This isn’t my actual car, but is the same year and color. Mine is the only car I don’t have pictures of, and you’re not missing much– it had a missing grille, a slightly damaged hood and enough rust to give you tetanus just by looking at pictures of it. Still, it was probably the most fun-to-drive car I’ve ever owned.
It was Car Of The Year for 1983, and contemporary magazines claimed that it handled even better than the Prelude. My PO had removed all the emissions crap (including the cat) and installed a Weber 32/36 carb. It probably made much more than the 83 hp it did when it left the factory; at least it certainly felt like it did.
It didn’t roll at all in turns, had nicely weighted steering and made a very nice growl through that Weber carb. It felt very solid for such a rust bucket, and even the A/C still worked! It ran like a top, the only problem being that I had to double-clutch into second. After a while the gearbox went out entirely, and off to the junkyard it went. If I find another, preferably a GT Turbo sedan, I’ll be all over it.
Your results vary from what Ive seen of this model. A friend sold her near dead 79 626 for one of these, Initially Nora loved it but once off city streets and on rural roads the car was useless compared to her old car. Not being able to negotiate her driveway took most of the shine off the car and within a month Nora regretted her purchase it was heavy to drive sucked fuel and was completely out of its depth on windy backroads. Not being able to fling the car sideways on gravel corners might not matter to some but then they dont have the Ables bay road to play on.
Did the US spec cars have the groovy oscillating centre air vents that the NZ new and JDM spec had? Such a random feature, but kinda cool at the same time!
Not sure about these, but the next generation ones definitely did.
Gotta dig the TRON-like wheels on the pictured example.
From the 1985 brochure: “Note the little button between the center air vents in the picture below. It activates an oscillating vane behind the vents to ‘spray’ the airflow throughout the passenger compartment-another example of the exotic accommodations to be found in 626 Luxury models.” So just the LX models, not the DX. The “5-1/2JJ-14 aluminum alloy wheels” were optional on all 5 models for 1985.
The oscillating vents weren’t limited to the 626. My parents 1988 929 had that feature too.
Does the Mazda6 still have this feature? The first generation did
I had gen1 and gen2 Mazda6 wagons, neither of them had oscillating vents – I feel cheated now!
maybe the single digit temp is messing with my head, but I remember reading somewhere that the controls arms in the front suspension were different length from side to side to compensate for the weight of the driver and engine/trans. I want to say that the driver’s side control arms where a few inches shorter than the passenger sides… Anyone vaguely remember this?
You might be thinking of the drive shafts. The turbo versions of these (and the MX-6 coupe) were renowned for torque-steer.
Ok I’m not crazy, it did have asymetrical control arms in the front suspension…
Here is the link for the motor trend import car of the year 1983
http://www.motortrend.com/oftheyear/car/1211_car_of_the_year_winners/viewall.html
Someone who worked near my office had one of these, very well preserved condition, in light metallic blue. I haven’t seen seen it in about a year. If I spy it again I’ll get pictures! I liked the styling on these — certainly seemed more advanced than the Accord or Camry of the era, yet somehow it never quite attained the same success.
Relative and friend both had one of these and both had great experiences with them. Prompted us to buy a 1999 which was also superb (other than the transmission which needed a cooler). We still own a Mazda today.
My brother was given an 86 gt 626 when he was all of 13 years old. He had the same problem with having to double clutch into second and after a short while the trans was roached. a friend rebuilt it(with three bolts and a nut leftover) it worked great for the rest of his ownership until a older liscensed driver turrned it on its side Needless to say he was only 13 and shouldnt have been driving.
Kia built these in Korea until about 1993, but there’s none left on the roads now.
I had mine in black. Young girl ran a stop sign and centerpunched my passenger door. After a misadventure with a Saab I went to Saturn SLs and stopped having problems for quite a while.