1987 Mazda 323 Base Station Wagon review from North America

The transmission was reluctant to shift up; turned out to be a rotted vacuum hose.

Starter motor made horrible noises every fifth start, but it never died.

Ignition switch was touchy; the windshield wipers and A/C sometimes would not work until I gently jiggled the key.

Every 3000 miles or so, the car would lose power and hesitate. The timing would be adjusted. Changed the timing belt, but in 5000 miles the hesitation was back. At 120,000 miles, hesitation was awful (~5 seconds) and top speed was 35 MPH. Evil Mazda dealer put in new spark plugs (even though I told him to check the timing first), which didn't help. Then it was discovered that place where crankshaft meets the timing gear was broken. Cost to fix was more than the cost of the car, so I sold it for junk value. Evil Mazda dealer insisted that I pay for the cost of the spark plugs, but not labor.

It's hard for me not to like the car, because it was my first. It would have been much more reliable, considering its age, were it not for the busted crankshaft (I suspect the man who sold it to me knew about it). But I did get 20,000 miles for $1900.

The A/C was very cold, and the seats were quite comfortable. The three-speed transmission made the motor turn at 4000 rpm at 70 mph (speed limit), so it was noisy on interstate trips.