Random new car purchase alert! Posted this in the For Sale section a week or two ago having been told about it by a dealer acquaintance, then decided to buy it myself using the small pot of money generated by selling my yellow 240K (see forthcoming thread for news on that).
It's a 1983 Mazda 323, facelift version of the first FWD gerenation. One owner from new, all old MoT's to verify 60k miles, 10 months' MoT, Hyundai dealer took it as p/x on a Getz as 86-yr old lady owner needed PAS ;D Even had half a tank of petrol in it.
Hadn't seen it when I agreed to buy it, but was not disappointed. Bowled along nicely back to Norfolk from Ipswich (not the most epic road trip in the world.....), quite refined and from a brief poke around it looks fairly solid. Tailgates usually go badly on these, but this seems OK.
So, not bad for £150 eh?
Not sure what plans are yet. Ditch the wheel trims pronto, paint the wheels and fit trim rings. Then use it for a bit. If I keep it maybe paint darker shade on the bottom and take styling cues from the chunky GT version. Or might just sell/trade it on again, as one or two people here expressed interest. More in Readers' Rides if/when there's any progress.
Anyway, the real point of posting here is to say a massive thanks to Stuizz for picking me up at the station, running me up to the garage and taking me to get a tax disc - the man's a star and saved me much hassle. I got ferried around in the Sapporo
323 bought back memories for him as he used to have one, though amusingly despite our combined 'expertise' neither of us could find the bonnet release 
Highlight of the trip was seeing Ipswich's largest man sitting on an XXXXXXXL electric scooter thing. Plus a Chuvit hatch and a MkII Cortina on the way home.
Oh, and as Hirst has set the benchmark for multiple purchases and I really didn't feel like a milkshake, I bought this instead for the kids from an ace shop which had loads of little Siku models to choose from.
It's a 1983 Mazda 323, facelift version of the first FWD gerenation. One owner from new, all old MoT's to verify 60k miles, 10 months' MoT, Hyundai dealer took it as p/x on a Getz as 86-yr old lady owner needed PAS ;D Even had half a tank of petrol in it.
Hadn't seen it when I agreed to buy it, but was not disappointed. Bowled along nicely back to Norfolk from Ipswich (not the most epic road trip in the world.....), quite refined and from a brief poke around it looks fairly solid. Tailgates usually go badly on these, but this seems OK.
So, not bad for £150 eh?
Not sure what plans are yet. Ditch the wheel trims pronto, paint the wheels and fit trim rings. Then use it for a bit. If I keep it maybe paint darker shade on the bottom and take styling cues from the chunky GT version. Or might just sell/trade it on again, as one or two people here expressed interest. More in Readers' Rides if/when there's any progress.
Anyway, the real point of posting here is to say a massive thanks to Stuizz for picking me up at the station, running me up to the garage and taking me to get a tax disc - the man's a star and saved me much hassle. I got ferried around in the Sapporo
323 bought back memories for him as he used to have one, though amusingly despite our combined 'expertise' neither of us could find the bonnet release 
Highlight of the trip was seeing Ipswich's largest man sitting on an XXXXXXXL electric scooter thing. Plus a Chuvit hatch and a MkII Cortina on the way home.
Oh, and as Hirst has set the benchmark for multiple purchases and I really didn't feel like a milkshake, I bought this instead for the kids from an ace shop which had loads of little Siku models to choose from.
