Faults:

We can only remember that the air conditioning of the car was not that cold.

We don't remember the things that went wrong with the car. It was a very good one.

General Comments:

This car was purchased back in January of 1980, when my grandfather got fed up with our lemon 1975 Ford Cortina.

This was a great family car. We had lots of good memories with it like an out of town trip to Baguio, Tagaytay, or Batangas, or just a trip to the popular places around Metro Manila at that time.

We sold it in August of 1990.

Faults:

Multicolored due to rust and patch-up work.

Radiator.

Electrical.

General Comments:

This was a family pet project that never really got off the ground.

Original colour was gold, but some doors of a bronze model replaced the deeply gutted and rusted original doors.

It was always the plan to repaint it red, but in the end it was cheaper to keep it one colour.

Used this car as a spare when my Chariot would break down. Often asked my parents if I could buy it from them.

I regret the day it got sold to someone else. I had nick named it as 'old-reliable', and it sure was.

It was a base model, NZ-New and build in the NZ based factory. The 1600cc engine was economic and it would've been a good handler if it had power steering, unfortunately it wasn't to be.

This is definitely one car I miss.

Faults:

Car was delivered with "defective" door trim on the left rear door in that its pattern didn't match the other doors! Rectified under warranty.

A noisy rear shock absorber quite early in its life, but left unattended till the car was sold!

Burst radiator hose when it was about 6-7 years old.

Heavy-ish oil consumption by the time it was 10 years old.

General Comments:

Lacks character, but utterly reliable. Nothing much really went wrong with the car.

Cheap materials used for the interior (and see my comments on the door trim) but good build quality even though it was not made in Japan (it was assembled in Malaysia) - there were no significant squeak and rattles even after 12 years of use.

Quite roomy for a RWD car.

75hp 4 cylinder 1600 single carb engine with balancer shafts is smooth at normal speeds, but turns gruff when stretched. The car could do about 160km/h (100mph). Mediocre acceleration (0-100km/h (0-60 mph) in about 13 seconds) but fair long distance cruiser. The cars is a bit heavy on fuel consumption though.

5 speed manual had good shift quality.

Soft wallowy suspension equals a comfortable ride, but very average handling. Non-assisted steering heavy at parking speeds, but settles down to a decent weight at speed even if the steering is a bit vague.

Quad rectangular headlamps were of the non-halogen type (I think they were called "sealed beams") - barely bright enough on low beam, but quite acceptable on high beam.

A good and popular car in Malaysia in its day, compared to unreliable cars then like the Ford Cortina and Fiat 131. It's only real rival at that time was the FWD 1st generation Honda Accord 1.6 which was however selling at a higher price.

This model was replaced by an all-new, but still RWD model in 1981. The new model was bigger, better-looking and more refined, but that's another story.