was always limited specifically to the problem with the edge seals, and in every other possible way, Mazdas were consistently paragons of the classic Japanese fetish with high quality materials and construction. Mazda’s four cylinders, like the UC/UB/NA family which powered their mid-sized cars and the earlier Mazda B-Series/Ford Courier pickups has a legendary reputation every bit the equal of Toyota’s famed R-family of fours. And the mid-eighties the 626 topped the chart’s in Germany’s fastidious national record keeping on reliability.
There may not be a lot of collective knowledge left on these cars (I could be wrong), but to my awareness, these BD Mazdas, and its quite similar evolution, the BF 323 (1985-1989), did nothing to sully the family name, no joke considering it was a totally new car in every way. This is what really defined the difference with Detroit: Americans were endlessly subjected to being the beta testers of the latest all-new FWD and other technology, with almost predictably disastrous results.
We had a couple of the second generation 1987 BF 323s at the tv station in San Jose. They were used for the brutal daily grind of shuttling our news reporters and camera crew (we couldn’t afford a live satellite truck yet). The male members of our crews felt a bit insecure next to all the giant extended-length Econolines with their tall masts that erected so quickly and proudly, but our operating costs were a tiny fraction of theirs. These Mazdas took their beating for years without ever the slightest whimper.
And although Mazda chose not to accentuate the sport aspect of the GLCs sent this way (why bother, when folks waited in line for them during the Voluntary Export Restriction years?), it was not lacking in that regard either. The Civic really had nothing on the Mazda in that regard. Typically for those times, the Japanese markets were treated to high performance versions including the hot XGI Turbo R.
This new GLC was the last to use that name, reverting to the global 323 moniker with its successor. Well, there was Ford Laser version sold in Asian markets. And let’s not forget that this car was the great-great-great-great-great-great granddaddy of the current Mazda 3. By that I mean that every Mazda in the 323/3 families have consistently scored at or near the top in key metrics, especially in their dynamic aspects. The two generations of the Protoge 323 were the final culmination of the direct lineage to this GLC, as the 3s are of course based on Ford’s C1 platform.
Mazda’s 626 was once a solid competitor, but in more recent years the 6 has slipped in market share. Mazda’s main toe hold in this brutal market is still the 3, and it can thank the GLC/323 for getting it off to such a superb start. Great Little Car indeed.
Companion piece on the old-style RWD GLC/323 wagon here
I was right , still lots on the road here wagons 2doors 1300/1500 and diesels, NZ also got the JDM Familia turbo and 4WD versions used from japland. The Ford model was built in Australia for their export markets and these sold into the 90s. Bullet proof little cars from an era when the Japanese knew what they were doing.
The clue on this one really stumped me. That wrap around corner on the hatchback, combined with the chrome trim on top of the tail light is fairly unique. At one point I even thought it might be a Renault 14, but the odds of one in the US, even with the Eugene factor, seemed pretty slim.
The 323 platform actually traveled further than that. The Laser was sold in the US for a few years as the Mercury Tracer, and the 1990s US market Escort and Tracer were based on the 323 with the performance models using a Mazda engine. As an obscure tidbit, the Escort/Tracer and 323/Protege used the same Thule roof rack fit kit.
These cars were developed in parallel with the first front-drive European Ford Escort hatchback , as Ford already owned a share of Mazda. I read at the time that certain parts, like the gearbox , were interchangeable.
Being an avowed Honda fanboy until ~2005, I never paid much attention to the 323/Protege and 626. But they were underrated cars: better-built than any Nissan and far more engaging than a Toyota.
However the Mazda3, as ugly as the current model is, may be the most important car of the last decade. It’s sporty, practical and can be quite luxurious. It’s a Golf/GTI with reliability and a reasonable price. Now that Ford’s finally giving us the mechanically-related Euro Focus hatch, maybe hatchbacks will finally take off again in America.
To be the most important car, shouldn’t it have been a hit? Or at least influential?
I could be biased since I was once a Mazda addict and gave up once I realized that it’s dealer/service network was staffed by jackals and morons.
A friend of mine has a Mazda 3. When she first pulled up in it, I tried to feign interest. “Oh, cool, you got a 3. How do you like it?” Her response? “Yeah, it’s okay.” Yeah, it is.
Bryce is right. Ford built these in Homebush in Sydney until they closed the plant to build an olympic stadium. Wasn’t this the same platform and factory used for the Capri convertible that was exported to the USA as a Mercury?
