Minneapolis Street Sighting: Mazda 626 Turbo

As I've always said, the vehicles I grew up with were more interesting than those on sale today from the same manufacturers. I have always loved Mazda, partially because the brand remains part of my childhood. We never had any of the interesting ones, unfortunately. Aside from the more plebeian 323s and 626s, Mazda marketed plenty of interesting versions of its more staid passenger cars. With the rise of the "budget" performance cars, the 323 GTX was launched as an effort to bring the idea of all-wheel-drive performance to a new crowd; Audi's fabled Quattro was much too expensive to be enjoyed by an audience with modest income. Turbo power is seen as the answer to good fuel economy, and good power today; funny thig is, some twenty-five years ago, the same was also true. Turbocharged imports came on the scene faster than magazines could write rave reviews. Mazda has long cared about drivers, and has always marketed their vehicles as driver's choice cars. Obviously, with the rotary-engined vehicles, and the much-lauded MX-5 roadster (Miata here in the 'States)Mazda has shown that it cares about the driving public--and the bread-and-butter 626 was no
different.
Shown here in the five door hatch guise, the Turbo made up the sport end of the 626 lineup; this lineup also consisted of the GT, the LX notchback (nee sedan), and LX five door hatchback. As far as collectability is concerned, I would venture to say that all of these cars (the Turbo included) are long forgotten by now--and that's a shame, because more of these cars aught to be saved, even if they weren't much when new.

 dumb
This example is fairly clean; no obvious rust, and no bondo, either. Quite rare for a Japanese cars of this vintage--or any car of this vintage, really. The color leaves a bit to be desired, but this is a product of the 1980s, so it really isn't a surprise that the hue sucks. I'm just glad its all one color, though. That in itself is a quite rare feat. I like the wheels on this example, too. Stock 5-spoke "sawblades", but they're nice--even by today's standards. Inside, it had a 5 spd manual, and I'm sure this is a hoot to drive, even if it isn't overly exciting. I remember reading somewhere that turbos with a 5 spd were fairly rare, and the hatchback body style makes them that much more so. I would almost venture to say that this is a once-in-lifetime find--and an interesting one at that.