Mazda Familia

The Mazda Familia, also marketed as the Mazda 323 and the Mazda Protegé, is a small family car that was manufactured by Mazda between 1964 and 2003. The Familia line was replaced by the Mazda3/Axela for 2004. It was marketed as the Familia in Japan. In the export, earlier models were sold with nameplates including: 800, 1000, 1200, and 1300. In North America, the 1200 was replaced by the GLC, with newer models becoming 323 and Protegé. In Europe, all models after 1977 were called 323. In South Africa, it was marketed as the Étude, and in Colombia the 8th generation was called... Allegro. The Familia was also rebranded as the Ford Laser and Ford Meteor in Asia, Oceania, some Latin American countries and, from 1991, as the Ford Escort and Mercury Tracer in North America. Familias were manufactured in Hiroshima, Japan as well as Taiwan, Malaysia, South Africa, Colombia, and New Zealand. Mazda's automotive plans for the early sixties consisted of growing alongside the Japanese economy. To achieve this goal, they began by building an extremely cheap Kei car, the R360 in 1960, planning on introducing gradually larger and pricier cars as the Japanese customers became able to afford them.
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