1997 mazda 323 familia

**GSTM9** · January 28th, 2008 11:09 PM

The Mazda Familia is one heck of a car to drive. It will not disappoint you with its power, especially when you need that surge to overtake on the high roads. It will disappoint you, however, with its fuel consumption. I had a Familia GLX (one of the first models made by Columbian Motors back in 1996) with over 110,000 km before we sold it in a sacrifice sale in order to get our latest vehicle. Since it was driven mostly in the city, we got a tad under 6 km per liter over its lifetime. During really bad traffic, the FC would go as low as 4kpl. On highways, we got close to 10kpl. Since you mentioned you are in the province, I think you would get between 6 to 8 kpl on average.

Is this the 1997 and a half Familia? The first versions of the GLX Familia came with Clarion stereo/CD changer, but the later versions (2nd half 1997 onwards) came with a 10 disc Sony CD changer. There were a few cosmetic differences, mostly with the styling (1997 model had the new logo which is in use until today vs the 1996 model with the old logo that looked like a mushroom with a hole). The signal lights and headlights are positioned differently in the 1997 model as well. The tail lights were completely redesigned from the previous model.

The nice thing about the 1996/1997 Mazda Familia when it was new was that it had far more features and creature comforts than the Corolla or Civic. Standard were ABS, 6 or 10 disc CD changer, fog lamps, rear 3pt ELR seatbelts, 60/40 seats that folded to allow longer cargo from the trunk, etc. The engine was slightly more powerful than the Corolla but had less HP than the 1.6 Civic VTEC and SiR engines. Its automatic transmission had a HOLD button, which was useful in uphill and downhill drives as an "engine brake" since automatics tended to shift into the highest possible gear when driving downhill.

Overall, I have good ratings for the Familia in the power department. I also had no problems with body rust or the paint job (still looked good after 11 years except for the scratches). The seating comfort was far better than the Corolla due to the longer wheelbase (almost the same as the Civic).

As for fuel economy, this is the reverse side of the coin. Because it had twin cams (vs the single cams of the Civic), it tended to consume more fuel in direct relation to the power it churned out.

Other caveats: the automatic transmission gearbox components may need to be replaced sometime after 90,000km. That's a major expense. Also, the engine support mounts will be replaced once they wear out at about 80,000km. Otherwise, your engine will shudder a lot when it is idling.

See if you can wiggle out a better deal than the P160k that the price is currently at. With 50,000km on the odometer, you will still have a long way to go before the major issues start showing up.

I think Mazda learned from the shortcomings of the Familia/Protege since they eventually came out with a winner in the Mazda 3.

**orly_andico** · January 29th, 2008 12:22 AM

Sobra naman yang 4 km/L na yan...

It's true that compared to Toyota and Honda, Mazda cars consume more fuel. But it can't be that bad!

Our old Mazda 626 (manual transmission) never gets lower than 5.5 km/L in the city, and it's a 2.0L DOHC.

Our current Mazda3 (which has an MZR-Z6 engine, very similar to the Familia's B6 engine, 1.6L twin-cam DOHC) gets around 7 - 7.5 km/L and it's an automatic transmission and is quite heavy (heavier than the 626 and much, much heavier than the Familia 323).