My first Brand new car was a 1981 Base model GLC, which was barely over $6k out the door, no carpet or cassette radio included. I had chosen it as I’d driven a Rabbit and Loved it, but cost was well over 7 on those. Civic seemed too small, and Starlet & Corolla were too drab, the Corolla being more in demand. I had also test Drove the LeCar & Dodge Colt which both seemed very inferior by comparison. I got 6 good years on mine with no trouble, until a Grand Am Caught my Eye in 1987. I’d soon regret that coice, Still wish I’d Chosen the Thunderbird Elan but thats another story. So glad to see CurbsideClassic online today, I have missed your writing immensely. Welcome Back.
There was a GLC Sport HB that even came with Power Windows, I know because my Roommate had a Maroon one which I envied at the time, his was a 1983 IIRC.
I also remember that at the time, My Dad who was driving a 1978 Pinto Pony, thought I was crazy to go with such an unknown Jananese brand… That is until he drove it. He had to admit that compared to his Pinto, I was starting life “High on The Hog”. It was “pretty Sweet” in his words. That made me feel good, as I had felt a little bad not Buying American. I intended to drive it cross country and It had to be reliable. And She Was.
Remember these ’81 through ’85′s well. At the time, living in Hawaii, I had just purchased an ’80 Toyota Tercel base – 4 speed – vinyl seats – rubber floor mats (but color keyed!). Waited 2 months for delivery with a choice of “if you want stick, these two colors are available! – Mahalo!”
Shortly after I got the Tercel, Mazda announced the GLC (this featured generation). I lady I worked with got a DX – Silver with 5 speed, cloth seat inserts and matching carpeting; one of my buddies got a base model with four speed. The ’81 bases did come with whitewalls standard and had carpet and I believe that did change later on in the U.S. Mainalnd ’round ’83 or so when more “value” models (rubber mats, vinyl seats, four speed) showed up.
Note: Although (obviously) U.S. EPA certified this generation, in Guam and Hawaii, you could get the GLC five door hatch – not available on the U.S. Mainland.
I really liked this generation of GLC (323). I thought the previous one wasn’t bad either compared to it’s RWD competition (Chevette/Pinto/Corolla/B-210).
Oh my, I really am getting old, as this was one of the defining cars of my childhood. My parents had the fortunate capability of (generally) choosing reliable cars too, so that means there are really only three defining cars of my childhood.
Our first GLC of this generation happened before I was around, but my parents liked it so much they went out and purchased another one, both from this generation. While the second one had had a rougher life before us and was put out to pasture sooner, the first GLC went from my brothers birth in 1984 until the mid nineties, at which point it was sold off. When purchased, our little gray GLC was a year old, barely used, and to this day my mother swears she has a special feeling that it was going to be great.
And it was. It hauled me, my brother, myself and our Golden Retriever around with little fuss for his for 10+ years and my first 7. It was also tasked with bucking drifts in the winter, a task it mostly succeeded at. My dad still remembers getting pulled over for speeding in it when my brother was a newborn in the back seat. In a classic family moment, whilst accelerating slowly away from a stop sign after a tire rotation, the front left tire fell right off. I was a basket case about it all (being 5), but my brother and mother hopped out, cranked up the car, stuck its tiny tire back on (checking all of the bolts, finding them all loose) and continued on their way, no problems. That was the kind of wee beastie the Mazda was. I wish/hoped my Mazda 3 Sport had been as good.
I bought a 1981 5-door GLC in exactly the color your CC wears! The 1979 oil shock hadn’t worn off yet, so there was no bargaining on the $6,200.00 price. No radio, A/C or power anything, except the brakes. It was a nimble, zippy, versatile, easy to drive 5-speed capable of 40+ mpg. Sadly, it lost an argument with a tree 90,000 miles later. Up til then, nothing ever failed, broke or wore out.
The RWD GLC has not completely disappeared. I saw a Yellow one with the later square headlights on NW Thurman in Portland (OR) Sunday morning, and collected some cell phone shots if you want them.
It was the 808 in North America not the 818 which was used in Europe and other places where Peugeot was thought to own the model names with a zero in the middle. Not sure how many 808s where sold in the US but they where definitely sold in Canada in reasonable numbers (I have one – a 1973 coupe).
I always liked the styling of this generation of GLC/323 – clean, uncluttered but still attractive. Slightly nicer than the very similar Colt.
Hi, I want to sell a car 1980 mazda glc standard
is white. I have one more for parts
has some damage but no problem
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I’m from San Felipe Baja California, México
I’m interested in your glc.
I couldn’t get your link to work.
Hey, You can contact me by email, my email is e.daviid @ hotmail.com, I want to sell soon. or this is my telephone nunber: 0446865776174, Or agregate 001
or here this is my facebook
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003321340343
On the other glc you have does it still have the bumper? And Do you think you can send me pics?