1992 Mazda MX3 (Reaction) Motorweek Retro
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- Опубліковано 3 лип 2024
- #acwj
This week's Motorweek Retro Reaction is the 1992 Mazda MX3!
Golly, I miss when automakers had FUN with their lineups, and taking an economy platform, putting a sexy 2-door body on it, and here squeezing in a tiny V6!
Back in the day there were tons of cars like this, and this Mazda has long been my favorite of them!
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In the late 80's and early 90's I was a huge Mazda fan. Had an 87 B2200 cab plus, and the wife had a MX-6 LX coupe. Both 5spd manuals. They were good cars. The late 90's early 2000's, Mazda lost it's way a bit. Bought a Toyota Previa All-Trac LE, (it drove over 275,000 miles through other family members)and never looked back. While we own three Toyotas today,(04 Lexus ES330, 11 Tacoma double cab V6 4X4, 15 Sienna XLE) at my advanced age, will try to keep them a long time. But I still have a soft spot for early 90's Mazdas. Still see them a lot too.
There were a lot of quirky little grand touring Coupé like this in the 80’s and 90’s. Mazda MX-3/MX-6, 1st & 2nd Gen Isuzu Piazza/Impulse/Geo Storm, Toyota Paseo, Renault Fuego, Pontiac Grand Am, et cetera. And then Cash for Clunkers came along, and they all pretty much disappeared.
Mazda and Mitsubishi created the two smallest V6s in history(Mazda: 1.8 liter V6; Mitsubishi: 1.6 liter V6). I wish the Mitsubishi one was made available in the Mirage at that time. Imagine a V6 Mirage competing against the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Mazda Protege, and Nissan Sentra. What a great battle that would have been.
Man, this car is so cool. I think this one was sold under three brands: Mazda, Autozam, and Eunos. It was called the AZ-3 in Japan. I looked at these in the used market and they were quite reasonable. I wouldn’t be buying a sports car yet, but definitely have this one as a consideration if I do. It’s rare too so that’s a plus.😀
I remember these cars well from my youth as a couple friends had them - one had a 4 cylinder model, and another had a V6 model and the two variants were worlds apart - in both personality and other cars they competed with. My biggest impression from riding in them was just how cramped the inside was for 5' 6" tall me. The interior was nice, but too cramped. At the time I was a young US Navy sailor and had a 1991 Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX (the top of the line turbo AWD model) so I had a similar class of car at the time, and even as small as my Eclipse was it still had a lot more room than the MX-3. In terms of usable real world room, my Eclipse could take 2 fully stuffed Navy duffel bags in the trunk area plus one more in the back seat while still being able to scoot the front seats all the way back; by comparison the MX-3 could get one duffel bag in the trunk and one in the back seat - but you could only scoot the front seats halfway back. The 4 cylinder MX-3 was disappointingly slow. The V6 model was reasonably quick, but my Eclipse was faster (my buddy and I had done impromptu races on an old runway) and had better handling. My Eclipse's window sticker was about $1,000 more at the time (~ $2,200 today), but it was money well spent because it got you a quicker car, better handling, and more importantly roomier. My friend with the V6 MX-3 would brag about it having a V6 when my Eclipse had only a 4 cylinder. My Eclipse's 2.0L DOCH turbo engine made 195hp/195 lb-ft of torque and gave it a 0-60 run that was almost 1.5 seconds faster. Sadly these did not sell nearly as well as Mazda had hoped and performance/pricing were likely why. The 4 cylinder model really was more of a peer of the NX, Paseo, Scoupe, Geo Storm, ect - but at a higher price. The V6 model competed with the turbo model Mitsubishi Eclipse/Eagle Talon, the Nissan 240SX, and most directly with Mazda's own MX-6 in price but with lower performance. Quite literally for another $500 or less at the time you could have bought a V6 Mazda MX-6 which sold for ~$18,000 at the time.
A friend of mine bought one of these brand new back in the day, and although I didn’t care much for the car, all he would talk about was that damned V6! But that’s just it. It was all about that V6 that owners could drive their friends crazy over and maybe Mazda thought they could sell a few extra cars because of it. Once he got over that V6, he sold it and bought an Acura Integra.
Lol, I’m 58 and every time I went to buy a new car I always thought I wanted a sporty coupe but then practicality won out and I’d get a sedan. I’ll be looking for another vehicle in a couple of years and I’m certainly not buying new and now at my age with a sporty coupe I’d look like I was having a middle age crisis! Lol, but who cares? Everyone should buy what they like and who cares what anyone else thinks! Lol
Economy car bones dressed up in a stylish exterior to mimic whatever expensive stuff was cool at the time - sounds a lot like a Buick envista, or a bronco sport, or even a maverick to me. The cheap(er) fwd crossovers are exactly the 2020s interpretation of this segment in my opinion. Cheap(er) versions of whatever the current trends are are always out there - even when what’s in style isn’t what those of us who actually like cars find appealing
I really liked this car and wondered why they didn't continue to develop this car. It was one of those cool little cars from my early 20's that I thought would be a worthy challenger to the Integra. After all, it has a very cool small V6, cool styling, etc.
Such a good looking car at the time and still looks good now. My favorite sport coupe of that time was the Scoupe Turbo, but this was a better car. I just liked the Scoupe Turbo looks and the interior was roomy.
My boy have one in the late 90's, it was the V6 too.
I've loved these cars for decades. I saw one for sale locally back in the mid 2000's, just a year before I got my driver's license. I wanted it so bad! Still my favorite car to this day. I wish there were more of them around. They're VERY hard to find now in any condition.
On my dream car list! Sold as a serious BMW competitor, Eunos 30X here in Australia - damn, I love these cars! They're from Mazda's "Golden Age". The underpinnings of this & the period 323/Astina were BMW 3 series quality. That little 6 is beautiful to drive! As smooth as a rotary, it was also used in the 323s. They did use a 1.8 I4 in the 323. I had the 2.5L V6 626 5spd, as good as my R30 2.4 I4 Skyline. These were levels above economy here. Cheers Jon!
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Great video. I love this car too. Even after all these years, it is still a beautiful design. You are right, Mazda had the best designs of the early 90s: Milenia, Miata, MX-6, MX-3. I bought a first gen Miata and wish I still had it.
We have owned our 92 Mazda MX3 GS V6 5 speed since new. The only options not on it were A/C and ABS. It is such a fun car to drive we have kept it in mint condition all these years. It now is very rare and I take it to multiple car shows. They were pretty popular up here in Canada, but most were the less costly 4 cylinder models (same engine as the Miata).
I got to demo one of these ... ended up going Saturn, lower price, lower insurance, better financing, more space, more accessory options. But I did really like the style and umph of it.
I absolutely agree with you, dear Jon. It's a real shame that this class of small, affordable coupés no longer exists. Even here in Europe, it was a time when it was very chic and fun to drive without having to dig too deep into our pockets. And now? Do we have to live with SUV coupés for all time, the living contradiction in terms? A higher SUV plus coupé shape (originally flat, sporty, crouching just above the road) only results in - excuse the crude expression - eye cancer when you look at it - paired with a weight of often +/- 2 tons and absurd prices - unfortunately also in Europe. Thank you for your work. Best wishes from Germany to the USA. Take care .... 🙂👍
I had a 2003 Protege5 I got new, I sold it 16 years later at 180k miles to buy my aunt's 2004 Mazda6 Sportwagon.
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